Flooding kills at least 14 in eastern U.S.
Sylvie Claire / February 20, 2025
At least 14 people have died and several others are missing in the eastern United States, including twelve deaths in the state of Kentucky alone, which has been facing severe flooding for several days, local authorities announced on Monday.
“The death toll in Kentucky now stands at 12,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on social media Monday, three more than the previous day's death toll in the state.
The Democratic governor had indicated the day before that most of the victims had become trapped in their vehicles under the rising waters.
A storm combining high winds, flooding, heavy rain and freezing temperatures hit several other eastern US states.
“We have one confirmed fatality so far” and ‘several people missing’, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey said at a press briefing on Monday, referring to ‘major flooding’.
By Sunday, one person had died in Atlanta, Georgia, due to severe weather. The death was caused by the uprooting during a storm of an “extremely large” tree, which crashed into the victim's home, according to a local fire official, Captain Scott Powell, quoted by US media.
According to poweroutage.us, which maps power outages across the U.S., around 50,000 homes were still without power on Monday, in the states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
According to a forecast issued on Monday by the National Weather Service (NWS), an “arctic” air mass will add to this situation this week, sweeping “record cold” across the central United States, with temperatures expected to drop to -60° Fahrenheit, or -51° Celsius.