It could take weeks to find all the victims of flash flooding that killed at least 16 people when torrential rains swamped towns across Appalachia, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said.
More rainstorms are forecast in coming days as rescue crews continue the struggle to get into hard-hit areas, some of them among the poorest places in the US.
The rain let up early on Friday after parts of eastern Kentucky received 20cm to 27cm over 48 hours.
However, some waterways were not expected to crest until Saturday, and Beshear said the death toll could rise further.
“From everything we’ve seen, we may be updating the count of how many we lost for the next several weeks,” Beshear said. “In some of these areas, it’s hard to know exactly how many people were there.”
More than 330 people have sought shelter, he added.
Patricia Colombo, 63, of Hazard, Kentucky, became stranded when her car stalled in floodwaters on a state highway. She began to panic when water started rushing in. Her phone was dead, but she saw a helicopter overhead and waved it down, and a ground team was called to pluck her to safety.
Although her car was a loss, Colombo said others had it worse in the region, where poverty is endemic.
“Many of these people cannot recover out here. They have homes that are half under water. They’ve lost everything,” she said.
It is the latest in a string of catastrophic deluges that have pounded parts of the US this summer, including St Louis earlier this week and again on Friday.
As rainfall hammered Appalachia this week, water tumbled down hillsides and into valleys and hollows where it swelled creeks and streams coursing through small towns. The torrent engulfed homes and businesses and trashed vehicles.
Mudslides marooned some people on steep slopes. Rescue teams backed by the National Guard used helicopters and boats to search for the missing.
Beshear said on Friday that at least six children were among the victims, and that the number of lives lost could more than double as rescue teams reach more areas.
Among those who died were four children from the same family in Knott County, the county coroner said Friday.
The flooding extended into western Virginia and southern West Virginia.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for six counties where the flooding downed trees, cut power and blocked roads.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin also made an emergency declaration, enabling officials to mobilize resources across the flooded southwest of the state.
The deluge came two days after record rains around St. Louis dropped more than 31cm and killed at least two people. Last month, heavy rain on mountain snow in Yellowstone National Park triggered historic flooding and the evacuation of more than 10,000 people.
In both instances, the rain flooding far exceeded what forecasters predicted.
The floodwaters raging through Appalachia were so swift that some people trapped in their homes could not be immediately reached, Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams said.
Just to the west in hard-hit Perry County, authorities said some people remained unaccounted for and almost everyone in the area suffered some sort of damage.
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