Rome News-Tribune

Heavy rains lead to rescues, road closures in Appalachia

- By John Raby and Rebecca Reynolds

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky firefighte­r Eddie Stacy was turning his firetruck around in the dark while responding to storm damage when he noticed a tiny light coming from the flooded Red River.

It was a cellphone a woman was waving from a car inundated with water that was rising by the minute.

Stacy and other members of the Hazel Green Fire Department sprang into action

Sunday night, pulling five people from the car where water was up 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 Monday.

“We don’t do too much training on this water rescue,” Stacy said. “Instinct, it just kicks in.”

Heavy thundersto­rms pounded parts of Appalachia on Sunday and Monday, sending rivers out of their banks and leading to multiple water rescues, mudslides, road closures and power outages, officials said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency Monday because of heavy rainfall across the state.

“We are acting swiftly to ensure the safety and security of Kentucky families and to get the needed help to our communitie­s,” he said in a statement. He said 13 counties and cities had declared states of emergency and the Kentucky National Guard was activated and was assisting with high water emergencie­s.

Stacy was part of a stormrespo­nse unit cutting down a tree that had fallen onto a road in Wolfe County about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of Lexington. But a mudslide started and Stacy was forced to move his firetruck.

As he was turning around, Stacy noticed something in the floodwater­s just down the road — a woman sitting on a stalled car’s door window, waving her cellphone flashlight and yelling for help.

“Nobody could hear from where she was,” Stacy said. “That little flashlight when I was driving down the road just caught my attention. It was God, I tell you. It was God to have me in that place where I was supposed to be.”

Stacy attached a 100-foot (30-meter) rope to the truck and himself and helped retrieve the car’s occupants. Wolfe County Sheriff Chris Carson used a front-end loader to lift out the woman who had the seizure. The car’s occupants were brought to the nearby fire station to be checked out by emergency technician­s. The woman with the seizure eventually recovered, Stacy said.

A similar rescue occurred in central Tennessee, where four adults and an infant were removed from a partially submerged truck that slid off a water-covered bridge in Dekalb County, news outlets reported. In addition, a child was injured in Nashville when he tripped over a downed power line while playing outside, officials said.

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