KYTC: Eastern KY Flooding

On July 28, 2022, raging walls of water washed houses, mobile homes, and vehicles down the valleys, flooded schools and businesses, and left roads and bridges impassable across Eastern Kentucky. Experts deemed it a thousand-year flood: a flood with a 1 in 1,000 chance of occurring in any given year. In the aftermath, 44 people died, and 13 counties were declared federal disaster areas. Later estimates believe that nearly 9,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and hundreds of families took cover with family and friends or were forced into temporary shelter, such as government-provided trailers.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet was one of the first agencies mobilized - and within hours I was on my way to capture the heroic efforts of the first responders. Sometimes the only media presence there, I conducted interviews with the Secretary of Transportation, the State Highway Engineer, and numerous others. I spent days getting photo and video, speaking with members of the cabinet, and gathering information to tell the story of how vital transportation in and out of the region was rebuilt and recovered. In the end, these efforts were awarded with an Emmy from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2023.