Flash Flood — Knox, Kentucky

2011-06-20 · near Anchor, Knox, Kentucky

Event narrative

Twenty seven homes were destroyed during the June 20th flash flood in Kayjay.

Wider weather episode

During the overnight and early morning hours of Monday, June 20th, numerous strong to severe thunderstorms wreaked havoc on portions of eastern KY. Between 2 and 5 am EDT, numerous trees were blown across Laurel, Bell, Knox, and Whitley counties. The real problems began around 5 am EDT, when historical flash flooding began to occur. Parts of Bell and Knox were completely devastated as area creeks and streams quickly over topped their banks, flooding the surrounding countryside. The hardest hit areas were Kay Jay, Trosper, and Warren Camp in Knox county and Middlesboro in Bell county. Dozens of homes were heavily damaged or destroyed by the raging flood waters. One death was attributed to the flooding. Anywhere from 3-8 inches of rain fell between 2 and 7 am EDT across Knox and Bell counties. Flooding continued to occur across several other counties of eastern KY, with Breathitt county seeing the most widespread flooding between 9 and 11 am EDT. The floods caused estimated damages in the millions of dollars.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.7549, -83.8693)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 325463. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.