{"id":32032,"date":"2019-10-28T18:33:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T23:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=32032"},"modified":"2019-10-29T09:52:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T14:52:58","slug":"a-disastrous-disconnect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/10\/28\/a-disastrous-disconnect\/","title":{"rendered":"A Disastrous Disconnect"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_32037\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32037\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-1920x1440.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-672x504.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-620x465.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-1832x1374.jpg 1832w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-1376x1032.jpg 1376w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-1044x783.jpg 1044w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-632x474.jpg 632w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/todd-536x402.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Rachel Leven \/ Center for Public Integrity<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Todd Bentley stands in the hills near Harless Creek in June, recalling the night of the 2010 flood.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>REGINA, Ky. \u2014 Todd Bentley stepped onto his porch and saw the storm swelling the creek near his home. If this kept up all night, he feared, the creek could overflow its banks and wash out his neighborhood\u2019s road. He headed out into the rain with his teenage son to secure his mother\u2019s trailer across the street.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/701644285&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p>In minutes \u2014 before they could finish \u2014 they were up to their waists in floodwater. They had to clamber into the hills to escape. There they crouched for hours in their family cemetery, lightning striking around them, the water below them carrying cars, ripping up pavement and lifting homes off foundations.<\/p><p>\u201cHe started crying on me, it was happening so fast, and I, literally, I shook him,\u201d Bentley recalled. \u201cI said, \u2018Son, listen. We\u2019re fighting for our lives now \u2014 you\u2019ve got to keep it together.\u2019\u201d<\/p><p>Nine years after they survived the flood, storms fill Bentley with dread. He watches the creek. He paces.<\/p><p>What if it happens again?<\/p>\n<div class=\"wysiwyg-asset-image-wrapper wide\">\n<div class=\"wysiwyg-asset-image\">\n<div class=\"image-meta\">\n<div class=\"credit\">\n<div class=\"mceTemp\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><p>Flash floods have troubled Kentucky for decades. Now, extreme rainstorms are worsening with climate change, increasing the odds of more disasters like the one Bentley\u2019s community endured. For Kentucky\u2019s poorest residents, the people living in flood-prone hollows with surface mines nearby, that means an ever-present threat to both life and hard-won possessions.<\/p><p>But the state isn\u2019t on the front lines of the fight against global warming. Its leaders, concerned about the impact on coal, have positioned themselves on the other side of that battle.<\/p><p>That\u2019s created a dangerous and expensive disconnect \u2014 and not just in Kentucky, a <a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Center for Public Integrity<\/a> analysis shows.<\/p><p>Nine of the 10 states that emit the most heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution per person helped block the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have been the largest effort by the U.S. government to limit climate change. Four of those states, including Kentucky, were among those most often hit by disasters in the past 10 years \u2014 generally powerful storms, which science shows are worsening as the planet warms.<\/p><p>The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it sent nearly $2 billion in taxpayer aid to those four states over the same period to clean up and prepare for future hits. That accounts for two of FEMA\u2019s major programs, just part of the disaster aid flowing to states.<\/p><p>Kentucky alone received more than $530 million from 2009 to 2018. Severe storms and floods accounted for most of its 16 federally declared major disasters. Half of those battered Pike County, home to a quarter of the state\u2019s active coal mines in 2018 and to Bentley\u2019s neighborhood.<\/p><p>The choices that state leaders make now will have life-changing consequences for generations, experts warn. Michael Hendryx, a public health professor at Indiana University Bloomington who studies environmental justice, said he wonders whether officials promoting inaction truly think global warming is not an emergency or are simply making a cynical bet that they won\u2019t be harmed.<\/p><p>&#8220;They\u2019ll be the people who have the money and power to defend themselves as climate change gets worse,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t do something really powerful and really meaningful soon, then the people who live in vulnerable areas \u2026 will suffer the most.