Beshear later warned that the disaster is far from over as more rain is expected on Friday. Eastern Kentucky has a slight to moderate risk of flash flooding through Friday night, as an additional 1 to 3 inches is possible during the day, according to the Weather Prediction Center. Parts of southeastern Kentucky are under a flash flood warning until early Friday morning as storms move through the already waterlogged region. A flash flood warning has also been issued for areas near the border of Kentucky and West Virginia, where 1 to 2 inches of rain have already fallen. “Tonight, we need your continued prayers for the people of Eastern Kentucky. This is an ongoing natural disaster, with more rain expected tonight that could worsen the situation,” Beshear said in a tweet Thursday. 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, Deputy Coroner Joe Crockett said. It’s unclear if the two deaths are included in the eight death toll Beshear announced earlier Thursday. On Thursday night, Kentucky officials advised people to evacuate homes and businesses in the Panbowl Lake floodplain in Jackson, citing rising Kentucky River levels and a “mud discharge” seen near the lake’s dam. A section of Kentucky Route 15 was also closed Thursday night. Parts of West Virginia and western Virginia also experienced severe flooding on Thursday and are expected to receive more rain on Friday. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a statewide emergency and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for Fayette, Greenbrier, Logan, McDowell, Mingo and Wyoming counties, according to news releases from the governors’ offices . Much of West Virginia is at moderate risk for flash flooding Friday, according to the Weather Prediction Center. Southwest Virginia is also at risk of flooding Friday with one to two inches of rain possible, and possibly more in some local areas, according to the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Virginia. At a White House briefing Thursday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Deanne Criswell, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will travel to Kentucky on Friday to survey the damage and report to President Joe Biden. FEMA also sent rescue personnel and an incident management assistance team to help with the state’s rescue efforts, he said. Beshear sent a direct request to Biden asking for federal aid for eastern Kentucky, the governor said in a tweet.
Rescues are complicated by extended water supply, power outages
As flood waters rose to dangerous levels, some Kentuckians were quickly trapped and unable to escape safely. At least 30 people were airlifted by the National Guard on Thursday, Beshear said.
In Floyd County, about 80 people have been rescued since heavy rains began in the area on Tuesday, County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams told CNN.
“I’ve never seen so much water,” Williams said. “I mean it’s completely spilled over and we’ve got, you know, some small towns that are completely underwater.”
Widespread water and power outages in the area are hampering recovery efforts, Beshear said Thursday. He noted that the flooding is making it difficult for utility workers to access areas needed to restore power.
More than 23,000 customers were without power across the state as of early Friday, according to PowerOutage.us.
The state also has a limited number of helicopters capable of lifting people into the air, the governor said. In an effort to aid the state’s recovery efforts, both West Virginia and Tennessee sent helicopters with lift capabilities to Kentucky.
West Virginia has also deployed National Guard troops to assist its neighboring state, Governor Justice announced.
Communities also jumped into action to help their neighbors, including residents of the city of Whitesburg.
“We took kayaks, jet skis, boats, chainsaws and axes everywhere we could,” resident Zach Caudill told CNN. Caudill’s home only suffered a few inches of flooding, but he said several of his neighbors lost their homes entirely.
Caudill grabbed bandages, gauze, medicine, period supplies, food, water and blankets from his home to take to others, he said.
“Everybody was there trying to help and help. That’s how tight-knit our community is,” Caudill said. “When one of us hurts, we all hurt.”
Kentucky State Police are asking residents of at least eight counties to call them if they have missing family members and provide information about their loved ones. Counties include Wolfe, Owsley, Breathitt, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Pike and Perry.
The climate crisis is causing more intense flooding
Kentucky was one of several states, including Missouri and Arizona, to experience severe flooding Thursday amid increasingly extreme weather amplified by the climate crisis. In St. Louis, record-breaking rainfall earlier in the week caused dangerous flooding that has continued for days and left at least one person dead.
As global temperatures rise, the atmosphere is able to hold more and more water, making water vapor more abundantly available to fall as rain.
Rainfall over land has become more intense since the 1980s, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report’s authors say human influence is the main driver.
Anthropogenic fossil fuel emissions have warmed the planet by just over 1 degree Celsius, on average, with more intense warming in land areas. Scientists are increasingly certain of the role the climate crisis is playing in extreme weather and have warned that these events will become more intense and more dangerous with every fraction of a degree of warming.
CNN’s Angela Fritz, Caitlin Kaiser, Sara Smart, Sharif Paget, Amanda Musa, Claudia Dominguez, Michelle Watson, Caitlyn Kaiser and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.
