The number of deaths in the storms that devastated Kentucky over the weekend has increased to 14, and the impacted communities will have to prepare for a more winter climate.
Governor Andy Beshear announced on Tuesday that two additional people, an adult man and an adult woman who seems to have been homeless, died of hypothermia. Other twelve have died as a result of floods in the state, including a mother and her 7-year-old son, whose car was swept in Hart County, according to WBKO-TV.
After a weekend of devastation, Beshear said that his greatest concern with the incoming winter storm is that people are stranded on roads and frozen temperatures.
Sixty million people are under winter alerts on Tuesday morning from the central plains to the Carolina coast, since a storm system will bring strong snow and wind to the region. The storm is expected to bring “significant accumulation of snow to the center and south of Kentucky on Tuesday night until Wednesday afternoon,” according to the National Meteorological Service Field Office in Louisville.
A slight snow powder is forecast for portions of Western Kentucky and central on Tuesday morning, with up to 1 inch of snow, according to the weather service. This snow can cause slippery stains on the roads.
A total of around 2 to 6 inches of snow is possible throughout the region from Tuesday night at 9 pm until Wednesday at 5 pm, said the weather service.
The storm is expected to create dangerous travel conditions “due to slippery roads and poor visibility” and interrupts recovery efforts for floods.
Almost 4,500 public services clients are still without energy in Kentucky, according to Poweroutage.us. Beshear is encouraging those without energy to go to shelters if they cannot safely heat their homes before the storm.
Water rescues resulting from floods are expected to decrease on Tuesday as the approach changes to the cleaning of roads in preparation for the winter storm, Kentucky officials said.
