Today is the 1 year anniversary of the flooding in Eastern Kentucky.

https://www.kyclimate.org/topic/2612813278512302487

(I live in a 3-4" zone; the 10" zone was less than a 30 minute drive.)

Seeing first-hand what a "1000 year flood" looks like will frighten you down to the soul. Sleepless nights staring at a radar app, hoping the colored blobs will miss you, knowing full well it means they're hitting someone else instead. Then in the morning, reading the news, and the next night hoping that the next round will get you instead, because you got off easy last time and someone else the next holler over didn't.

Me and mine, we're still here. My neighbors are still here. We had a lot of cleaning up to do, a lot of felled trees to deal with, and a lot of earth to move, but we're all okay. But a lot of people aren't. A lot of people lost everything, or even everybody. The towns of Hazard and Hindman were nearly wiped off the map. Family friends lost their houses. Friends of friends lost their children. Generational homes were wiped off the map. Irreplaceable history was erased. Many places will never be the same.

My heart still aches for Appalachia. Nobody, alive or dead, had seen anything like this here, and I hope no one ever does again. Mountain folks are tough as hell, and maybe a little stubborn. We all hurt together, and we'll all lift each other back up together.