Comment HAZARD, Ky. — People brought back harrowing stories of survival Friday as they took shelter in a school that had become a shelter for those who lost everything when muddy water quickly invaded their homes. Some got stuck in trees as the floodwaters rushed under them. Others held the children tightly. A man held onto a branch so tightly that he broke his ribs and collarbone. “He passed out and all he remembers is waking up with lights in his eyes,” said Christy Gorman, assistant superintendent for the Perry County School District, which houses the shelter at an elementary school. “And we have so many stories like these.” President Biden issued a major disaster declaration for Kentucky on Friday as the death toll rose to at least 16 — including many children — since Wednesday. Families in hard-hit cities began to receive ominous news of lost relatives. Others saw ruined houses. And thousands were left without power by the devastating floods. Meanwhile, a flood watch remained in effect in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Kentucky, and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said he expected the death toll to more than double. “As governor, I’ve seen a lot,” he said, citing past floods. “This is by far the worst.” Among the dead — in Perry, Knott, Letcher and Clay counties — were six children, at least three people in their 60s, at least two people in their 70s and an 81-year-old woman, Beshear said. Most of the people were killed in Knott County, a county of about 15,000 people located about 150 miles southeast of Lexington. The disaster status frees up federal funding to support the recovery — which was still ongoing Friday. With people stuck on roofs and trees, first responders performed about 50 air rescues and hundreds of boat rescues Thursday, Beshear said. Limited cellphone service made it difficult to determine the number of people missing, and flooding in some areas was not expected to peak for another day. But as survivors were pulled to safety and displaced residents began arriving in shelters, stories of what they endured began to emerge. Brittany Trejo told the Lexington Herald-Leader that her cousins, who ranged in age from 1½ to 8, were swept away by their parents in Thursday’s flooding. “They entered the roof and everything below was washed away with them and the children. They managed to get to a tree and … held the kids for a few hours before a high tide came in and washed them all away at once,” Trejo said. “The mother and father were trapped in the tree for 8 hours before someone got there to help.” How two 1 in 1,000 year rainfall events hit the US in two days Dwayne Applegate, 48, said he lost almost everything when the waters of the North Fork of the Kentucky River overflowed – causing damage throughout the small community of Barwick that he likened to someone “dropping a bomb on it.” He fled in search of higher ground, eventually reaching some nearby woods and walking through about four miles of muddy trails. A bystander in a Jeep later drove him to Hazard, where he was taken by the shelter to West Perry Elementary. “If I were 70,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it.” Applegate said his mother’s hilltop property was safe from floodwaters, but it was essentially cut off on all sides, trapping her. At some point he hopes to reach her. “People of Kentucky, we come together because we are strong,” Applegate said. The National Weather Service’s Jackson station predicted rainfall would gradually ease Friday as a cold front moved through the region. More storms, however, are expected to arrive Sunday through Tuesday. The deluge was caused by the same weather that caused historic flooding Tuesday in St. Louis, where at least one person was killed and several others were trapped in their cars and homes. Rainfall there and in Kentucky has less than a 1 in 1,000 chance of occurring in a given year. Human-induced climate change has pushed extreme rainfall events to increase significantly over the past century. Heavy rainfall is now about 20 to 40 percent more likely in and near eastern Kentucky than it was around 1900, according to the US government’s National Climate Assessment. This week’s flash flooding was the second weather-related crisis for Kentucky in the past year. In December, at least 70 people in that state were killed when tornadoes ripped through parts of the South and Midwest. Hundreds of homes have been lost in what Beshear called “the worst flood disaster, at least in my lifetime, in Kentucky.” More than 300 people were in shelters. Churches have entire walls missing and houses have been broken into, exposing the rooms inside. Standing water has made some back roads impassable, while mudslides and fallen trees block others. The mud-coated devastation of the latest emergency became more visible in some eastern Kentucky communities Friday as floodwaters began to recede. In Perry County, the damage done to Buckhorn School — a K-12 facility with more than 300 students — was “just staggering,” said Tim Wooton, the principal. The school was filled with at least six feet of water Wednesday night as nearby Squabble Creek swelled over its banks, he said. Shards of wood, metal and other construction debris washed upstream shattered the school’s windows and doors and littered the hallways. Although the school’s exterior walls were mostly intact, Wooton said the interior had sustained “extensive” damage. “There’s nothing that can be salvaged,” Kristy Stamper, the school’s assistant principal, said Friday. The school graduated its 120th class in the spring, Wootton said, and students and residents of the small town of Buckhorn see it as a focal point of the community. “We’re family,” Stamper said through tears, “and this is the heart of it.” As floodwaters rose around Price Neace’s home in Lost Creek, Ky., Wednesday night, his daughter-in-law urged him to leave. He had survived the floods last year, but this time was much worse, said his daughter-in-law, Sue Neace. Around 2 a.m., Price, 72, left in his truck in search of higher ground. Sue said she hadn’t heard from him until Friday morning. He had parked his car on dry land and eventually set off on foot, hoping someone would come to his rescue, he told her. Sue, 48, said she planned to try to find him. “This is family,” he said. “Just leave.” Through text messages, Sue pinpointed her father-in-law’s location, about two hours from her home in Waddy, Ky. She texted him that she was coming to pick him up after a quick stop at Walmart to buy some supplies. In his text, she said, he asked her to bring him a pack of cigarettes. Iati and Sachs reported from Washington. Jason Samenow contributed to this report.
