17-02-2025
Latest blast of winter weather cuts deadly path through Kentucky, other states
'So folks, stay off the roads right now and stay alive,' he said. 'This is the search and rescue phase, and I am very proud of all the Kentuckians that are out there responding, putting their lives on the line.'
Advertisement
Beshear said there have been 1,000 rescues across the state since the storms began Saturday. The storms knocked out power to about 39,000 homes, but Beshear warned that harsh winds in some areas could increase outages.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Parts of Kentucky and Tennessee received up to 6 inches of rain, said Bob Oravec, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service.
'The effects will continue for awhile, a lot of swollen streams and a lot of flooding going on,' Oravec said Sunday.
Water submerged cars and buildings in Kentucky and mudslides blocked roads in Virginia late Saturday into Sunday. Both states were under flood warnings, along with Tennessee and Arkansas.
The mother and child were swept away Saturday night in Kentucky's Bonnieville community, Hart County Coroner Tony Roberts said. In southeastern Kentucky, a 73-year-old man was found dead in floodwaters in Clay County, county Emergency Management Deputy Director Revelle Berry said. There were a total of four deaths in Hart County, Beshear said.
In Alabama, the weather service in Birmingham said it had confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down overnight in Hale County. Storms there and elsewhere in the state destroyed or damaged a handful of mobile homes, downed trees, and toppled power lines, but no injuries were immediately reported. Extensive damage to downtown roofs and buildings was reported in the northern city of Tuscumbia, with authorities asking people to avoid the area, according to WAFF-TV and other local media.
Advertisement
A levee failed in the small community of Rives, Tenn., Saturday afternoon, flooding nearby neighborhoods and spurring rescue efforts by fire officials in west Tennessee.
In Atlanta, a person was killed when a large tree fell on a home early Sunday, according to Atlanta Fire Rescue Captain Scott Powell.
Elsewhere, bone-chilling cold is expected for the Northern Plains. Dangerously cold wind chill temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero were expected in most of North Dakota, which remained under an 'extreme cold warning' along with large swaths of South Dakota and Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service.
Meteorologists said the country was about to get its 10th and coldest polar vortex stretching event this season, with the northern Rockies and northern Plains first in line. Weather forces in the Arctic are combining to push the chilly air that usually stays near the North Pole into the United States and Europe.
