The rescue of two elderly women from Kentucky’s “devastating and catastrophic” flooding, which has claimed at least 30 lives, was seen on camera.
In footage from one of the terrifying rescues, a Good Samaritan rescues a 98-year-old woman and her family by floating alongside them through the rushing floodwaters.
Four other family members were helicoptered to safety before the 83-year-old woman was airlifted from her flooded home in a different video.
Since the flooding started last week, the Kentucky National Guard has performed roughly 700 air rescues and more than 600 by boat.
The horrific video was captured as rescue workers continued to look for victims of the extraordinary floods, which Governor Andy Beshear said may worsen if rain returned to the area.
We’ll be there for you today, tomorrow, the following week, and the following year. We won’t be travelling anywhere.
In a video statement released yesterday, Beshear assured the nation’s indigent citizens that assistance was on the way while advising them to exercise caution in light of the persisting dangers.
A heat wave that is anticipated to strike Kentucky later this week will only make things worse as long as people there continue to lack access to potable water.
Beginning on Wednesday, temperatures are anticipated to rise into the mid-80s and 90s.
Feels-like temperatures are predicted to be around 100 degrees, which will be accompanied by the high humidity brought on by the moisture in the flooded area.
The home in Whitesburg, Kentucky, completely flooded, according to Missy Crovetti from Green Oaks, Illinois, who also claimed that her grandmother Mae Amburgey, 98, her uncle Larry Amburgey, and her brother Gregory Amburgey were inside. Mae was seen in photos sitting on her nearly submerged bed.
Randy Polly, a local resident, was left stranded on a piece of dry land close to Mae’s house on Thursday morning as he travelled to get fuel.
He photographed the scene as he witnessed a “hero” save Mae and her family from the advancing floods.
Around 9 am, while filming from a close distance, the man swam over to the house, began pounding on the window and door, then went inside and assisted in getting the family members out of the house.
The three relatives were rescued along with the unnamed man after around 30 minutes, according to Missy Crovetti of CNN.
Mr. Polly informed the news organisation that while he was seeing this incident play out, he could hear people screaming, “Get me help, get help.”
He also claimed that despite his repeated calls to 911, nothing happened since the emergency services were “overwhelmed” and “unresponsive to his calls.”
Randy asked MailOnline for assistance. We need supplies, he said. Please assist us.
After learning that her 98-year-old grandmother, uncle, and brother had to swim out of their house, Missy Crovetti started a fundraiser for those in need of assistance with flooding.
The Wolfe County Search & Rescue team published video of the helicopter rescue of a family of five who were stranded in their flooded home’s attic on Sunday.
In order to reach the family and bring them up to the roof of the house one by one, a rescue team on a raft approached the residence from the water and broke a window to get to them.
The family was subsequently lifted out of harm’s path by a chopper that was nearby.
The strong downdraft of the helicopter can be seen in footage taken from the rescue team’s raft, sending water spraying and trees swaying wildly amid the brown floodwaters that reach the rooftops of the nearby buildings.
The rescue team described the difficulty of the operation in the post: “Although team members had moved to a safe distance during the hoist, you can still witness the power of the rotator wash and it’s impact on the teams ability to maintain position.”
The 83-year-old family member’s rescue was documented on camera. As she was lifted into the safety of the chopper far above, she could be seen clinging to the pulley.
Teams cooperating to save lives. Wolfe County Search & Rescue tweeted, “We would also like to thank the other countless departments from all around the state and beyond that came in to assist.
As the death toll from disastrous floods rose to 28 on Sunday, Kentucky’s governor Andy Beshear warned bodies may continue to be found “for weeks.” Rescuers are continuing their arduous search for victims.
Following the flooding in the state’s east that turned highways into rivers, washed down bridges, and swept away homes, certain places in the hilly terrain are still unreachable. Rescue efforts are also made more difficult by the intermittent rain and bad cell phone reception.
Rescuers in Kentucky are going door to door in increasingly bad weather as they prepare for a protracted and exhausting search for those affected by flooding that devastated the eastern part of the state.
“This is one of the deadliest, most devastating floods in our history,”… And it’s raining as we try to get out,” Governor Andy Beshear said to NBC’s Meet the Press.
We’re going to try to knock on as many doors as we can to find as many people as we can. Even the rain won’t stop us from working. But the weather makes things more difficult.
It’s anticipated that more people will perish in the flooding that was brought on by the torrential rain that started on Wednesday.
Beshear continued, “We’re going to be finding bodies for weeks, many of them swept hundreds of yards, perhaps even more than a quarter mile from where they were lost.”
Beshear broke down in tears while speaking to reporters on Sunday while discussing the four children who were discovered dead in Knott County.
The governor pointed to a list of the 15 people who had been confirmed dead in the county and said, “It says minors,” “They are young. He stated, “The oldest is in second grade.
On Sunday, the governor visited three counties while touring areas that had been inundated. More than 350 people are staying in shelters on a temporary basis throughout the state’s sodden regions, he claimed.
As dark skies indicated that more rain was on the way, receding floodwaters had left a heavy layer of dust on the streets.
Around 700 to 800 individuals visited a distribution centre run by volunteers in the small town of Buckhorn, about 35 miles (55 kilometres) south, on Sunday alone to collect donated goods including food, paper towels, and toiletries.
As of Monday morning, at least 10,000 residents in eastern Kentucky were without power as the state’s power outages persisted. 60,000 water service connections are either without water or are being warned to boil their water.
One of the most essential donated items for the state, according to officials, is bottled water.
The floods struck a region of Kentucky where poverty was already severe due to the collapse of the coal industry, which was the backbone of the local economy, stealing everything from those who could least afford it.
Beshear continued, “It wiped out communities where people didn’t have that much to begin with.”
Within 24 hours, some eastern Kentucky locations reported getting more than eight inches (20 cm) of rain.
A startling 20 feet (6.09 metres) of water rose to the North Fork of the Kentucky River at Whitesburg in a matter of hours, breaking the previous record of 14.7 feet (4.4m).
The threat of flash flooding will persist through the afternoon and early evening hours due to showers and thunderstorms with very heavy rainfall rates, according to the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
The flooding in Kentucky has been declared a disaster by President Joe Biden, allowing federal assistance to support regional and local relief efforts.
The recent flooding in eastern Kentucky is the most recent in a string of extreme weather occurrences that experts say are a clear indicator of climate change.
In December 2021, a tornado killed nearly 60 people in western Kentucky; Beshear claimed that disaster provided lessons for current efforts on the other end of the state.
He told CNN on Saturday, “We learned a lot of lessons from those devastating tornadoes in western Kentucky about seven months ago, so we are providing as much support as we can and moving quickly from all over the state to help out.”