Helicopter airlifts woman from Kentucky floods after death count rises to 28

A pensioner and her family had to be rescued from the floods which are devastating communities in the US.

Dramatic footage shows a Kentucky National Guard chopper airlifting an elderly woman, 83, from the top of a house completely submerged in water.

The woman was part of a family of five trying to escape drowning by hiding in the attic of their home in Wolfe County over the weekend.

Search and rescue workers had to break through a window to get to the family but they all made it out alive.

At least 28 people have been killed, including four children, in the natural disaster as of yesterday afternoon.

This death toll is expected to rise as the weather and the ongoing floods have made it difficult for rescue teams to get to people or bodies.

There are currently up to 37 people unaccounted for.

‘I’m worried that we’re going to be finding bodies for weeks to come,’ Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said.

Firefighter Phillip Michael Caudill told of how he was out on rescues in the early hours of Thursday morning when he had to ask to leave to go and save his own family.

He got back to his home in Wayland after 3am and the water had filled up to his knees.

By the time Phillip had put his wife and three children in the car, he could hardly close the door.

He said: ‘That’s what made it so tough for me. Here I am, sitting there, watching my house become immersed in water and you got people begging for help. And I couldn’t help.’

Crews have so far made more than 1,200 rescues on helicopters and boats, helped by the rain letting up in some parts of the state on Friday.

But it has since returned with showers and storms forecast for the whole of Tuesday, and flood warnings in place covering southern and eastern Kentucky for Monday morning.

Mr Beshear declared an official emergency on Thursday, after US president Joe Biden announced a federal disaster in the state – to make it possible to redirect national funds there.

The floods have hit some of Kentucky’s poorest communities, meaning it will be incredibly difficult for families and businesses to recover.

Mr Beshear predicts it will take more than a year to fully rebuild towns affected.

The floods were caused by huge amounts of rainfall over the Appalachia region this week.

The rain caused rivers to burst their banks and triggered mudslides where the slopes were steep.

Extreme rain events have become more common in the US as climate change bakes the planet and alters weather patterns, according to scientists.

Just last month, heavy rain on mountain snow in Yellowstone National Park triggered flooding and the evacuation of more than 10,000 people.

Oklahoma meteorologist Jason Furtado said: ‘It’s a battle of extremes going on right now in the United States. These are things we expect to happen because of climate change.

‘A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapour and that means you can produce increased heavy rainfall.’

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