Rare downpours in February pounded a broad swath of the Lower Mississippi Valley on Saturday, from western portions of Kentucky and Tennessee and extending to southwestern Virginia, officials and residents reported on Saturday.

“This is unprecedented for mid-February, at least in the last 20 years,” said Phil Baker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Memphis, of the rain in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said on Saturday afternoon that a landslide would keep Highway 160 in Knott County closed for several hours. Mr. Beshear also said that the water in Elizabethtown, a city of 33,000 residents, was reaching record levels. Some homes in Perry County had been evacuated, he said.

Parts of two dozen state highways were partially or fully flooded, according to the Kentucky State Police. Some firefighters and emergency crews rescued people and pets from flooded buildings and stranded cars.

In Tennessee, officials said that some roads, mostly in the western part of the state, were flooding, including State Route 210 in Lauderdale County.

In Virginia, severe flooding hit Hurley, a short distance from the Kentucky and West Virginia state lines. The small community suffered devastating floods in 2002 that nearly wiped it out.

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