Kentucky Flooding

At least 37 deaths reported since July 26 from storm cluster

A deadly storm system that hovered over Appalachian hills and low-lying areas of Eastern Kentucky beginning July 26 continues to leave terrible damage to property and citizens more than a week later.

At least 37 deaths have been reported since the storm hit, a number that is expected to continue to rise, as bodies have been found regularly during clean-up and relief efforts and at least hundreds are still reported missing.

The term "training thunderstorms" has been used to describe the natural disaster—a version of multi-cell storm clusters that successively rain on the same area. "There are many times where the individual cell moves downstream but addition cells forming on the upwind side of the cluster and move directly over the path of the previous cell," according to the National Weather Service. "The term for this type of pattern when viewed by radar is 'training echoes'. Training thunderstorms produce tremendous rainfall over relatively small areas leading to flash flooding."

That was one ingredient of a catastrophic recipe in the recent Kentucky situation; the other was topography. The Appalachian mountains and a small floodplain for the North Fork of the Kentucky River converge in Eastern Kentucky, forming what meteorologists and scientists called "a very bisected" area where steep hills are numerous, allowing for houses to be built only in certain flat spots. This led to towns like Whitesburg (47-year high), Jackson (95-year highs), Pikeville, and others being hit especially hard, multiple times, with record rainfall and flood levels.

Buildings and roads are flooded after heavy rainfall triggered widespread and devastating flooding in Garrett, Ky., on Thursday, July 28, 2022. Ryan C. Hermens, Lexington Herald-Leader photo.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear established the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund to assist those impacted by the floods, which you can contribute to here. All donations to the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund are tax-deductible and donors will receive a receipt for tax purposes after donating.

Electrical Apparatus would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to all those affected by these events.