At least 10 people died this weekend as a powerful storm swept through a large swath of the United States, bringing widespread flooding and damaging winds to Southern and Eastern states.
In Kentucky, where flooding inundated roads and homes, at least nine are dead, Gov. Andy Beshear said in a post to social media Sunday.
“We just confirmed another weather-related death out of Pike County, bringing our total loss to 9 people,” Beshear said. At least one other person died in Georgia, an official there said.
Emergency responders are now in a search and rescue phase and have performed over 1,000 rescues in under 24 hours, Beshear said. The governor described the storm as “one of the most serious weather events we’ve dealt with in at least a decade.”
Video footage captured in multiple states shows toppled trees, vehicles submerged in floodwaters and inundated houses with widespread reports of flooded roads, businesses and homes in Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.
Water levels reached historic highs in Kentucky as the storm gained momentum Saturday, officials said, two years after catastrophic flooding left 43 people dead and devastated parts of the state. Beshear on Sunday called the impact to the state “massive” and cited “hundreds of water rescues” and “multiple fatalities.”
“We need Kentuckians to remain alert. There are more than 300 road closures, with (state transportation) leaders saying the statewide impact is historic,” Beshear posted on social media. “From mudslides in the east to snow in the west, the situation is dangerous. Please plan ahead, avoid travel and stay safe, Kentucky,” the governor said.
The deaths include at least one child, Beshear said. “We believe this number is going to grow,” he said. He urged Kentuckians to stay off the roads, adding several of the deaths have been attributed to motor vehicle accidents.
Beshear declared a state of emergency for Kentucky ahead of the storm Friday and Sunday thanked President Donald Trump for approving a federal disaster declaration, making federal aid funding available to impacted areas.
The severe weather event will “continue for several more days,” Kentucky Emergency Management Director Eric Gibson said Sunday. Beshear warned of continued flooding, including riverbank flooding, in coming days.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is on site in Kentucky, according to Beshear, along with 146 soldiers and airmen from the Kentucky National Guard.
Power outages and evacuations
The intense rain and flash flooding have prompted evacuations and caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of customers across several states.
Parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee were under flash flood emergencies and warnings through Sunday morning. Flood watches in some areas will continue into Monday. Several tornado warnings were issued across Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee late Saturday, before the storm pushed into Georgia on Sunday morning.
At least 108,028 customers in Georgia, 75,724 in Alabama, 61,637 in West Virginia and 61,520 in Virginia were without power as of 2:20 p.m. ET, according to PowerOutage.us. In Kentucky, 29,628 were without power.
The extreme flooding has also affected Kentucky’s water systems. A total of 9,800 service connections were without water and 21,000 were under boil water advisories Sunday, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
At a Kentucky nursing home, 100 residents were evacuated to a local church, the news release stated. Emergency shelters are operating in nine counties across the state.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Sunday he submitted an Expedited Major Disaster Declaration to President Trump, citing “significant damage that is affecting community lifelines.” This is the fifth major flood to hit the area in the past five years, the governor said in a news release.
A flash flood emergency was issued for Tazewell, Mercer and Summers counties in Virginia, where swift water rescues have been underway since Saturday.
“The frigid water temperatures that can result in rapid hypothermia for anyone caught in the flooding,” the National Weather Service office in Blacksburg, Virginia, warned.
A nursing home in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee, about 10 miles from the Kentucky border, was forced to evacuate residents Saturday due to rising waters, according to Macon County Emergency Medical Services.
Multiple agencies helped in the effort to safely take 52 residents to another facility, where they will remain until water levels recede, county EMS said.
In the Richlands, Virginia area, at least 51 people, 17 dogs and eight cats were rescued overnight, according to Virginia Task Force 4.
Between 3 and 5 inches of rain have fallen across swaths of the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, with isolated instances of more than 6 inches.
A 73-year-old resident of Manchester, Kentucky, died in the Horse Creek area after being swept away by floodwaters Saturday night, officials said. The man was driving on Kentucky Highway 8, according to the Clay County Coroner’s Office. He was carried away by the heavy currents after leaving the vehicle, the coroner’s office told CNN.
Two more people were confirmed dead in Kentucky after a vehicle was swept away amid flash flooding around 10:30 p.m. Saturday in Hart County, according to a National Weather Service report.
And in Georgia, one person died in the Grove Park area of Atlanta overnight when a large tree fell on a home amid “tremendous thunderstorm activity” in the area, Atlanta Fire Capt. Scott Powell said Sunday. Fire units responded to a 911 call made just before 5 a.m. and found one person trapped inside the house, he said.
“There was an extended operation to remove that person. Unfortunately, it did result in a fatality,” said Powell.
The storm looks set to wane by Monday, but parts of the Great Lakes could be buried by lake-effect snow in its wake.
Across the country, over 10 million people remain under a winter storm warning that will last through Monday morning from upstate New York to New England.
Snowfall totals in northern Maine could reach nearly 2 feet. Portland, Maine, is expected to get 3 to 5 inches of snow, while Burlington, Vermont, is forecast to get between 6 and 12 inches, and Bangor, Maine, is forecast to receive between 4 to 8 inches.
Alabama town slammed by storm
Structures in Tuscumbia, Alabama, including one of the city’s middle schools, lost their roofs from strong winds, according to the town’s mayor.
“There is a lot of damage downtown,” William Foster told CNN affiliate WAFF Sunday morning. Drones would arrive in the morning to assess the roofs and other damage caused by the storm, he said, while a team from the Red Cross would also be deployed.
“There were no calls about major injuries,” the mayor added.
“Most calls were for lack of power, oxygen.”
The city government posted a statement on Facebook warning that downtown Tuscumbia “was directly impacted” by the sweeping storm and asked residents to avoid the area.
CNN has reached out to the Tuscumbia Police Department and the Tuscumbia Utilities Department for more details.
Flash flood event extremely rare
A rare level 4-of-4 for high risk of flooding rainfall was in place for more than 1.5 million people in parts of northwestern Tennessee and western Kentucky, according to the Weather Prediction Center. That threat level has now ended.
Such weather events are issued on fewer than 4% of days per year on average, but are responsible for more than 80% of all flood-related damage and 40% of all flood-related deaths, research from the prediction center shows.
The threat level is raised because the atmospheric setup for the storm is “quite unusual for mid-February” and could support rainfall rates up to 2 inches per hour in the heaviest storms, according to the center. Half a foot of precipitation could fall in the high-risk area where heavier bouts of rain essentially get stuck for an extended period, the center said.
Almost no area could absorb that much rain without flooding, but recent storms have already soaked soils in this region and make the threat that much more serious.
Communities from eastern Arkansas to West Virginia were under a level 3 of 4 risk of flooding rainfall Saturday, the center said.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey declared a state of emergency in 10 counties and a state of preparedness in all 55 counties Saturday, while the National Guard has been deployed in Virginia to assist with recovery efforts.
Floodwaters surged through the roadways in several cities throughout Simpson County, Kentucky. Elsewhere in the state, dozens of flooded roads were closed in Adair County, according to emergency management officials.
Source: CNN
