President Trump Grants Governor Beshear’s Request for Emergency KY Funds

On the heels of three significant severe weather events inside of a month, the most recent being Wednesday, most of Kentucky is under the gun, once again, and this time catastrophic flooding is the main threat.

Severe Flooding in Kentucky

As heavy rains continue to fall, already filling a drainage ditch behind our building with 48 more hours worth of precipitation still to come, sandbags are being distributed as families do the best they can to prepare for what could become a historic flooding event. To give you an idea of how fast this is all unfolding, look what we've already seen in Bowling Green.

And in Daviess County, my neck of the woods, rural two-lanes are already underwater and are impassable.

FEMA Emergency Declaration in Kentucky

With much more rain to come, and in light of what the Commonwealth has already experienced from this week's severe weather outbreak, Governor Andy Beshear requested emergency federal assistance and got it.

President Donald Trump has approved an emergency declaration for Kentucky, meaning FEMA has been authorized to coordinate all disaster relief efforts. This comes to us from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security press release:

FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide, at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, under the public assistance program, will be provided at 75% federal funding.

Here's the most recent information from the National Weather Service's Paducah office.

And what you're looking at below is a wide swath of flood watches and warnings. The areas shaded in light green are flood warnings. The areas shaded in dark red are FLASH flood warnings. The dark green areas are watch areas.

In my experience, flooding of this nature has been a regional event in Kentucky. I'm thinking about the horrific events of the summer of 2022 in eastern Kentucky. But this storm system has affected the entire Commonwealth.

Stay safe, do not drive through flood waters, and be prepared to evacuate if the situation necessitates it.