FRANKFORT — “Tony! Tell Dylan to grab granny’s laptop off the floor in the office!” Jeanna Fint shouted across floodwaters to her father, as he paddled a neighbor’s canoe across a section of Travis Circle in Frankfort.
Area residents gathered at the water’s edge on Sunday afternoon, the raging Kentucky River visible a quarter-mile away.
Fint wasn’t prepared for the water to get so high. Her home is above a first-floor garage, but by noon Sunday, the water had reached her second-story deck, with her cat CJ still inside.
Frankfort has been preparing for the floods since Thursday. Forecasters at the National Water Prediction Service predict the river to crest at 49.5 feet, higher than the city’s record of 48.4, at 8 a.m. Monday.
Latest: Kentucky floods: Residents prepare as rivers begin to crest across the state
“It was going to be one of the top five storms of all times,” Michael Mueller, Franklin County’s judge executive, said Sunday. “And now this morning, you wake up, and it’s the number one storm of all time. So it’s been nerve-wracking.”
The city’s floodgates are only 51.5 feet high, prompting city officials, the sheriff’s department and members of the National Guard to knock on doors in south Frankfort, urging people to evacuate. Mayor Lane Wilkerson said there was no mandatory evacuation on Sunday afternoon, but urged residents to leave if possible.
“If you have an opportunity to move to higher ground, and you have the means to do so, please do that,” Wilkerson said. “Don’t take any chances. Stay safe, life safety is the number one priority here.”
Wilkerson and Mueller said many residents are leaving, but it’s hard to convince everyone. For those who chose to stay, the mayor announced a curfew for the flood-affected areas from 8 p.m. Sunday until 6 on Monday morning.
“Everyone, I think, has this mindset that it’s not going to happen to me, because it’s never happened on that property,” Mueller said. “It’s generational. This is different.”
But the community is pulling together, helping each other pack up, move cars or trailers and ferry things from houses already impassible by the floods.
Kelly Sparrow parked his U-Haul in a neighbor’s driveway as water rose to the roof on his one-story home. Hours later, floodwaters covered that same driveway, as Travis Circle residents leapfrogged cars up and up the road to higher ground.
“It’s a shame that it takes something like this for people to actually come together, because we’ve been so divided here recently,” Sparrow said. “It takes this kind of disaster.”
Not far away, Gerry James hopped out of his SUV, an orange kayak strapped to the top.
He and his wife were on their way to the Frankfort Cemetery to look down from Daniel Boone’s grave at their house from above.
The James’ left their home yesterday, as the Kentucky River spilled over its banks and into their home near Second and Murray streets.
Residents were cut off from their homes as Travis Circle was submerged by flood waters from the Kentucky River in Frankfort on April 6, 2025. They salvaged items from their homes as the river is expected to crest at a record level of 49.5 feet this week.
James, the founder of Explore Kentucky, is no stranger to Kentucky’s waterways. For the last eight years, the initiative has held the Bluegrass River Run, a paddling event to celebrate the Kentucky River, “the waterway that defines the Commonwealth.”
“Thank god for NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration),” James said of the federal agency behind the National Weather Service and National Water Prediction Service. “They’re under attack right now, but without predictive modeling …”
His voice trailed off as he looked down Second Street at his neighbor’s house, where water already rose over the porch and into the first floor.
“It was really helpful to have that information,” he said of the river levels. “We’re really grateful.”
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Flooding Kentucky River in Frankfort building to record crest
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