Torrential Rains Blamed for 4 Deaths in Kentucky

Rainstorms swept across much of the nation for a second day Saturday, with heavy rain in Kentucky triggering floods that were blamed for the death of a woman and three children.

In Manchester, Ky., a swollen creek turned into raging floodwaters before dawn Saturday. Several people were trapped by the waters, and 20 to 30 were left homeless in the southeastern Kentucky town.

Killed were Verta J. Hubbard, 22; her daughters, Angie Hubbard, 6, and Ayla Hubbard, 5; and a cousin, David Hubbard, 14, said state police Sgt. Paul Hays. Details of the deaths were not immediately available. The victims lived about 10 miles northeast of Manchester, which is 95 miles south of Lexington.

Ambulance crews rescued six people who were swept away by the currents of Bear Creek. An 8-year-old boy clung to the branches of a tree for more than an hour after he was carried about a mile downstream.

Houses, mobile homes and a church were swept off their foundations and carried as much as half a mile downstream, said Todd Roberts of the Clay County ambulance service.

Boulders from the creek were found inside and atop cars after the water receded, he added.

Several people had cuts and bruises and some were treated for hypothermia, authorities said.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the area Friday. The weather service reported 2.33 inches of rain had fallen by Saturday morning in Big Creek, about 10 miles southeast of where the flooding occurred.

The 2.33 inches “is a lot of rain, especially in a hilly area,” said Norm Reitmeyer, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Louisville.

Elsewhere, showers and thunderstorms were scattered from Colorado to Minnesota, across the northern Rockies and Great Plains, across the Appalachians, the Carolinas, Texas, Florida and in Arizona and New Mexico.

In the central Iowa community of Jefferson, more than four inches of rain fell Saturday morning, weather officials said.

Thunderstorms scattered torrential rain Friday over the northern Plains from Kansas to North Dakota, with more than eight inches recorded in Fairbury, Neb.