Siblings, grandparents, coal miners. These are the 45 victims of the 2022 Eastern KY floods
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A year after Eastern Kentucky floods
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Siblings, grandparents, coal miners. These are the 45 victims of the 2022 Eastern KY floods
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It was a time of heroism and humanity amid horror, of hundreds of dramatic helicopter and swift-water rescues, of first responders and ordinary people risking death or injury to help neighbors, but also the anguish of loved ones carried by roiling water to their death, literally snatched from the grasp of a family member at times.
Over several days in late July 2022, complexes of “training” thunderstorms — meaning they came one after another like train cars — rolled through Eastern Kentucky, pouring out a “historically unheard of” amount of rain, according to the National Weather Service.
The agency said estimates suggest 14 to 16 inches of rain fell in a few days on a relatively narrow swath of counties, though most of that was late on July 27 and the early morning of July 28, when many people were asleep.
The chances of that much rain falling in any given year over four days was less than 1 in 1,000, the weather service said.
The deluge fell in a region of steep hills with creeks and rivers in the narrow valleys and hollers between them.
It pushed those creeks and rivers far out of their banks, to places where people had never seen floodwater before, washing away or soaking houses, mobile homes, schools, churches, vehicles, bridges and roads.
The official death toll maintained by state officials is 45.
Many were washed away or drowned in their homes. Others died after the flood from related health problems, and a handful while working to help their neighbors and communities clean up and recover.
They included current and retired coal miners and school employees, people with disabilities, a stay-at-home mom, business owners, grandparents and children. The oldest was 97, the youngest 2.
The Herald-Leader published information on many of them at the time. For the first anniversary of the flood, the paper gathered information on all of the others who died.
Here, then, is a remembrance.
This story was originally published July 27, 2023 at 10:00 AM.
