JACKSON, KENTUCKY (AP) – Kentucky’s governor said it could take weeks to find all the victims of flash flooding that killed at least 16 people when torrential rains swamped towns across Appalachia.
More rainstorms are forecast in coming days as rescue crews continue the struggle to get into hard-hit areas, some of them among the poorest places in America.
The rain let up on Friday after parts of eastern Kentucky received 20 to 27 centimetres over 48 hours.
But Governor Andy Beshear warned the death toll could rise.
“From everything we’ve seen, we may be updating the count of how many we lost for the next several weeks,” Beshear said.
“In some of these areas, it’s hard to know exactly how many people were there.”
Patricia Colombo, 63, of Hazard, Kentucky, became stranded when her car stalled in floodwaters on a state highway. Colombo began to panic when water started rushing in. Though her phone was dead, she saw a helicopter overhead and waved it down. The helicopter crew radioed a ground team that plucked her to safety.
Colombo stayed the night at her fiance’s home in Jackson and they took turns sleeping, repeatedly checking the water with flashlights to see if it was rising.
Though her car was a loss, Colombo said others had it worse in a region where poverty is endemic.
“Many of these people cannot recover out here. They have homes that are half underwater, they’ve lost everything,” she said.
It’s the latest in a string of catastrophic deluges that have pounded parts of the United States this summer, including St Louis earlier this week and again on Friday.
Scientists warn climate change is making weather disasters more common.
