Flood — Rowan, Kentucky

2018-09-09 to 2018-09-10 · near Morehead, Rowan, Kentucky

Event narrative

Several vehicles were submerged in water in Morehead, including police cruisers. Several roads were closed due to water covering them from overflowing creeks and streams. Additionally, a nine year old boy was swept into a culvert by flood waters near Morehead. His body was found a week later in the Triplett Creek area.

Wider weather episode

A slow moving low pressure system, in combination with the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Gordon, and abundant moisture brought a long duration heavy rainfall event to much of the Bluegrass region of eastern Kentucky. Southwesterly low level winds ahead of a very slow moving cold front ushered rich moisture into eastern Kentucky, which when combined with the available lift, resulted in copious amounts of rainfall. This, in combination with several inches of rain the past couple of days, led to widespread flooding and flash flooding as multi-day rainfall amounts of 3-6 inches occurred with isolated totals near 7-8 inches.

Bath, Montgomery, and Menifee Counties all saw significant impacts. This includes 50-70 homes and 20-25 businesses, one of which was a school in Menifee County, being inundated with water. Numerous roads were damaged as culverts were washed out, forcing schools to close the following day. Disaster declarations were made for Montgomery and Menifee Counties while nearly a dozen water rescues were performed. Additionally, a nine year old boy was swept into a culvert in Morehead.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.1900, -83.4400)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 773417. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.