Search for the missing continues in E. Ky., hampered by unknowns and communication hitches

Lexington Fire Department Major Adam Sorrell flipped through several pages of paper standing on Kentucky Route 476 in Breathitt County. All of the pages contained names of people, families, and what county they reside in.

All of them are suspected to be missing.

Sorrell and searchers from several other agencies were near Troublesome Creek -- where homes nearby were hit hard by record flooding -- to coordinate search and rescue efforts on Sunday afternoon in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.

“We are going to different areas where people have either messaged on Facebook, called in that a family member is missing or they haven’t heard from them,” Sorrell said. “Most of them we are finding them and don’t have a cell phone, or it is dead and they don’t have a way to charge it or their bridge is washed out and they can’t get out to see anybody.”

Nine of the names were highlighted, showing people who were found by Sorrell and other crews since Thursday. But Sorrell confirmed he and others had found some victims in that area who had been killed in the floods.

He said it is hard for him to tell how many people are actually missing. Many of those listed on his papers say a person’s name, or their family, without showing clear numbers.

“We don’t know if that is two people or 12 people until we talk to someone that knows them or the person, we don’t know who lives in that house or how many there was,” he said.

Like Sorrell and his team, the counties affected and the state are unsure of specific numbers of people missing, or those who could be dead.

In a news conference earlier on Sunday in Hazard, Gov. Andy Beshear said there was no way of knowing finite numbers yet. With the lack of cell phone service or access for some people to get out and let others know they are safe, he said the searches could continue for weeks.

“I wish we had a firm, real number of people that are missing,” Beshear said.

Hazard Mayor Donald Mobelini also said officials were having trouble determining a specific number, with people coming into the coroner’s office and local law enforcement to bring pictures of their loved ones.

“Family members have been coming in the past two days with pictures and ways to identify people,” Mobelini said. “We are keeping track but we don’t know all of the counties they are in.”

Sorrell was conducting a targeted search, in which searchers go to a specific area where people are reported missing and search for those individuals. Other agencies, such as the Ohio Search and Rescue Task Force, were doing a grid search to help locate individuals.

Other searchers included task forces from Indiana and Missouri, the ATF and rescue teams from all over the state.

The major said in a targeted search, responders will check the house, knock on the door and see if there are any signs that residents have made it through the flood and just left.

“We have no way of getting ahold of them. If it looks like they were home at the time then they do a more detailed search,” he said. “Our job is to locate them and make sure they are safe.”

Sunday afternoon he and other responders drove up gravel drives near the creek, where they found trailers ripped off their foundations, many a few feet or yards away.

The group searched through a roof that had come from a trailer and was covering rubble on the ground. A cadaver dog was nearby, searching for any signs of life where a foul odor was detected nearby.

While the search didn’t present anyone dead or alive, more hard rain began to fall, causing the group to retreat from the area.

But Beshear offered a “glimmer of hope” for citizens in the rural Eastern Kentucky counties with loved ones missing, referencing the tornadoes that devastated Western Kentucky late last year.

“We did find a lot of people in the west, that we feared the worst for,” he said. “But as cell phone coverage picked up and the days followed we found a lot of people we reunited with their families. And boy we are praying that that is going to be the case here, too.”