Folks in parts of eastern and southeastern Kentucky spent the weekend cleaning up after Hurricane Helene’s leftovers brought high winds and heavy rains. In Pike County Friday afternoon, Emergency Management Director Nee Jackson said they’d experienced gusts as high as 50 miles per hour. “We’ve had numerous trees down all over the county. At last report, we had 1,750 without power, and have had trees on a couple of homes.” Jackson said the silver lining was the condition the county – and just about the entire region – was in when the storms arrived. “We were in a drought condition, actually, you know, that kind of allowed us to be able to absorb more of that rain at this time of the year than what we normally would.” It wasn’t easy sailing for everyone. The National Weather Service’s Jackson office reports wind gusts of 60 miles an hour in Morgan County and 64 in Wolfe County, and there are reports of damaged homes in Harlan, Pike and other counties. ** WEKU is working hard to be a leading source for public service, and fact-based journalism. Monthly supporters are the top funding source for this growing nonprofit news organization. Please join others in your community who support WEKU by making your donation. The post High winds topple trees, but dry ground helps eastern, southeastern Kentucky absorb heavy rain appeared first on The Lexington Times.