Event narrative (NOAA)
Major flooding continued on the Ohio River from April. At the Paducah river gage, the flood crest of 55.03 feet around noon on May 5 was over three feet higher than the 1997 flood. This was still several feet lower than the record crest set in 1937. The activation of the New Madrid Floodway by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spared McCracken County from an even higher crest that would have inundated even larger areas of the county. With the detonation of the Mississippi River levee at Birds Point, Missouri, the Ohio River stopped rising or rose much more slowly at the Paducah gage. The flood gates were installed in the floodwall protecting the city of Paducah. Low-lying areas outside of the levee and floodwall protection system were flooded, displacing hundreds of residents. Preliminary e
Other notable flood events in Kentucky
Source: NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database. Deaths and injuries are those NOAA classifies as direct. Damage is the reporting office's estimate at the time and is not inflation-adjusted. This is a catalogue record, not a forecast.