Published: May 07, 2009 12:07 pm      

Record rain causes flooding

Heavy rainfall Sunday evening and into Monday in Laurel County caused mobile homes to be flooded, roads to be closed and left two horses stranded knee-deep in water.

The horses were left behind after their owners left early Monday morning after the heavy rain flooded their mobile home and van on Levi Jackson Mill Road.

“According to a boy who lives in a cabin nearby, these people abandoned their trailer early this morning,” said Sue Ward, who stopped as she was going to work.

Ward, who works at the Girl Scout office on the same road, said she was upset at seeing the horses in water.

“It was the saddest thing,” she said. “When I came by here this morning, I just started crying. The water was up to their shoulders. I wish there was an organized way to take care of animals in distress, a rescue. It’s so sad. It breaks my heart. They have feelings, too. They’re so hungry they’re trying to eat the wood (around the shelter).”

Another woman who stopped, Mary Sue Boggs was also very upset at the condition of the horses.

“I’m just like Doris Day,” Boggs said. “I rescue animals. I pick them up on the side of the road, take them home, feed them, fatten them up and find them a good home. I’ve done this for the four years I’ve lived out on White Oak. I had five rescue horses this summer at one time, not to mention the dogs and cats. My husband’s bringing sweet feed for the horses.”

Laurel County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Junior McKnight and deputies Josh Gaylor and Jason Back arrived later on the scene after several calls were reportedly made to the office. They rounded up the owner of the property, Joe Webb, and asked him to moved his horses to safety. Webb put the horses on leashes and walked them up a gravel lane to a barn close by.

“We’re not equipped with animal control,” McKnight said. “We get these calls all the time. There’s no resources in this county for this kind of thing. We’ve been through this before with down horses, malnourished horses. It’s better the owner take care of his own stock than us take them and then him come back with the humane society with a lawsuit for taking his animals off his property without his permission.”

“The horses are not life or death,” McKnight continued. “They do need feeding and they need to get out of the water. It’s not really the police’s responsibility, it’s not really animal control, it’s really the landowners’ responsibility to see that those animals are provided for.”

Webb refused to comment on the situation.

A man, who lives close by, said his driveway was also covered with water.

“The road in front of the cabin was completely covered about a foot deep,” Daniel Grimm said. “My car was flooded. I had water inside my car this morning when I woke up.””

The water was also over the road at McHargue’s Mill, but quickly subsided, leaving the ducks to swim in the parking lot, which was still flooded Monday afternoon.

The playground of Little Learners Educational Center, next to the Webb property, was also flooded, but no damage was done to the building.

London Police Lt. Stewart Walker said several streets were closed for two hours early Monday morning, including East 4th and Armory.

A trailer on Court Road was reported flooded.

The Jackson National Weather Service reported 2.67 inches of rain from 1 a.m. Sunday to 1 a.m. Monday at the London-Corbin Airport.

“It was a daily record,” meteorologist Jeff Carico said. “We broke the old record of 1.61 inches on May 3, 1983. The record for the month was 4.08 on May 7, 1984. It is the second most received in a single calendar day. That is the second wettest calendar day in May in London since 1954 when the airport started keeping records.”