\u201d<\/p><p>In some parts of Kentucky, residents say they believe the state\u2019s treatment of coal has increased the risk of disasters in yet another way. Consider the Harless Creek flood that threatened Bentley\u2019s life. Water rushing down the hills from mines \u2014 including one the state had allowed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/6491542-Stapleton.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">operate on an expired permit<\/a> \u2014 intensified damage from the pounding rain, according to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/6491545-Engineering-Report.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">engineering study<\/a> prepared for a lawsuit. Afterward, the state cited two companies for violating laws intended to protect people living nearby.<\/p><p>The Kentucky governor\u2019s office didn\u2019t respond to multiple requests for comment. John Mura, a spokesman for the state\u2019s mine regulator, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, wrote in an email that the agency concluded the mines above Harless Creek did not contribute to flood damage. But both the agency and the companies settled lawsuits filed by people living along the creek.<\/p><p>The state now has a system in place to prevent companies from mining with expired permits, Mura wrote.<\/p><p>\u201cThe Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet has worked with mining companies to increase safety practices while it has been extremely diligent in holding permit holders accountable to their permit obligations,\u201d he wrote.<\/p><p>Harless Creek was one of at least three cases in Kentucky in which engineering studies found that inappropriately operated or cleaned-up mines worsened flood damage, said Jack Spadaro, a former federal mine regulator who served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in lawsuits about those incidents. The floods collectively killed at least one person and destroyed the homes or belongings of more than 250 residents, according to news reports.<\/p><p>But the problem is far more widespread than just those three cases, Spadaro said. And the areas around mines tend to be poor, making recovery much harder for the people living there.<\/p><p>\u201cWhen they lose their house,\u201d he said, \u201cthey lose everything.\u201d<\/p><p><strong>\u2018Misguided reasons\u2019<\/strong><\/p><p>In September, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin stepped up to the lectern in a historic downtown Louisville hotel to deliver the keynote speech at an energy conference for leaders from southern states.<\/p><p>Days before, dozens of countries and businesses <a href=\"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2019\/10\/02\/world-promised-un-climate-action-summit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">committed<\/a> to swift action to stem the climate crisis by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Demonstrators turned out in cities around the world, including <a href=\"https:\/\/wfpl.org\/louisville-mayor-declares-climate-emergency-at-youth-strike\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Louisville<\/a>, to demand that elected officials do better. But at the Louisville conference, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sseb.org\/am59\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sponsored<\/a> by oil, gas, coal and electric-utility interests, speakers suggested that the causes of global warming are uncertain. Bevin called people pushing for climate action irrational. His message: Leave fossil fuels alone.<\/p><p>\u201cWe are prematurely abandoning our [fossil fuel] assets for what I feel \u2014 and I think it\u2019s probably shared by others \u2014 may be misguided reasons,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QL86cQwMJR4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> Bevin, a Republican whose state is the country\u2019s fifth-largest coal producer.<\/p><p>In fact, the science is clear: What\u2019s happening to the planet is different from the natural variability of past eras, when Earth gradually warmed and cooled as its orbit shifted. The world has never in recorded history been so warm, or warmed this fast, U.S. and international research shows. Most of that change occurred in the past 35 years, triggered by decades of heat-trapping, man-made emissions, the <a href=\"https:\/\/climate.nasa.gov\/evidence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">federal government<\/a> says. Burning fossil fuels such as coal is the primary cause, according to decades of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.climatechange2013.org\/images\/report\/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">scientific studies<\/a>.<\/p><p>Kentucky\u2019s lung-damaging sulfate pollution, pumped out by sources such as coal power plants, used to partially shield the state from warming because the particles reflected sunlight into space. Those emissions have <a href=\"https:\/\/19january2017snapshot.epa.gov\/sites\/production\/files\/2016-09\/documents\/climate-change-ky.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">plummeted<\/a>. For two decades now, temperatures in the state have risen.<\/p><p>Scientists say the consequences include more heavy downpours. Kentucky storms dumping at least 2 inches of rain over a 24-hour period \u2014 storms that pose a flood risk \u2014 have increased 20 percent since the early 20th century, said Kenneth Kunkel, lead scientist for technical support for the federal government\u2019s National Climate Assessment.