FRANKFORT, Ky.-
At least 25 people were killed, including four children, when torrential rains flooded Appalachian towns, Kentucky’s governor said Saturday.
“We continue to pray for the families who have suffered unfathomable loss,” Governor Andy Beshear said. “Some have lost almost everyone in their home.”
Beshear said the number is likely to rise significantly and it could take weeks to find all the victims of the record flash flood. Rescue teams continue to struggle to reach the worst affected areas, some of them among the poorest places in the United States.
“I am concerned that we are going to find bodies in the next few weeks,” Beshear said during a midday briefing.
He said there is still an active search and rescue operation with the goal of getting as many people to safety as possible. Crews have performed more than 1,200 rescues from helicopters and boats, the governor said.
Beshear, who flew over parts of the flood-affected region on Friday, described it as “just total devastation, the likes of which we’ve never seen before.”
“We are committed to a full rebuilding effort to get these people back on their feet,” Beshear said. “But for now, we’re just praying we don’t lose anyone else.”
The rain eased early Friday after parts of eastern Kentucky received 8 to 10 1/2 inches (20 to 27 centimeters) in 48 hours. But some waterways were not expected to peak until Saturday.
On Saturday, in the small community of Garrett, flood-soaked sofas, tables and pillows were piled up on patios along the foothills of the mountainous region as people worked to clear debris and remove mud from driveways and the roads.
In nearby Wayland, Phillip Michael Caudill was working to clear debris and salvage what he could from the home he shares with his wife and three children. The floodwaters had receded from the house, but left a mess along with questions about what he and his family will do next.
“We’re just hoping we can get help,” said Caudill, who is staying with his family at Jenny Wiley State Park in a spare room for now.
Caudill, a Garrett community firefighter, went out to rescue around 1 a.m. Thursday, but had to ask to leave around 3 a.m. so he could go home, where the waters were rising rapidly.
“That’s what made it so difficult for me,” he said. “Here I am, sitting there, watching my house go under water and you have people asking for help. And I couldn’t help,” because he was tending to his own family.
The water was up to her knees when she got home and she had to walk across the yard and carry two of her children to the car. He could barely close the door of his truck as they drove off.
Patricia Colombo, 63, of Hazard, Kentucky, was stranded when her car stalled in flooding on a state highway. Colombo began to panic as the water began to come in. Although her phone was dead, she saw a helicopter overhead and motioned for her to come down. The helicopter crew radioed a ground crew who took her to safety.
Colombo spent the night at her fiance’s home in Jackson and they took turns sleeping, repeatedly checking the water with flashlights to see if it was rising. Although her car was a loss, Colombo said others had it worse in a region where poverty is endemic.
“A lot of these people can’t recover here. They have houses that are half under water, they’ve lost everything,” he said.
It’s the latest in a series of catastrophic deluges that have hit parts of the US this summer, including St. Louis earlier this week and again on Friday. Scientists warn that climate change is making weather disasters more common.
When the rain hit the Appalachians this week, the water rushed down the hillsides and into the valleys and hollows where creeks and creeks ran through small towns. The torrent engulfed homes and businesses and wrecked vehicles. Landslides left some people stranded on steep slopes.
President Joe Biden declared a federal disaster to direct aid money to more than a dozen Kentucky counties.
The flooding that hit Appalachia was so fast that some people trapped in their homes couldn’t be immediately contacted, Floyd County Executive Judge Robbie Williams said.
Just to the west, in hard-hit Perry County, authorities said a few people were still missing and almost everyone in the area suffered some kind of damage.
“We still have a lot to look for,” said Jerry Stacy, the county’s director of emergency management.
The flood spread to western Virginia and southern West Virginia.
Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for six counties in West Virginia where flooding toppled trees, power outages and blocked roads. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin also made an emergency declaration, allowing officials to mobilize resources in the state’s flooded southwest.
Parts of some state highways in Kentucky were blocked due to flooding or mudslides. Rescue teams in Virginia and West Virginia worked to reach people where roads were impassable.
About 18,000 utility customers in Kentucky remained without power early Saturday, poweroutage.us reported.
The deluge came two days after record rains around St. Louis fell more than 12 inches (31 centimeters) and killed at least two people. Last month, heavy rains on the snow on the mountain in Yellowstone National Park caused historic flooding and the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. In both cases, rainfall flooding far exceeded what meteorologists forecast.
Extreme rainfall events have become more common as climate change bakes the planet and alters weather patterns, according to scientists. That’s a growing challenge for officials during disasters, because the models used to predict storm impacts are based in part on past events and can’t keep pace with increasingly flash floods and heat waves. devastating as those that recently hit the Pacific Northwest and the southern plains.
“It’s a battle of extremes going on right now in the United States,” said University of Oklahoma meteorologist Jason Furtado. “These are things that we expect to happen due to climate change…A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor and that means it can produce more intense rainfall.”