Big Creek Flash Flood Watch, Canada KY

How much rain has fallen on the Big Creek valley, how much came in the worst single hour, and any live National Weather Service warning. Not a flood prediction.

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Expected

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Wettest hour ahead

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On Big Creek the hour matters more than the day. Two inches spread over a day is a wet day; the same two inches in an hour puts the creek in the road. When the Pond Creek side flooded in August 2026 the county's emergency management director said the area had seen between four and six inches of rain within an hour — and that was an estimate, not a reading, because there is no gauge on these creeks to take one. A page leading with a 24-hour total would have read calm straight through it.

The hour figure is modelled on a grid several kilometres across, and a single storm cell is smaller than that — so an hour can easily bring more rain than this shows. Read it as a floor, not a ceiling.

When heavy rain has caused flash flooding here

New Year's Day 2022: the fire station went under

Big Creek Road closed near the fire station, and KY 319 at Toler with it. Water rescues ran at Belfry and Sidney, and by nine that morning Fire Chief Nee Jackson put the county's count at 45. The Big Creek fire station and community centre both flooded. More than a hundred homes and buildings were flooded countywide, by the county's own estimate a couple of days later. The station has flooded since 2009, and later that year the fiscal court discussed applying for a $641,000 hazard-mitigation grant to buy the building and demolish it — the judge-executive saying it “currently sits in the flood plain and to try to raise the building would not be feasible”. No new site has been reported since.

Source: WYMT — water rescues in Pike County, 1 January 2022, with the damage estimate from WSAZ two days later, checked October 19, 2026 (today).

February 2025: the second-highest Tug Fork on record

Over 15–16 February the Tug Fork at Williamson crested at 48.35 feet, at one o'clock on the Sunday afternoon. Major flood stage there is 42.7 feet. In 57 years of gauge records only one crest has been higher — 52.56 feet in April 1977 — and this one beat May 1984 by more than three feet. At least three people died in Pike County, a count the emergency management director expected to rise as roads opened. Mountain Water District outages peaked around 10,000 customers on the 17th and were not fully restored until 4 March. The Williamson floodwall protects to 63 feet and is credited with saving the downtown; Fairview and East Williamson sit outside it and went under. Big Creek has no wall at all, and the water that gets into this valley is not the Tug coming up — it is the creek, hours earlier.

Source: Crest read from the USGS gauge at Williamson (03213700); flood stages from NWPS gauge WILW2; deaths and outages from WEKU and the Appalachian News-Express, checked October 19, 2026 (today).

August 2026: four to six inches in an hour, and no federal help

Who to follow, and who to call

This page reads a rain model and the National Weather Service feed. It is not an alert service and nobody here is watching it for you. Sign up for Hyper-Reach if you have not — it is how the county reaches this valley, and it carries boil-water advisories as well as weather.

Hyper-Reach county alerts — sign up

Sign up online, or call or text 606-262-5602. Pike County's alert system since January 2026, paid for by the county, Pikeville and Mountain Water District. It sends weather warnings, shelter-in-place orders and boil-water advisories by text, voice and email. The county's own site still links the old CodeRED page — this is the current one.

Phone: 606-262-5602
Website: signup.hyper-reach.com

National Weather Service, Jackson KY

The office that issues the flash-flood warnings for this valley. Forecast zone KYZ120, county zone KYC195.

Website

Big Creek Flash Flood Watch, Canada KY

About these tools

Recent rainfall

Expected

Active warnings

When heavy rain has caused flash flooding here

New Year's Day 2022: the fire station went under

February 2025: the second-highest Tug Fork on record

August 2026: four to six inches in an hour, and no federal help

Who to follow, and who to call