Flooding hits Kentucky, elevating the death toll to 12 while search and rescue continues

At least 14 people died due to extreme weather in the South over the weekend. Rescue efforts resumed Monday as water levels rose on certain streams in Kentucky and other parts of the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic that had been devastated by a devastating coast-to-coast winter storm.

At least 14 people were killed by the storm, including one in Georgia, one in West Virginia, and 12 in Kentucky, which saw some of the region's most severe flooding.

According to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, at least 1,000 people were rescued from flooding around the state Sunday. In a press conference, the governor predicted that the state's death toll will grow.

Another winter storm will strike the United States this week, bringing snow to Kentucky after the state experienced horrific floods over the weekend, killing 12 people and requiring over 1,000 rescues.

On Monday morning, 34 million people from the middle Plains to West Virginia were under winter alerts.

This storm will travel across the Rockies and begin to snow in the middle Plains on Monday, bringing moderate to heavy snow to Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas by Tuesday. A band of ice is also conceivable from northern Texas to Arkansas.

The storm will bring snow to Kentucky late Tuesday, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina on Wednesday. It will leave the coast by Thursday.

Beshear said more than 340 routes in the state were blocked due to floods, which might be a record number. According to Pike County Judge Executive Ray Jones, at least ten bridges are "completely gone" as a result of floods.

“Widespread flooding of roads continues across much of the region,” the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, warned Monday. “Stream and river levels will continue to rise over the next few days in some areas, and this could cause new flooding to develop.”

The eastern region of Kentucky, including Pike County, was the most damaged by the flood.

Pike County Judge and Executive Ray Jones stated at an afternoon press conference that the county had lost three persons in the floods. However, given the number of people still missing, this figure might climb. He stated hundreds of structures, both residential and commercial, were destroyed.

“We will dig out, we will muck out, we’ll rebuild every single structure that’s here and we’ll make sure there’s a bright future for Pike County,” Beshear said.

Beginning Tuesday, a life-threatening cold will grip practically the entire central United States, with air temperatures and wind chills plummeting from the Canadian border to the Gulf Coast.

On Tuesday morning, gusty winds may cause wind chills of up to 60 degrees below zero in the Northern Plains and below freezing in sections of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee.