Flash Flood — Estill, Kentucky

2015-04-03 · near Crystal, Estill, Kentucky

Event narrative

A vehicle attempted to drive through flash flood waters from a creek along KY Hwy 52 near the Estill and Lee county line. The vehicle was eventually swept downstream with the driver trapped inside. The person was alone in the car and ended up drowning inside the vehicle.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.6598, -83.8171)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 566747. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.