Streams overflowed their banks and hundreds of home and businesses were inundated as flooding caused by steady rain spread throughout eastern Kentucky.

Up to 70 percent of the homes in businesses in Olive Hill were damaged when the usually placid Tygart Creek turned into a raging torrent. Severe flood damage also was reported in Morehead, Rush and Cannonsburg. Officials in 12 counties declared emergencies and have asked for state and federal help in the cleanup.

The National Weather Service issued flash flood watches and warnings for Lewis County about every two hours beginning Tuesday and continuing through noon Wednesday.

The rain began to let up early Wednesday afternoon as residents along the Kinniconick Creek anxiously watched as the creek inched up on their properties and toward homes and other buildings.

Local officials responded to calls of an auto, which had been abandoned by the operator in the middle of a stream after he had attempted to across the stream and water caused the auto to stall.

Classes at Lewis County Schools were cancelled early Wednesday as water began to cover portions of Big Salt Lick, Quicks Run and Lower Kinney Road.

No injuries were reported in Lewis County and damage was held to a minimum largely due to the buyout of properties flooded in 1997.

Auction Chairman Sam Howard said the auction will feature several big ticket items as well as small items donated by area businesses.

He was awarded a wristwatch and a clock with his name on it by KHSAA Commissioner Louis Stout.

Preliminary results of a referendum, announced by the US Department of Agriculture on Thursday, indicate that 56 percent of the flue-cured tobacco producer and 75 percent of burley tobacco producers voted in favor of having mandatory federal graders present at all tobacco sales. Final results are expected to be announced early next month.

The referendum was conducted March 11-15 in tobacco-producing states including Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina.

A vote by a simple majority of eligible producers in favor is necessary for mandatory grading to become effective for the 2002 and later marketing years.

Preliminary results released Thursday by the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service will be verified by state farm service offices before the final result is released in April.

When tobacco companies began contracting directly with farmers to purchase their crops, the number of pounds going to warehouses dropped. In 2001, contracting accounted for 80 percent of the flue-cured tobacco sales and 66 percent of burley tobacco sales.

But the referendum does not mean that federal price supports will be available in contracting stations, said Dan Syke, director of the Daviess County Farm Service office in western Kentucky.

In contract sales, tobacco companies will continue to set prices based on their company graders' recommendations, Syke said. If a grower receives a higher grade from the USDA than from a tobacco company grader, the grower will have the option of taking his leaf to a tobacco auction.

Having USDA graders in company receiving stations will offer growers a measure of security, said Rod Kuegel, former president of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative. A USDA grader will be able to give a grower at a receiving station a second opinion on the value of his crop, Kuegel said.