Rural Kentucky ravaged by deadly flash floods
Three dead, search goes on for four others
FLAT GAP — As the Johnson family dug through the wreckage where their trailers once stood, they found a mudsoaked box of family photos, cherished heirlooms and a porcelain statue of Jesus, but not what they were looking for.
Scott Johnson, 34, was swept away two days ago, trying to save his grandmother as a flash flood Monday ravaged this rural eastern Kentucky community.
He is still missing. Three others are confirmed dead, and the fate of four more remains uncertain. Families reported them missing, but they could be stranded in their homes, without power or phones.
Rescue teams are slogging through knee-deep mud, doorto-door, across the rugged Appalachian terrain, painting orange “X”s on each structure they search. Desperate families roam the banks of the swollen creek, looking for their lost loved ones.
Scott Johnson had already guided his father, uncle and sister from the raging flood that inundated their cluster of trailers. He turned back one last time to save his grandmother, called Nana, and a 13-year-old family friend.
“Scott wouldn’t turn her loose, that’s why he died,” said Veronica Marcum, Scott Johnson’s sister.
The grandmother, Willa Mae Pennington, was found dead Tuesday among debris from the shattered mobile homes.
Frisby identified the second known casualty as Herman Eddie May Sr., 65, who was driving alone when flood wa- ters started to sweep him away. He was swallowed by the rising water.
The body of Richard Blair, 22, was found Wednesday afternoon, on a creek bank in a pile of tree debris and downstream from the rubble of a broken mobile home.