At least 19 killed in Kentucky floods, including children: officials
Historic flooding has killed at least 19 people in Kentucky — including four children who were swept away from their parents — as the death toll is expected to rise significantly, authorities said Friday.
“Folks, that’s going to get a lot higher,” Gov. Andy Beshear warned during a morning briefing while confirming 16 people had been killed in four eastern Kentucky counties, including two children in Knott County.
At least four small children were swept away from their parents’ grips as flooding raged there in Montgomery, a relative told the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Deaths have been reported thus far in Perry, Letcher, Knott and Clay counties, Beshear said, including 11 in Knott County alone, where two children, a 63-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman were killed.
The Knott County coroner confirmed three more deaths Friday afternoon, raising the death toll to 19, the Herald-Leader reported.
An 81-year-old woman also died in Perry County, while a 79-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman died in Letcher County. Two others died in Clay County, including a 76-year-old woman, Beshear said.
“To the families that know you’ve already sustained a loss, we’re going to grieve with you,” Beshear said. “We’re going to support you and we’re going to be here for you — not just today, but tomorrow and in the weeks and years to come.”
President Biden approved a disaster declaration for the state Friday, ordering federal aid to augment state and local recovery efforts amid severe flooding, landslides and mudslides that started rocking the state Tuesday.
A flood watch was to remain in effect through at least Friday in eastern Kentucky, where more than 23,000 residents are still without power after heavy rain pummeled the area and parts of western Virginia and southern West Virginia.
“[The death toll] will probably more than double,” Beshear said earlier Friday. “We know some of the lost will include children. We may have even lost entire families.”
Search and rescue teams along with the National Guard completed roughly 50 air rescues and “hundreds” of boat saves, Beshear said, acknowledging the heroes who responded to the flooding and mudslides across the battered mountainous state.
“This situation is ongoing,” Beshear said earlier Friday. “We are still in the search and rescue mode and at least in some areas, the water is not going to crest until tomorrow.”
Video from a roadway in Jackson showed widespread destruction and dozens of homes underwater. Other footage shot from a drone in Whitesburg — a town of 2,200 — showed even more carnage caused by the floodwaters across entire communities.
At least four children were swept away from their parents’ grip as flooding raged in Montgomery, a relative told the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The bodies of 6-year-old Riley Noble Jr., and 4-year-old Nevaeh Noble were recovered later Thursday, cousin Brittany Trejo told the newspaper.
Trejo said she started searching at daylight Friday for her other cousins, 8-year-old Maddison Noble and 18-month-old Chance Noble, whose bodies have since been found.
Their home had flooded Thursday, prompting parents Amber Smith and Riley Noble to get onto their roof, Trejo said.
“They managed to get to a tree and … held the children a few hours before a big tide came and washed them all away at the same time,” Trejo recalled. “The mother and father was stranded in the tree for 8 hours before anyone got there to help.”
The parents were found alive, Trejo said.
“The numbers, I think, are going to be really hard to tell right now because some of the people they haven’t got to yet, and ‘m sure some of the coroners haven’t been able to report them,” Kentucky State Police spokesman Shane Goodall told the newspaper.
The hardest hit areas in eastern Kentucky got between 8 and 10 ½ inches of rain during a two-day period ending Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
The impacted counties in Kentucky included Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Johnson, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, Owsley, Perry, Pike, and Wolfe.
The North Fork of the Kentucky River also broke records in at least two places: in Whitesburg, where a gauge recorded a 20.9-foot crest, and in Jackson, where it topped out at 43.47 feet.
More heavy rainfall is expected Friday in central and eastern Kentucky, which remain under flood watches as rescuers continue to search for survivors and trapped residents.
“We’ve still got a lot of searching to do,” Perry County Emergency Management Director Jerry Stacy told The Associated Press. “We still have missing people.”
With Post wires
