Flood Forces Laurel Residents to Evacuate

Heavy rain caused massive flooding across the area today. Many roads were closed due to the flooding and will likely require repair. County road crews were out with snow plows on the front of their trucks to push debris out of the roadways. A lot of gravel and debris such as logs and boulders were washed into the road along area creeks.
Residents on the south side of Laurel were evacuated from their homes after water from the Whitewater river left it's banks and moved into the town. A level-2 road emergency was declared by county commissioners around 1pm which mean only emergency travel was allowed.
The rain began this morning around 6am with a push of thunderstorms into the area. This round of rain ended though by 8am. A second and much larger area of storms moved into the area by 9am and continued through the morning and early afternoon hours. The rain finally ended at 3pm after 4.32 inches had fallen. Looking at the Doppler radar estimate map above though, even heavier rain fell just to our south in the Greensburg and Batesville areas. There it appears up to 6 inches of rain had fallen, but reports of 8 inches were heard on TV.
You can watch a video from WLWT Cincinnatti of the flooding in Laurel here. Or, you can watch my own video below. The water had gone down a lot when I took my video.