Deadly floods in eastern Kentucky

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says at least eight people have died due to significant flooding in eastern Kentucky.

Beshear told WLEX that he does not have a firm total on the number of people missing at this time because rescue crews are still working to access certain areas where water is flowing.

“Tonight, we need your continued prayers for the people of Eastern Kentucky. This is an ongoing natural disaster, with more rain expected tonight that could worsen the situation. The death toll has heartbreakingly risen to 8 Kentuckians lost,” Beshear said in a tweet Thursday.

In a video statement, Beshear called the flooding in Eastern Kentucky “historic," adding that 20 to 30 people have been air rescued thanks to the National Guard, according to a statement.

“Our folks on the ground from fish and wildlife to National Guard to state police to local emergency management. They are fighting so hard to reach people, but this is so widespread," the governor told WLEX.

Earlier Thursday, Beshear announced at least three people had died from flooding in eastern Kentucky.

Watch the governor's update:

CNN’s Jennifer Feldman contributed to this report.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called Thursday’s fatal flooding event the worst of his lifetime.  

“Well, this is by far the worst flooding disaster at least of my lifetime in Kentucky," he said in an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt.

He continued:

Earlier today, Beshear said least eight people have died from flooding in eastern Kentucky. He also said he expects more deaths.

Belinda Asher, 37, was sleeping in her home in eastern Kentucky when she was awoken at 1:15 a.m. by a flash flood alert on her phone. In the next 45 minutes, her entire life changed.

Asher, who lives in the Perry-Breathitt County line with her husband and three children, described the flooding as a "war zone." Her family who lives in the area and her neighbors were also not spared by the rising water. 

"I know of at least 10 to 15 families within a one-mile stretch who lost everything that they have," Asher said.  

Asher told CNN that her three-bedroom home got washed away by the flash flooding. 

"The whole thing is just gone. I think I saw my porch in the creek when we were leaving, and I saw a part of the door frame," she said. 

Her brother's home also got hit, she added. "The foundation is still there, but the house is gone."

Asher's truck got washed away, and her car currently sits underwater. "We tried to get it to higher ground in the 40, 45 minutes we had, but had no luck," she said. 

"We had to evacuate immediately once the water started rising," Asher said. "We went to the barn, because instinctively we tried to save anything that is living, and at the end, we got the horses out," she said. 

She also managed to save her dogs. Still missing is a cat she hopes turns up in the next couple of days. 

Asher and her immediate family are currently staying with her brother-in-law in the city of Hazard. She's fortunate to have made it out alive with her family and pets — and credits the flash flood alert on her phone for saving their lives — but said she lost everything and doesn't know what to do.

"I have no plan, I don't know, how do you start from zero," she said. 

A GoFundMe has been set up by a friend to help Asher's family get back on their feet. 

Robbie Williams, judge/executive for Floyd County in Kentucky, told CNN Thursday that his county has seen a significant amount of rainfall that has resulted in flooding, particularly in the western and southern parts of the county.

Williams says around 80 people have been rescued across Floyd County since Tuesday, with 50 to 60 of those rescues happening in the western part of the county, in Maytown and Wayland.

About 6 to 7 inches of rain fell in western Floyd County during a four-hour time frame, early Thursday morning, Williams said.

Williams says he is hopeful that there has been no loss of life in Floyd County and has not heard of any people that are unaccounted for.

“One good thing about this area, we all know our neighbors and we know who we have to help,” Williams said. 

Williams also tells CNN that he believes at least a thousand 911 calls have been made since heavy rains started on Tuesday, with hundreds of calls made Thursday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden has been briefed on the storms and widespread flooding in Kentucky, which has damaged homes and communities, left thousands without water and power, and led to the deaths of at least three people.   

She added that Criswell will travel to Kentucky Friday to survey damage and "report back to President Biden who has been briefed on the situation." Jean-Pierre added that a FEMA incident management team has been dispatched.

 "We are grateful for the heroic work of first responders and would urge everyone impacted in impacted areas to please listen to their state and local officials and follow their guidance," she said. 

At least three people have died in flooding hitting eastern Kentucky on Thursday, with state officials warning there could be more deaths coming as rescue efforts continue.

