Kentucky
Eastern Kentucky bears the brunt of Helene storm damage Friday. What to know
Aerial view of Longboat Key after Hurricane Helene
Photojournalist Thomas Bender flew over Longboat Key to get a look at the beaches after Hurricane Helene
Several counties and cities in eastern and central Kentucky declared states of emergencies after remnants of Hurricane Helene — now considered a post-tropical cyclone by the National Hurricane Center — pounded the region with heavy rain and winds Friday.
After making landfall in northwest Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday night as a category four storm, Hurricane Helene’s remnants migrated into Kentucky, wreaking fallen trees, downed electrical lines and widespread power outages.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced on social media that the following counties declared states of emergencies Friday:
- Boyd County
- Breathitt County
- Clark County
- Clay County
- Lee County
- Letcher County
- Magoffin County
- Wolfe County
Gov. Andy Beshear said the following cities declared states of emergencies Friday:
- Ashland
- Catlettsburg
- Clay City
- Winchester
Power outages impacted roughly 221,000 households across the state Friday, Beshear said.
Alex Vorst, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Office Jackson, Kentucky, which oversees forecasting for many of the areas that sustained the worst damage, said fallen trees and powerlines were the primary sources of damage. Wind gusts above 40 mph and the damp ground caused by steady rain created conditions for trees and poles to topple over, he said.
The National Weather Service Office Jackson is close to verifying the damage within their territory with emergency dispatch centers in each of the impacted counties, Vorst said.
Parts of eastern Kentucky received rain Tuesday and Wednesday prior to the arrival of Helene’s remnants. The mounting rainfall throughout Friday compounded the impacts of the wind, Vorst said.
“You’re having essentially four days of nonstop rain. That’s going to make soil saturated, and when you throw 40-55 mph wind gusts on top of that, it really makes it easy for trees to fall down. And that’s a big part of what we saw yesterday,” Vorst said.
Tony Edwards, spokesperson for the National Weather Service Forecast Office Charleston, which oversees Boyd County, reported a similar scope of damages in northeast Kentucky. Boyd County suffered significant tree damage, he said.
With trees still covered with leaves this time of year, wind has more surface area to catch and pull off tree limbs, Edwards said.
“When you get that kind of wind with trees leafed-out, it’ll do quite a bit of damage,” he said.
The number of people without power is steadily dropping. As of 11 a.m. Saturday, more than 130,500 customers are without power.
Windy conditions are expected to fade throughout Saturday, though southern and eastern sections of central Kentucky could still see gusts at speeds 20-25 mph, according to the National Weather Service Louisville. Rain is expected to stick around through the weekend and early into next week, Vorst said. As of late Saturday morning, the center of the weather system is hanging over the western portion of the Kentucky-Tennessee border, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“As these remnants have stalled over the commonwealth, that’s going to keep rain and some isolated thunderstorms in the forecast through the weekend and then early next week,” Vorst said.
Kentucky
Kentucky mother, daughter turn down $26 million offer for their land: “It’s priceless”
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Kentucky
Key dates and a possible sneak peek for Kentucky Basketball fans
During his recent radio show, Pope offered a sobering reality check regarding the timeline for the rest of his staff overhaul.
“We’re going through a little bit of a hiring process that will be ongoing—probably for the next six weeks,” Pope explained. “We could have some closure on some things quickly, but I can’t really talk in detail about anything until it gets through the whole HR process.”
In a vacuum, a six-week HR timeline is standard corporate procedure. But in the modern landscape of college basketball, that timeline is a massive hurdle because of the newly accelerated Transfer Portal window instituted by the NCAA.
The 15-Day Transfer Portal window
Players cannot officially enter their names into the Transfer Portal until April 7th. However, anyone paying attention knows that backdoor deals are already being orchestrated, and agents are prematurely announcing their clients’ intentions to leave. It is an unregulated mess, but it is the reality of the sport.
That April 7th opening is the first major date to circle on your calendar.
Once the portal opens, it remains active for exactly 15 days. When that window slams shut, no new names can enter. There are no graduate exemptions or special loopholes for late decisions. If a player plans on transferring, they must formally notify their current school before that 15-day window expires on April 21st at 11:59 PM. If they miss the deadline, they are stuck.
Mark Pope has to have his staff aligned, his evaluations complete, and his recruiting pitches perfected before that window opens. It is indeed a very short clock as the coaching staff looks to change drastically.
Once the dust from the transfer portal finally settles, the new-look Wildcats will quickly hit the floor.
Official mid-June practices will tip off the summer schedule, but Pope recently hinted that an international offseason trip is currently in the works. Per NCAA rules, college basketball programs are only allowed to take these foreign exhibition tours once every four years.
If the trip gets finalized, BBN will get a highly anticipated, early look at this brand-new roster competing against actual opponents long before Big Blue Madness in the fall.
Needless to say, it is going to be an incredibly busy, high-stakes few months in Lexington.
Any guesses on where Pope and company plan on going? And do you like the new Transfer Portal window?
Kentucky
Kentucky optometry board faces pushback on proposed reforms
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Kentucky’s optometry board is trying to address a scandal after years of issuing waivers for optometry graduates who couldn’t pass their national exams.
The board reversed course earlier this year. But at a public hearing on the new rules, the national testing group said the reforms still carve out loopholes.
Nevada and New Hampshire say they will not accept the testing exceptions Kentucky has proposed and won’t recognize Kentucky optometry licenses as equivalent to their own.
21 Kentucky optometrists have been under scrutiny.
At Wednesday’s public hearing, the state gave the public under 15 minutes to make their case.
Public voices opposition at brief hearing
In the conference room of a Holiday Inn Express, two members of the public voiced their opposition to Kentucky’s proposed reforms. Both are from the National Board of Examiners in Optometry.
“The KBOE has not taken the straightforward and obvious path to ensure public safety,” NBEO Secretary/Treasurer Daniel Taylor said.
“The Kentucky optometry board has lost its way, putting patient safety at risk and placing a lower priority on public health than on upholding competency standards,” said NBEO Executive Director Jill Bryant.
Kentucky reversed itself after a series of reports about optometrists who were granted licenses with waivers. Some didn’t pass a single part of the national exams.
In February, the state said optometrists with these waivers would have to stop performing laser procedures and would be dropping a Canadian substitute test. But it did not prohibit these doctors from practicing and proposed other alternative tests.
Daniel Taylor said these tests have been standardized across the country for a simple reason.
“If you were to see an optometrist in Kentucky, and then go across the border and see an optometrist in another state or move to another state, you would have to check with the local standards to see what those levels of quality were,” Taylor said.
No one else spoke. The optometry board did not respond, saying it will file its response as part of the process, taking this feedback into consideration.
A letter from NBEO to the state revealed the group had questioned how 21 optometrists had gotten their licenses based on their lack of testing records.
The state board denied WAVE’s records request for another letter NBEO sent to the board in the fall. The attorney general’s office is currently reviewing our appeal.
Copyright 2026 WAVE. All rights reserved.
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