As rescue and recovery teams worked to reach isolated areas Monday, the number of people confirmed dead in last week’s flooding rose to 37, Gov. Andy Beshear announced. The death toll is expected to rise.
“We’re still looking for people, and unfortunately, we’re still finding those bodies,” Beshear told CNN Monday evening.
Rescue efforts have been complicated by washed-out infrastructure, officials say. Although cell service is being restored, some areas are still without it, leaving many unable to contact loved ones or emergency services.
The sweltering heat won’t help. Wednesday will be the driest day of the week, but that will allow temperatures to climb into the 90s. Because of the humidity, it will feel like almost 100 degrees, CNN meteorologists say.
“We still have back roads and county roads that are broken and our bridges are out. So it’s very difficult to get to some of the more remote places,” Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman told CNN on Monday.
The challenges make it “almost impossible” to know the exact number of people who are still missing, Beshear said Monday.
Since it began last week, the floods have devastated several counties and displaced dozens of people from their homes. Heavy flooding swept homes off their foundations, washed away entire livelihoods, including farms and businesses, and caused catastrophic damage to residents’ property, vehicles and belongings.
Rescue crews have been battling the weather for days as they work to reach trapped residents.
In stunning video, an 83-year-old woman is seen being airlifted by a Blackhawk helicopter in Breathitt County. A rescue team learned she and four other family members were trapped in an attic Thursday, Wolfe County Search and Rescue spokesman Drew Stevens told CNN.
The woman was unharmed, Stevens said, but a family member suffered a broken collarbone and was taken to the hospital. He has since been released.
The disaster also knocked out essential power and water services, which repair crews have been scrambling to restore due to dangerous flood conditions. At least 7,000 customers in eastern Kentucky were still without power early Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us. More than 25,000 service connections were without water Monday and an additional 44,119 were under a boil water advisory, according to the governor’s office. Twenty-two water systems and 17 wastewater systems were operating at limited capacity, the office said.
State mourning after several catastrophes
The flooding is just the latest disaster to hit Kentucky, which has lost more than 16,000 people to the Covid-19 pandemic and is still reeling from a tornado outbreak that swept through the state in December and killed more than 70 people.
Beshear spoke Monday at an event in western Kentucky for those affected by tornadoes and acknowledged that Kentuckians have been affected statewide by deadly natural disasters.
“Flooding in eastern Kentucky has been tough, as have these tornadoes,” he said, adding that natural disasters “tear at the fabric of who we are.”
“I was at a breaking point the other night because this happens to all of us — it’s okay to not be okay,” Beshear said. “We’re going to go through it because we have to. We have no other choice.”
The death toll from the flooding spans at least five counties and includes four brothers from Knott County who were swept away by the strong current. The children were identified to CNN by their aunt as brothers Chance, 2; Nevaeh, 4; Riley Jr., 6; and Madison, 8.
“I went to the site of what used to be their home yesterday,” Beshear said of the family that lost all four children. “I stood there in front of what would have been their front door and saw one of the kid’s swings in the back. I think the oldest would have been in second grade. They didn’t even spend the same amount of time on this Earth . as my children have already enjoyed.”
The governor launched a relief fund for flood victims and those affected, the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund, which will be used first to pay for funeral expenses for those killed in the disaster. Beshear told CNN that families will not have to go through an application process to get funeral funds.
CNN’s Michelle Watson, Dakin Andone, Caroll Alvarado, Amy Simonson and Monica Garrett contributed to this report.