Flash flooding is continuing to impact far Western Kentucky, where homes and roads flooded early Wednesday morning.
Double-digit rain gauge readings led to mass road closures throughout the Purchase Region — including in Carlisle, Graves, Hickman and McCracken counties. The road closures saw many area residents cut off from roads and from their homes, necessitating water rescues from local first responders.
Flood watches are still on throughout the region, including parts of western Tennessee, Western Kentucky and southern Illinois, and extend through Thursday morning. For the latest updates, check the National Weather Service website.
Terry Womble works with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. He was directing traffic in Pryorsburg, one of the towns in Graves County shut down by the flooding.
Stephen Boyken is the lead pastor of His House Ministries in Mayfield, a church that sheltered people in the aftermath of the December 2021 tornado outbreak and that’s now serving as a rallying point for flood victims.
“Our focus and our goal is to support our community, and so we’ve helped by providing a shelter but we’ve also been checking on people that we know,” Boyken said. “Our next step is providing relief materials to help people muck out or clean out their homes if there was flooding in their homes.”
Boyken expressed concern about people’s “felt needs” as well as their physical needs in the aftermath of the disaster.
“My concern as a pastor is how people feel going through something that similar to the tornado we had before, how it can trigger emotions and certainly bring about some fear. I know that there’s a lot of emotions people are feeling,” Boyken said. “Right now it looks like perhaps it’s not going to be as devastating as we thought it might be and so we would rather be overzealous in our response.”
Source: hoptownchronicle.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-driftlessstudio
Categories: Kentucky, Weather