Kentucky watches for surging rivers to recede so widespread cleanup can begin

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — After days of deluges overfilled rivers to near-record levels across Kentucky, residents were anxious Tuesday to return to their flooded homes and assess what's salvageable, even as stubbornly high waters kept some of them waiting even longer.

Susan Williams returned to her rural Franklin County home with her four dogs and three cats. She left Sunday while the waters kept rising. Now, her house and a neighbor’s looked like they were on an island in brown waters.

Williams and some friends loaded her animals onto a small boat and paddled back and forth, dropping them off at the house built by her parents.

“It’s my world. It’s my little paradise,” Williams said about her home.

Water was slowly receding in flooded Frankfort, and officials hoped that by the end of Wednesday, most could get back into their homes, Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference.

Beshear urged people to wait if they couldn’t get to their homes without driving through water.

“Remember, even as much as we love our stuff — and sometimes it’s memories and photographs that are impacted — it’s our lives and the lives of our family and friends that matter,” Beshear said.

Officials warned of flooding expected along the Ohio River in Henderson and Owensboro into next week, with swift water rescue teams at the ready.

Officials in Frankfort diverted traffic, turned off utilities to businesses and instituted a curfew as the Kentucky River crested Monday just short of a record set in 1978. Water service has been restored, but wastewater isn't back up yet, Beshear said.

Inundated rivers are the latest threat from persistent storms that have killed at least 23 people, including 10 in Tennessee. At least 157 tornadoes struck within seven days beginning March 30, according to a preliminary report from the National Weather Service.

Flood danger remains elsewhere, including parts of Tennessee, Arkansas and Indiana.

Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Craig Greenberg said Tuesday that no further evacuations were expected along the Ohio River, which is expected to crest Wednesday before the water begins receding. He said the Louisville Fire Department and others had helped 66 people evacuate a hotel surrounded by water.

Beshear's office said more than 800 customers still had no access to water and nearly 4,000 were under boil water advisories.

Over the past several days, many of the 110 residents of Monterey, Kentucky, had left their homes. Steve Carter lives on a hill outside town and sheltered his father-in-law, who lives in the flood zone where the water remained high on Tuesday.

“This is the worst I’ve seen it since I’ve been around,” Carter said. “Right now, it’s to the point there’s not much to be done. Now people are just waiting for the water to recede so they can start the cleanup process.”

A small distiller in Frankfort turned its stills back on Tuesday and was back to making bourbon.

At Glenns Creek Distilling, the flooding narrowly avoided the main distillery, but a neighboring 26,000-square foot (2,415-square meter) warehouse remained underwater. Owner David Meier got back in on Tuesday, but he said it could take another day for the water to recede to check equipment and some bourbon barrels. Whether barrels that went underwater would have to be destroyed, he doesn't yet know.

“And so we might as well do what we can do here in the meantime," Meier said. "Keep making bourbon.”

It’s the latest severe weather to cause deaths and widespread damage in Kentucky. Two months ago, at least 24 people died in a round of storms that swelled creeks and covered roads with water. Hundreds had to be rescued, and most of the deaths were caused by vehicles getting stuck in high water.

A storm in late 2021 spawned tornadoes that killed 81 people and leveled portions of towns in western Kentucky. The following summer, historic floodwaters inundated parts of eastern Kentucky, leaving dozens more dead.

Deadly storm systems also battered the state in 2023 and last year, spawning straight-line winds, possible tornadoes and powerful thunderstorms.

Wanona Harp has been staying at a friend's house across the street and boating to her flooded home in Lockport, Kentucky, to tend to her dogs, rabbits and chickens that she moved to higher ground.

Harp said some homes are completely inundated in Lockport, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Louisville.

“You can just barely see of the top of them,” she said. “Some of them are just completely underwater.”

Back in Frankfort, a neighborhood was setting up tables for cleaning supplies on Tuesday ahead of the next massive cleanup.

The first assignment for the crew of neighbors: a couple of homes on higher ground with flooded basements.

“As soon as we can get in there, we’ll help them clean out and just kind of go downstream,” said Carly Cockley, who expects a mucky mess on her home's first floor.

Contributing to this report were Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Carolyn Kaster in Lockport, Kentucky; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; and Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky. Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee.