<\/p><p>\u201cWe see very strong evidence for extreme rainfall increases across the eastern U.S.,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>Kentucky disasters often hurt poorer areas. For example, more than half the counties hit by federally declared major disasters from 2009 to 2018 had larger shares of households receiving federal food aid than the state overall.<\/p><p>That\u2019s a common problem nationwide, one the federal disaster relief system doesn\u2019t effectively address, said Craig Fugate, a former FEMA administrator. Congress didn\u2019t set up FEMA to account for inequalities that precede disasters, such as homelessness and poverty, he said.<\/p><p>\u201cThe system was built for the middle income,\u201d Fugate said. \u201cIf you\u2019re poor, the system is not designed to make you whole.\u201d<\/p><p>In Kentucky, Bevin\u2019s administration is basing its preparations for disasters on climate science, even as he casts doubt on it. A 2018 state flood <a href=\"https:\/\/kyem.ky.gov\/recovery\/Documents\/CK-EHMP%202018,%20S3-S6,%20Risk%20Assessment,%20Hazard%20Identification,%202,%20Flooding,%20Original%20Submittal.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">risk assessment<\/a>, citing a 2017 federal study about climate effects in the region, warns that flooding events are likely to become more frequent and severe.<\/p><p>At the same time, the state continues to push for the status quo on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In September, Bevin <a href=\"https:\/\/kentucky.gov\/Pages\/Activity-stream.aspx?n=KentuckyGovernor&prId=1048\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">intervened<\/a> in court to support the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cpro-coal\u201d replacement to Obama\u2019s climate rule \u2014 a substitute that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rff.org\/publications\/issue-briefs\/10-big-little-flaws-in-epas-affordable-clean-energy-rule\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">projections by the <\/a>independent research group <a href=\"https:\/\/media.rff.org\/documents\/RFF-AR2018-Final-Compressed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Resources for the Future<\/a> suggest would reduce U.S. climate-warming emissions just one-tenth of a percent by 2050.<\/p><p>Bevin is up for re-election Nov. 5. His opponent, Democrat Andy Beshear, acknowledges climate change is happening but also pushed for the demise of the Clean Power Plan \u2014 a rule put in place by the Obama administration \u2014 and has supported its replacement.<\/p><p>Planning for climate-worsened disasters, as Kentucky is doing, can save money and lives. Flooding is already the state\u2019s \u201cmost frequent and costly natural hazard,\u201d killing 41 people over a recent 11-year period and causing an average of $40 million in annual losses, according to the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management.<\/p><p>But simply planning won\u2019t be enough, experts caution.<\/p><p>It will be impossible to protect people and infrastructure from climate change in the long term without also reining in \u2014 what scientists call mitigating \u2014 heat-trapping emissions, said Lynne Carter, a Louisiana State University adjunct professor.<\/p><p>\u201cRight now, we\u2019re \u2026 incrementally coping. We\u2019re not even coping very well,\u201d said Carter, a co-author of the most recent National Climate Assessment, released by the Trump administration. \u201cIf we don\u2019t do any mitigation, the problem is going to just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pym-src=\"https:\/\/apps.publicintegrity.org\/disaster-graphics\/snap\/\">Loading&#8230;<\/p><p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/pym.nprapps.org\/pym-loader.v1.min.js\"><\/script><\/p><p>Kentucky isn\u2019t the only state preparing for the very climate disasters its policies help fuel.<\/p><p>West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Democrat-turned-Republican, leads a state that emits more carbon dioxide per person than all but two others; he says he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wvgazettemail.com\/news\/politics\/justice-denounces-climate-change-initiative-talks-gop-feud-education-reform\/article_1e7f737c-ffd4-541e-a879-13ed64be9881.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">doubts the science<\/a> that man-made fossil fuel emissions are warming the planet.<\/p><p>Meanwhile, his emergency managers are planning for a future of <a href=\"https:\/\/dhsem.wv.gov\/MitigationRecovery\/Documents\/WV%20State%20Hazard%20Mitigation%20Plan%20FINAL%2011-2018.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more rain and landslides<\/a> triggered by climate change.<\/p><p>In Nebraska, the state with the ninth-highest carbon dioxide emissions per person, Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts\u2019 administration has questioned whether climate science is settled while relying on a hazard mitigation plan calling <a href=\"https:\/\/nema.nebraska.gov\/sites\/nema.nebraska.gov\/files\/doc\/hazmitplan.