In the small town of Hindman on a creek, a main road turned into a river before dawn, as seen in video by storm chaser Brandon Clement.
Barbara Wicker was concerned about relatives in town, including five grandchildren, because the water had surrounded their homes, she told Clement.
‘I can’t reach them. I can’t reach 911. … There’s no help in sight,” Wicker told Clement on an early Wednesday outside in Hindman, a town in Knott County, about a 130-mile drive southeast of Lexington.
“That goes way up there — everyone is trapped,” Hindman resident Kendra Bentley, who also stood by a road outside, told Clement about flooding around homes.
After rainfall in recent days, it increased in the region on Wednesday night.
In Perry County alone, 20 inches of rain had fallen from 8 a.m. in the past 24 hours.
And more flooding is possible Thursday, especially in parts of eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia and far southwest Virginia, the weather service said.
Fast-water rescues were reported Thursday in Kentucky’s Perry County, including in Chavies, a community of several hundred people about 30 miles west of Hindman and a 110-mile drive southeast of Lexington, the weather service said.
In the Breathitt County community of Jackson, water rushed past a house in the predawn darkness Thursday, carrying a garbage can and other debris, according to video recorded by Deric Lostutter.
“Many roads in the province will be flooded and impassable. Please stay off the road if at all possible tonight,” the post said.
‘Seemingly endless fire hose’ of moisture in much of the US
Recent rain, with more on the way, makes additional flash flooding likely in parts of the Ohio and Tennessee valleys and central Appalachians over the next two days, the forecast center said.