What the Floods Left Behind: A Devastated Kentucky Views the Damage

Search and rescue operations continued on Sunday in eastern Kentucky, where devastating floods, the product of extreme rainfall, swept through rural communities last week.

At least 28 deaths have been confirmed, but the authorities say that the toll is likely to rise and that it may take weeks to locate the remaining victims in the region’s steep and densely wooded hills and hollows. Gov. Andy Beshear said over the weekend on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that some bodies had been “swept hundreds of yards, maybe a quarter-mile-plus from where they were lost.”

Here is what photographers at the scene of the flooding saw.

Sunday, July 31

Rescue workers searched for flood victims in Perry County, Ky.

Rescue workers loaded a body into a coroner’s vehicle in Perry County.

Dudley Wilson sifted through the flooded archive at Appalshop, a rural arts and economic development nonprofit in Whitesburg, Ky., where floodwaters had risen higher than six feet.

Employees and volunteers recovered archival items from Appalshop as heavy rain continued.

Ralph Napier helped burn his tenant’s ruined belongings in Perry County.

A downed bridge over Troublesome Creek cut off access for local residents, who had to seek other routes to reach their homes in Perry County.

Kathleen Byrne and her son, Hayden Warf, went to their damaged home to collect belongings in Whitesburg, Ky.

Corissa Creek, left, and Haley Gayheart helped clean the house of a friend who was eight months pregnant in Jackson, Ky.

Saturday, July 30

Heather Hammond, a second-grade teacher, became emotional as she spoke about the death of a student she was looking forward to teaching at Emmalena Elementary School in Knott County.

A bus overturned by floodwaters from the Kentucky River was outside of destroyed mechanic shop in Jackson.

A member of the Lee County Search and Rescue crossed a bridge to check on residents in Jackson.

Command Sgt. Maj. Tim Lewis of the Kentucky National Guard secured Candace Spencer, 24, while she held her 1-year-old son, Wyatt Spencer, after being airlifted from Breathitt County, Ky.

The Breathitt County High School’s football field remained under water.

Friday, July 29

Ethel Stamper, 94, left, and her daughter-in-law Shirley Stamper rested as they waited for the elder Ms. Stamper’s blood pressure and diabetes medications at Gospel Light Baptist Church in Perry County.

Anita Henson, center, was consoled by her daughter, Heather Robertson, right, and Sherry Mullins at Gospel Light Baptist Church.

A home flooded by water from Troublesome Creek in Breathitt County.

Kenneth Neace, center, salvaged his son’s football gear from the remains of their home in Lost Creek in Breathitt County.

Firefighters cleaned mud from the streets in Hazard, Ky.

The North Fork Kentucky River receding from record high levels in Jackson.