The record-setting rainfall that caused devastating floods across eastern Kentucky at the end of last week left at least 37 people dead and caused heavy damage across 13 counties. Rescue workers are still attempting to find a number of people listed as missing. The difficult work of rescue and recovery was made even harder this week as temperatures soared across the flood-hit region and power outages remained widespread. Gathered below are images from Kentucky in the days after the flooding.
After the Floods: Recovery in Kentucky
-
Old photographs, among the archives being kept in a basement of the Settlement School that were damaged in flooding, hang from a clothesline to help them dry after being cleaned, in Hindman, Kentucky, on August 1, 2022. #
Amanda Rossman / USA Today Network / Reuters -
-
Reggie Ritchie comforts his wife, Della, as they pause while clearing out their home behind them—which was destroyed by the flooding from Troublesome Creek—on July 29, 2022, in Fisty, Kentucky. #
Matt Stone / USA Today Network / Reuters -
-
Lexington Fire Department search-and-rescue team members perform a targeted search on Highway 476, where three people were still unaccounted for on July 31, 2022, near Jackson, Kentucky. #
Michael Swensen / Getty -
Members of the Tennessee Task Force One search-and-rescue team move through the debris-filled Troublesome Creek after a search dog detected the scent of a potential victim in Perry County, Kentucky, on July 31, 2022. #
Jeff Faughender / USA Today Network / Reuters -
-
ATV drivers ferrying generator fuel and water drive around Jessica Willett's home, which was torn from its foundations during flooding and left in the middle of the road along Bowling Creek, Kentucky, on July 31, 2022. #
Chris Kenning / USA Today Network / Reuters -
-
-
-
-
Tonya Smith—whose trailer was washed away by flooding—reaches for food from her mother, Ollie Jean Johnson, to give to Smith's father, Paul Johnson, as the trio use a rope and ramp along a swollen Grapevine Creek in Perry County, Kentucky, on July 28, 2022. #
Matt Stone / USA Today Network / Reuters -
Kirsten Gomez (right) cries on August 2, 2022, in Hindman while talking to her family member Kathy Hall after what she calls a quiet moment to reflect on what her family has gone through in the aftermath of massive flooding. #
Brynn Anderson / AP -
A firefighter from the Lexington Fire Department search-and-rescue team checks on a dog during a targeted search along Highway 476 on July 31, 2022, near Jackson, Kentucky. #
Michael Swensen / Getty -
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.