According to the governor, last week’s flooding killed more than three dozen people in eastern Kentucky, and oppressive heat will soon exacerbate the difficulties for individuals who are without electricity and stuck due to washed-away roads and bridges.
Temperatures in the region will reach the 90s on Wednesday and Thursday, and the humidity will make it feel close to 100 degrees, according to CNN meteorologists.
“It’s going to become extremely, terribly hot,” Gov. Andy Beshear warned during a press conference Tuesday morning.
The floods, which began early Thursday when torrential rain fell on an already saturated region, displaced thousands of people, washed out whole livelihoods, including farms and businesses, and left many homeless.
Beshear has claimed for days that many people are missing, in part because mobile phone coverage was disrupted and because floods destroyed remote roads and bridges that were in some cases the sole entry point for towns in this section of Appalachia.
However, retrieving the missing isn’t the only challenge. Many individuals believed to have survived are trapped due to washed-out roads, and there is an urgent need to either bring supplies to them or transfer them, according to a resident of flood-ravaged Knott County.
“I still have relatives and uncles that live in hollers. They have diabetes. They require insulin “Zack Hall, a native of Knott County, told Fox on Tuesday morning.
The governor established the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund to help flood victims and those affected, with the initial funds going toward burial expenses for those who died in the catastrophe.
According to Beshear, families will not have to go through an application procedure to get funeral payments.
The flooding has claimed the lives of at least five people, including four siblings from Knott County who were swept away by the powerful river.
Their aunt identified the children as siblings Chance, 2, Nevaeh, 4, Riley Jr., 6, and Madison, 8.
