HAZARD, Ky. — It’s been a disaster on a scale Perry County Sheriff Joe Engle has never seen before.
“The Ohio River is about how big the Troublesome Creek got up to that night and it just don’t fit,” Sheriff Engle said.
What You Need To Know
- Perry County is one area hit by last week’s flash floods
- Rescue efforts are still underway
- Parts of the county are still hard to reach by land
- Death toll in Eastern Kentucky has risen to at least 37
Since Thursday, Sheriff’s deputies, alongside other first responders from across the state and country, have been performing search and rescue operations, looking for those still missing.
On Monday, the death toll in Eastern Kentucky rose to at least 37.
“I feel right now after speaking to the Emergence Manager that we’ve got a pretty good handle on that,” Sheriff Engle said. “Nothing is official yet, but we think that we’ve accounted for most of the people that we know that’s missing. Now there could be other people missing that no one knows about yet that could be found.”
Sheriff Engle says they are still getting calls from people who haven’t heard from loved ones.
In the aftermath of the floods, water, power and internet have still not been fully restored. Roads and bridges in some parts of the county have been completely washed away, causing some areas to still not be navigable.
This paired with the already tough terrain of Appalachia makes recovery efforts hard.
“There are very tough places to get to and when you take the only road in there and it’s you know the only bridge is gone, there’s no way to access some of these things but through the woods and hills and sometimes that means walking,” Sheriff Engle said.
In the days following the worst flooding this area has seen, work is underway to repair the damage and reunite families.
“We’re trying to and we’re going to keep just a safe environment while people can try to pick up the pieces,” Sheriff Engle said.
Hard work, Engle says, embodies the tight-knit nature of the county, which only has a population of 26,000.
“And that’s why none of us slept much this first week when we knew we had our people on creek banks and trees. We had to get to them,” Sheriff Engle said.
If you are still searching for a loved one, law enforcement wants you to relay that message to the Kentucky State Police post where that person lives.