Flooding closes roads in county

Published 3:45 pm Monday, March 1, 2021

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Torrential rainfall Sunday night left many roads in Clark County impassable the next day.

Allan Curtis, superintendent of the Clark County Road Department, said Monday that crews closed several roads overnight.

Among them were Athens-Boonesboro, Four Mile at Brookshire Lane, Minas Station, Jackson Ferry at Indian Creek, Red River, Lattimore Lane, the 4500 block of Pine Ridge, Ferry Road before the campground and Vienna Road at the end.

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Road crews were still checking others Monday afternoon.

The Kentucky River’s flood stage is 26 feet, but it’s expected to get up to 34 feet by Wednesday or Thursday, Curtis said.

According to the National Weather Service, it was at 31.27 feet at 2 p.m.

“I’ll bet we haven’t seen this flood stage in about 10 years,” he said.

Athens-Boonesboro Road, which often floods near Hall’s on the River, was under water between the restaurant and Four Mile Road early Monday afternoon. It had also flooded the beach at Fort Boonesborough State Park and was up into the old bath house. The river was up into some homes in the area. Near the lock and dam, there were rolling waves, and fallen trees and other debris were being swiftly carried downstream.

Curtis said his crews were still cleaning up tree damage from the ice storm several days ago, and now they were going to have to deal with flooding as well.

“It looks like we’re not going to get a break,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of damage,” Curtis commented.

“There are several roads that are impassable,” Assistant County Fire Chief Nathan Whitaker said just before noon Monday, but so far, he said, they hadn’t had to rescue anyone from the floodwaters.

If anyone needed help evacuating, though, they can call the Fire Department at 859-745-0260.

County Fire Chief Steve Asbury, who is also the director of Emergency Management for Clark County, said was in Powell County Monday helping to evacuate people from their homes because of the flooding.

About Randy Patrick

Randy Patrick is a reporter for Bluegrass Newsmedia, which includes The Jessamine Journal. He may be reached at 859-759-0015 or by email at randy.patrick@bluegrassnewsmedia.com.

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