lifeguard groups people rescued door to door in Kentucky in increasingly worsening weather conditions, while finding efforts to search for victims of the severe flooding that devastated the east of that southern US state, its governor said on Sunday.
Some areas in the mountainous region remain inaccessible following floods that failed roads into rivers, washed out bridges, swept away houses and killed at least 26 peopleaccording to the latest official data.
Poor cell phone service also complicates efforts for rescuers.
“This is one of the most devastating and deadly floods we have seen in our history.… And at the moment we’re trying to dig, it’s raining,” Gov. Andy Beshear told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Problems
“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 in the rain. But the weather is making it difficult,” Beshear said.
Some areas of the information state that recorded more than 200 millimeters of rain in a 24-hour period. Reuters Photo
The governor had previously stated that the death toll because of the floods it would rise even more.
“We’re going to be finding bodies for weeks, many of them swept hundreds of meters, maybe more than a quarter of a mile from where they were lost,” Beshear said.
Flash floods caused by torrential rains that began on Wednesday hit a region of the state already suffering from extreme poverty, fueled by the decline of the coal industry, which was the heart of its economy, taking everything away from the people who could least afford it.
“It destroyed areas where people didn’t have much to start with,” Beshear said.
Some areas of the state of information they recorded more than 200 millimeters of rain in a 24 hour period.
The water level in the North Fork, the section of the Kentucky River at the height of the town of Whitesburg, broke its record in just a few hours reaching 7 meters.
more water
The National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center warned Sunday of the possibility of flooding across a swath of the United States, including central and eastern Kentucky.
Reggie Ritchie c and his wife in Troublesome Creek, Kentucky. Reuters Photo
“The threat of disruptive flooding throughout the day as heavy rains and electric storms and expand its expansion,” he announced on his Twitter account.
Additionally, the National Weather Service reported that more flash flooding was possible in some areas of Appalachia on Sunday and Monday as the latest storms passed.
Rain rates of 2 to 5 centimeters (1 to 2 inches) per hour were possible in some of the same areas that were inundated last week.
President Joe Biden issued a flood disaster allowing federal aid to supplement state and local rescue and recovery operations.
On a cloudy morning in downtown Hindman, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southeast of Louisville, a crew was cleaning debris from storefronts. Nearby, a vehicle was found in Troublesome Creek, which had reverted to its debris-strewn channel.
Source: AP and EFE
