Search crews find woman missing after Ky. flooding

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Searchers found the body Saturday of a woman missing since a flash flood swept her home into a swollen creek a day earlier. A young boy who had been in the home was found dead Friday.

Authorities also had been searching for a 6-year-old girl, but after talking to the owner of the house they determined that the child wasn't in the house when it was swept away after all, Franklin County fire chief Gary Watts said Saturday.

The boy, believed to be 5 or 6, was found dead Friday evening along Stony Creek, a normally a small stream that trickles through a bed of rocks about 50 feet wide.

Heavy rain Friday flooded the creek, a tributary of the Kentucky River, sending water over a nearby bridge and washing out a road and several structures, including the home.

The woman's body was spotted by search crews in a helicopter less than a mile from the spot where the home had stood, Watts said.

Deputy coroner Jerry Lamb identified the woman as Eugenie Ann McClease, 39. He said the boy found Friday was her 6-year-old son, Jeffrey Allen McClease Jr.

Roger Smith said he watched as the water swept the house away before rescuers could get their boat off its trailer. He saw a woman at a window.

"The house was gone, Smith said. "It took seconds."

Franklin County, halfway between Lexington and Louisville, was the area hardest hit by violent thunderstorms that struck central Kentucky on Friday afternoon.

Five to 6 inches of rain fell in 90 minutes, said James Brotherton, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

A firefighter was hospitalized in stable conditions after being struck by lightning.

High water stranded two school buses in the northern part of the county, said Stacy Floden, a spokeswoman for the state's Division of Emergency Management.

City fire crews rescued about a dozen students from one of the buses, Frankfort fire Lt. Dan Shouse said. Four students on the second bus were taken home by their driver. No students were injured.