Casey Co. businesses flood during New Year's Day storms – WKYT

LIBERTY, Ky. (WKYT) – Several areas of Casey County flooded due to Saturday’s storm system according to the county’s emergency manager, Rick Wesley. The county took on over five inches of rain over the course of 24 hours, prompting a local state of emergency to be called.
Wesley says the hardest hit area was in Liberty, where Wallace Wilkinson Boulevard was closed for hours as high water moved across it and affected businesses on both sides of the road.
Among the impacted was Mike True and his family’s hardware store, which has served the community for 45 years. True says flooding from the nearby Green River has caused persistent problems for him and others in this area in recent years.
The water has to travel quite a distance to reach his storefront.
“It’s 1500 feet away to the river…maybe further,” said True.
Even still, he says it has covered that footage five times in the past 12 years.
“And we’ve had three floods over the past 15 to 18 months,” True said.
It’s become so frequent that he’s devised his own plans to lessen the damage.
“We put this pumping system in, so I can pump out about 100 and something thousand gallons an hour,” said True.
The pumps and sandbags helped this time. But True is hoping the issue will be looked into before it happens again and does irreparable harm to the community’s businesses.
“The thing is I’ve been in business a very long time so I can afford to take some of the licks. But some of these younger folks, they can’t,” True said.
True says he’s suffered about $750,000 in damages over the various flooding incidents – and that total doesn’t include this one. But because of his preparation and some community help, he hopes to be back in business by Monday.
Wesley said several rescues were made across the county Saturday from vehicles and homes. But he said he is not aware of anyone being injured.
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