In the vast stretches of the state now contending with the aftermaths of flooding and tornadoes, Mr. Bailey said, the infrastructure had already been inadequate and the communities had been impoverished. “We have people who are living on the edge,” he said.
“So much of the wealth has been extracted,” he said. “In a topography that has been stripped, literally, of trees and mountainsides, flooding in particular becomes more likely, more risky, more dangerous — that’s what we’re seeing.”
And as much as the communities want to rely on one another to recover from the devastation, it would be difficult to summon the necessary resources on their own.
“The strain has been immense,” Judge Mosley, who is also an officer in the Kentucky Association of Counties, said of the widespread consequences from major disasters.
Without outside support, “this would be unsurvivable,” he said. “The federal government’s resources and our faith in God is the only thing that’s going to get us through this.”
Shawn Hubler contributed reporting.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/30/us/kentucky-flooding-natural-disasters.html
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