It could take weeks to find all of the victims of the torrential flash flooding that has killed at least 25 people, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Saturday.
“From everything we’ve seen, we may be updating the count of how many we lost for the next several weeks,” Beshear said.
“In some of these areas, it’s hard to know exactly how many people were there.”
Heavy rains are forecast locally for the coming days as rescue crews continue the struggle to get into hard-hit areas, some of them among the poorest places in the nation.
The rain did let up early Friday after parts of eastern Kentucky received between 8 and 10 1/2 inches over 48 hours.
But some waterways were not expected to crest until at least Saturday.
President Joe Biden said in a social media post that he spoke Friday with Beshear and offered the federal government’s support. He also declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to more than a dozen Kentucky counties.
The flooding has extended into western Virginia and southern West Virginia.
More than 20,000 utility customers in Kentucky and almost 6,100 in Virginia remained without power late Friday, poweroutage.us reported.
With Post wires
.
