The new abnormal
At least 25 people, including a half-dozen children, died in flash flooding last week in eastern Kentucky. The search continues for the missing. Gov. Andy Beshear expects the death toll to rise as floodwaters recede.
The deluge was the worst among a string of floods scattered across the country. A heat dome lying over the Pacific Northwest continues to bring death and triple-digit temperatures that echo the 2021 event that killed nearly 1,000 (confirmed) and several hundred excess deaths (estimated).
Politico’s flood coverage takes a few paragraphs to get to why:
Extreme rain events have become more common as climate change bakes the planet and alters weather patterns, according to scientists. That’s a growing challenge for officials during disasters, because models used to predict storm impacts are in part based on past events and can’t keep up with increasingly devastating flash floods and heat waves like those that have recently hit the Pacific Northwest and southern Plains.
Evelyn Smith of Knott County lost everything (Politico):
After fast-rising floodwaters from nearby Troublesome Creek swamped her rental trailer, Smith moved in with her mother. At age 50 she is disabled, suffering from a chronic breathing disorder, and knows she won’t be going back to where she lived; her landlord told her he won’t put trailers back in the same spot. Smith, who didn’t have insurance, doesn’t know what her next move will be.
“I’ve cried until I really can’t cry no more,” she said. “I’m just in shock. I don’t really know what to do now.”
For many people who lost their homes, connections with family and neighbors will only grow in importance in the aftermath of the floods, which wiped out homes and businesses and engulfed small towns. Still, in a part of the state that includes seven of the 100 poorest counties in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, they may not be enough for people already living on the margins.
Appalachia has been synonymous with “the margins” pretty much forever.
Coal once dominated the economy of this corner of the Appalachian Mountains, offering the best-paying jobs in a place that had difficulty sustaining other kinds of work, but production has plunged by some 90% since the heyday of 1990, according to a state report. And as production declined, the jobs went away.
More rain is forecast today (Sunday) in eastern Kentucky. A heat advisory remains in effect in Portland, Ore. and Seattle, Wash. through today. Cooling shelters remain open.
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