Heavy rains prompt early morning water rescues on Whitesides Road
NELSON COUNTY GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT
Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, 2:15 a.m. — Torrential rains Tuesday night pushed streams out of their banks and required local fire departments to respond for water rescues early Wednesday morning.
At 1:12 a.m., Nelson County Fire & Rescue and police responded to a report of four children trapped in a home by floodwaters in the 700 block of 
Whitesides Road.
The caller was in the garage in knee-deep water and said his four children were in the home asleep. More than two inches of rain pushed Kimberly Run out of its banks and the floodwaters were about to enter the home.
Sheriff’s deputies were first on the scene and reported water and debris over the roadway. Nelson County Fire arrived and requested mutual aid from the Bardstown Fire Department and the Northeast Nelson Fire Department. Firefighters helped the children from the home safely.
While firefighters were on the scene of the first water rescue, at 1:30 a.m. Nelson County Dispatch received a second call for a water rescue at a home in the 800 block of Whitesides Road due to the same flash flooding. The residents were out of the home and up on a hillside away from the home.
Whitesides was impassable due to the high water, and responding firefighters had to contend with flooding along the East Fork of Cox’s Creek, which was out of its banks and hampered firefighter access to the northern entrance to Whitesides Road at High Grove Road. Firefighters successfully navigated the rising water in order to assist the second family.
The affected families returned to their homes once the floodwaters began to recede.
The heavy rains late Tuesday night and early Wednesday prompted the National Weather Service to issue flash flood warnings for northwestern Nelson County and nearby areas of Spencer and Bullitt counties until 5 a.m. Wednesday.
Additional flooding is possible in the area due to the possibility of up to 1-1/2 inches of additional rainfall.
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