Fears That Appalachia Might See More Catastrophic Flooding as a Result of Extreme Weather Stoked by Kentucky’s Unprecedented Floods

Fears that Appalachia, one of America's most susceptible regions, may see more regular and catastrophic flooding as a result of growing extreme weather in the U.S. have been stoked by Kentucky's unprecedented floods.

Some locals are pessimistic, while others demand better flood mitigation measures.

Flood ravaged eastern Kentucky

(Photo : Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

There is a potential for additional intense rain and flash flooding for those in eastern Kentucky who are still healing from the tragic storms that occurred only one week ago.

Hal Klingenberg, the Lead Forecaster at the National Weather Service in Jackson, Kentucky, told CNN on Friday morning, "We've got (river) conditions right now that we don't typically see prolonged at this time of year over a large area where it just makes us more susceptible to flooding than we would normally be at this time of year."

For most regions, Klingenberg predicted that it would take between an inch and a half and two inches of rain to start generating serious issues in one to three hours.

The Weather Prediction Center has issued a minor danger rating of excessive rainfall across the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys into the Mid-Atlantic due to the potential for very significant rainfall rates from storms on Friday.

Friday presents "more of a higher end mild danger with isolated to scattered flash flooding possible, but less confidence on a more widespread/organized risk," according to the WPC for parts of Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia.

Klingenberg stated, "You tend to pay much closer attention after you've been harmed and once touched by anything like a natural disaster."

On Friday, the eighth day of flooding in the state, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear provided an update, reiterating that 37 people across five counties had died.

While there are hundreds of people who lost their homes that are needed to be stabilized, he noted that actual, meaningful progress has been achieved, particularly over the past eight days.

The governor stated that because of worries about slowly approaching thunderstorms that might provide significant rainfall on Saturday, officials were concentrating on doing health checks on Friday.

Nine cooling facilities are still operating, he noted, in several areas where it is anticipated that the heat would get worse following the storm.

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Devastating impacts of flood in Appalachia

Following floods on July 28, which devastated her neighborhood for the second time in 17 months, Teresa Watkins struggled to save a few mud-caked possessions from her house on a Breathitt County branch of the Kentucky River, as per USA Today.

The 54-year-old, who has lived off Quicksand Road since she was a teenager, claimed that recent flooding, which has become "more and more, worse and worse," has left the county, where the median family income is less than half the national average at $29,538, with difficult decisions to be made.

She said that more people now claim to be moving to safer locations, but it's not that simple.

At least 37 people lost their lives in Kentucky due to devastating floods, and recent damage in other Appalachian states like Virginia and West Virginia is prompting urgent inquiries about how to lessen the effects of dangerous flooding, which are only expected to increase as climate change fuels more extreme weather.

However, there aren't many simple solutions in one of America's most economically distressed regions.

Solutions are exceedingly challenging because of the region's rugged terrain, high poverty rates, dispersed habitation in isolated valleys, mountains damaged by coal mining that exacerbate floods, and underfunded local administrations.

For counties with limited resources, measures like drainage systems, flood wells, and housing elevating are expensive.

In regions with few safer choices and new house construction, buyouts or building limitations are challenging. Many find it difficult or impossible to move.

Additionally, taming extreme weather by lowering global warming emissions is a difficult political task, even in a country where coal runs deep, and it offers little immediate respite.

Some neighbors say they have little optimism that meaningful measures will be implemented any time soon, despite the fact that Kentucky's destruction has brought attention to long-standing issues.

Floods are common in Central Appalachia.

However, the most recent high water in Eastern Kentucky broke records, and experts anticipate more to come.

Weather forecasters and climate scientists claimed that human-driven climate change results in a warmer atmosphere that is better able to store moisture in the context of the greater pattern of extreme weather in the United States, from wildfires to heat waves.

According to Antonia Sebastian, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in flood resilience and mitigation, this may result in more periods of severe rainfall. More rain falling quickly causes flash floods.

Related article: Catastrophic Kentucky Flood Turns Deadly: 8 People Dead, Causing a State of Emergency