At least 16 people are dead, including children, and the toll is "going to get a lot higher" following catastrophic flooding in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday.

An unknown number of people were missing, Beshear said at a news conference Friday morning, as rescuers scrambled to reach areas difficult to access.

The official statewide death toll "could potentially double" as more information comes in from county officials, the governor told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Friday night. Getting a reliable number of the people who are missing or were killed has been difficult due to the damaged infrastructure, he added.

"There's going to be multiple families that we've lost," Beshear told CNN's "New Day" earlier.

"This is so deadly, and it hit so hard, and it hit in the middle of the night," the governor said, adding although eastern Kentucky often floods, "we've never seen something like this."

Officials "may be updating a count with how many we lost for the next several weeks," Beshear said Friday afternoon, after taking a helicopter tour of some devastated areas.

The deadly floods come less than eight months after a series of tornadoes ripped through Kentucky, killing at least 74 people. The city of Mayfield, in southwestern Kentucky, was among the hardest hit areas. Now, officials there are assisting in the flood response efforts in the eastern part of the state.