National Guard and military rescue population sheltered on rooftops by helicopters from torrential rains punishing Kentucky and hitting Missouri, Virginia and Tennessee
At least eight people have died in “devastating” flooding caused by torrential rains that hit the US territories of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, as rescue teams search for an unknown number of civilians reported missing. The floods hit the Appalachian foothills with particular severity and are “by far the worst we’ve suffered in our history,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said Friday, who believes the true extent of the tragedy will be known in the hours. “We expect a double-digit death toll,” he said.
Dozens of helicopters and boats, controlled by the National Guard, have searched the flooded towns for survivors since Wednesday. The drama began on Tuesday, when a torrential downpour fell over St. Louis, and has worsened in the following days, when the Flood was “crescendo” in the four states, albeit with uneven effects. Numerous neighbors have had to take refuge on the roofs of their homes due to rising water levels, while others have chosen to leave their neighborhood by road. “I think it’s going to end up being one of the major deadly floods we’ve had in Kentucky in at least a long time,” the governor reiterated. His office has declared a state of emergency and is confident that the national government will mobilize federal funds in the coming hours to begin rebuilding the devastated areas. The aerial footage shows hundreds of cars being towed through the water and houses practically submerged. The wrath of the flood has also broken roads and bridges. Tennessee and Virginia police officers work with local troops to evacuate those affected.
After a few days of tropical heat, a storm surge barrier seems to be the cause of the flooding. Specifically, the emergency services received three warnings in a short time due to flash flooding in areas such as Jackson, southwestern Virginia, Appalachia and St. Louis. This type of alarm is only activated by the Meteorological Service when it believes there is an imminent mortal risk to the population. Coincidentally, Buchanan County, also in Virginia, suffered a similar catastrophe two weeks ago amid a period of extreme heat, such as is now experienced in much of Europe.
Many who had been affected by the flood surprised them at dawn and practically fled their homes with what they were carrying. “I don’t even think my shoes match. I just knew that if we didn’t leave the house, we would die,” Leandra Johnson, 35, told the Washington Post. Like this mother of two, hundreds of American families have begun to return to their properties, or are still waiting to do so when the water recedes, to monitor the damage. Scott Sandlin, of the Perry County Emergency Management Agency, argued this morning that there will be “massive damage” and lamented that “our county has been devastated. We are gone.” The military has deployed Blackhawk helicopters to rescue the prisoners. Appliances, furniture and even food from self-service stores float on the water, interrupted by the current.
Some of the hardest hit populations are in the Appalachian valleys. Experts believe that orography has influenced the heavy rainfall that must be channeled to the lower areas via streams and streams. About 25,000 people are without electricity.
The disaster is fueling perceptions of climate change risks in a population, the United States, that has experienced extreme natural disasters in recent years. Especially droughts, fires and tornadoes of unusual size and frequency. Without going further, dozens of people died in the same state of Kentucky last November as a result of an unprecedented succession of hurricanes in the South and Midwest. In this week’s showers, temperatures and humidity percentages also contributed much higher than usual for this time of year. The U.S. government estimates that the probability of these floods is up to 40% greater now than it was in Kentucky at the turn of the 20th century. Just a month ago, the Supreme Court rejected President Joe Biden’s plans to fight climate change by limiting the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Source: La Verdad
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