Death toll from Kentucky flooding rises to 26

At least 26 people, including minors, have died from the floods in Kentucky (USA), reported this Sunday the governor of the state, Andy Beshear, who warned that the number will rise and the authorities may continue to find bodies without life for weeks.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
31 July 2022 Sunday 11:48
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Death toll from Kentucky flooding rises to 26

At least 26 people, including minors, have died from the floods in Kentucky (USA), reported this Sunday the governor of the state, Andy Beshear, who warned that the number will rise and the authorities may continue to find bodies without life for weeks.

"The death toll has risen to 26 right now, but I know there are more bodies. With the level of water, we're going to be finding bodies for weeks," Beshear said in an interview with NBC.

Among the dead are four children from the same family, but Beshear said two more may have been killed by torrential rains and flooding in central and eastern Kentucky. She explained that the authorities have not yet been able to access some parts of the state and explained that the rain is complicating the rescue efforts.

"We are going door to door to try to find as many people as we can. We are working even in the rain, but the weather is making everything difficult," he said.

He also announced that he is going to activate more reservists from the state National Guard to help rescue the residents of Kentucky, who in some cases have been trapped by the waters on the roofs of their houses and have even had to climb on trees, according to the local newspaper Lexington Herald-Leader.

Beshear already declared a state of emergency throughout Kentucky on Thursday and mobilized the Kentucky National Guard to deal with what he has described as "one of the worst and most devastating" floods in the state's history.

This is the second natural disaster to hit Kentucky in less than eight months after a series of tornadoes killed more than 80 people in western Kentucky in December.

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced on Friday the declaration of Kentucky as a "major disaster" area to confirm the help that the federal government will give the state to deal with these floods, the White House said in a statement.

The National Weather Service (NWS) is keeping central, southern and eastern Kentucky on alert for flooding and predicts that torrential rains will continue on Monday and Tuesday.

The rains have been so heavy that on Friday the stretch of the Kentucky River in the city of Jackson reached the highest level ever recorded with 13 meters, surpassing a record set in 1939.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, many of the areas hit by the floods have been left without running water and some 50 bridges in the state have been severely damaged or completely destroyed.

In addition, some 13,000 homes and businesses in Kentucky are without electricity this Sunday, according to the PowerOutage.us platform.