Crews recover 2 bodies from Perry County creek in Eastern Kentucky as rain resumes

ARY, Ky. — The rain returned in fits and starts early Sunday afternoon as search and rescue crews made an important, yet grim, discovery in Perry County.

A body was found and then eventually pulled from Troublesome Creek along Kentucky Route 476, south of Ary.

And the crackling radios and quick chitchat among the emergency personnel indicated a second body had been pulled further down the creek.

Several responders soon emerged from a thicket of trees blocking part of the creek, pulling a sled container carrying a black body bag up the embankment.

Several of the roughly two dozen responders from various agencies, including the Mt. Vernon Fire Department, Hazard Fire Department, FEMA, Kentucky State Police and Perry County Sheriff's Office, turned around and somberly stood guard as crews lifted the find inside a county coroner's office truck.

"Two women," a neighbor mumbled to a Courier Journal reporter, describing the victims as older.

The scene then mostly cleared as the rescue teams moved on to wherever else they would be needed as recovery efforts continued since heavy rainfall late Wednesday into early Thursday caused damaging flooding through a wide swath of Eastern Kentucky.

Before the two bodies were pulled from the creek, Gov. Andy Beshear had confirmed Sunday that 28 residents have died in the floods, a number likely to rise as more victims are found and identified. An unknown number remain missing.

By Monday morning, Beshear said the death count rose to 30, with Perry County having at least three deaths. But Deputy Coroner Jeff Combs said Perry County had seven confirmed deaths after the bodies of four people were recovered Sunday, three of them along Highway 476 and one off Big Willard Road.

Eastern Kentucky flooding updatesDeath toll keeps rising

Officials in Perry County have not released the identifies of the victims.

Beshear, who was visiting parts of the impacted region Sunday, said more bodies will likely be found “for weeks.”

Recovery efforts continue along Troublesome Creek

Farther up Troublesome Creek from where the bodies were found Sunday, several dogs and their handlers from Oklahoma were combing through a massive debris pile that blocked the creek after a small bridge collapsed.

A U.S. Coast Guard Station Louisville unit, made up of eight members, also floated down the creek on two small boats to the debris pile as part of a search operation.

"As long as the local and state governments need assistance, we will be here," said Chief Petty Officer Tyler White, officer in charge of Coast Guard Station Louisville.

The orange inflatable boats helped take Dozer, a light brown Labrador from Gideon Rescue Company, a group based out of Ardmore, Oklahoma, over to a door that was floating in the creek, about 10 yards away from the larger, roughly 15-foot-tall debris pile.

Dozer excitedly moved up and down the embankment and got in part of the water by the door, but nothing was found.

Meredith Pool, a cadaver dog handler who drove over 14 hours from Oklahoma to Perry County, said a body may have bumped the door at some point and left a trace that Dozer picked up on.

Kentucky flooding recovery The rain washed away their possessions, not their faith

The larger debris pile included items like coolers, tires, a washing machine and a beach ball along with the collapsed fragments of bridge. A sign for "Swan Court," the road that went across the bridge, was resting in a yard by Route 476.

Divers with a Tennessee Task Force One unit moved through the water to keep pulling and poking at items.

The presence of the Oklahoma and Tennessee teams was a reminder of how people from around the country have come to Appalachia to help Eastern Kentucky recover and rebuild.

Homes that were a little farther back from Troublesome Creek on one side of Route 476 mostly avoided serious damage from the flooding.

But Terry Tartar, 72, said four of his vehicles and two motorcycles were lost or damaged. The U.S. Army veteran, who worked on a surface mine for 42 years, collects and repairs antique vehicles, including an REO Speed Wagon.

"You know, like the band?" he said Sunday while observing the search of the debris pile by his home in this part of the county he referred to as Coates Branch.

Tartar was confident he would be able to clean up and restore some of the damaged vehicles that sat in the grass outside his home, which his late wife grew up in and had been built roughly a century ago.

Most importantly, Tartar and family were safe.

"God has been good to me," he added.

Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Eastern Kentucky flooding: 2 bodies recovered from Perry County creek