Severe Weather

August 5, 2009 8 AM Louisville, Kentucky

Flash flooding has left part of the famed Churchill Downs track under water, and some horses stabled at the Louisville track were moved elsewhere due to high water.

Churchill spokesman John Asher says "a big chunk" of the track is under water after a thunderstorm dumped inches of rain on Louisville within hours Tuesday morning.

The flash flooding swamped Louisville with up to six inches of rain that stranded motorists, essentially shut down the University of Louisville and turned parts of the city into lakes.
While we were spared the intense early morning severe weather Louisville experienced, Lexington was hammered later in the day with severe thunderstorms. The boys I had had taken Rich to school early (his car was in the shop), went back to UK hospital for my doctor's appointment at 10:30 AM and then hit the mall and Wal-mart. As we wrapped up our shopping at the Super Wal-mart on Nicholasville, the lights began to flicker as we checked out around 3 PM. Seconds later rain began to pummel the roof and the lightening cracked just above and shook the store. I knew we would have to wait this storm out instead of heading straight to the van.

As we walked towards the exit, there was a traffic jam of carts and wide eyed shoppers who gazed out into the parking lot. As I turned to survey the scene, I was shocked to see a movie like set, a cartoon of a storm if you will. The sky was a deep brownish gray, the trees whipped like reeds, the rain came down in sideways sheets and lightening glowed in the sky every few seconds, causing bomb like cracks from above. I imagined it must have sounded similar to those waiting out bombing raids in Europe during WWII.

For a full twenty minutes we waited there as our popsicles melted and the girls held my hand. It was the most intense lightening storm I had ever witnessed. The bolts were long and flashed across the sky and towards the ground. One even seemed to hit something the parking lot, knocking out the power to Wal-mart. The generator struggled to keep the store lit and the lights went on and off until we left.

Once the rain slowed and the lightening didn't seem like a death wish, we ran through the front doors at a fast pace (well, as fast as I can run at this point) trying to find the van and toss the groceries inside in seconds flat. We were all soaked by the time we straped in our seats, but grateful to be safely on our way home.

Times like these will be easy to recall once Kentucky is a distant memory. The sounds of torrential downpours, seeing streams, creeks and rivers swollen beyond their banks, the eerie call of the tornado sirens and the beep, beep, beep of the emergency service issuing warnings. That's part of living in the Bluegrass.

Things I'll never forget.