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">climate change<\/a> \u201can increasingly important factor\u201d in local risks.<\/p><p>Like the Kentucky governor\u2019s office, Bevin\u2019s campaign spokespeople did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesman for Beshear, Bevin\u2019s challenger and Kentucky\u2019s attorney general, wrote in an email that all energy sources are needed to address the planet\u2019s warming \u2014 he did not say how that would lower greenhouse gases \u2014 and the right strategy would provide jobs for Kentuckians.<\/p><p>\u201cMining plays an important role supporting Eastern and Western Kentucky families,\u201d Sam Newton, the Beshear campaign spokesman, wrote in an email. \u201cAndy is on Team Kentucky, which means he\u2019ll fight policies that hurt Kentucky families and work with anyone to help Kentucky families.\u201d<\/p><p>The offices of the West Virginia and Nebraska governors didn\u2019t respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p><p>There\u2019s a cost to ignoring climate science. U.S. taxpayers already have begun paying it.<\/p><p>Seven states \u2014 all of which opposed the climate-focused Clean Power Plan \u2014 account for more than a third of FEMA spending to help communities <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fema.gov\/openfema-dataset-public-assistance-funded-projects-summaries-v1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rebuild after<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fema.gov\/openfema-dataset-hazard-mitigation-grant-program-disaster-summaries-v1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">adapt for<\/a> natural disasters in the past 10 years, according to figures from the agency. Those states, including Texas and Florida, received $21 billion between them.<\/p><p><strong>\u2018Ticking time bombs\u2019<\/strong><\/p><p>Small and seemingly benign, Harless Creek meanders beside a road that shares its name. Homes sit nearby between two mountains \u2014 Todd Bentley\u2019s among them.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wysiwyg-asset-image-wrapper left\">\n<div class=\"wysiwyg-asset-image\">\n<div class=\"mceTemp\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_32039\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1440px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32039\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-1440x1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-504x672.jpg 504w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-620x827.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-810x1080.jpg 810w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-1122x1496.jpg 1122w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-840x1120.jpg 840w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-687x916.jpg 687w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-414x552.jpg 414w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/harlesscreekvic-354x472.jpg 354w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Rachel Leven \/ Center for Public Integrity<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Todd Bentley\u2019s family and neighbor sit at the hair salon owned by his mother, Janie Caudill, on Harless Creek Road in June. From right to left are Janie and Bob Caudill, Judi Casalino, Bentley and Lonnie Matney, their neighbor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-meta\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"credit\">On a sunny day in June, his family gathered at his mother\u2019s hair salon, a white-paneled house with a wooden porch that overlooks the creek.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><p>Around a coffee table cluttered with newspaper clippings and photos of the flood, they remembered Bentley\u2019s grandmother escaping up the mountain that night in 2010 in her pajamas, a quilt over her head. His mother, Janie Caudill, racing back from Tennessee, stopping only to pick up rubber boots. Residents shining flashlights across the creek to signal that they were alive.<\/p><p>The next day, Caudill\u2019s uncle, Bill Blackburn, stopped by on the way to his house. He lived in the hollow and also hadn\u2019t been there during the storm.<\/p><p>\u201cHe said, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve got to go home \u2026 I\u2019ve got the keys right here in my pocket,\u2019\u201d Caudill remembered. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have the heart to tell him that he didn\u2019t have a door there to unlock.\u201d<\/p><p>Pike County has a history of flash floods. Officials here cut a mountain in two in the 1970s so they could reroute the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River to avoid flooding, a $78 million operation that was one of the largest land movements in the Western hemisphere. But Harless Creek took everyone aback.<\/p><p>Seven inches of rain fell between 4 p.m. July 17, 2010, and 1 a.m. the next day. By 8:40 p.m., Harless Creek was over its banks, transforming into a torrent. The floodwaters damaged, destroyed and in some cases carried off more than 100 people\u2019s property: homes, vehicles, sheds. In a county where nearly 30 percent of residents live in poverty, it represented an especially heavy loss.