“We’re still looking for people and unfortunately we’re still finding these bodies,” Beshear told CNN Monday night. Rescue efforts are being complicated by washed away infrastructure, officials say. Although cell phone service is being restored, some areas are still without it, leaving many unable to contact loved ones or emergency services. The sweltering heat won’t help. Wednesday will be the driest day of the week, but that will allow temperatures to climb into the 90s. The humidity will make it feel like 100 degrees, CNN forecasters say. “We still have back roads and country roads that are cut off and our bridges are out. And so it’s really hard to get to some of the more remote places,” Lt. Jacqueline Coleman told CNN on Monday. The challenges make it “almost impossible” to understand the exact number of people still missing, Beshear said Monday. Since the start of last week, floods have devastated several counties and displaced dozens of people from their homes. The powerful floods swept homes off their foundations, swept away entire livelihoods such as farms and businesses, and left residents with catastrophic damage to their properties, vehicles and belongings. Rescue crews have been battling weather conditions for days as they work to reach trapped residents. In stunning video, an 83-year-old woman can be seen being airlifted by a Blackhawk helicopter to Breathitt County. A rescue team learned she and four other family members were trapped in an attic Thursday, Wolfe County Search & Rescue spokesman Drew Stevens told CNN. The woman was not hurt, Stevens said, but a male family member suffered a broken collarbone and was taken to the hospital. He has since been released. The disaster knocked out essential power and water utilities, which repair crews are struggling to restore due to dangerous flood conditions. At least 7,000 customers in eastern Kentucky were still without power early Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us. More than 25,000 service connections were without water Monday and an additional 44,119 were under a boil water advisory, according to the governor’s office. Twenty-two water systems and 17 sewage systems were operating at limited capacity, the office said.

State mourns after several disasters

The flooding is just the latest disaster to hit Kentucky, which has lost more than 16,000 people to the Covid-19 pandemic and is still recovering from a tornado outbreak that hit the state in December, killing more than 70 people. Beshear spoke at an event in western Kentucky on Monday for those affected by the tornadoes and acknowledged that Kentuckians across the state have been affected by deadly natural disasters.
“The flooding in eastern Kentucky was tough, just like these tornadoes,” he said, adding that natural disasters “tear at the fabric of who we are.”
“I was at a breaking point the other night because that happens to all of us — it’s okay to not be okay,” Beshear said. “We will get through this because we have to. We have no choice.”
The death toll from the flooding spans at least five counties and includes four brothers from Knott County who were swept away by the powerful current. The children were identified to CNN by their aunt as siblings Chance, 2. Nevaeh, 4; Riley Jr., 6; and Madison, 8. “I went to the location where their house was yesterday,” Beshear said of the family that lost the four children. “I stood there in front of their front door and saw one of the baby cribs in the back. I think the oldest would be in second grade. They haven’t even had the same time on this Earth as my children have already enjoyed.”
The governor launched a relief fund for flood victims and those affected, the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund, which will be used first to pay for the funeral expenses of those killed in the disaster. Beshear told CNN that families will not be required to go through an application process to receive the funeral money. CNN’s Michelle Watson, Dakin Andone, Caroll Alvarado, Amy Simonson and Monica Garrett contributed to this report.