There are already at least 19 deaths from the floods that have swept through several counties in the state of Kentucky this week, after the confirmation early this Saturday of three new deaths in Breathitt County, according to its forensic department. local network Lex18, affiliate of NBC.
These three new deceased have not yet been incorporated into the official balance of 16 fatalities provided on Friday by the state governor, Andy Beshear, in the midst of the catastrophe situation declared yesterday by the White House to facilitate rescue and recovery tasks.
Beshear lamented that the death toll could even double throughout this weekend as rescue operations continue.
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 under this declaration.
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.
Approximately 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.
