EKB News

Close to four inches of rain in some areas over the weekend caused headaches for motorists and had crews from county government and emergency management working hard to assess the damage following the regions first severe flooding event of the spring season.
According to Emergency Officials, the start of all the problems came Saturday night as heavy rains caused flash flooding into the early hours of Sunday.
“It began with some minor flooding in low lying areas like drainage ditches that couldn’t handle the flow of water which caused pond-ing and standing water on the roadways.” Said Doug Tackett, Director for Pike County’s Emergency Management Agency who detailed the preliminary damage caused by the storms. “We’ve had reports of homes surrounded by water in the pond creek area, some low lying flooding on Peter Creek we’ve had reports of several slides; including five or six which have damaged homes.”
“We have a number of county roads that have either some drainage that has washed out, some of them we’re under water and most of the damage I think is going to be to roads I believe and to the shoulders of roads.” Tackett stated before detailing one of the most notable casualties of this spring downpour “A section of US 460 has collapsed in the Shelby area and that road will be closed indefinitely.”
But as of press time officials we’re still unsure of the extent of damage and said that it will be several days before they know the full scope.
“Most of what we know at this time is preliminary and I know that we’ll be finding more.” Tackett stated late Sunday Evening as crews we’re still monitoring the situation. “We’ll be starting damage assessment on Monday and carrying on throughout the day before we know exactly what we do have.”
County Government was quick to respond to what might be declared a disaster as Pike County Judge Executive Wayne T. Rutherford and staff spent most of the day Sunday touring areas most affected by the storms.
“Judge Rutherford and Deputy Judge Hayes have been working diligently since the early morning hours Sunday to monitor and address the flooding and slide situations within the county.” Said T.J. Litafik, Executive assistant to Judge Rutherford who detailed the county’s preliminary damage assessment “every magisterial district in the county has been affected by this in some capacity but the areas most affected have been in districts five and six.”
The Tug Fork River posed the biggest threat on Sunday as the river crested shortly before midnight a few feet above flood stage in the Williamson area. The Levisa fork of the Big Sandy River came to a crest earlier in the evening right just shy of flood stage in the Pikeville area.