Kentucky floods kill at least 16 as governor warns toll will be "a lot higher"

 

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Search and rescue teams backed by the National Guard searched Friday for people missing in record floods that wiped out entire communities in some of the poorest places in America. Kentucky's governor said 16 people have died, a toll he expected to grow as the rain keeps falling.

"We've still got a lot of searching to do," said Jerry Stacy, the emergency management director in Kentucky's hard-hit Perry County. "We still have missing people."

Powerful floodwaters swallowed towns that hug creeks and streams in Appalachian valleys and hollows, swamping homes and businesses, leaving vehicles in useless piles and crunching runaway equipment and debris against bridges. Mudslides marooned people on steep slopes, and at least 33,000 customers were without power.

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