Flood — Daviess, Kentucky

2011-05-01 to 2011-05-09 · near Owensboro, Daviess, Kentucky

Event narrative

Moderate flooding occurred on the Ohio River. At the Owensboro river gage, the river continued to fall after cresting at 46.30 feet in late April. A riverside park and parts of Water Street in Owensboro were flooded. At the peak of the flooding, Panther Creek flooded extensively due to backwater from the Ohio River, which forced some evacuations of residents in the Pettit area. Panther Creek covered parts of U.S. Highway 431 and surrounded a few major businesses such a home improvement store. Ohio River backwater worsened flooding of the Green River, flooding a house in Curdsville with a foot of water. The Red Cross opened a shelter. Countywide, 63 county roads and 18 state roads were closed at the peak of the flooding. About a dozen county roads were damaged. The damage consisted mostly of washed out shoulders and bridge approaches.

Wider weather episode

Heavy rainfall in March set the stage for major flooding when record-setting rains fell in April and May. At Paducah, 15.91 inches of rain fell in April, which was 10.96 inches above normal. It was not only the wettest April on record, but the wettest month ever recorded at Paducah. In May, 8.74 inches of rain fell. This was 3.99 inches above normal for the month. Paducah had the wettest meteorological spring (March through May) period on record with 31.21 inches. This was 63 percent of the normal for an entire year. At Evansville, April was the second wettest April on record with 11.77 inches. For the season, Evansville had the second wettest meteorological spring with 25.01 inches. The result of all this rain was rapid and dramatic rises on rivers. Record flood crests occurred on some rivers, inundating numerous homes and businesses. There were major impacts to transportation both on land and water. There were numerous closed roads across the region, leading to often lengthy detours. Because of the high water, there were numerous day and nighttime restrictions to barge traffic. Hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland were flooded. Crops were late getting planted.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.7700, -87.1200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 307432. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.