By Angela Hatton
Smithland, KY – Emergency management teams along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers are filling sandbags and recruiting volunteers ahead of possibly record floods next week. Livingston County Emergency Management Director David Koon says flooding at Smithland is his major concern. The river is expected to crest at 54 feet there, and Smithland's flood gates only go to 50 feet. Koon says water will make it into town by Wednesday. He's telling residents to get out.
"Get somewhere to higher ground. If you don't get out now, you're going to get trapped behind the flood waters. And then we're going to have a hard time getting to you if you have an emergency." 8 sec. Koon1
Sand bag deliveries are coming in at Ballard County. Emergency Manager Michael Clarke says some families have already evacuated from Bandana and Oscar. Clarke says water will likely top out at 60 feet in Wickliffe. He says most of the town should be high enough to avoid flooding. Hickman County Judge-Executive Greg Pruitt this morning declared a state of emergency. He says the major concern in his county are the 50 - 60 households in the Moscow community.
"They're basically two entrances into that little neighborhood in the county. And when water gets up as high as it's predicted, both ends of Moscow get shut off. And so we're paying particular attention to that area." 12 sec. Pruitt1
Paducah and McCracken County have also declared a state of emergency. City officials are installing the city's 20 floodgates today. Paducah spokesperson Pam Spencer says they hope to have all of the gates up by Wednesday. The closure will cut off the Convention and Expo Center. That means the American Quilter's Society Show and Contest will move to an alternate space for their event this week. AQS President Meredith Shroeder says they considered cancelling the show.
"And the main reason we did not, we had so many people coming from out of town. They had airlines, they had non-refundable hotel rooms. They would have lost all that. And so we determined that, well, we believe this is workable, we can do this." 14 sec. meredith
In addition to preparing for flooding, Carlisle County officials are also recovering from the weekend's severe storm damage. No injuries were reported, but high winds, and a possible tornado tore off roofs and knocked down utility poles. County Emergency Manager Missy Roland says they've turned their attention to flash flooding. Roland says because the ground is so saturated, water will stick around in low-lying areas.
The long term outlook isn't good either, the Ohio River isn't expected to crest until May 3rd and at that point to rival the 1937 flood in some areas. Governor Steve Beshear hosts a press conference this afternoon in Frankfort on the extreme flooding. We'll have more from that press conference during All Things Considered.