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Following torrential rains and other hazardous weather, a state of emergency has been declared in Clark County and Winchester following the remnants of Hurricane Helene rolling into the area on Friday.

The declaration was confirmed via the X account of Kentucky governor Andy Beshear in a post at 2:41 ET on Friday. 

“Storm Update: Currently, four counties – Breathitt, Clark, Lee and Letcher – and the city of Winchester have verbally declared a state of emergency, and we are seeing widespread power outages around the commonwealth. Please stay safe,” it stated. 

The list of counties declaring a state of emergency grew over the weekend.

The storm left numerous city and county roads littered with flood water and downed trees. Local road and utility crews worked around the clock over the weekend to ensure that roads were safe and passable. 

Widespread power outages were reported by Kentucky Utilities, Clark Energy Cooperative and East Kentucky Power Cooperative with some areas of the county not having power into the day on Monday. At its peak the outage affected over 5,000 customers.

The extreme weather is also reported to have caused severe damage to one Winchester building.

As stated in a post by the “City of Winchester, KY Community Information” Facebook page, a building on the corner of East Lexington Avenue and Hodgkins Alley collapsed. As a result, East Lexington Avenue from South Highland Street to Buckner Street was minimized to one lane of traffic.

No injuries were reported.