At the same time, in other parts of the US, flash drought conditions are intensifying across the southern Plains, according to the latest US Drought Monitor released Thursday morning.

"Temperatures across the region were generally 2-8 degrees warmer than normal, with the warmest readings occurring in Oklahoma, Texas, northern Arkansas, and the western half of Tennessee," the US Drought Monitor wrote.

Hot and dry weather also covered south-central and southwest Missouri, where flash drought intensified and agricultural problems continued.

This rainfall, and now the flooding in Kentucky, has created a sharp contrast across the state between absolutely no drought in the north and extreme drought across the southern portion of the state.

This is the inherent nature of the climate crisis: There will be more extremes on both ends of the spectrum — flooding and drought. This week has shown they can happen at the same time in close proximity.

Climate change is on course to transform life on Earth as we know it, and unless global warming is dramatically slowed, billions of people and other species will reach points where they can no longer adapt to the new normal, according to a major UN-backed report, based on years of research from hundreds of scientists said.

The report, published in February, found that the impacts from human-caused climate change were larger than previously thought. The report's authors say these impacts are happening much faster and are more disruptive and widespread than scientists expected 20 years ago.

Around half of the world's population experiences severe water scarcity each year in part due to climate-related factors, the report showed. Water will become even more scarce at higher global temperatures.

At 2 degrees of warming — which scientists predict the planet will reach by midcentury — as many as three billion people around the world will experience "chronic water scarcity," according to the report. It increases to four billion people at 4 degrees.

Water shortages will put enormous pressure on food production and increase the world's already dire food-security challenges.

Keep reading about how we are running out of ways to adapt.

CNN's Rachel Ramirez contributed reporting to this post.

Dangerous flooding in eastern Kentucky have killed at least three people and displaced dozens, if not hundreds, more. Gov. Andy Beshear said it will be "one of the most significant, deadly floods" in the commonwealth's history.

"Hundreds will lose their homes, and this is going to be yet another event (where) it's going to take not months, but likely years, for many families to rebuild and recover," Beshear said in an earlier news conference Thursday morning.

As various agencies, including the National Guard, help with search and rescue efforts, the state is making sure resources are available to those impacted in the community.

Pine Mountain, Buckhorn Lake and Jennie Wiley state parks are open for those who lost their homes, according to the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce website.

Here are some other places that have opened as shelters:

Beshear urged people to donate water and cleaning supplies, according to the Chamber of Commerce website.

For those missing a loved one in the affected counties, officials are urging people to call the Kentucky State Police, not 911.

"DO NOT call 911 to report missing persons, and keep calling the KSP line as KSP is experiencing many calls at this time," it says on the chamber's website.

Here are the numbers to call the designed post based on county, according to the KSP:

Here's what to include when you call, according to the KSP:

When flooding started to ramp up in Elkhorn City, Kentucky, Glenda Looney and her husband sprang into action to save their home. 

“We started putting stuff upstairs and on top of anything we could,” Looney told CNN, “We sat on the porch praying for the water to start going down,” 

Looney said water got close to a foot deep in their laundry room.

“Water started seeping through the floors and carpet,” she said.

Floors in eight of their eleven rooms were soaked with water, so the couple are now ripping up their carpets.

Some background: The rains have caused untold damage to homes in the state's slice of central Appalachia and forced some residents to the roofs of their swamped homes to await rescue, Gov. Andy Beshear said on Thursday.

Beshear activated the National Guard to help with rescues and recovery and declared an emergency to expedite resources to help, he said.

The National Weather Service said new storms are forecast to develop tonight and last into tomorrow and a flood watch remains in effect until late Friday evening over the hardest hit areas in the state.

Several areas around Hazard, Kentucky, have received over 9 inches of rain over the last 24 hours, according to radar estimates and observations in the area.

Radar is showing that most of the rain has now moved east of the area, but new storms are forecast to develop tonight and last into tomorrow and a flood watch remains in effect until late Friday evening over the hardest hit areas.

According to National Weather Service, additional rainfall amounts of over an inch are expected from now through tomorrow evening.

The best chance for additional rainfall will come tomorrow from 6 a.m. through 6 p.m. ET. Weather improvement is expected over the weekend. “We should see dry weather start to move back into the area as we move into Saturday for most locations,” Dustin added.