<\/p><p>The amount of rain the storm dumped was brutal, but Bentley and other residents suspected that nearby coal mines played a significant role in the flood. They hired lawyer Ned Pillersdorf, who asked an engineering firm to investigate.<\/p><p>The firm\u2019s findings: The operations of two companies\u2019 mines in the mountains above the neighborhood increased the size and speed of the flood. That\u2019s because unstable dirt and rock surfaces exposed through mining sent more water downhill instead of absorbing it, Spadaro said. Forty-four percent more water rushed into the area, the firm concluded, increasing the \u201cdestructive energy of the flood waters.\u201d<\/p><p>On behalf of the people with property damage, Pillersdorf sued both mines\u2019 owners, Cambrian Coal and AEP Kentucky Coal. The businesses\u2019 failure to follow mining rules worsened the flood and residents\u2019 losses from the incident, he alleged in the lawsuit. The companies settled over the next two years, the amounts confidential.<\/p><p>Then Pillersdorf went after the party Bentley\u2019s family thinks ultimately is at fault: the state of Kentucky.<\/p><p>First he sued the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, alleging the agency didn\u2019t properly enforce mining rules \u2014 endangering residents \u2014 and demanding the state do its job.\u00a0 In 2014, the agency agreed to a confidential settlement and brought in federal investigators to ensure the mines complied with the law.<\/p><p>He later filed another claim against the state. Harless Creek residents requested payment from Kentucky\u2019s claims board, asserting that the energy cabinet\u2019s negligence increased their flood losses, but the cabinet argued that these claims were filed too late. An appellate court recently agreed with the state. The Kentucky Supreme Court is considering whether to review the decision.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wysiwyg-asset-image-wrapper left\">\n<div class=\"wysiwyg-asset-image\"><p>Sitting inside his first-floor office in Prestonsburg, west of Pike County, Pillersdorf said it doesn\u2019t surprise locals that companies would ignore mining rules to save money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><p>\u201cWhat they don&#8217;t understand is, why is the state so damn indifferent to how dangerous these ticking time-bombs are?\u201d he said.<\/p><p>After the storm, the state-issued citations to Cambrian Coal for violations that included mining without a permit, inappropriate cleanup and poorly designed and operated sediment ponds, which are intended to capture soil moved during operations. The penalty, after Cambrian Coal appealed, was eventually set at about $50,000. The state cited AEP Kentucky Coal for improper conditions that led to mudslides, fining the company $400.<\/p><p>U.S. taxpayers paid more than five times those combined penalties \u2014 almost $300,000 \u2014 just to rebuild Harless Creek Road, according to federal data obtained by <a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Public Integrity<\/a>.<\/p><p>AEP Kentucky Coal maintains it didn\u2019t contribute to the flood. The state mine regulator\u2019s spokesman agreed. The residents\u2019 engineering firm did not. While the company settled, it did not admit liability and only \u201cparticipated in the settlement to promote a prompt conclusion to the case,\u201d AEP spokeswoman Melissa McHenry wrote in an email.<\/p><p>Cambrian Coal didn\u2019t respond to multiple requests for comment. Neither did Booth Energy, which previously owned the company.<\/p><p>Bentley\u2019s family has far more complicated feelings about the mine owners than about the state\u2019s handling of the situation.<\/p><p>Bentley\u2019s son, Tyler, now 24, is a coal miner. So were Bentley\u2019s father and grandfather, and Bentley himself, before an accident on the job in 2002 left him unable to work. Judi Casalino, his aunt, used to be a sales executive for a coal company.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI know that coal mining had a whole lot to do with what happened up here,\u201d but she couldn\u2019t help but also think of Cambrian Coal\u2019s economic impact.<\/p><p>She pointed to Jim Booth, who\u2019d long run the company: \u201cThat one man employs 500-something people right now in eastern Kentucky, so let\u2019s give him credit where credit\u2019s due. If he weren&#8217;t in the business, it&#8217;d be a whole lot of people would have no jobs.\u201d<\/p><p>Just days before, though Casalino didn\u2019t know it, Booth had resigned as a director and shareholder at the company. Shortly afterward, Cambrian Coal and related businesses filed for bankruptcy protection. As of early October, the company owed local governments and schools more than $1 million in unpaid taxes, the <em>Lexington Herald-Leader <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kentucky.com\/news\/state\/kentucky\/article235878092.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>.<\/p><p>Today, the mines that settled with neighbors over the flood have been cleaned up, according to the state. But people here remain shaken.<\/p><p>One neighbor sleeps in her clothes every night \u201cbecause she\u2019s afraid she might have to get out,\u201d Caudill said, while Bentley, his stepfather and his son \u201cget really paranoid\u201d if there\u2019s a storm brewing. Some people are gone: They couldn\u2019t bear to live here after the flood.