At least one person was killed as record-setting rain pummeled parts of the Tristate Saturday, forcing hundreds from their homes and prompting an exhaustive air-and-water search in Adams County for drivers reported washed away.
Flash floods claimed a 16-year-old boy in rural Adams County, and authorities fear the toll may rise today when the search resumes for cars washed off roads after 6.5 inches of rain. Adams County is about an hour east of Cincinnati.
At least 27 people were killed as tornadoes and thunderstorms swept north from Mississippi and Arkansas through Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. The death toll was greatest in Arkansas, where tornadoes killed at least 20.
In Kentucky, Gov. Paul Patton declared a state of emergency.
In the Tristate, Saturday's rains were sporadic and unpredictable: Some local communities reported only drizzle, but others were afflicted with dangerous lightning, loud thunder and hazardous downpours. In Ohio, Adams, Brown and Scioto counties were hit the hardest with 5 to more than 6 inches of rain, authorities said. Normally placid Ohio River tributaries jumped their banks and washed away roads, bridges, houses and mobile homes.
''The worst of it is mainly to the south and east of Cincinnati,'' said Julie Dian, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Wilmington.
The name of the Adams County victim was not released. His body was recovered Saturday night near Blue Creek, pulled from a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Paul Howelett, director of the Adams County Emergency Management Agency, said rescuers spent most of the evening searching for missing drivers.
''We've got reports that they're missing, that no one can find them,'' Mr. Howelett said. ''Some people were in vehicles that were washed downstream. One was a four-wheeler washed away.''
|
The worst flooding was along Adams County's Great Brush Creek. National Weather Service officials said the stream turned into a dangerous, muddy wall of water.
The Great Brush Creek, which winds north and south, leapt its banks about 4 a.m. Saturday. Smaller tributaries throughout the county also overflowed. The Ohio River towns of Rome and Squirrel Town experienced flooding.
James McClary and his family had to seek refuge on the roof about 9 a.m. Saturday, when they found water rising quickly in their Blue Creek home.
''The water was coming up so fast you couldn't go anywhere,'' he said.
The McClarys were among about a dozen people who sought refuge at an emergency shelter the Red Cross set up in West Union's high school gymnasium.
Rescue efforts also were needed in Brown County. In the riverside town of Ripley, authorities kept busy monitoring about a half-dozen drifting house- and pleasure boats that heavy currents in Red Oak Creek had torn loose. The Valley Gem Marina's boat wedged under a U.S. 52 bridge.
''It's a mess out here,'' said Ron Clark, 66, who owns the creekside Red Oak Camp.
To the east, the Scioto County Emergency Management Service declared an emergency. Cars and debris floated down streets, residents were evacuated, and roads and bridges were closed.
The village of New Boston, just east of Portsmouth, received more than 5 inches of rain during a 12-hour period. Damage in the village ''probably will run into the millions of dollars,'' said Mayor James Warren.
Twenty or 30 people had to be rescued from their rooftops, said village police Chief Gary Stone.
In Kentucky's Pendleton County, authorities were recommending residents in low-lying areas leave their homes. The county sheriff's office was telling elderly residents and those with disabilities to seek safety if possible, because of concerns that rapidly rising water could trap them. Water continued to rise in Butler and Falmouth counties about 11 p.m.
Rain was blamed for the deaths of a Shelby County teen-ager and a western Kentucky motorist, and possibly for the death of a southern Kentucky woman.
Three tornadoes touched down in a 14-hour period - the first one before dawn near the southern Kentucky community of Gamaliel, the second at Stanton in eastern Kentucky at mid-afternoon, and a third Saturday night at Livermore in McLean County in western Kentucky, authorities said.
Some of the worst flooding was in the Louisville area, where 9.6 inches fell from Friday evening to Saturday evening in a record-breaking deluge for a 24-hour period. The downpour flooded neighborhoods and sent people fleeing to shelters in the southern suburbs of Kentucky's largest city.
''There's more flooding here than I've ever seen before,'' said Fire Chief Richard Carlson in Okolona, a suburb of Louisville.
Rescue workers in boats pulled people from the roofs of vehicles stranded by high water.
Several feet of water stood in some neighborhoods south of Louisville, said Debbie Carter of Jefferson County police.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
