Water recedes as Eastern Kentucky cleans up from devastating flooding

Gov. Andy Beshear visited Floyd County Tuesday, Aug. 2, as part of a tour of flood-torn Eastern Kentucky counties.

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

Gov. Andy Beshear met with flood victims during a visit to Jenny Wiley State Park Saturday.

The water has receded, but the devastation remains as Eastern Kentucky residents continue to clean up and rebuild from deadly flooding that hit the region two weeks ago.

Gov. Andy Beshear made several trips to the flood-torn region last week, including visits to Floyd County on Aug. 2 and Aug. 6, to assess damage and speak to residents who were affected the most by the event.

Floyd County was “hit pretty hard,” Beshear said during a press briefing Aug. 2 at the Floyd County Community Center at Langley.

“But you know what? It’s getting back up on its feet and moving forward,” he said.

Beshear said the flooding was the “most devasting, deadly flooding anybody here has ever seen.”

“I think, also, the most amazing response that anybody has ever seen,” Beshear said.

The governor said swift-water teams had made “dozens upon dozens” of rescues in Floyd County, “not losing one person.”

No fatalities were reported in Floyd County during the flooding, which began July 26.

“We still are in a search-and-rescue mode,” Beshear said at the Floyd County briefing. “We still have a lot of area to search to find people, but we’re already making progress.”

The community center that Beshear visited was being used as a shelter to Floyd County residents who had lost their homes during the flooding.

“Every family that is in here that I have talked to lost everything,” Beshear said. “Not most things, everything. We as the people of God have a duty to come together and help them back up on their feet.”

The National Weather Service said in an overview of the flooding event that “several complexes of training thunderstorms” developed south of I-64, bringing heavy rain, and flash and river flooding to Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia.

Rainfall rates were in excess of four inches per hour across “complex terrain that led to widespread devastating impacts.”

The NWS issued 24 flash flood warnings between July 26 and July 30.

“Between the evening of July 27th and the mid-morning hours on July 28th (the peak of the event), 13 warnings were issued, 3 of which were upgraded to a Flash Flood Emergency,” the NWS said.

Between 14 to 16 inches of rain fell during the five-day period in a “narrow swath,” with some locations receiving six to 10 inches, according to the NWS.

“Most of this rain fell during the night of July 27th into the morning of July 28th, which is when the most devastating impacts were felt,” the NWS said.

The highest totals occurred in an “axis that stretches from northern Clay and southern Owsley counties, east through southern Breathitt and northern Leslie counties, into Perry, Knott and Letcher counties.”

“The highest rainfall total report was from southern Knott County, where 14.00” fell between July 25th and July 29th,” the NWS said.