AP PHOTOS: Kentucky counts the dead, braces for more floods

Associated Press The Associated Press

In this aerial image, the river is still high around the homes in Breathitt County, Ky., on Saturday, July 30, 2022. Recovery has begun in many of the narrow hollers after historic rains flooded many areas of Eastern Kentucky killing more at least two dozen people. A layer of mud from the retreating waters covers many cars and homes. (Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal via AP)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Michael Clevenger]

Amid a climbing death toll, frantic searches for the missing and the daunting cleanup of mud-soaked homes and businesses, Kentucky authorities braced for the possibility of more storms and flash floods Sunday.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” that the death toll had risen by one to 26 from last week’s storms. Dozens more were unaccounted for according to a daily briefing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Beshear said state police were taking calls from worried people who can’t locate loved ones due to spotty cell phone service.

Many were left homeless and with no possessions. “I have the clothes on my back,” Teresa Perry Reynolds’ said Saturday after the home she and her husband shared was inundated with water and mud.

Among the hard-hit areas was the town of Hindman, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southeast of Louisville. As crews piled sodden debris on mud-caked sidewalks, a flood-tossed car could be seen upside down in nearby Troublesome Creek, which had returned to its banks after inundating the town.