KENTUCKY — Wednesday night and Thursday morning turned into a devastating situation across eastern Kentucky. As steady, torrential rains hovered over the region, rivers in the area quickly reached flood stage. 

The most significant river flooding that occurred was out of the Kentucky River near Jackson. Water levels rose up to 43.47 feet by 6:30 a.m. when just 24 hours prior, water levels were only near 18 feet.

Intense rain showers began around midnight and the steady rainfall allowed the previous record of 43.1 feet set back on Feb. 4, 1939 to be broken.

The Kentucky river is still expected to remain in moderate flood stage until Saturday afternoon, before returning to normal by Sunday afternoon.