The death toll rose to 30 Monday, Governor Andy Beshear said at a news conference in Frankfort, adding, “There are at least hundreds of missing people.”
“We just don’t have a firm grip on that. I wish we did – there are many reasons why it’s almost impossible,” he said. “But I want to make sure we’re not giving false hopes or misinformation.”
Last week’s floods swelled roads, destroyed bridges and wiped out entire homes, displacing thousands of Kentuckians, the governor said earlier. The vital electricity, water and road infrastructure also failed. Some of it has yet to be restored, though cell service is returning in some of the state’s worst-hit areas, the governor said, helping people connect with loved ones they’ve yet to contact.
“I’ve lived in this city for 56 years and I’ve never seen water of this nature,” Tracy Neice, the mayor of Hindman, Kentucky, told DailyExpertNews. could go rafting. “It was just devastating to all of our businesses, all of our offices.”
While reading a breakdown of the dead in each county at a news conference on Sunday, Beshear became visibly emotional when he reached four dead children in Knott County. They were identified by their aunt to DailyExpertNews as siblings Chance, 2; Nevaeh, 4; Riley Jr., 6; and Madison, 8.
“It says ‘minors’,” the governor said, looking at the list. ‘They are children. The oldest is in second grade,’ Beshear said.
The children — described as sweet, funny and sweet — died after the family’s mobile home flooded last week, forcing them to seek shelter on the roof, their aunt Brandi Smith told DailyExpertNews on Friday.
“They held them,” Smith said of her sister and her partner. “The water got so strong it just washed them away.”
Sixteen of the deaths occurred in Knott County, about 130 miles southeast of Lexington, according to the governor’s office. Seven people were killed in Breathitt County, two in Clay County, two in Letcher County and three in Perry County.
The governor believes salvage crews will “find bodies for weeks,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, “many of them swept hundreds of yards, maybe a quarter of a mile plus from where they last were.”
More rain expected
Officials are “still in search and rescue mode,” Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman told DailyExpertNews on Monday, “because there is so much water.”
“All of our country roads are passable,” she said, “but we still have back roads and country roads that have broken down, and our bridges are out. So it’s really hard to get to some of the most remote places.”
In Perry County, as many as 50 bridges have been damaged and inaccessible, according to County Judge Executive Scott Alexander.
“What that means is someone lives on the other side or there are multiple families on the other side where we still don’t have road access,” Alexander said.
“If it’s not hard enough for the people in this region, they’re getting rain now,” Beshear said Monday.
A flood watch will be in effect overnight, from 9pm Monday to 9am Tuesday. Forecasts predict thunderstorms and possible rainfall of 1 to 2 inches per hour. Heavy downpours can cause excessive runoff and “result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams and other low-lying and flood-prone locations,” the weather service said.
Region in urgent need of resources
The Kentucky State Police are still actively searching for missing residents in several counties and are asking families to notify the police if their loved one is missing.
Meanwhile, state officials are immediately focused on obtaining food, water and shelter for the people forced to flee their homes.
Power outages and storm damage left 22 limited-capacity water systems operating, according to a Sunday press release from the governor’s office. More than 60,000 water connections are without water or have cooking advice.
Officials overseeing the recovery efforts say bottled water, cleaning supplies and donations to emergency funds are among the most needed resources as the region works towards short- and long-term recovery. FEMA supplies tractor trailers full of water to various provinces.
“A lot of these places have never been flooded. So if they’ve never been flooded, these people don’t have flood insurance,” Hazard, Kentucky Mayor Donald Mobelini told DailyExpertNews on Saturday. “If they lose their house, it’s a total loss. There won’t be an insurance check to help that. We need cash donations,” he said, referring to a relief fund set up by the state.
The federal government has approved aid financing in several provinces. FEMA is also accepting individual applications for disaster relief from affected tenants and homeowners in Breathitt, Clay, Knott, Letcher and Perry counties, the governor said. On Monday, he requested that a number of other affected provinces be considered.
Communities suffer irreparable damage
While the recovery attempt was still in the search-and-rescue phase this weekend, Beshear said in a news conference on Saturday that he believes losses will be “in the tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“This is one of the most devastating, deadly floods we’ve seen in our history,” Beshear told NBC on Sunday. “It’s wiped out areas where people didn’t have that much to begin with.”
And it wasn’t just personal belongings that were washed away by the floodwaters. A building containing archival film and other material in Whitesburg was hit, with water submerging an irreplaceable collection of historic films, videotapes and audio recordings documenting Appalachia.
“We’re working as hard and fast as we can to save all that material… The full impact, I guess, hasn’t quite reached me yet. I guess I don’t really want to think about it,” Pickering said. notes that the Smithsonian and other institutions have provided assistance.
The great loss suffered by the Kentuckians will likely take a mental toll as well, Frances Everage, a therapist and 44-year-old resident of the city of Hazard told DailyExpertNews. While her home was being spared, she said some of her friends have damaged homes or lost their entire farm.
“If you put your blood, sweat and tears into something and then watch it tear away before your very eyes, there will be a grieving process,” Everage said. “This community will rebuild and we’ll be fine, but the impact on mental health will be significant.”
DailyExpertNews’s Sara Smart, Andy Rose, Lauren Lee, Raja Razek, Mike Valerio, Mark Biello, Cole Higgins, Robert Shackelford, Chris Boyette, Aya Elamroussi, Dakine Andone, Caitlin Kaiser and Tom Sater contributed to this report.