October 23, 2024
DULUTH, Ga. – Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief crews are awaiting the nod to head to the Kentucky mountains to assist residents with what’s being described as some of the worst flooding the region has ever experienced.
Heavy rains triggered flash flooding that inundated homes, sweeping some from the foundations, as first responders rescued people stranded on rooftops.
"There are a lot of people in eastern Kentucky on top of roofs waiting to be rescued," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a press briefing on Thursday. “There are a number of people that are unaccounted for, and I’m nearly certain this is a situation where we are going to lose some of them.”
More than 20,000 homes were without power in eastern Kentucky and another 10,000 had lost electricity in southern West Virgina and southwestern Virginia.
“It’s a catastrophic event," said Perry County emergency management director Jerry Stacy, speaking to The Associated Press. "I’ve lived here in Perry County all my life and this is by far the worst event I’ve ever seen. ... Mudslides are just everywhere."
Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Director Dwain Carter said he has been in touch with his counterpart in Kentucky to offer assistance helping residents clean up once the water has receded.
“People's lives and livelihoods have been turned upside down in eastern Kentucky,” Carter said. “The task at hand will be helping people clean out flooded homes, to get their lives back to as close to normal as possible.”
Beshear said the number of homes destroyed could number in the hundreds.
“What we’re going to see coming out of this is massive property damage," Beshear said during a briefing Thursday. "We expect the loss of life. Hundreds will lose their homes, and this is going to be yet another event that it’s going to take not months but likely years for many families to rebuild and recover from.”
Beshear, who led the state through a deadly tornado outbreak that leveled entire communities late last year, called Thursday’s flooding “one of the worst, most devastating flooding events in Kentucky’s history.”
