Updated 12:51p
At an afternoon press conference, Gov. Beshear says he expected the death toll from the rain storm to be in 'double digits'. The Governor says the state is setting up a relief fund for donations to those impacted by the severe flooding. The site is www.Teamekyfloodrelieffund.ky.gov. Beshear said the state is in the process of setting up that relief
site and hopes to have it up and online soon.
Original story:
A massive rain event has struck portions of southeastern Kentucky. Some areas have reportedly seen up close to ten inches of rain over the last 24 hours. Hal Klingenberg is with the national weather service. He says the city of Hazard has been hard hit with more than eight inches of rain over the last 24 hours.
“I know that overnight there were water rescues going on and in some locations, the rescuers couldn’t get to the people that needed to be rescued because of the flooding,” said Klingenberg.
The National Weather Service meteorologist says daylight should offer an opportunity to assess the flooding damage, but he added “ I think with that much rainfall, it’s going to be a very bad picture.”
“We’ve heard some reports during the night of some people unaccounted for. There were some reports that came in, but we don’t have anything confirmed. Hopefully, there is no loss of life, but in an event this large, you’d be very fortunate if there wasn’t something that happened,” said Klingenberg.
Kentucky Power is reporting more than 18,000 customers without power in southeastern Kentucky.
