Four kids drown in catastrophic Kentucky flood after being swept from mother’s arms

Four young siblings have drowned in Kentucky’s disastrous flash floods after being swept from their mother’s arms – as number of dead rises to 16 and is still expected to double.

Brittany Trejo said that her four young cousins – who were aged eight, six, four, and one – were killed in the catastrophic downpours which have obliterated entire towns and submerged houses and cars in deadly flood water as emergency services desperately scramble to save those who are trapped. 

The bodies of all four children had been recovered from the Knott County community of Montgomery, devastated Trejo, who is the cousin of the children’s mom, told Lexington Herald Leader.

The children’s parents Amber Smith and Riley Noble live in Montgomery, and their home began filling with water on Thursday before the family-of-six were washed off of their roof with a big tide. 

They were holding on to a tree for hours – before another tide washed them all away and the parents lost sight of their children.  

Trejo revealed: ‘They got on the roof and the entire underneath washed out with them and the children. They managed to get to a tree and held the children a few hours before a big tide came and wash them all away at the same time. The mother and father was stranded in the tree for 8 hours before anyone got there to help.’ 

Little Riley Jr., six, and Nevaeh Noble, four, were found dead yesterday – and the bodies of Maddison Noble, eight, and Chance Noble, one, were found Friday morning, Trejo said.

Governor of Kentucky Andy Beshear braced the state for fatalities to more than double and he warned the count is ‘going to include some children.’

Of the 16 officially confirmed dead, two are children from Knott County, he confirmed. 

Homes with families inside were ‘completely swept away in the middle of the night, possibly while they were sleeping,’ amid the violent mega storms that have plagued the state, the Governor said today. 

Raging thunderstorms have pummeled the area, causing mudslides and ‘years’ worth of damage in what has been Kentucky’s most devastating flood in history. 

It’s feared that waterlocked, saturated ground will continue to swell while rivers and creeks are expected to burst their banks with additional downpours this morning.

It will take the hundreds of people whose homes have been submerged in the dire flooding years to rebuild and recover from this cataclysmic disaster, Beshear said on Friday. 

Bashear said on Friday morning: ‘There’s going to be multiple families that we’ve lost. Kids that won’t get the opportunity to grow up and experience so much that we have.

‘This is so deadly, and it hit so hard, and it hit in the middle of the night. We’ve never seen something like this.

‘Hundreds will lose their homes and this is going to be another event that will take not months, but years to recover from.’ 

Devastating images show the catastrophic destruction the flooding has caused, with vehicles floating through streets which now resemble rivers and lakes.

Homes and businesses have been nearly submerged up to their rooves in the unrelenting deadly torrent – as 18 more hours of rainfall is expected on Friday before the deluge eases on the weekend.

Residents have been forced to climb trees and scramble to rooftops to look for safety as many locations in eastern Kentucky exceeded 10 inches of rain in the last 24 hours.

A series of storms drenching the eastern part of the state has dropped water that has yet to crest, leaving unprecedented damage on Kentuckians, said Beshear.

The Governor declared a state of emergency in six counties on Thursday morning. 

Rain water was as high as the leaves of nearby trees and power poles were sticking up from greenish brown water, images from the destruction revealed. 

The number of people dead as a result of the deadly weather system reached eight yesterday – but the toll has now hit 16. 

One man from Lexington, Kentucky, revealed that his daughter and her dog were forced to sit on the very top of a rooftop, completely encircled by floodwater before being rescued yesterday.

Terry Adams said that Chloe had to put her dog in a container that would float before swimming to her neighbor’s roof where she waited hours to be saved amid the calamitous flash floods. 

He wrote on social media: ‘My daughter is safe and whole tonight. She saved her dog by putting her in a container that would float and then swam with her to a neighboring rooftop. 

‘She waited hours until she could be rescued. She is a hero. I love you Chloe. You are simply amazing. We lost everything today…everything except what matters most.’

Beshear said yesterday: ‘We are currently experiencing one of the worst, most devastating flooding events in Kentucky’s history. Hundreds will lose their homes.’

Among the dead was an 81-year-old woman in Perry County, and the local authorities say several people are unaccounted for.

‘This is an ongoing natural disaster, with more rain expected tonight that could worsen the situation,’ Beshear said yesterday.

On Friday, the flooding left nearly 23,000 households without power in eastern Kentucky and many counties are without water.

There were over 50 air rescues on Thursday and hundreds of boat rescues as teams worked tirelessly to bring people to safety – with the Governor warning that the state was ‘still in search and rescue mode.’ 

Flash flood warning are in place for Friday in eastern parts of the state, moving into the border with West Virginia. 

Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams said that over 80 people had been rescued since heavy rain began in the area on Thursday – and said that small towns are braced to be completely under water.

He said: ‘I’ve never seen this much water before. I mean it just absolutely poured and we’ve got, you know, some small towns that are completely underwater.’

Yesterday, the state activated the National Guard and the state police to use helicopters and boats to rescue people marooned among the floodwaters. 

Evacuation centers were opened in state parks and other facilities, but Beshear warned that some of the facilities themselves were hard-hit by the storms, and may not have power or some amenities. 

In a tweet this morning, Beshear said: ‘Central and Eastern Kentucky remain in a flood watch today. While rain totals are not expected to be as high, flooding still remains a concern due to saturated grounds. Please stay safe and alert, Kentucky.’ 

Dramatic drone footage over Hindman, one of the hardest hit cities in eastern Kentucky, shows several homes and buildings almost completely submerged by the flooding, with only their rooftops of some visible. 

Breathitt County Emergency Management Director Chris Friley, who is overseeing the damage in one of the hardest hits areas, said on Thursday that the damage over the last day went beyond what previous flooding had done in recent years.

‘It’s the worst we’ve had in quite a while,’ he said. ‘There’s several spots that are still not accessible to rescue crews.’

This comes after six children and 14 adults were rescued from a St Louis daycare center after it was inundated with four foot floodwaters – and electrical sockets began to spark after the water touched them.

St. Louis firefighters with Company 29 were able to rescue 10 to 20 people, including at adult camp counselors, at the Cornerstone Institutional Baptist Church in what was described by fire spokesman Nick Dunne as ‘thigh-high water.’

A fire department spokesman said six children were rescued, while the others freed were adults.