JESSAMINE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Jessamine County emergency management teams are encouraged by water levels dropping in the Kentucky River after the flooding this past week.
Road access is expected to open up in the Valley View Community in the early morning hours Friday at the latest according to Johnny Adams, director of Emergency Management. The next community will be the Camp Nelson community with the road being the biggest issue.
"We know there's probably at least one or two structures that have water in there and that's from doing assessments by drone," Adams said.
Rescue efforts in High Bridge will follow probably early morning Saturday when water is expected to recede enough to get vehicles in that community.
Battling the elements, crews are heavily impacted.
"It's a disaster within a disaster, when we have flooding then we have snow," Adams said.
During bitter cold and snow, crews are in swift water rescue boats, on goodwill missions, delivering hay to stranded horses on Camp Daniel Boone Road.
They also continue making service calls.
"They're doing some wellness checks, beginning preliminary damage assessments on any of the structures that did receive water," he said.
Jessamine County has the longest stretch of the Kentucky river of any county in the commonwealth. according to Adams: a span of 43 miles.
"In addition to that 43-mile stretch, it does cause the water to back up. We do have a lot of twists and turns throughout our river community," Adams said.
The outline of Jessamine County is all river.
"It's just amazing seeing that they're able to do as much as they're able to do and it is so much space that they have to cover," Lyla Martin said.
Crews plan to do formal damage assessments starting this weekend.
