Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
River flooding causes major impacts days after severe storms in the central US
AccuWeather
Follow
4/8/2025
Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reports live from Ohio on April 8 as extreme flooding continues to cause major problems from Cincinnati to Frankfort and well beyond.
Category
🗞
News
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
Aaron joins us now from Springfield, Ohio, after traveling north from Kentucky, where he was earlier.
00:05
Aaron, tell us what you've witnessed the past few days.
00:09
Yeah, good morning, guys.
00:10
I tell you, the last few days is exactly why I do what I do,
00:13
because we have focused so much on the immediate flash flood threat
00:16
that I think a lot of folks just kind of think that all of the danger is over.
00:20
Meanwhile, folks like that in Kentucky, where they've been suffering for days in and days out
00:26
of near or record-breaking river flooding,
00:28
that's one of those effects and results from all of that flash flooding
00:32
that has caused so many headaches for so many over such a large portion of the U.S.,
00:37
and there's been anywhere.
00:38
I've seen water as high up to the second floor of rooftops.
00:41
There are still to this day right now search and rescue operations ongoing
00:45
for some of those locations, including a couple areas in Boston,
00:49
and they've been having to go door-to-door to make sure if anybody has been home
00:53
that stayed behind that is now trapped by those floodwaters
00:56
that aren't going to go away really anytime soon.
00:58
And even the pictures that you're showing here all the way up to my original home turf
01:02
of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Ohio River there is crested up to 60 feet,
01:07
and it's really putting into perspective just how important that flood wall is
01:11
that has been getting certainly a workout over the last couple of days.
01:14
And, Aaron, you just mentioned it.
01:15
Both of us have that in common that we're from Cincinnati,
01:18
but in places like Frankfurt, that flooding, it's clear that that is not typical,
01:22
that this is in a usual situation.
01:24
But explain for people in somewhere like Cincinnati where the flooding seems maybe not as bad.
01:30
Some people know the river floods a little bit every year.
01:33
Explain why this is so unusual.
01:35
This is different.
01:38
Yeah, well, I mean, for one, the flooding in Frankfurt has only been seen once before,
01:42
and it was in the 1970s, and it's what prompted them to build their current flood wall.
01:47
But the folks that are beyond that flood wall and in the lower-lying areas,
01:50
they were the ones hit substantially hard.
01:53
It crested, I think, just a few inches under that record that was set in the 1970s.
01:58
And, folks, you know, along the lines of it's been interesting because all of the water from Cincinnati
02:03
and that Ohio River, they all eventually meet into the Mississippi River.
02:07
So something that's been actually pretty crazy to witness unfold about this particular system
02:11
is that all of this is eventually going to drain down to the Gulf.
02:13
And down in Louisiana, some of those areas are expected to hit major flood stage,
02:18
and they didn't even receive any of the immediate impacts from this storm system
02:22
for a perspective of just how widespread and how high-impacting that this has been.
02:27
All right, Aaron, so you've had a couple of days to reflect here on what you've seen.
02:32
So once again, just give us the kind of context of this storm in a general sense
02:36
because normally whenever you see this type of flooding,
02:38
it's from a tropical system that works its way across.
02:42
But this has not been tropical at all.
02:44
This has just been rounds and rounds of rain.
02:46
So give us kind of a context of what you've been seeing.
02:51
Well, I tell you for sure that they call this a once-in-generational storm for a reason
02:55
because, like you said, typically when you see flooding rains like this,
02:58
it's associated with the remnants of a tropical system.
03:01
This one, however, was a very rare, basically stationary storm system
03:05
that just sat over the same areas for multiple days at a time.
03:08
And if it's one thing that we really try and reiterate a lot,
03:12
especially when it comes to flooding, is to turn around, don't drown.
03:15
It's not worth that extra, you know, your life isn't worth an extra few minutes of inconvenience.
03:21
Find other ways around it.
03:22
It's time and time again we see it with no matter how many flooding events that I cover,
03:26
people trying to drive through those high waters,
03:28
and also to really yield those evacuation orders when they are issued.
03:32
I saw that in Frankfurt.
03:34
People were taking that very seriously, which was a very good sign.
03:37
But we need that all across the board, especially with these high-impacting events,
03:40
especially if you don't see the immediate impacts right away,
03:43
necessarily from the flash flooding,
03:45
that eventually leads to the river flooding that could impact you if you leave near a river.
03:50
Some good reminders there.
03:51
Thanks, Storm Chaser Aaron Brigsby.
03:54
Thank you for that report.
Recommended
0:32
|
Up next
Thunderstorms drench the Northeast on the last day of June
AccuWeather
today
2:43
Extreme floods cut Kentucky towns off from the world
AccuWeather
4/7/2025
2:21
Intense dust storm precedes severe storms in the central US
AccuWeather
4/2/2025
3:20
Latest round of flash flooding from Debby begins in North Carolina
AccuWeather
8/8/2024
3:15
'It's only going to get worse:' Tornadic storms leave the ground saturated with more rain on the way
AccuWeather
4/5/2025
3:50
Severe storms lead to destructive threats in the Plains
AccuWeather
10/30/2024
2:24
Debby's flooding continues in the Carolinas
AccuWeather
8/8/2024
2:44
Storms spawn tornadoes in Nebraska and Iowa
AccuWeather
4/16/2024
4:19
Vehicles stranded in deep floodwaters across multiple North Carolina towns
AccuWeather
9/17/2024
3:30
Powerful storms carve a trail of damage through the Midwest
AccuWeather
6/19/2025
2:51
Tornadoes and flash flooding wreak havoc in Louisiana
AccuWeather
4/11/2024
4:05
Severe storms bring tornado threat from the Midwest to the Southeast
AccuWeather
5/9/2024
2:27
How storm chasers are watching quick-moving storms in and around Ohio
AccuWeather
4/2/2024
4:05
Intense flooding causes bridge collapses and stands vehicles across southern North Carolina
AccuWeather
9/16/2024
2:44
Tornado-warned storms roll through Minnesota and Iowa
AccuWeather
4/29/2025
3:36
Repeated rounds of storms bring potential for floods and tornadoes to the Gulf Coast
AccuWeather
4/9/2024
4:17
Severe storms mainly produce wind in the Midwest
AccuWeather
4/29/2025
2:49
River levels continue to rise after Debby in northeastern Florida
AccuWeather
8/6/2024
5:12
Severe storms fire up in the Plains
AccuWeather
4/2/2025
1:33
Heavy rain leads to flooding in Missouri
AccuWeather
8/2/2023
2:03
River flooding after Ian could linger until Thanksgiving
AccuWeather
10/15/2022
3:20
Debby keeps pounding South Carolina with flooding rain and dangerous winds
AccuWeather
8/8/2024
1:36
Wind damage and flooding left behind by Hurricane Debby
AccuWeather
8/5/2024
3:08
Break in heavy rain allows flooding to subside in Charleston
AccuWeather
8/6/2024
4:39
Hurricane Helene's impacts stretch into Georgia and beyond
AccuWeather
9/28/2024