Kentucky watches for surging rivers to recede so widespread cleanup can begin

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — After days of deluges overfilled rivers to near-record levels across Kentucky, residents were anxious Tuesday to return to their flooded homes and assess what's salvageable, even as stubbornly high waters kept some of them waiting even longer.

Susan Williams returned to her rural Franklin County home with her four dogs and three cats. She left Sunday while the waters kept rising. Now, her house and a neighbor’s looked like they were on an island in brown waters.

Williams and some friends loaded her animals onto a small boat and paddled back and forth, dropping them off at the house built by her parents.

“It’s my world. It’s my little paradise,” Williams said about her home.

Water was slowly receding in flooded Frankfort, and officials hoped that by the end of Wednesday, most could get back into their homes, Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference.

Beshear urged people to wait if they couldn’t get to their homes without driving through water.

“Remember, even as much as we love our stuff — and sometimes it’s memories and photographs that are impacted — it’s our lives and the lives of our family and friends that matter,” Beshear said.

Officials warned of flooding expected along the Ohio River in Henderson and Owensboro into next week, with swift water rescue teams at the ready.

Officials in Frankfort diverted traffic, turned off utilities to businesses and instituted a curfew as the Kentucky River crested Monday just short of a record set in 1978. Water service has been restored, but wastewater isn't back up yet, Beshear said.

Inundated rivers are the latest threat from persistent storms that have killed at least 23 people, including 10 in Tennessee. At least 157 tornadoes struck within seven days beginning March 30, according to a preliminary report from the National Weather Service.

Flood danger remains elsewhere, including parts of Tennessee, Arkansas and Indiana.

‘Waiting for the water to recede’

Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Craig Greenberg said Tuesday that no further evacuations were expected along the Ohio River, which is expected to crest Wednesday before the water begins receding. He said the Louisville Fire Department and others had helped 66 people evacuate a hotel surrounded by water.

Beshear's office said more than 800 customers still had no access to water and nearly 4,000 were under boil water advisories.

Over the past several days, many of the 110 residents of Monterey, Kentucky, had left their homes. Steve Carter lives on a hill outside town and sheltered his father-in-law, who lives in the flood zone where the water remained high on Tuesday.

“This is the worst I’ve seen it since I’ve been around,” Carter said. “Right now, it’s to the point there’s not much to be done. Now people are just waiting for the water to recede so they can start the cleanup process.”

A small distiller in Frankfort turned its stills back on Tuesday and was back to making bourbon.

At Glenns Creek Distilling, the flooding narrowly avoided the main distillery, but a neighboring 26,000-square foot (2,415-square meter) warehouse remained underwater. Owner David Meier got back in on Tuesday, but he said it could take another day for the water to recede to check equipment and some bourbon barrels. Whether barrels that went underwater would have to be destroyed, he doesn't yet know.

“And so we might as well do what we can do here in the meantime," Meier said. "Keep making bourbon.”

Kentucky preps for another cleanup

It’s the latest severe weather to cause deaths and widespread damage in Kentucky. Two months ago, at least 24 people died in a round of storms that swelled creeks and covered roads with water. Hundreds had to be rescued, and most of the deaths were caused by vehicles getting stuck in high water.

A storm in late 2021 spawned tornadoes that killed 81 people and leveled portions of towns in western Kentucky. The following summer, historic floodwaters inundated parts of eastern Kentucky, leaving dozens more dead.

Deadly storm systems also battered the state in 2023 and last year, spawning straight-line winds, possible tornadoes and powerful thunderstorms.

Wanona Harp has been staying at a friend's house across the street and boating to her flooded home in Lockport, Kentucky, to tend to her dogs, rabbits and chickens that she moved to higher ground.

Harp said some homes are completely inundated in Lockport, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Louisville.

“You can just barely see of the top of them,” she said. “Some of them are just completely underwater.”

Back in Frankfort, a neighborhood was setting up tables for cleaning supplies on Tuesday ahead of the next massive cleanup.

The first assignment for the crew of neighbors: a couple of homes on higher ground with flooded basements.

“As soon as we can get in there, we’ll help them clean out and just kind of go downstream,” said Carly Cockley, who expects a mucky mess on her home's first floor.

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Contributing to this report were Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Carolyn Kaster in Lockport, Kentucky; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; and Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky. Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee.