FLOOD VICTIMS RETURN TO SURVEY DEVASTATION.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A man stands in front of his crumbling home sobbing loudly in gasps and grunts. A woman weeps as she opens a hinged frame holding soggy, mud-smeared photos of her late husband. A teen-age girl breaks down, clutching a stuffed monkey she pulled from the muck inside her house. A new torrent washed this flooded town Friday, the tears of weary refugees returning home for the first time to see just how much they've lost. ``I've cried so much my face hurts,'' says Lisa McQueen, 24, hugging her husband, Randy, in front of their badly warped house. ``We kind of expected it to be bad, but once you see it, it really hits you,'' says Randy McQueen, 27. ``Everything's a total loss.'' The McQueens moved into the one-story, white-frame house four years ago last Saturday, the day a foot of rain sent the Licking River Licking River River, eastern Kentucky, U.S. It flows about 320 mi (515 km) generally northwest to enter the Ohio River at Covington, Ky., opposite Cincinnati, Ohio. It courses through an area of saline springs, which originally attracted animals to its salt licks. pouring through the streets of this town of 2,700. At least four people have died, dozens are still unaccounted for An inclusive term (not a casualty status) applicable to personnel whose person or remains are not recovered or otherwise accounted for following hostile action. Commonly used when referring to personnel who are killed in action and whose bodies are not recovered. and most homes and businesses sustained major or total damage, leaving in doubt the future of a town founded more than two centuries ago. The McQueens had planned to raise their 3-year-old daughter here. But now they talk about moving away as they stare down their block at houses ripped from foundations, and others buckling or smashed by the incredible force of a river. Trees carry odd snatches of people's lives - a bag of oranges, a purse, a pair of blue jeans blue jeans also blue·jeans pl.n. Clothes, especially pants, made of blue denim. blue jeans npl → tejanos mpl; vaqueros mpl . The Dairy Queen's cooler is found in the middle of the street half a block away. Hanging in the air is the dank dank adj. dank·er, dank·est Disagreeably damp or humid. See Synonyms at wet. [Middle English, probably of Scandinavian origin. stink of mildew left by rooftop-high water that's receded into ankle-deep muck. A passing nurse, dressed all in white, stops by to measure Judy Owens' blood pressure. It's high. The elderly woman is in tears after pulling from her crumpled crum·ple v. crum·pled, crum·pling, crum·ples v.tr. 1. To crush together or press into wrinkles; rumple. 2. To cause to collapse. v.intr. 1. mobile home a gold-embossed, double frame with portraits of her late husband, Bo, in his Navy uniform and in formal dress, shortly before his death 14 years ago. ``That was the only man ever in her life,'' explains her weeping daughter, Beverly Askin. ``He was everything to her.'' Falmouth was among the hardest-hit towns in floods that forced thousands from their homes along the Ohio River and smaller streams in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. Floods and tornadoes have been blamed for at least 58 deaths. The latest was counted Friday in the town of West Point, Ky., where more than 30 people have refused to flee high water. One holdout hold·out n. One that withholds agreement or consent upon which progress is contingent. Noun 1. holdout - a negotiator who hopes to gain concessions by refusing to come to terms; "their star pitcher was a holdout for six , a man considered a hermit hermit [Gr.,=desert], one who lives in solitude, especially from ascetic motives. Hermits are known in many cultures. Permanent solitude was common in ancient Christian asceticism; St. Anthony of Egypt and St. Simeon Stylites were noted hermits. by townsfolk, was pulled from water alongside the raised railroad tracks. The Ohio crested almost 16 feet above flood stage Friday in Louisville, at 38.8 feet. Normal river level at this time of year is 12 feet, and the water was not expected to drop significantly until Sunday. Some western Kentucky towns don't expect a crest for a week. Said National Weather Service hydrologist hy·drol·o·gy n. The scientific study of the properties, distribution, and effects of water on the earth's surface, in the soil and underlying rocks, and in the atmosphere. Mike Callahan, ``What you're going to see is a very, very slow fall.'' |
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