Winter storm in the eastern United States has caused at leas

Recently, a fierce winter storm hit the eastern region of the United States, which continued to spread and brought huge disasters to the area. On February 17th local time, this winter storm has caused at least 13 deaths, including 11 from Kentucky, 1 from Georgia, and 1 from West Virginia. The death toll may continue to rise as rescue efforts continue.

Kentucky is one of the areas most severely affected by floods in this disaster. Since the storm hit, Kentucky has suffered from rainstorm in many places, and a large amount of rainwater converged in a short time, causing extremely serious flood disasters. The flood ravaged like a fierce beast, trapping numerous vehicles in the turbulent water flow. Roads became riddled with holes under the dual impact of floods and landslides, and traffic was completely paralyzed. At present, water levels in Kentucky and other areas of the Ohio River Valley are still rising, flooding a large number of houses and farmland. Many residents are watching helplessly as their hard-earned property is submerged by the flood, and can only evacuate their homes urgently and go to temporary resettlement sites.

West Virginia was also not spared, as the governor stated on the same day that the state was experiencing "severe flooding", with several people missing in addition to the direct damage caused by the floods. The local government has urgently organized forces to carry out rescue operations, rescuing trapped people and providing basic living guarantees such as food, drinking water, and medical assistance for the affected population. At the same time, we are coordinating resources from all parties to assess and repair damaged infrastructure, striving to restore normal operation of transportation, electricity, and water supply systems as soon as possible.

The impact of this winter storm is widespread, with 110 million people in the United States affected by the storm and under various severe weather warnings such as floods, mudslides, heavy snow, and strong winds. In the past two days, some areas in Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and North Carolina have issued multiple flash flood warnings. Among them, some areas in Kentucky have received rainfall exceeding 200 millimeters, causing flash floods and predicting an additional 160 millimeters of snowfall. The severe cold followed the floods, and the National Weather Service warned of a "life-threatening extreme cold" starting from February 18th local time, with temperatures dropping to minus 45.6 degrees Celsius in most parts of North Dakota. American residents living in Kentucky reported that the just receding floodwaters were firmly frozen in the blizzard, and rescue teams outside the state were blocked on the road.

In the face of this severe disaster, US President Trump issued an emergency statement declaring Kentucky a state of emergency and authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to carry out disaster relief work. Although Trump had previously claimed to disband FEMA, it still took on the responsibility of disaster relief in the face of the disaster. Kentucky Governor Eddie Becher announced at a press conference on Monday local time that 9 out of 11 victims died in floods and 2 others died in car accidents. The authorities have carried out over 1000 rescue operations over the weekend alone, but due to rainfall exceeding 200 millimeters in some areas, future snowfall is expected to reach 150 millimeters, and severe weather conditions may increase the difficulty of rescue efforts.

At present, rescue work is still underway intensively, and all parties are making every effort to reduce the losses caused by the disaster. We will continue to monitor the development of this incident and hope that the affected areas can recover as soon as possible, and residents can return to normal life as soon as possible.