FRANKFORT, Ky. — On a merciless downpour Sunday, the river swells to near-record levels in Kentucky on Monday, submerging neighbourhoods and threatening the state’s capital’s famous bourbon distillery.
The flooded river has pose the latest threat from a permanent storm that has killed at least 23 people since last week as it inhaled the area with torrential rains and devastating tornadoes that spawned eggs. According to a National Weather Service preliminary report, at least 157 tornadoes were attacked within seven days of March 30th. The storm has finally progressed, but several other states, including parts of Tennessee, Arkansas and Indiana, remain at high risk of flooding.
The city ordered evacuation, rescued inflatable boat crews who checked residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, and stopped electricity and gas in the area spreading from Texas to Ohio. The flood forced the closure of the historic Buffalo Trace Distillery, near the banks of the swollen Kentucky River near downtown Frankfort.
Salon owner Jessica Tugle saw it on Monday. She and her friends moved salon gear to a nearby taproom.
“Everyone could ‘stop the rain, stop the rain’ and see what the worst would turn out,” she said.
Officials diverted traffic, turned off the utility to businesses and launched a curfew in Frankfort as the river climbed right after Monday’s record. More than 500 state roads in Kentucky were still closed Monday evening, according to Gov. Andy Besher.
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Ashley Wales, her husband, four children and pets had to leave the riverside Frankfort on Saturday night, abandoning the life of their belongings.
The flood rose up to the second floor when she checked the cameras of the house on Sunday morning.
“Mine was floating in the living room,” Wales said. “I was just heartbroken. Our lives are there.”
The storm leaves a devastating effect
Since the storm began Wednesday, 23 deaths have been reported in Tennessee, including 10. Among the four murdered people in Kentucky, a 9-year-old boy was caught in a flood while walking to board a school bus.
The 5-year-old Arkansas boy died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said the man was found dead in a submerged vehicle.
A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter was killed when he crashed while trying to rescue people caught in the storm. An electrical department lineman died while working in the storm while in Carroll County, Tennessee, state emergency management officials said.
Two men sitting in their father and son’s golf cart were killed when a tree fell on a golf course in Columbus, Georgia.
The Kentucky River shyly climbed the 48.5-foot record on December 10, 1978, at Frank Fort Rock, 48.27 feet on Monday, said CJ Padgett, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Louisville, Kentucky office.
Beshear said more than 1,000 people have no access to water and nearly 3,000 people have received a boiling water advisory. The city of Harrodsburg, about 30 miles south of Frankfort, said on social media that the water system must stop pumping around midnight due to flood levels on the Kentucky River. By Monday evening, the city’s treatment plants had returned to normal operations.
John and Phyllis pushed down about half a block from the river in Frankfort, where the cellar had about four feet of water. My neighbor brought flowers to my front door on Monday.
“We’re an island on the Kentucky River,” Phyllis Souer said.
In northeastern Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders called “absolutely heartbreaking” scenes around Hardy’s town, causing damage to city hall and other buildings.
Fire Chief Barry Eley, West Memphis, Arkansas, told WREG-TV that crews from flood-prone cities rescued more than 100 people.
In Dyersburg, Tennessee, Michael Glass had to evacuate to a hotel Monday with his wife, three children and a dog.
“It was a really stressful time,” he said. “When I woke up this morning, the water appeared dramatically. I had to choose whether to stay here or leave.”
The tornado destroyed more than 100 structures in McNairy County, Tennessee, and tore the town of Selmer into winds of up to 160 mph, local emergency management officials said. State officials say bad weather killed five people in a county with around 26,100 residents.
