Winchester, Clark County declare state of emergency after flash flooding

CLARK COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - Emergencies have been declared after the overnight flooding in Clark County.

Police say Winchester Mayor Ed Burtner and Clark County Judge-Executive Chris Pace have both declared a state of emergency:

Clark County business owners are assessing the damage after the flash flooding.

In downtown Winchester, East Broadway took on a lot of water.

Our photographer got there just after 11 Thursday night. He says the water began receding within minutes but, by then, the damage was already done.

Homeowner Katy Disney is spending the day cleaning after flooding in her backyard and basement.

The water got to about 3 feet high. Plus, the Disney’s gas line, AC, and hot water are down.

“Everything in our basement was floating,” Disney says. “Because we’re not in a flood plain we don’t have insurance.”

Her neighborhood is not alone.

Bill’s Place on East Broadway selling antiques, furniture, and appliances.

“We came in this morning at about 9:30 only to find out that the front end of the building had been ransacked by the storm,” says Bill’s Place employee Billy Flinchum.

Flinchum says it’s going to take a lot of elbow grease to clean things up. Garbage is scatted and rugs and furniture have been destroyed.

Ben Pasley works at Wildcat Willy’s, also on East Broadway.

He says clean-up will take days. After COVID, a harsh winter, and now this flood, Pasley says downtown Winchester is showing its resilience.

“We have a lot of people that are coming in, starting new businesses, that are locally owned that are trying to invest in our community,” Pasley says. “I think this is going to be another situation where our community is going to bounce back.”

In rural Clark County, we saw washed-out gravel driveways and lots of debris on the road. Crews worked overnight to clear a path.

Winchester police tell us there are no road closings Friday morning.

Anyone with property damage can call emergency management at 859-901-1555. Judge-Executive Pace says they’re attempting to apply for federal funding to help with recovery.

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