Thunderstorm Wind in Powell County, Kentucky

A dead tree fell onto a tent at a campsite at the Middlefork campground, killing one person inside the tent and critically injuring a second person. No other tree damage was noted by first responders except for the dead tree.

Clusters of showers and thunderstorms began affecting central and eastern Kentucky during the pre-dawn hours of Friday April 3rd. The initial complex of thunderstorms targeted areas from Louisville across the Bluegrass Region in parts of east-central Kentucky, including the Natural Bridge State Park area. While these storms were not severe, they did produce gusty winds which downed a dead tree onto a camping site in the Middle Fork Campground killing a female camper and severely injuring another person.

Torrential rainfall occurred with the storms, with many locations in a stripe from Estill, Powell, Lee, Wolfe and Breathitt Counties seeing from three to four inches of rain during the morning storms. This caused widespread flash flooding and a Lee County woman was killed as she tried to drive through flood waters.

After a brief break, additional showers and thunderstorms targeted locations from Lexington eastward along I-64 into the Gateway Region Friday evening. This again caused widespread flash flooding in a stripe from Montgomery, Bath, Rowan and Elliott Counties.