<\/p><p>And Blackburn, the uncle who didn\u2019t have the door to lock? Two years afterward, he was dead.<\/p><p>\u201cHe grieved himself to death,\u201d Caudill said. \u201cHe just couldn\u2019t deal with what he\u2019d lost.\u201d<\/p><p><strong>The powerful and the powerless<\/strong><\/p><p>Five days after Cambrian Coal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/apnewsbreak-ky-mine-flooding-suit-210157841.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">settled<\/a> the lawsuit brought by Harless Creek residents, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., delivered a tribute on the Senate floor to a fellow Kentuckian \u2014 Cambrian\u2019s then-owner, Booth.<\/p><p>Booth is a \u201ctreasured citizen,\u201d \u201csomeone who has taken it upon himself to make an investment in the betterment of his community, county and state,\u201d McConnell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/112\/crec\/2012\/03\/14\/CREC-2012-03-14-pt1-PgS1675.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>. \u201cBooth\u2019s story is one of success in the free market, and a testimony to what can happen when a small business is given room to take root and grow.\u201d<\/p><p>What prompted this 2012 outpouring by McConnell, one of the most powerful men in Washington, isn\u2019t clear.<\/p><p>But Booth, named by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting in 2014 as one of \u201cKentucky\u2019s top 10 \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/kycir.org\/2014\/11\/06\/the-power-players-kentuckys-top-political-donors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">power players<\/a>,\u2019\u201d is a reliable political donor who has supported many of the state\u2019s key officials, including McConnell, Bevin and Beshear, the attorney general.<\/p><p>Bevin tried to unseat McConnell in the 2014 Republican primary, and Beshear \u2014 a Democrat \u2014 is running against Bevin in the governor\u2019s race this year. But when it comes to coal, they\u2019re on the same page.<\/p><p>Beshear took over his predecessor\u2019s legal fight to block the Clean Power Plan. McConnell marshaled states across the country to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/03\/20\/us\/politics\/mitch-mcconnell-urges-states-to-help-thwart-obamas-war-on-coal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">resist the rule<\/a>, and this year \u2014 five weeks after <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/435904-mcconnell-i-do-believe-in-human-caused-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acknowledging<\/a> that human activities are changing the climate \u2014 declined to bring up for a vote <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/441814-mcconnell-senate-will-not-take-up-bill-preventing-us-withdrawal-from-paris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a bill<\/a> to keep the U.S. from pulling out of the international agreement to slow global warming. Bevin tapped a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courier-journal.com\/story\/tech\/science\/watchdog-earth\/2016\/02\/12\/bevin-hired-him-because-hes-coal-man\/80295926\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">coal executive<\/a> to head the state\u2019s Energy and Environment Cabinet and pressed an electric utility earlier this year not to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.utilitydive.com\/news\/kentucky-governor-asks-tva-to-keep-coal-unit-open-as-more-utilities-seek-al\/545744\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">close a coal plant<\/a>.<\/p><p>Newton, the Beshear spokesman, wrote in an email that the attorney general bases his policy decisions on what he believes is best for Kentuckians.<\/p><p>McConnell, Bevin and Booth didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment. But as recently as this month, McConnell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/congressional-record\/2019\/10\/17\/senate-section\/article\/S5856-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">called<\/a> the Clean Power Plan a \u201cmisguided,\u201d \u201cjob-killing\u201d and ineffective approach to addressing climate change. Bevin has <a href=\"https:\/\/wfpl.org\/bevin-climate-change-regulations-not-based-on-science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argued<\/a>\u00a0that such rules would suffocate businesses and wouldn\u2019t help anyone. And in a 2013 interview with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kentucky.com\/news\/special-reports\/fifty-years-of-night\/article44453790.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Lexington Herald-Leader<\/em><\/a>, Booth said, \u201cWhen we say there\u2019s a war on coal, we\u2019re sincere.\u201d<\/p><p>The coal mining industry has sunk at least $2.2 million into state and federal Kentucky elections since 2012, according to data from the National Institute on Money in Politics. But these companies don\u2019t need donations to get politicians on their side.<\/p><p>\u201cIn Kentucky, it\u2019s more the perception,\u201d said Erin Savage, a program manager for Appalachian Voices, an environmental group. \u201cIf you\u2019re not a friend of coal, then you\u2019re not going to get the votes.