Key Points
- Rescuers in Kentucky are taking the search effort door-to-door in worsening weather conditions.
- Some areas in the mountainous region are still inaccessible following flooding that turned roads into rivers.
Rescuers in Kentucky are taking the search effort door-to-door in worsening weather conditions as they brace for a long and gruelling effort to locate victims of flooding that devastated the state's east, its governor said on Sunday.
Some areas in the mountainous region are still inaccessible following flooding that turned roads into rivers, washed out bridges, swept away houses and killed at least 28 people. Poor mobile phone service is also complicating rescue efforts.
"Everything is gone. Like, everything is gone. The whole office is gone," one of the flood's victims, Rachel Patton, told WCHS TV. Around her, houses were half-submerged in water.
"We had to swim out, and it was cold. It was over my head, so yeah. It was scary."
Governor Andy Beshear described the floods as some of the worst in the US state's history.
"This is one of the most devastating, deadly floods that we have seen in our history... And at a time that we're trying to dig out, it's raining," he told NBC's "Meet the Press."
"We're going to work to go door to door, work to find, again, as many people as we can. We're even going to work through the rain. But the weather is complicating it," Mr Beshear said.
The governor had earlier raised the death toll from the flooding, which was caused by torrential rain that began on Wednesday, to 28, tweeting that the number will rise further.
"We're going to be finding bodies for weeks, many of them swept hundreds of metres, maybe four kilometres from where they were lost," Mr Beshear said.
In the town of Jackson, county seat of hard-hit Breathitt County, state, local and federal rescue teams and aid workers were gathering on Sunday morning local time in a Walmart parking lot as they prepared to fan out.
Van Jackson checks on his dog, Jack, who was stranded at a church by flood waters along Right Beaver Creek, in Garrett, Kentucky, following days of heavy rain. Mr Jackson, who owns an auto parts store in town says he doesn't have flood insurance to cover his loss. Source: AAP / USA TODAY Network/Sipa USA
Receding flood waters had left a thick coating of dust on the streets as an ominously dark cloud cover presaged more rain ahead.
The floods hit a region of Kentucky that was already suffering from grinding poverty — driven by the decline of the coal industry that was the heart of its economy — taking everything from people who could least afford it.
"It wiped out areas where people didn't have that much to begin with," Mr Beshear said.
Threat of more flooding
Some areas in eastern Kentucky had reported receiving more than 20 centimeters of rain in a 24-hour period.
The water level of the North Fork of the Kentucky River at Whitesburg rose to a staggering 6 metres within hours, well above its previous record of 4.5 metres.
The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center warned on Sunday of the potential for flooding in a swath of the United States, including central and eastern Kentucky.
"The threat of flash flooding will be increasing through the day as heavy showers and thunderstorms develop and expand in coverage," it said on Twitter.
President Joe Biden has issued a disaster declaration for the Kentucky flooding, allowing federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.
The eastern Kentucky flooding is the latest in a series of extreme weather events that scientists say are an unmistakable sign of climate change.
Nearly 60 people were killed in western Kentucky by a tornado in December 2021 — a disaster that Mr Beshear said offered lessons for current efforts on the other end of the state.
"We learned a lot of lessons in western Kentucky on those devastating tornadoes about seven months ago, so we are providing as much support as we can and we are moving fast from all over the state to help out," he told CNN on Saturday.
