Flash Flood — Jefferson, Kentucky

2009-08-04 · near St Dennis, Jefferson, Kentucky

Event narrative

Most of the downtown Louisville area received flooding with many commercial buildings in the immediate downtown area having damage. Numerous homes on the west side of town were also damaged. Some of these damage reports follow.

The 800 Building in downtown Louisville had cars submerged in its parking lot. Churchill Downs Museum and track facilities received damaging flood waters. The entire basement of the Louisville Free Public Library was inundated with water causing damage to books, computers, vehicles, and other items. Many roads in the downtown area had several feet of water covering them, with residential buildings taking on water in basements. The University of Louisville campus had several building damaged and flooded and water rescues had to be performed. Four of the U of L classroom buildings were closed for more than a month, resulting in a shuffling of numerous classroom locations. Interstates 64, 65 and 264 were all closed for a period of time due to high water. Other water rescues were performed downtown as people became stranded in vehicles during rush hour traffic.

Wider weather episode

Two rounds of severe weather moved through central Kentucky on August 4th. The first produced torrential rainfall in the Louisville Metro area with up to seven inches of rain falling in around two hours time. This created massive flash flooding issues across much of Jefferson County and caused millions of dollars in damage in Louisville. This area of rainfall also caused flooding issues in counties just south and east of Jefferson County as well. The heavy rain and thunderstorms also produced some hail and cloud to ground lightning that caused several fires, including one four-alarm apartment complex fire on the east side of Louisville. Several water rescues were performed as drivers became stranded during the first round of severe weather, which occurred during the morning rush hour.

Later in the afternoon, a line of severe thunderstorms moved into North-Central Kentucky producing damaging winds up to 75 mph along with another round of heavy rainfall which caused another round of flooding.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.2772, -85.8417)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 186031. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.