Multiple roadways and many homes, businesses, and other buildings remain under water as some area counties saw more than 10 inches of rain over the course of the last week.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear says more than 500 road closings are still in effect, and two deaths have been reported due to flooding across the state so far, including a 74-year-old in Nelson County whom the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office says was trapped in a submerged vehicle on Nelsonville Road.
Emergency officials implore residents to remember “Turn Around, Don’t Drown.” Hardin County Emergency Management Director Joey Scott says keeping yourself safe ultimately helps keep others safe.
“I think the most common thing I’ve been hearing is, we’ll pull up on one of these sites and we’ll hear somebody pull up and say ‘well, I just came through there an hour ago,’” Scott said. “Well, the water has risen probably 12 inches since an hour ago, so we’re just getting people to understand the seriousness of it. Again, if your car stalls out and you’re not in immediate danger, we’re still tying up a lot of resources coming to you that could possibly be saving someone else’s life.”
The National Water Prediction Service measured the Ohio River at McAlpine Lower at 62.75 feet Sunday evening, with a projected crest of 68.5 feet early Wednesday morning. Other area waterways are also swollen, including the Nolin River which has crested over the bridge in White Mills. Area municipalities are doing their best to use available infrastructure including, as Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory says, Freeman Lake.
“We have the gates completely closed on Freeman Lake, and we have for the last two to three days,” Gregory said. “We emptied it out when we saw that this front was coming as much as we could to get as much water out of there so we’d have a lot of capacity. We have the gates shut down now, and that’s because everything downstream, if you take Willow Creek and Freeman Meadows and those different subdivisions downstream, we want them to be able to empty out, and if that water is coming out of Freeman, then there’s no capacity in Freeman Creek for that water to go into.”
Area counties and cities have posted road closings in their jurisdictions on their Facebook pages. Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District Four has an ongoing list of road closures, including work at Exit 91 of Interstate 65 to clear water that is not receding.
“With rain finally stopping, late Sunday we started using a high volume pump to get that water to an adjacent interstate drain that would still take the water,” said KYTC District Four Public Information Office Chris Jessie. “We’re working to get that interchange functioning normally as quickly as possible.”
The National Weather Service in Louisville says while rain is out of the forecast Monday and Tuesday, drier air will bring chilly temperatures. A Freeze Watch is in effect for the overnight hours Monday into Tuesday as temperatures are expected to fall into the 20s.
In appreciation of their efforts, Russell Tucker with Sonny Boys BBQ is coordinating lunch and dinner for emergency responders in Lebanon Junction.
“We’re going to go down there, we’re going to try to give them some pulled pork sandwiches, hamburgers, just to kind of give them something warm to put in their belly while they’re doing what the community needs help with,” Tucker said.
The Lincoln Trail Area Development District is helping to cover the cost of these meals the rest of the week, along with meals for first responders in Shepherdsville. Donations to this effort may be delivered to LTADD at 750 South Provident Way in Elizabethtown.
