At least 15 people have died after catastrophic flooding in Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear told CNN this Friday (29). That number should double, he said, and will include children.
“There will be a lot of families that we lost,” Beshear told Brianna Keilar on the “New Day” of CNN . “Children who will not have the opportunity to grow and experience as much as we do.”
“This is so deadly, and it hit so hard, and it hit in the middle of the night,” the governor said, adding that while eastern Kentucky often floods, “we’ve never seen anything of this proportion.”
Rescue teams are working 24 hours a day to reach areas that are difficult to access due to the floods that swept through the area after heavy rains from Wednesday (27) to Thursday night (28).
Floodwaters washed away bridges, cut off power and sent some residents running to rooftops as water gushed into their homes.
The homes and cars of some families were submerged or completely swept away by the floods, exacerbated by streams and land already soaked by the ongoing rains.
Beshear warned on Thursday that the destruction is far from over as more rain is expected on Friday. Eastern Kentucky has a mild to moderate flash flood risk through Friday night, as an additional 25.4 to 76 millimeters are possible throughout the day, according to the Weather Prediction Center.
An elderly man and woman died after being swept from their homes in the Oneida community near Manchester, Kentucky, according to Clay County Coroner Jarrod Becknell. The man was 76 and the woman was in her late 60s or early 70s, said Deputy Coroner Joe Crockett.
It is unclear whether the two deaths are included in the statewide number that Beshear announced.
On Thursday night, Kentucky officials recommended that people evacuate homes and businesses in Jackson’s Panbowl Lake floodplain, citing rising water levels in the Kentucky River and a “muddy discharge” seen near the dam. of the lake. A portion of Kentucky Route 15 was also closed Thursday night.
Parts of West Virginia also experienced severe flooding on Thursday and are expected to receive more rain on Friday. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin issued a statewide emergency declaration, and West Virginia Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for Fayette, Greenbrier, Logan, McDowell, Mingo and Wyoming counties, according to with press releases from governors’ offices.
Much of West Virginia is at moderate risk from flash floods on Friday, according to the Weather Forecast Center.
Southwest Virginia is also at risk of flooding on Friday with a chance of 2 to 5 centimeters of rain, and potentially more in some local areas, according to the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Virginia.
At a White House briefing on Thursday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), will travel to Kentucky on Friday to assess the damage and report to President Joe Biden.
FEMA has also deployed rescue teams and an incident management assistance team to assist with the state’s rescue efforts, she said.
Beshear sent a direct request to Biden requesting federal assistance for eastern Kentucky, the governor said in a tweet.
Source: CNN Brasil
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