\u201d<\/p><p>Despite the sector\u2019s enduring political power, coal bankruptcies are mounting as competition from natural gas, solar and wind intensifies. That creates problems beyond job losses: Kentucky and states across the country haven\u2019t required companies to set aside enough money to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2018\/03\/14\/us-coal-hasnt-set-aside-enough-money-clean-mines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">clean up mines<\/a> when <a href=\"https:\/\/wfpl.org\/idle-lands-justice-coal-group-top-user-of-loophole-allowing-mine-lands-to-sit-idle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">operations cease<\/a>.<\/p><p>Mary Cromer, deputy director of the Appalachian Citizens\u2019 Law Center, worries that the fallout from rising bankruptcies and <a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/environment\/while-zombie-mines-idle-cleanup-and-workers-suffer-in-limbo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">idled mines<\/a> could mean more sites that increase flood risks. Her team, which represents coal miners, their families and others in Central Appalachia pro bono, can\u2019t keep up with the demand for help as it is, she said.<\/p><p>That\u2019s because Kentucky law makes it hard for people to get legal assistance with damage caused by mine-worsened floods. Coal companies aren\u2019t required to pay victims\u2019 attorney fees \u2014 as they would be if they\u2019d instead contaminated local drinking water \u2014 so that expense often comes out of any settlement or court-ordered payout. Too often, Cromer said, cases don\u2019t make financial sense for a private attorney to take.<\/p><p>Harless Creek residents benefited from a perverse sort of luck: They were so numerous that they could seek help from the same lawyer and spread the impact of the fees between them. On top of that, they alleged that the flood damaged well water, not just their homes.<\/p><p>But that wasn\u2019t the case for Laura Thacker and her husband, Elvis, when their property in another part of the county was damaged \u2014 twice. They live next to the <a href=\"https:\/\/ohiovalleyresource.org\/2019\/05\/22\/facing-second-lawsuit-from-federal-mine-regulators-justice-coal-companies-file-suit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bevins Branch<\/a> mine, owned by the Justice family.<\/p><p>The state <a href=\"https:\/\/www.100daysinappalachia.com\/2018\/11\/08\/kentucky-coal-mine-belonging-to-w-va-governor-causes-flood-damage-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">began negotiating<\/a> with companies connected to the West Virginia governor and his relatives in 2014 to resolve hundreds of violations there and at other mines. In 2016, after that work was supposed to be completed, a flood destroyed the Thackers\u2019 home. That same day, the state cited the mine for not meeting runoff control requirements. Similar flooding damaged the Thacker\u2019s garage in 2018. The Justice companies blamed the incident on the rain, but the state pointed to the poor cleanup of the mine.<\/p><p>The settlements the Justice company offered the couple weren\u2019t enough to cover the cost of rebuilding, Thacker said. But the lawyer she consulted warned that attorney fees would probably eat up whatever extra money they won if they went to trial. The Thackers had to replace their house with a smaller double-wide trailer. Their loan payment costs them $200 more a month. They couldn\u2019t afford to move.<\/p><p>\u201cPeople don\u2019t understand when you go through a flood how fast everything can be taken away from you,\u201d Thacker said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have anything at all against coal. But \u2026 there\u2019s rules and regulations that they need to follow.\u201d<\/p><p>Mura, the Kentucky mine regulator spokesman, wrote in an email that the state is taking further action to ensure the Justice companies comply with their permit. Spokespeople for the companies and the West Virginia governor\u2019s office didn\u2019t respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p><p>Spadaro, the former federal regulator, said state officials who don\u2019t require mines to promptly fix problems put people at risk. Violations are common. Only 57 percent of Kentucky mines inspected from July 2017 to June 2018 fully complied with the law, according to the most recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/6476806-OSM-Kentucky.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">federal <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/6476806-OSM-Kentucky.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">evaluation<\/a>. More than one in 10 permitted sites had infractions that created off-site impacts, the report said.<\/p><p>A spokesman for the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement put a positive spin on it, noting that the share of Kentucky mines out of compliance with the law was the lowest in a decade.<\/p><p>Spadaro, who investigated for West Virginia the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pSgig0xt3gU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">notorious 1972 Buffalo Creek disaster<\/a>, in which three coal-related dams in that state failed and killed 125 people, has a harsher perspective: \u201cThere&#8217;s not one mine that I have found in compliance.