LOUISVILLE, Ky. Kentucky firefighter Eddie Stacy turned his fire truck into the dark while responding to storm damage when a small light came up coming from the flooded Red River.
It was a cell phone that a woman blew out of a car that was flooded with water rising by the minute.
Stacy and other members of the Hazel Green Fire Department went into action Sunday night and pulled five people out of the car where water was up to the dashboard. Among those rescued were a 17-month-old boy and a woman who apparently had an attack, Stacy said in a telephone interview Monday.
“We are not doing too much training on this water rescue,” Stacy said. “Instinct, it just kicks in.”
Heavy thunderstorms struck in parts of Appalachia on Sunday and Monday, sending rivers out of their banks and leading to multiple water rescues, mudslides, roadblocks and power outages, officials said.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency on Monday due to heavy rainfall across the state.
“We are acting quickly to ensure the safety and security of Kentucky families and to provide the necessary assistance to our communities,” he said in a statement. He said 13 counties and cities have declared states of emergency and the Kentucky National Guard has been activated to help with high-water emergencies.
Stacy was part of a storm response unit that cut down a tree that fell on a road in Wolfe County, about 120 miles southeast of Lexington. But a mudslide began and Stacy was forced to move his fire truck.
As he turns around, Stacy notices something in the floodwaters just down the road – a woman sitting at a car window is waving her cellphone flash and screaming for help.
“No one could hear where she was from,” Stacy said. ‘That flashlight as I drove down the road just caught my attention. It was God, I tell you. It was God to have me in that place where I needed to be. ”
Stacy attached a 100-foot rope to the truck and himself, helping to retrieve the occupants from the car. Wolfe County Sheriff Chris Carson used a front loader to retrieve the woman who had the attack. The occupants of the car were taken to the nearby fire station to be checked by emergency technicians. The woman with the attack eventually recovered, Stacy said.
A similar rescue took place in central Tennessee, where four adults and a baby were removed from a partially underwater truck that slipped from a water-covered bridge in DeKalb County. In addition, a child in Nashville was injured when he tripped over a power line while playing outside.
In Lee County, Kentucky, some homes in Beattyville were evacuated Monday. County Judge Chuck Caudill told WYMT-TV that rescue teams used land trucks to help people escape from their homes.
In Magoffin County, Kentucky, the Salyersville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center was among the sites evacuated Sunday. The facility has decided to evacuate residents to ensure they remain safe, CEO Joshua L. Calhoun said in a statement to WYMT. He said residents were taken to a high school or to a hospital.
“Although we do not currently have water in the facility and it is still accessible, we decided to relocate due to the risk of flooding,” he said.
Severe or moderate flooding was forecast Monday on several rivers in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, including various locations along the Kentucky River southeast of Lexington, the National Weather Service said.
In West Virginia, floods hit some areas that were devastated by power outages last month. Floods flooded roads in more than a dozen provinces, highway officials said.
The national guard helped evacuate Sunday night in the Dunlow area of Wayne County. And about a dozen people had to be helped to a church in the Kanawha County community of Cross Lanes on Monday after the high water cut off access to a road, WCHS-TV reported.
In Roane County, residents in one public district district were asked to save drinking water after a flooded water plant failed. The Clay Roane Public Service District said in a message on social media that the water tanks are dangerously low and cannot be refilled until the floodwaters disappear and the problem is repaired.
Some schools have closed or delayed classes due to worrying flooding, and according to 1300 customers without power in Kentucky and West Virginia, according to poweroutage.us, a service tracking service.