“We continue to pray for the families who have suffered an unfathomable loss,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “Some have lost almost everyone in their home.” Beshear said the toll will likely rise significantly and it could take weeks to find all the victims of the record flooding. Rescue crews continue to struggle to get into hard-hit areas, some of which are among the poorest in America. “I’m concerned that we’re going to be finding bodies for weeks to come,” Beshear said during a lunchtime briefing. He said it was still an active search and rescue operation with the goal of getting as many people to safety as possible. Crews have made more than 1,200 rescues from helicopters and boats, the captain said. PHOTOS | Kentucky hit by deadly, devastating floods: Beshear, who flew over parts of the flooded area on Friday, described it as “just total devastation, the likes of which we’ve never seen before.” “We are committed to a full rebuilding effort to get these people back on their feet,” he said. “But for now, we’re just praying we don’t lose anyone else.” The rain stopped early Friday after parts of eastern Kentucky received 8 to 10 inches (20 to 27 cm) in a 48-hour period. However, some waterways were not expected to peak until Saturday.
“We just hope we can get some help”
In the tiny community of Garrett on Saturday, flood-soaked couches, tables and cushions were piled in yards along the foothills as people worked to clear debris and shovel mud from streets and roads. In nearby Wayland, Phillip Michael Caudill was working to clear the debris and salvage what he could from the home he shares with his wife and three children. The waters had receded from the house but left a mess behind along with questions about what he and his family will do next. Phillip Michael Caudill shows a photo of his flooded home in Prestonsburg, Ky., on Saturday. (Dylan Lovan/The Associated Press) “We’re just hoping we can get help,” said Caudill, who is staying with his family at Jenny Wiley State Park in a spare room for now. Caudill, a Garrett community firefighter, went out to the rescue around 1 a.m. Thursday, but had to ask to leave around 3 a.m. so he could go home, where the waters were rising quickly. “That’s what made it so hard for me,” he said. “Here, I’m sitting there watching my house go under water and you have people calling for help. And I couldn’t help,” he said, because he had to take care of his family. The water was up to his knees when he got home and he had to walk across the yard and carry two of his children out to the car. He could barely close the door of his SUV as they drove away. Patricia Colombo, 63, of Hazard, Ky., was pinned when her car stalled in floodwaters on a state highway. Colombo started to panic when the water started rushing in. Although her phone was dead, she saw a helicopter overhead and brought it down by hand. The helicopter crew called a ground team who whisked her to safety. Patricia Colombo was seen near a flooded car in Jackson on Friday. (Dylan Lovan/The Associated Press) Colombo stayed the night at her fiancé’s house in Jackson and they took turns sleeping, repeatedly checking the water with flashlights to see if it was rising. Although her car was a loss, Colombo said others had it worse in an area where poverty is endemic. “A lot of these people can’t recover here. They have houses that are half under water, they’ve lost everything,” he said. It’s the latest in a string of devastating floods to hit parts of the US this summer, including St. Louis, Mo., earlier this week and again on Friday. Scientists warn that climate change is making weather disasters more frequent. As rainfall pounded Appalachia this week, water cascaded down hillsides and into valleys and hollows where it swelled creeks and streams that flowed through small towns. The torrent inundated homes and businesses and damaged vehicles. Mudslides threw some people down steep slopes. US President Joe Biden has declared a federal disaster to direct aid money to more than a dozen Kentucky counties.
“We still have a lot of searching to do”
Floodwaters raging through Appalachia were moving so fast that some people trapped in their homes could not be reached immediately, Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams said. Just to the west in hard-hit Perry County, authorities said some people remained missing and nearly everyone in the area suffered some kind of damage. “We still have a lot of searching to do,” said Jerry Stacey, the county’s emergency management director. A rescue boat was seen on a flooded road in Breathitt County, Ky., on Thursday. (Wolfe County Search and Rescue/Reuters) Flooding extended into western Virginia and southern West Virginia. Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency in six counties in West Virginia where flooding downed trees, knocked out power and closed roads. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin also declared an emergency, enabling officials to mobilize resources across the flooded southwestern state. Portions of some state roads in Kentucky were closed due to flooding or mudslides. Rescue crews in Virginia and West Virginia worked to reach people where roads were impassable. About 18,000 utility customers in Kentucky remained without power early Saturday, poweroutage.us reported.
“Battle of the Edges”
The deluge came two days after record rainfall around St. Louis dumped more than 12 inches (31 cm) and killed at least two people. Last month, heavy rain on mountain snow in Yellowstone National Park caused historic flooding and the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. In both cases, the deluge of rain far exceeded what forecasters had predicted. Extreme rain events have become more common as climate change bakes the planet and alters weather patterns, scientists say. That’s a growing challenge for officials during disasters because models used to predict storm impacts are based in part on past events and can’t keep up with increasingly destructive floods and heat waves like these that have recently hit the Pacific Northwest and South Plains. WATCHES | How to maintain hope in the fight against climate change:
How to maintain hope in the fight against climate change
Canadian environmental activists Tzeporah Berman and Kehkashan Basu share strategies for keeping hope alive and reasons for optimism in the fight against climate change. “It’s an edge battle going on right now in the United States,” said University of Oklahoma meteorologist Jason Furtado. “These are things that we expect to happen because of climate change… A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor and that means you can create increased heavy rainfall.”
