Kentucky says 2 dead after floods, more than a dozen killed in other areas in US

Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said on Sunday two people died and more than 500 roads were closed in the state after deadly storms and floods which have also killed more than a dozen people in the past week in other states in the US South and Midwest.

“There is record flooding across our state, with more than 500 road closures. Rivers have not yet crested so we have a day, if not more, of rising waters. We've lost two of our people,” Beshear said on social media platform X.

One of the dead in Kentucky was a nine-year-old boy walking to his school bus stop on Friday morning when he was overtaken by flooding, said police in the city of Frankfort.

Beshear said many homes were evacuated and water supply was limited in the state capital Frankfort, where he said state offices would be closed on Monday. A deadly spring storm spawned tornadoes and drenching thunderstorms in a swath of the US stretching from Texas to Ohio in the past week.

Tennessee had 10 deaths in this time, according to the local health department. In addition to the two deaths announced by the Kentucky governor, there were two deaths in Missouri and one each in Arkansas, Indiana and Mississippi, according to local media.

Climate change is bringing heavier rainfall and related flood risks in most parts of the US, with the upper Midwest and Ohio River Valley among the regions most affected, according to Climate Central, an independent nonprofit that researches weather patterns.

Reuters