Kentucky governor declares an “emergency situation” as hundreds of people are still unaccounted for.
At least 25 people have died as a result of floodwaters damaging hundreds of homes, automobiles, rivers, and streams that overflowed their banks.
The Kentucky flood is attributed to a line of gradually moving thunderstorms that unloaded flash flooding across eastern Kentucky early on Thursday.
As unprecedented rains for the state’s history poured on the city of Hazard, Appalachia, and nearby areas, streets were in ruins and homes were submerged.
According to Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, more than 300 people who were affected by the flooding were being momentarily sheltered at state campsites.
At least six children, which included a one-year-old, are among the deceased.
Governor Beshear stated that he anticipated the number of fatalities to keep rising. According to scientists, climate change is causing more catastrophic weather events, like the floods in Kentucky.
A boat or a helicopter has rescued hundreds of people.
According to Governor Beshear, who flew with the National Guard, this flood is the worst ever witnessed by him.
“There’s still a lot of people out there, still a lot of people unaccounted for. We’re going to do our best to find them all,” he said.
In a press conference update on Saturday afternoon, Beshear stated that the state is still engaged in an “active search and rescue operation” and that the weekend objective in the current “emergency situation” is to get as many Kentucky people to safety as possible. He claimed that the rebuilding phase wouldn’t start for several days or even weeks.
As of Saturday, numerous responder organisations had carried out hundreds of rescues.
Beshear mentioned that the West Virginia National Guard executed 36 more air rescues in addition to the 224 air rescues that the Tennessee National Guard handled and the 404 people that the Kentucky National Guard performed.
624 water rescues have thus far involved Kentucky State Police, and 125 have involved Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife. The U.S. National Guard used a boat to rescue a total of 19 people and two dogs.
To all of those respondents, Beshear stated, “We are so grateful.”
The state-created Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund has received more than 5,600 gifts, totalling more than 684,000 dollars to help with the catastrophe response. The families who are paying for funerals for departed loved ones will receive the first payment of the monies raised.
President Joe Biden authorised the Kentucky disaster declaration on Friday and issued an executive order directing federal assistance to support state and local efforts to recover from the catastrophic floods in those areas.
Similar to other regions of the world, Kentucky has experienced the effects of more recurrent severe weather events. According to information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the state has had more inches of rain than the historical normal over the past ten years.
The state’s geologist and climate specialist, Bill Haneberg, called this rainfall event “extraordinary” for Kentucky.
He continued by saying that the rises in rainfall over time are consistent with the expert’s predictions for the area, according to which Kentucky’s climate would get hotter and wetter as a result of climate change.
The state is still recovering from the fiercest tornado in its historical record, which killed over 70 people in December 2021, when catastrophic floods occurred.
At least 28 state roads in Kentucky had portions of them obstructed by flooding or mudslides. Rescue teams worked to reach folks in West Virginia and Virginia, where the roads are impassable.