Susan Williams sits in a boat with her dogs as they prepare to return home amid floodwaters on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 near Frankfort, Ky. Two of her friends helped Williams make the short boat ride back to her home. (AP Photo/Bruce Schreiner)

A pair of Canada geese swim past a dumpster during a flood, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Evansville, Ind. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Kayakers paddle on the floodwaters at the Buffalo Trace Distillery on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Kayakers paddle on the floodwaters in a parking lot on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Kayakers paddle on the floodwaters at the Buffalo Trace Distillery on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

A vehicle sits in a flooded neighborhood on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Kayakers paddle on the floodwaters near sunken cars on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

In an aerial view, a bourbon barrel floats on the floodwaters of the Buffalo Trace Distillery on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

In an aerial view, the flooded Buffalo Trace Distillery is seen on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

In an aerial view, a bourbon barrel floats on the floodwaters of the Buffalo Trace Distillery on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

In an aerial view, the flooded Buffalo Trace Distillery is seen on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

A flooded structure is seen on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Azariah Boone, of Owenton, Ky, looks out over debris and rising floodwater from the Kentucky River washing up Crittenden Street, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Gratz, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Water seeps through a flood wall on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Camp Turn-A-Bout is flooded by the rising Ohio River at the Gunpowder Creek, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Union, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A Canada goose flies along the rising Ohio River at the flooded Anderson Ferry ramp Monday, April 7, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The rising Ohio River floods along Lower River Road, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Rabbit Hash, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

In an aerial view, the flooded Buffalo Trace Distillery is seen on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

A mobile home park floods where rising waters of the Little Sugar Creek meet the Ohio River, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Napoleon, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Campground manager Traci Yoder stands in front of her RV near Frankfort, Ky., Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Kristin M. Hall)

Buildings in a flooded downtown area are seen on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

The rising Ohio River floods along Lower River Road, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Rabbit Hash, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Wednesday it is suing Maine’s education department for not complying with the government's push to ban transgender athletes in girls and women's sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex.

The lawsuit follows weeks of feuding between the Republican administration and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills that has led to threats to cut off crucial federal funding and a clash at the White House when she told President Donald Trump: “We’ll see you in court.”

The political overtones of the moment were clear, with Attorney General Pam Bondi — and several athletes who joined her on stage at the Justice Department — citing the matter as a priority for Trump. Bondi said other states, including Minnesota and California, could be sued as well.

"This has been a huge issue for him,” Bondi said of the president. “Pretty simple, girls play in girls sports, boys play in boys sports. Women play in women’s sports, men play in men’s sports.”

Trump campaigned against the participation of transgender athletes in sports in his 2024 race. As president, he has signed executive orders to do that and to use a rigid definition of the sexes, rather than gender, for federal government purposes. The orders are being challenged in court.

Trump’s departments of Education and Health and Human Services have said the Maine agency is violating the federal Title IX antidiscrimination law by allowing transgender girls to participate on girls teams. The Justice Department is asking the court to order the state to direct all schools to prohibit the participation of males in athletic competition designated for females.

Maine officials have refused to agree with a settlement that would have banned transgender students from sports, arguing that the law does not prevent schools from letting transgender athletes participate. Representatives for Mills and Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The complaint cites as examples the case of a biological boy who in February won first place in pole vault at Maine’s indoor track and field meet and a biological male who last year began competing in female cross country races in the state and placed first in the women’s 5K.

The lawsuit reflects a stark philosophical turnabout from the position on gender identity issues taken during Democratic administrations.

Under President Joe Biden, the government tried to extend civil rights policies to protect transgender people. In 2016, the Justice Department, then led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, sued North Carolina over a law that required transgender people to use public restrooms and showers that corresponded the gender on their birth certificate.

Trump signed an executive order in February, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” that gave federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with his administration’s interpretation of “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth.

Bondi was joined at the news conference by former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has emerged as a public face of the opposition to transgender athletes. Gaines tied with a transgender athlete for fifth place in a 2022 NCAA championship and has testified before lawmakers across the country on the issue. She and others frame the issue as women’s rights.

During a February meeting with governors, Trump threatened to pull federal funding from Maine if the state did not comply with his executive order. Mills responded: “We’ll see you in court.”

Maine sued the administration this month after the Department of Agriculture said it was pausing some money for the state’s educational programs because of what the administration contended was Maine’s failure to comply with the Title IX law. A federal judge on Friday ordered the administration to unfreeze funds intended for a Maine child nutrition program.

Questions over the rights of transgender people have become a major political issue in the past five years.

Twenty-six states have laws or policies barring transgender girls from girls school sports. GOP-controlled states have also been banning gender-affirming health care for transgender minors and restricting bathroom use in schools and sometimes other public buildings.

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks with reporters at the White House, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Education Secretary Linda McMahon accompanied by Attorney General Pam Bondi, right, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

FILE - Democratic Gov. Janet Mills delivers her State of the State address, Jan. 30, 2024, at the State House in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)