At about 4 a.m. Friday morning, Nathan Milner sloshed through waist deep water surging into his ground-floor apartment in the Bashford Manor neighborhood.
The water came in fast, said Milner, 25. Within 30 minutes, maybe less, the cold, dirty water inundated the small, two bedroom apartment he shares with five other people.
“Water was just gushing in,” said Deann Henderson, who also lives at the apartment.
Henderson and Milner quickly gathered needed medication, a change of clothes, the three dogs and headed to higher ground. Everything else got left behind.
Heavy rains that led to flash floods early Friday morning impacted hundreds of Louisville residents. Some, like Henderson and Milner, were driven out of their home.
They quickly made their way to Broadbent Arena, where the American Red Cross established an emergency disaster relief center for anyone displaced or in need of assistance. There, people were provided food, water, blankets and a cot.
“We will be here until the need is met,” said Tony Hardin, a volunteer and state shelter manager for the American Red Cross in Louisville.
About eight inches of rain fell overnight and by 8 a.m. rescue crews had pulled nearly 160 people to safety, MetroSafe officials said at a press conference Friday morning.
Henderson said the three dogs are with a friend. As for herself, Milner and Debona Blair, another roommate, the next steps are still unknown.
“It’s overwhelming,” she said. “We’ll just take it a day at a time.”
