TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Is Presidents Day the most confusing holiday in the U.S.?
States seem to have as many names for it and ideas about whom to honor as there have been presidents. The federal government doesn't even recognize Monday as Presidents Day. It's officially Washington's Birthday, honoring the first president and the original American yardstick for measuring greatness.
Click to Gallery
A display in the Visitor Center at the Kansas Statehouse aimed at helping people find their legislators in the building also honors Dwight Eisenhower, both as president and as supreme Allied commander during World War II, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
The Presidents Day holiday has inspired this contest sponsored by workers in the Kansas Legislature's documents room at the Statehouse, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
This photo from Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, shows the face of a statue honoring Abraham Lincoln, the president who kept the Union intact during the Civil War, on the Kansas Statehouse grounds, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
A statue on the Kansas Statehouse grounds honors Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president, who kept the Union intact during the Civil War, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
A historical exhibit at the Kansas Statehouse includes a display quoting President Abraham Lincoln next to a map showing the original extent of the Kansas-Nebraska territories before Kansas became a state and Lincoln took office in 1861, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
The holiday hasn't been celebrated on Washington's actual birthday of Feb. 22, or any other president's birthday, for more than 50 years. Presidents Day became the popular name after the holiday was fixed to a Monday.
The result is a jumble, causing some people to yearn for the holiday to just celebrate Washington again.
“The concept of Presidents Day is a confusing mishmash of ideas,” Hunter Abell, a Republican state legislator from Washington state, said recently. “By celebrating all the presidents, I believe that we inadvertently celebrate none.”
Abell's interest is more than academic: he wants his state to rename its Presidents Day holiday and made his remarks during a hearing on that proposal.
The federal holiday for Washington started in 1879, but the current date was fixed by law as of 1971.
States, of course, have been left to their own devices for decades. Thirty-four still use some form of Washington's name in their laws, while 19 use some form of Presidents Day. A few use both, while California law goes with “the third Monday in February.”
Forty-seven states will celebrate a public holiday on Monday. Indiana and Georgia celebrate Washington by giving state workers the day after Christmas off.
Delaware has no holiday. In 2009, its lawmakers started giving state employees “two floating holidays” instead of honoring individual presidents or having a Presidents Day, according to the state archives.
Washington’s Mount Vernon estate in Virginia wants to return to a federal holiday on his birthday. Its website says Washington’s character and accomplishments shouldn’t be “muddled” by a “vague” holiday.
A dozen states celebrating Washington by name make him share the day with someone else.
In Alabama, Washington shares the spotlight with friend-turned-rival Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president and primary author of the Declaration of Independence. In Arkansas, it's Daisy Gaston Bates, a civil rights leader best known for her work to integrate Little Rock's Central High School in 1957.
Most often, it’s Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War president who sometimes outranks even Washington among historians for keeping the Union intact.
Fourteen states have a separate holiday just for Lincoln. Most are on Honest Abe's Feb. 12 birthday. Indiana honors him with a day off for state employees on the day after Thanksgiving, which Lincoln is often credited with starting in 1863.
A few states have special days for presidents identified with them: Herbert Hoover in Iowa, Dwight Eisenhower in Kansas, Harry Truman in Missouri, Lyndon Johnson in Texas and John F. Kennedy in Massachusetts.
On JFK’s May 29 birthday, his home state also honors favorite sons John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Calvin Coolidge, who was a Vermont farm boy before becoming Massachusetts' governor and, later, the country's 30th president.
Since 1958 in Kentucky, Jan. 30 has been Franklin D. Roosevelt Day, though the president who guided the country out of the Great Depression and through most of World War II was a New Yorker.
In Oklahoma, a Republican state senator has proposed a new holiday for Nov. 5, the anniversary of last year's presidential election, to celebrate President Donald J. Trump Day.
A presidential day doesn't necessarily inspire public fanfare.
Take Herbert Hoover, whose Depression-marked White House work gets low marks from many historians, though he is highly regarded for nonpresidential humanitarian work.
Iowa set aside a day for him in 1969, but it appears to get little notice outside Cedar County, the home of his presidential library.
“Most Iowans are not aware there is a Hoover Day,” said Leo Landis, the state historical society's curator, who acknowledged in an email that he once was among them, despite living in Iowa for more than 45 years.
Presidential impersonators pop up in hundreds of places each year. It's not just Lincoln and Washington. The Association of Lincoln Presenters website even lists a portrayer for Rutherford B. Hayes, the often-neglected single-term 19th president.
But Lincoln stands head, shoulders and stovepipe hat above the rest when it comes to presidents audiences want to see, and he dominates the association's roster of historical presenters.
John Cooper, the association's president and a Lincoln impersonator himself, said that in scores of professional presentations since 2008, only two people have been displeased with meeting Lincoln. Honest Abe appeals to all groups and is many people's favorite president, he said.
“Everybody is happy to see Lincoln,” he said. “When I go to a county fair, I usually don’t have to wander far before I have people come up to me, and they want to talk and they want to get a picture."
