The population of Kentucky cleanup has already started After the serious floods of the last few days that have resulted in the death of 26 peopleaccording to the latest official balance, although everything indicates that the final figure will be higher.
“The death toll right now is 26, but we know there are more bodies and we know it will increase. We’re going to keep finding bodies for weeks as the waters recede,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear told NBC.
“Many bodies have been washed up hundreds of meters away from where they were lost,” Beshear said. In addition, she has confirmed that there are four minors among the deceased and that they hope that “surely there are at least a couple more.”
Many areas are no water or electricity supply and there are still storms. For next week, a rising temperatures and even more difficult conditions for rescue work. So far, 1,432 people have been rescued throughout the state, according to the latest balance from state authorities.
“We are going to take a while until we have a firm figure” of the disappeared, added Beshear. “It’s difficult. They have been the most devastating and deadly floods that we have seen in our history. It has devastated areas where people had almost nothing even before” the flood, she pointed out.
Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Johnson, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, Owsley, Perry, Pike and Wolfe counties have been hardest hit by these floods and will be the first to receive federal aid corresponding to this statement.
Rescue efforts, CNN reports, have been hampered by ongoing power outages that began Wednesday at the start of the flooding and continued into this morning.
About a total of 17,000 homes and businesses have been left in the dark during this past night, according to PowerOutage.us.
Kentucky thus becomes the scene of its second climate catastrophe in just over seven months, after the wave of tornadoes that swept through the state in December last year and left at least 74 dead.