After rain, heat hits flooded Ky. towns
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Withering heat was descending on a region of eastern Kentucky already reeling from massive flooding, forcing residents laboring to clean up after the deluge to cope with an oppressive new threat.
The grim task of cleaning up from massive flooding continued, but rising heat and humidity prompted officials to open cooling centers Tuesday as forecasters warned of the risk of heat-related illnesses and some residents remained without power.
“Extreme heat, extreme humidity, that’s stressful in itself,” said Jerry Stacy, the emergency management director in hard-hit Perry County, Ky. “We’re just fighting through this and hoping that this weather don’t make it too stressful. It don’t get a lot worse than what it is.”
A heat advisory was issued for flood-ravaged regions of eastern Kentucky from midday Wednesday until Thursday evening, with heat index readings expected to approach triple digits, the National Weather Service said.
“We’ve got to make sure that those that are vulnerable either have a cool place with family ... or that we get them to cooling stations,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday. “We didn’t make it through the worst flooding that we have ever seen in our lifetime to lose somebody now in the heat.”
The death toll stood at 37 on Tuesday after more bodies were found Monday in the devastated landscape, and while more than 1,300 people have been rescued, crews were still trying to reach some people who remain cut off by floods or mudslides.
“It is absolutely devastating out there,” Beshear said. “It’s going to take years to rebuild. People left with absolutely nothing. Homes that we don’t know where they are, just entirely gone. And we continue to find bodies of our brothers and sisters that we have lost.”
On a positive note, Beshear said most of the people reported as missing to Kentucky State Police had been found and that cellphone service had been restored though much of the region.