Death toll from flash flooding in Kentucky rises to 25

The death toll from flooding in eastern Kentucky has risen to 25 as US officials in the Appalachian region are trying to calculate the cost of the worst natural disaster there in decades. 

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on Saturday that he expected the state’s death toll to rise.

"I'm worried we are going to be finding bodies for weeks to come," Beshear said in a midday news briefing, shortly after tweeting that the death toll had risen to 25.

The Democratic governor confirmed that "we are still in the search and rescue phase," saying, "We will get through this together."

Beshear said an earlier report that six children were among the dead was inaccurate; two of them had turned out to be adults.

The southern US state's governor said more than a dozen people were still unaccounted for and rescuers and residents were searching for survivors as they were still unable to reach some areas.

Beshear told CNN that there could be “many more” deaths. “It’s getting worse. I think we’ll update it even in a few weeks… There are still a lot of people unaccounted for. And in this area, it’s going to be a difficult task to get a solid number of people who are unaccounted for.”

“We are still searching and recovering from the ongoing disaster,” he added, adding that the bodies of four young siblings were among those found after being swept away from their parents.

Beshear said national guard units from Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia had made more than 650 air rescues since the flooding began Wednesday evening, while state police and other state personnel had registered some 750 water rescues.

He said the search was "tremendously stressful and difficult" for rescue teams.

Beshear said the impending rain posed a challenge, and "while we don't think it'll be historic rain, it'll be hard."

He said during the briefing that 15 emergency shelters had been opened in schools, churches and state parks, though at least one had been "overwhelmed."

Some 18,000 homes remained without power, Beshear said, and thousands were without safe water supplies.

MG