At least four people have died in flash flooding across Kentucky after a night of torrential rain, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Saturday, as rescue crews pulled residents from inundated vehicles and homes.
Four dead across two counties
Three of the deaths occurred in Madison County in central Kentucky, ABC7 reported: two people were found inside a home in Richmond and a third was recovered from a vehicle on Tates Creek Road, near Lexington. A fourth person died in Jackson County, in the eastern part of the state. Officials had not released the victims' names, and search teams were going door to door in flood-hit neighborhoods to check for anyone still missing.
'A serious flooding event'
"This is a serious flooding event, where teams have already had to conduct multiple water rescues from vehicles and homes across the commonwealth," Beshear said, urging residents to "avoid driving, especially after dark when there is limited visibility." The governor declared a state of emergency as conditions worsened overnight, and officials reported more than a dozen state roads flooded and impassable, isolating some communities.
Dam scare prompts evacuations
In Bullitt County, southwest of Louisville, authorities ordered a precautionary evacuation after a landslide damaged the embankment of a dam, raising concern about its integrity. Around three inches of rain had fallen in the county over two days. No injuries were reported in connection with the dam.
More rain, more warnings
The storm system dropped as much as seven inches of rain on parts of Kentucky, with some areas of southwestern Indiana seeing even more, according to ABC7. The National Weather Service in Louisville issued a series of flash flood warnings across central Kentucky into Saturday night, describing life-threatening flooding in a band of counties stretching south and west toward Bowling Green.
A state scarred by floods
Kentucky has endured a string of catastrophic floods in recent years. Eastern Kentucky was devastated by flooding in 2022 that killed dozens of people, and the region's steep terrain and aging drainage systems leave it especially vulnerable to fast-rising water. State officials urged residents in low-lying and flood-prone areas to heed local alerts and stay off the roads until the water recedes.
