Search and rescue teams backed by the National Guard searched Friday for missing people in record flooding that wiped out entire communities in some of America’s poorest places. Kentucky’s governor said 16 people have died, a number he expected to rise as the rain continued to fall.
“We still have a lot to look for,” said Jerry Stacy, director of emergency management in hard-hit Perry County, Kentucky. “We still have missing persons.”
Powerful floods engulfed stream-hugging towns in Appalachian valleys and depressions, leaving vehicles in useless heaps, leaving out-of-control equipment and debris piles against bridges and inundating homes and businesses. Mudslides on steep slopes left many people without power and made rescues difficult.
Gov. Andy Beshear told the AP before touring the disaster area that the 16 dead in Kentucky include children, “but I expect that number to more than double, probably even today.”
Determining the number of missing people is “difficult,” he said, with cell service and electricity out throughout the disaster area. More than 200 people have sought refuge, Beshear said. She deployed National Guard soldiers to the hardest-hit areas. Three parks set up shelters, and with property damage so extensive, the governor opened an online portal for donations to victims.
“I think it’s going to end up being one of the most significant and deadly floods that we’ve had in Kentucky in at least a long time,” Beshear said Thursday.
While flooding receded in some places after peaking Thursday, the National Weather Service said flash flooding from excessive rainfall was still possible as of Friday night in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, western Virginia and southern West Virginia, where storms have dumped several inches of rain in recent days. As much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain had fallen in places on Thursday, and 1 to 3 more inches (2.5 to 7.5 centimeters) could fall, the weather service said.
[Con información de The Associated Press]
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