Indiana Woman Dies After Flash Flood Washes Away Her Home During Storm: 'It's Just Devastating'
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A flood tore through southeast Indiana over the weekend and left one woman dead after she was unable to escape from her home.
According to ABC affiliate WHAS, Jefferson and Switzerland counties were hit with as much as nine inches of rain in just under three hours starting on Saturday night. The downpour led to a flash flood that destroyed homes and caused damage to other structures in the area.
"It hit everybody at once," resident Amber Brierly told the news station. "Like we heard the creeks flowing and then next thing you know, we're all flooded out."
"The waves [of water] is coming in our yards, knocking down our trees," she added.
As the rain fell, an elderly woman in Jefferson County called 911 on Saturday and reported that she was unable to leave her home in the rising waters, per WAVE.
While first responders traveled to the area, they were unable to locate her due to extensive damage.
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"Upon arrival, it appeared the property's structures had been washed away," Jefferson County Emergency Management said, per FOX Weather. "No residents were located."
The woman's body was ultimately found the next morning a "significant distance" from where the 911 call came in, WHAS reported. NBC affiliate WLWT and CBS affiliate WLKY also reported the woman's death.
Her identity has not been publicly released, but WHAS reported that family members indicated they were searching for belongings after the home was washed away by the flood.
PEOPLE has reached out to the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency for more information.
According to WAVE, four other people were reported missing during the flood but have since been found.
Jerry Seal, a resident whose home was washed away during the storm, said the experience was like nothing else he's witnessed in the 50 years he has lived in the area.
"We're finding stuff, have no idea where it came from, but it's here," he told WAVE. "Our stuff that was here is gone. Somebody else's rolled in."
"When it let loose, it let loose," he continued. "I imagine most of my stuff is down the Ohio River somewhere."
WHAS reported that two homes in all were swept away in the storm.
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Another resident told WLKY that they "never witnessed this type of devastation."
"I'm still in shock," said Gary Imel. "It's just devastating."
Imel said the floods took 200 bales of hay that he and others spent "all summer long" cutting and preparing.
"We store it so that in the wintertime, that's what we feed the livestock," he told the outlet. "That's all they have to eat."
