LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky fireman Eddie Stacy was turning his fire truck in the dark while responding to storm damage when he noticed a tiny light coming from the flooded Red River.
It was a cell phone that a woman waved from a car flooded with water that rose every minute.
Stacy and other members of the Hazel Green Fire Department took action on Sunday night, pulling five people from the car where there was water to the dashboard. Among those rescued were a 17-month-old boy and a woman who appeared to be having a seizure, Stacy said in a telephone interview on Monday.
“We don’t do much training on this water rescue,” said Stacy. “Instinct, it just kicks in.”
Heavy storms hit parts of the Appalachians on Sunday and Monday, expelling rivers from their banks and leading to several water rescues, landslides, road closures and power cuts, officials said.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency on Monday because of heavy rains across the state.
“We are acting quickly to ensure the safety and protection of Kentucky families and to bring needed help to our communities,” he said in a statement. He said 13 counties and cities have declared a state of emergency and that the Kentucky National Guard has been activated and is helping with high water emergencies.
Stacy was part of a storm response unit that cut down a tree that had fallen on a road in Wolfe County, about 70 miles southeast of Lexington. But a landslide started and Stacy was forced to move his fire truck.
As he was turning around, Stacy noticed something in the flood just down the road – a woman sitting by the window of a broken car, waving her cell phone flashlight and screaming for help.
“No one could know where she was from,” said Stacy. “That little flashlight when I was driving on the road caught my attention. It was God, I tell you. It was God who had me in that place where I was supposed to be. “
Stacy fastened a 30-meter rope to the truck and himself and helped rescue the occupants of the car. Wolfe County Sheriff Chris Carson used a front loader to remove the woman who had the seizure. The occupants of the car were taken to the nearby fire station to be checked by emergency technicians. The woman with the seizure has finally recovered, said Stacy.
A similar rescue took place in central Tennessee, where four adults and a child were removed from a partially submerged truck that slid off a covered water bridge in DeKalb County, media reported. In addition, a child was injured in Nashville when he tripped over a fallen power cable while playing outside, officials said.
In Lee County, Kentucky, some homes in Beattyville were evacuated on Monday. County Chief Judge Chuck Caudill told WYMT-TV that rescuers used county dump trucks to help people escape their homes.
In Magoffin County, Kentucky, the Salyersville nursing and rehabilitation center was one of the evacuees on Sunday. The facility decided to evacuate residents to ensure they remain safe, said CEO Joshua L. Calhoun in a statement to WYMT. He said the residents were taken to a high school or hospital.
“Although we don’t have water at the facility at the moment and it is still accessible, due to the risk of flooding, we decided to move,” he said.
Severe or moderate floods were predicted on Monday on several rivers in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, including different 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 cuts caused by ice storms last month. Floods flooded roads in more than a dozen counties, road officials said.
The National Guard helped with some evacuations on Sunday night in the Dunlow area of Wayne County. And about a dozen people had to be attended at a church in the Kanawha County community in Cross Lanes on Monday after the flood cut off access to a road, WCHS-TV reported.
In Roane County, residents of a public service district were asked to conserve drinking water after a flooded water plant broke down and became inaccessible. The Clay Roane Public Service District said in a post on social media that the water tanks were dangerously low and cannot be refilled until the flood subsides and the problem is repaired.
Some schools closed or delayed classes due to flood concerns and about 13,000 customers were left without power in Kentucky and West Virginia, according to poweroutage.us, a utility tracking service.