This piece has been edited to correct the statement made to WYMT from 2018.
The University of the Cumberlands is nestled in the bluegrass hills of Kentucky, but due to unprecedented levels of rain in the past week, the university’s athletic complex is now partially underwater.
Kentucky has been in a flash flood warning for days due to heavy rainfall through the weekend. Several people have died, and the area remains on high alert. According to Saturday Down South, “catastrophic flooding in the region that has resulted in fatalities and forced evacuations.”
The University of Cumberlands sits right near the Cumberland River, which has made it a primary target for the flood waters. Facilities across the campus are soaked, and James H. Taylor II Stadium was fully submerged under the flood waters. The Patriots play their home games at this stadium and they open it up to the University of Kentucky as well whenever the Wildcats travel to Tennessee for game day.
In a video shared on ‘X’ the stadium can be seen with flood waters rising all the way to the bleachers. There is no visible grass on the field at this time. The goalposts and video board are standing in deep water.
The team’s practices have been rescheduled and moved to other facilities while the university determines the extent of the damage.
Chris Kraftick, the University of the Cumberlands athletic director, has dealt with flood waters before. In 2018 he told WYMT News “It covered the whole track, the whole field. The great thing about the turf is if this had still been natural grass, who knows when we're back on it.”
