FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms filled up rivers to near record levels across Kentucky on Monday, submerging neighborhoods and threatening a famed bourbon distillery in the state capital of Frankfort.
Swollen rivers posed the latest threat from a series of persistent storms that have killed at least 20 people since last week — 10 of them in Tennessee — as they doused the region with heavy rains and spawned destructive tornadoes. Teeming waterways kept the flood threat high in other states, as well, including in Tennessee, Arkansas and Indiana.
Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio. Floodwaters forced the closure of the historic Buffalo Trace Distillery, close to the banks of the swollen Kentucky River near downtown Frankfort.
“I think everybody was shocked at how quick (the river) actually did come up,” said salon owner Jessica Tuggle, who was watching Monday as murky brown water approached her business in Frankfort.
She and friends packed up her salon gear, including styling chairs, hair products and electronics, and took it to a nearby tap house up the hill.
“Everybody was just ‘stop raining, stop raining’ so we could get an idea of what the worst situation would be,” she said.
Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to approach a record crest Monday.
Ashley Welsh, her husband and four children — along with their pets — had to quickly depart their Frankfort home along the river Saturday evening, leaving a lifetime of belongings later submerged by floodwaters.
When she awoke to water coming into their house early Saturday, Welsh woke everyone up and they packed their truck. They alerted guests to leave an Airbnb they own down the road, packed up the Airbnb and then helped her sister, who lives next to the Airbnb, evacuate. After they took a short nap at their house, the water had risen.
“By the time we woke up, there was already three feet of water that we had to wade through to get out,” she said.
The water rose up to their second floor. By Sunday morning, she checked her house’s cameras.
“My stuff was floating around in the living room. I was just heartbroken. Our life is up there,” Welsh said.
Storms leaving devastating impact
The 20 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.
Two men sitting in a golf cart were killed when a tree fell on them at a golf course in Columbus, Georgia, according to Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan.
The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.
In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.
The Kentucky River was cresting at Frankfort Lock at 48.27 feet (14.71 meters) on Monday morning, just shy of the record of 48.5 feet (14.78 meters) set there on Dec. 10, 1978, according to CJ Padgett, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Louisville, Kentucky, office.
Carroll County Deputy Judge-Executive Michael Humphrey in Kentucky ordered mandatory evacuations in some places, warning that a “significant flooding event of which history has never seen” is expected.
Across Kentucky, more than 500 state roads were still closed Monday morning, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Beshear said more than 1,000 people had no access to water and nearly 3,000 were under boil water advisories. He said at least 20 water systems were affected.
The City of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, said on social media that its water system had to discontinue pumping around midnight due to flood levels on the Kentucky River. Bottled water was being handed out Monday. The post said officials from Harrodsburg and Mercer County and leaders from factories, hospitals and schools had been discussing how to minimize water use in the community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Frankfort.
More than 100 structures were destroyed in McNairy County, Tennessee, where a tornado tore through the town of Selmer with winds estimated up to 160 mph (257 kph), local emergency management officials said. State officials have confirmed five people were killed by the severe weather in the county of roughly 26,100 residents.
The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.
Why so much nasty weather?
Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.
The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.
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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in New York; Kimberlee Kruesi and Jonathan Mattise, in Nashville, Tennessee; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; and Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee.