A display in the Visitor Center at the Kansas Statehouse aimed at helping people find their legislators in the building also honors Dwight Eisenhower, both as president and as supreme Allied commander during World War II, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
The Presidents Day holiday has inspired this contest sponsored by workers in the Kansas Legislature's documents room at the Statehouse, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
This photo from Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, shows the face of a statue honoring Abraham Lincoln, the president who kept the Union intact during the Civil War, on the Kansas Statehouse grounds, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
A statue on the Kansas Statehouse grounds honors Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president, who kept the Union intact during the Civil War, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
A historical exhibit at the Kansas Statehouse includes a display quoting President Abraham Lincoln next to a map showing the original extent of the Kansas-Nebraska territories before Kansas became a state and Lincoln took office in 1861, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels Monday and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest.
Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.
“I think everybody was shocked at how quick (the river) actually did come up,” said salon owner Jessica Tuggle, who was watching Monday as murky brown water approached her business in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital along the swollen Kentucky River.
She said that as each new wave of rain arrived over the weekend, anxious residents hoped for a reprieve so they could just figure out how bad things would get. She and friends packed up her salon gear, including styling chairs, hair products and electronics, and took it to a nearby tap house up the hill.
“Everybody was just ‘stop raining, stop raining’ so we could get an idea of what the worst situation would be,” she said.
Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to approach a record crest Monday.
Ashley Welsh and her husband and four children had to quickly depart their Frankfort home along the river Saturday evening, leaving a lifetime of belongings later submerged by floodwaters.
When she awoke to water coming into their house early Saturday, Welsh woke everyone up and they packed their truck. They alerted guests to leave an Airbnb they own down the road, packed up the Airbnb and then helped her sister, who lives next to the Airbnb, evacuate. After they took a short nap at their house, the water had risen.
“By the time we woke up, there was already three feet of water that we had to wade through to get out,” she said.
They packed a suitcase and escaped from the rising water and went to a local hotel. One daughter carried two cats through water to safety and their black Labrador dog had to swim, as they stayed close to make sure no one got swept away.
The water rose up to their second floor. By Sunday morning, she checked her house's cameras.
“My stuff was floating around in the living room. I was just heartbroken. Our life is up there,” Welsh said.
The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.
The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.
In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.
The Kentucky River was cresting at Frankfort Lock at 48.27 feet (14.71 meters) on Monday morning, just shy of the record of 48.5 feet (14.78 meters) set there on Dec. 10, 1978, according to CJ Padgett, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Louisville, Kentucky, office. While other areas are in major flood stage, the forecasted crest for this location is closest to its record.
Carroll County Deputy Judge-Executive Michael Humphrey in Kentucky has ordered mandatory evacuations in some places, warning that a “significant flooding event of which history has never seen” is expected.
More than 100 structures were destroyed in McNairy County, Tennessee, where a tornado tore through the town of Selmer with winds estimated up to 160 mph (257 kph), local emergency management officials said. State officials have confirmed five people were killed by the severe weather in the county of roughly 26,100 residents.
The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.
Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.
The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.
Rives, a northwestern Tennessee town of about 200 people, was almost entirely underwater after the Obion River overflowed.
Domanic Scott went to check on his father in Rives after not hearing from him in a house where water reached the doorstep.
“It’s the first house we’ve ever paid off. The insurance companies around here won’t give flood insurance to anyone who lives in Rives because we’re too close to the river and the levees. So if we lose it, we’re kind of screwed without a house,” Scott said.
In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived over the weekend at a storm shelter near a public school clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in New York; Kimberlee Kruesi and Jonathan Mattise, in Nashville, Tennessee; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.
The rising Ohio River partially submerges the bronze statue of James Bradley along Riverside Drive, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Covington, Ky. Cincinnati and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge are seen across the Ohio River. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A Canadian goose swims in the rising Ohio River at the intersection of River Riverside Place and Ben Bernstein Place, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Covington, Ky., across the river from Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Carole Smith walks through her flooded home on Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Search and rescue firefighters carry a boat to a flooded neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A flooded neighborhood is seen on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Road crews work to clear Lee County Rd. 681 in Saltillo, Miss, Sunday, April 6, 2025, of downed trees that blocked the road following the severe weather that passed through the area Saturday night. (Thomas Wells /The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP)
CORRECTS TO MICHAEL NOT MICHALE Michael Scott Memering looks out of his trailer after evacuating the Licking River RV Campground that was flooded by the rising waters of the Licking River, seen behind, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Falmouth, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Bill Jones pulls his boat ashore, filled with bottles of bourbon, from a flooded home near the banks of the Kentucky River on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Search and rescue firefighters conduct wellness checks in a neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Abner Wagers stands near flooded homes in the rising waters of the Kentucky River in Monterey, Ky,. Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The flooded downtown area is seen on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Search and rescue firefighters speak to a resident in a flooded neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A group of people survey damage at Pounders Mobile Home Park following a strong line of storms in the area in Muscle Shoals, Ala, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (Dan Busey/The TimesDaily via AP)
Search and rescue firefighters conduct wellness checks in a neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Abner Wagers walks in the rising waters of the Kentucky River on a flooded Monterey Pike in Monterey, Ky., Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Abner Wagers, right, and Brayden Baker, both with the Monterey Volunteer Fire Department, walk in the rising waters of the Kentucky River near a flooded home in Monterey, Ky., Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
the rising waters of Cedar Creek and the Kentucky River overflow their banks, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Monterey, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
