A storm has left entire sections in Kentucky inundated and killed at least 14 people, as communities brace for a snowstorm threatening the Plains, Midwest and eastward.
Drone footage shows homes surrounded by massive bodies of muddied water and trees and power lines drowned and almost completely underwater on Monday.
The more than five-minute-long video captured by Johnnie Nicholson reveals some homes up to their roofs with water and entire streets flooded. Some streets and homes are spared, and a lone car can be seen driving on a deserted road. The pool of floodwater appears endless in the clip.
‘Farmland, roadways and structures were all affected after 4 to 5 inches of rain fell Saturday,’ Nicholson told Storyful.
He added that the Kentucky River was ‘near crest’.
On Tuesday, Governor Andy Beshear announced that the death toll from the weekend storm has risen to 14. The victims include a mother and her seven-year-old child in a vehicle swept away in Hart County, and a man and woman who appeared to be homeless and died of hypothermia.
The flooded areas are getting no respite, as another deadly winter storm is striking Kentucky, Tennessee, the central Plains and mid-Mississippi Valley on Tuesday and heading eastward, according to FOX Weather.
Heaviest snowfall is forecast for Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas and Illinois through Wednesday.
Beshear on Tuesday said he is ‘very’ worried about the double-whammy.
‘We got about an inch this morning, which we did not expect. And we’ve got anywhere from two, 2 to 8 inches that are going to hit across the state,’ he told NPR of the snow.
‘And we’ve already been out there doing boat rescues in the middle of snowstorms. And this is going to further complicate it. We’ve got over 340 just state and federal roads that have mudslides or other issues with them. And now we’re going to add that snow on top of it.
‘But we’re tough people. We know how to get through things and get through them together, but we could certainly use support.’
It is part of the tenth and coldest polar vortex to hit the US this season. It is affecting much of the country from the border with Canada to Texas, with only several states including California, Florida and Hawaii spared.
On Tuesday morning, 60million Americans were under cold weather advisories from the Central Plains to the Carolina coast.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@usnewsrank.com.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Discover more from USNewsRank
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.