KENTUCKY — The Commonwealth is continuing to respond to a severe weather system that impacted much of Western, Eastern and South Central Kentucky Saturday, bringing at least five tornadoes and heavy flooding to thousands of Kentuckians.
What You Need To Know
- Four tornadoes touched down in Kentucky on New Year's Day
- The NWS conducted damage surveys and found evidence of tornadoes in Christian, Madison, Barren and Warren counties
- Hopkinsville saw the most damage from its EF-2 tornado, according to preliminary survey findings
- Warren County's EF-0 tornado came just weeks after Bowling Green was devastated by an EF-4 tornado
Storm damage surveys conducted by the National Weather Service found evidence that tornadoes rolled through Hopkinsville and Bowling Green on New Year's Day.
There were no immediate reports of any injuries or deaths. The storms come just three weeks after deadly tornadoes tore through the region, killing 77 in Kentucky including 17 just in Bowling Green.
Here are all of the New Year's Day tornadoes confirmed by the NWS as of 1:30 p.m. EST Monday, Jan. 3:
- Christian County: EF-2 in Hopkinsville, peak winds of 115 mph, path width of 125 yards
- Marion County: EF-1 in Lebanon, peack winds of 100 mph
- Madison County: EF-1 tornado near Union City, peak winds of 110 mph
- Taylor County: EF-1 near Campbellsville, peak winds of 110 mph
- Barren County: EF-1 near Glasgow, peak winds of 95 mph
- Warren County: EF-0 in Bowling Green, peak winds of 85 mph
- Hart County: EF-0 near Bonnieville, peak winds of 80 mph
- Logan County : EF-0 in Olmstead, peak winds of 90 mph
At least 85 homes, 13 businesses and two churches sustained tornado damage, according to Christian County EMA.
Gov. Andy Beshear said Saturday that flash flooding had caused water rescues and many road closures in the southern and central portions of the state.
Some electric customer outages have been reported in Pike County, affecting 1,190 customers, and 342 customers have been affected in Floyd County.
Beshear said heavy rains caused more than 75 roadway closures throughout the day Saturday, primarily due to flooding in Eastern Kentucky. Thirty-two roads remained closed on Sunday.
At least seven landslides have been reported, as well as washouts. One bridge embankment was destroyed in Owsley County.
Beshear declared a state of emergency Saturday afternoon in response to the storms.
The EF-2 in Hopkinsville left debris scattered through a downtown park, a destroyed Marathon gas station, broken glass windows of the Auto Zone and even a partial building collapse at Southern States which operates as a petroleum factory.
Gov. Beshear will travel to Hopkinsville, as well as Graves and Hopkins counties, on Monday to assess damages and survey recovery efforts.