LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A state of emergency was declared Thursday in Louisville after a tornado ripped through Jeffersontown and more storms are expected to bring severe flooding in the coming days.
City officials said no one was killed or injured when a tornado and severe weather touched down in eastern Jefferson County and Jeffersontown on Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said many businesses and homes suffered heavy damage.
“Nobody was hurt, so that’s the good news, but of course many businesses and homes suffered very significant damage in and around the J-town and Middletown area,” Greenberg said.
The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down in Jefferson County, near the Interstate 64/265 interchange. However, NWS meteorologists won’t survey the area on the ground until Sunday or Monday, as they continue gathering storm reports and await the upcoming days of heavy rain to pass.
The severe storms are expected to continue through Sunday as there’s potential for historic amounts of rain.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Greenberg said Thursday afternoon. “We’re expecting significant rainfall over the next couple of days.”
Salvador Melendez, spokesperson for Anchorage Middletown Fire and EMS, said the first call for crews came just in after midnight, and they responded to more than 23 calls for service. Crews immediately deployed search and rescue, as 60 personnel worked from midnight to 3 a.m. There were more than 30 homes that sustained “significant damage,” Melendez said.
“Jeffersontown has been devastated,” Jeffersontown Mayor Carol Pike said. “We will survive this.”
Greenberg said one of the most important things you can do now is to sign up for emergency notifications by texting “LensAlert” to 67283. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be notified about severe weather so you don’t have to rely on hearing warning sirens.
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency is also already in the Louisville-area to help register those who have sustained damage from the storms this week. To apply online for help from FEMA, click here.
“This is a unique situation over the next several days because we’re recovering from incidents like this, but we’re also preparing and responding to other weather emergencies that are going to occur over the next three to four days,” said Jody Meiman with Louisville Metro Emergency Services.
