LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Torrential rains swamped parts of Kentucky's largest city, forcing emergency crews to navigate flooded neighborhoods and make more than 160 rescues.
Meanwhile, a mother and child remained missing Friday, hours after they were swept into a flooded creek in the eastern part of the state.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Robert Purdy said the two were stranded in their vehicle in high water around 9:30 a.m. Friday on a rural highway in Lee County, near the Estill County line.
Local authorities could see them in the vehicle and attempted a water rescue, Purdy said. But around 11:30 a.m., the rushing water swept them away and rescue workers lost sight of them. A search was continuing late in the day.
As rain pushed through parts of the South and the Midwest, severe thunderstorms also were blamed for the death of a woman who was camping with her family at Natural Bridge State Resort Park in eastern Kentucky and a second woman who went outside to look at the rising river.
Meanwhile, thousands of people in south-central Kansas lost power as winds that reached nearly 90 mph downed trees and damaged buildings overnight and early Friday, and a possible tornado was being investigated in Oklahoma.
In Louisville, Simone Wester awoke Friday to the sight of boats carting away her neighbors.
"It looked like a hurricane struck," said Wester, whose apartment complex was surrounded by waist-deep floodwaters.
Wester, 20, and her 7-month-old son, Jeremiah, were rescued by Kevin Mansfield, who charted a navigable path and ushered them out of the flooding.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said more than 160 water rescues had been made.
In Powell County, Ky., Catherine Carlson, 45, was killed and her husband was injured when a large tree limb fell on their tent, said Coroner Hondo Hearne. Their three children didn't appear to be injured, he said.
The campground where the family was staying was evacuated because of flash flooding, said Gil Lawson, a spokesman for the state Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet.
In Wayne County, a woman living along Upper Newcomb Creek was apparently swept away and drowned when she stepped outside her house to look at the rising water Friday night, The Herald-Dispatch reported.
The woman told her husband she was going to step outside for a moment; when she didn't come back within a couple of minutes, he went out to look for her, the newspaper quoted Wayne County 911 Director Bill Willis as saying. About a half-hour later, someone called 911 to report a body in the water, he said.
In Kansas, no deaths were reported but six people were injured in a severe thunderstorm, emergency management officials said. Several buildings were damaged in Newton, and the Jabara Airport in Wichita was closed Friday morning because of storm debris on the airfield.
In Oklahoma, the National Weather Service plans to send a survey team to Ottawa County to investigate reports of a tornado touchdown.
The possible tornado near Afton was part of a storm system that moved through northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas late Thursday and early Friday.
Elsewhere, heavy rains that drenched parts of southern Indiana with nearly 4 inches of rain sparked flooding that trapped two truck drivers and a motorist in their vehicles Friday before emergency crews ferried them to dry ground.
A northern Kentucky school bus with 16 students aboard was stranded for about three hours by floodwaters that covered roads to schools. Numerous roads in northeastern Kentucky were under water.
Some cars were submerged by high water on roads next to the University of Louisville's main campus, said school spokesman Mark Hebert. A few campus buildings had water in the basements, he said. Early classes were canceled Friday, but classes resumed by midmorning.
Information for this article was contributed by Rebecca Yonker of The Associated Press.
A Section on 04/04/2015