Deadly storms give way to rising rivers in flood-ravaged Midwest and Southern US; danger is not over
WTVA, LARRY DEVORE, CNN
By Hanna Park, Mary Gilbert, Andy Rose, CNN
(CNN) — Deadly rain across the South and Midwest is finally subsiding Monday, but the danger for many communities is increasing. They only have to look at the rapidly rising rivers to see what’s coming.
“As long as I’ve been alive — and I’m 52 — this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” Wendy Quire, the general manager of the Brown Barrel restaurant in downtown Frankfort, Kentucky, told The Associated Press.
Floodwaters inundated communities Sunday, the result of days of rain from storms that claimed at least 19 lives since the middle of last week.
Rivers were still on the rise in several already flood-ravaged states, with water levels at 18 measurement points on multiple rivers across the Midwest and South at the “major flood” stage Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. The Kentucky River crested in Frankfort, the capital, just shy of the city’s protective flood walls Monday morning.
“It’s good to be able to come out this morning and it not be raining. We’re thankful for that, but we’re still dealing with water rising,” said John Ward, sheriff of Hardin County, which is south of Louisville on a bend in the Ohio River.
“I’ve seen homes underwater that have never had water. I don’t think people were ready,” Ward told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Monday morning.
Over a foot of rain has fallen since Wednesday across the mid-South where some locations – including Memphis, Tennessee – recorded nearly an entire spring’s worth of rain in just a few days. On Saturday, over a dozen daily rainfall records were set in Arkansas and Tennessee. Little Rock got over six inches, and Nashville got nearly four inches. Memphis hit 5.47 inches, making Saturday the city’s wettest day ever in April.
The rain was dumped by destructive storms that also produced tornadoes across the central US. The NWS has rated at least 60 tornadoes since the storms began, with five rated as EF3 strength. As of Saturday, the US had seen 10 consecutive days of tornadoes.
The storms have left at least 19 people dead across seven states, including 10 in Tennessee. Among them are a 5-year-old boy found in a storm-damaged home in Arkansas and a 9-year-old Kentucky boy who was swept away by floodwaters while walking to his school bus stop. On Sunday, a father and son were killed on a Georgia golf course when the tree they were sheltering under fell, according to CNN affiliate WTVM.
“Remember, this event is not over until the waters have receded, until the areas that have flooded are fully dry, until we don’t have saturated ground that could create mudslides over roads and bridges,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday.
In several parts of Kentucky, the intense flooding has endangered the local water supply. Authorities in Mercer County expect that they’ll run out of water Monday night, according to a statement from the schools superintendent.
The Frankfort Plant Board announced Sunday it had turned off the electrical equipment used to pump water from the river and asked customers to “ration their water usage.” And in Harrodsburg, water pumps were turned off overnight as flood levels came close to the city’s “raw water station.” Now, “we are using stored water and the supply is limited,” reads a Facebook post from the city.
Floodwaters devastate swath of Kentucky
The widespread flooding has triggered evacuations, water rescues and warnings to move to higher ground across the Bluegrass State. Many people are still in harm’s way as others start to dig out of the muck, but a dramatic return to winter-like chill early this week poses another complicating factor.
In Frankfort, the Kentucky River crested at its second-highest level on record Monday morning, just shy of 1978’s devastating flooding and worryingly close to what the city’s flood protections can handle.
“I’ve heard tales about 1978,” resident Karen Kuhner told CNN affiliate WKYT. “I wasn’t here then and my heart just goes out to all of the people that aren’t able to leave and whose homes are more than likely going to be destroyed.”
In Prospect, along the Ohio River, the owners of Captain’s Quarters Riverside Grille responded to the incursion of dirty river water by deliberately flooding the restaurant with fresh water, keeping most of the silt and debris out. In a Facebook video, co-owner Andrew Masterson explained that when the flood recedes, it will be easier to clean up damage from clean water than river water.
“It is a huge interruption to our business. It’s a significant cost, but we know it comes with the territory of being on the river,” Masterson told CNN on Monday.
Emergency crews worked Sunday night to contain a large spill of motor oil and diesel fuel at a trucking garage outside Butler, CNN affiliate WKRC reported. Pendleton Emergency Management spokesman Rob Braun said the spill, caused by high water, was near Northern Elementary.
Residents of Butler and Falmouth were ordered to evacuate Saturday – anyone who stayed behind was warned their utilities could go out, and water rescuers might not be able to reach them if needed, according to CNN affiliate WCPO.
Several Falmouth residents came to the aid of an older neighbor to help her move belongings out of her home.
“Most of the people here (don’t) know the homeowner,” one of the residents told WCPO. “They just seen us back up here with the trailer and they just stop and say, ‘Can we help?’”
Water rescues were carried out Sunday near Colesburg, about 30 miles south of Louisville, the county sheriff reported, as waters rose rapidly in the Rolling Fork River.
Drone footage of nearby New Haven shows the aftermath of the river bursting its banks, flooding properties on the town’s main street with brown water. As the road leads out of town, it takes on the appearance of a causeway, fields hidden under vast quantities of water.
So many roads across Kentucky were impassable due to flooding over the weekend that the state ran out of road-closing barriers, the Hardin County sheriff said.
Farther east, footage from Wilmore shows a line of homes fully surrounded by water – some with the water right up to their rooflines. Red inflatable boats are seen moving around the neighborhood on waterways above what presumably are yards and streets.
Even communities far from major rivers are trying to contain damage from swollen streams. In western Kentucky, Kevin Spraggs, the top elected official in Marshall County, spent much of his weekend alongside local jail inmates filling sandbags, CNN affiliate WPSD reported.
“The water’s at levels that I’ve never seen here,” Spraggs told the station. “We’ve got a couple of watersheds that we’re in fear the levees may breach.”
The Kentucky Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, the Administrative Office of the Courts in Frankfort, and Hardin County courts were closed Monday. The Franklin County courts will be closed all week.
Appointments at offices to receive new driver’s licenses are being postponed, Gov. Beshear said, exactly one month before the federal government’s deadline requiring updated REAL ID-compliant licenses to board planes at domestic airports.
The Ohio River, which runs through Louisville, rose more than 5 feet in 24 hours and is expected to rise significantly higher over the next few days, Mayor Craig Greenberg said Saturday.
Flooding also plagued parts of Ohio. Emergency crews rescued a woman without a home who woke up surrounded by water in downtown Cincinnati early Sunday, CNN affiliate WKRC reported.
Later that day, another rescue was made after a driver ignored road closure signs by a former amusement park in the city. The driver was not injured but had to be rescued from their almost completely submerged vehicle, police told CNN affiliate WLWT. CNN reached out to the Cincinnati Police Department for comment.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders took an aerial tour in northern Arkansas on Monday, after their tornadoes and flooding came on the heels of dry, windy weather that sparked nearly 100 wildfires.
“If there has been a natural disaster event, it has happened here in the last month,” she said.
The storms have also caused snarls for travelers, with 4,000 flights within, into, or out of the US delayed Monday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport was the hardest-hit, with 34% of flights delayed as of the afternoon.
The storms could impact this week’s Masters golf tournament in Georgia. Augusta National Golf Club initially said the gates of the iconic venue “will not open as scheduled for Monday’s practice round,” but then reversed the decision in response to an improved forecast.
CNN’s Amanda Jackson, Karina Tsui, Susannah Cullinane, Jacob Lev, Zenebou Sylla, and Zoe Sottile and CNN Meteorologist Gene Norman contributed to this report.
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