\u201d<\/p><p><strong>\u2018Say a prayer\u2019<\/strong><\/p><p>Doug Tackett, Pike County\u2019s emergency management director, isn\u2019t sure what to think about climate change. Sitting in his downtown Pikeville office in June, he explained that he regularly hears from the National Weather Service about weather cycles, not the planet\u2019s warming. The rhetoric about climate change causes and solutions is confusing, too, he said.<\/p><p>\u201cThey blame it on things like fossil fuels and stuff like that. But I don&#8217;t think you&#8217;ll ever get away from fossil fuels,\u201d said Tackett, surrounded by computers, a large radio console and a walkie-talkie that murmured continuously. \u201cIt keeps the economy and everything else moving.\u201d<\/p><p>A little more than half the county\u2019s residents believe climate change is happening and 44 percent say it\u2019s mostly caused by human activity, a lower share than the nation as a whole, according to a 2019 survey by the <a href=\"https:\/\/climatecommunication.yale.edu\/visualizations-data\/ycom-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yale Program on Climate Communication<\/a>. When politicians express doubt about climate science, that has an effect, said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of Yale\u2019s program.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wysiwyg-asset-image-wrapper left\">\n<div class=\"wysiwyg-asset-image\">\n<div  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1000px;\"><a class=\"popup\" href=\"https:\/\/mediad.publicbroadcasting.net\/p\/kosu\/files\/styles\/x_large\/public\/201910\/dougtack_cropped.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"pi_assets-image\" title=\"CREDIT RACHEL LEVEN \/ CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY\" src=\"https:\/\/mediad.publicbroadcasting.net\/p\/kosu\/files\/styles\/large\/public\/201910\/dougtack_cropped.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1043\" data-interchange-default=\"https:\/\/www.kosu.org\/sites\/kosu\/files\/styles\/default\/public\/201910\/dougtack_cropped.jpg\" data-interchange-small=\"https:\/\/mediad.publicbroadcasting.net\/p\/kosu\/files\/styles\/small\/public\/201910\/dougtack_cropped.jpg\" data-interchange-medium=\"https:\/\/mediad.publicbroadcasting.net\/p\/kosu\/files\/styles\/medium\/public\/201910\/dougtack_cropped.jpg\" data-interchange-large=\"https:\/\/mediad.publicbroadcasting.net\/p\/kosu\/files\/styles\/large\/public\/201910\/dougtack_cropped.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doug Tackett, head of Pike County\u2019s emergency management division, stands at the top of the Pikeville Cut-Through in June. Officials cut a mountain in two in the 1970s, rerouting a river to avoid flooding. It was one of the largest land movements in the Western hemisphere.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-meta\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"credit\">What Tackett is certain about: He\u2019s never seen anything like the Harless Creek disaster.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><p>It was one of two flash floods in Pike County that July night. In the other, rescue teams were able to navigate the waters to save people in 75 homes.<\/p><p>In Harless Creek, that wasn\u2019t possible. Water that normally burbled a shallow 6 inches in the creek bed had become a 12-foot-deep monster that split a house in half and carried a couple down the hollow as they held on in terror. If responders went in, Tackett said, they would have been killed. He waited, feeling helpless, trying to anticipate what people would need when it was all over.<\/p><p>\u201cNeighbors were trapped, and nobody could get to them,\u201d he said. \u201cYou say a prayer and hope they\u2019re OK.\u201d<\/p><p>Afterward, Tackett\u2019s team trained more swift-water rescue teams. And in flood-prone areas, the county has helped elevate some homes.<\/p><p>But preparation only goes so far. If another flood like Harless Creek happened, Tackett said, the rushing water would still keep rescuers out. It would destroy everything in its path. Again.<\/p><p>Whether people lived or died would come down to luck and how well they could fend for themselves.<\/p><p><em>Rachel Leven and Zach Goldstein reported this story for the Center for Public Integrity. Joe Yerardi with Public Integrity and Sydney Boles with Ohio Valley ReSource contributed to this article. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Public Integrity<\/em><\/a><em> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative newsroom in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>REGINA, Ky. \u2014 Todd Bentley stepped onto his porch and saw the storm swelling the creek near his home. If this kept up all night, he feared, the creek could overflow its banks and wash out his neighborhood\u2019s road. He headed out into the rain with his teenage son to secure his mother\u2019s trailer across [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":32034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491,1],"tags":[549,548,499,220,1148],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32032"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32051,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32032\/revisions\/32051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}