My parents in EKY have been without power for two days. As of last night, they were told their part of the county could be without it for a week. In the middle of a pandemic.

Without power, they have no cell service because they use a microcell for that; they aren't covered by AT&T where they live at the head of the Left Fork of Maces Creek in Perry County.

So, they have to drive out to the county seat, Hazard, to call me and my brother to let us know they're OK.

Last night, in their daily drive around town/update, this is what Mom told me...

There were only two gas stations with power in all of Perry County: Walmart and Jeff Mart, a store coincidentally, they used to co-own in the lower end of the county. Cars were lined up for maybe a mile at Jeff Mart from both directions to fill their tanks for generators.

Mom and Dad tried to get a generator from Lowe's, but they were sold out.

Mom said the things you must have to live in rural EKY are: a camp stove (they've been using theirs to boil water from the stream by their house to wash dishes); coolers and ice to keep perishables cold; some source of heat that isn't electric (they have a gas fireplace).

The winds they faced were 60-80mph, very high for EKY hollers. Highest I've ever heard about in my lifetime. Trees were ripped up like matchsticks, she said.

There are a lot of dead pine trees and hemlocks in the area; invasive species that have flourished in recent years have taken them. They are most of what they've seen fallen on buildings and houses.

Mom and Dad had to help my aunt and uncle move a tree that fell over the road to their house so they could leave.

The rain didn't stop until yesterday, so all the creeks and rivers are high to overflowing. Flooding in EKY has gotten worse in recent years because of more logging, more rain, less surface mine remediation.

Mom said this is the worst spring storm she's seen in her lifetime.

And I guess my points are this:

Climate change is impacting our rural communities right now in severe ways. They are the frontline, and they feel those impacts more acutely because they have less resources to deal with them.

EKY suffers from the legacy costs of the old economy in a myriad of ways, and the lack of resources to be able to handle a storm like this is one of them.

This pandemic has highlighted systemic injustice in all ways and all places - mostly for Black and Native Americans. EKY is another place that faces systemic injustice, and has faced it for generations. We had coal, so we were exploited.

What that means is we the people of Eastern Kentucky have to take care of each other, because ain't nobody coming to save us. We have to make sure our neighbors and family members have food and heat and water and medicine and a clear road and dry basements.

We take care of each other. That's what we do.

In a pandemic, though, when we have to stay six feet away from each other, and when we can't visit on porches in the daylight and beside heat sources by candlelight in the nighttime, times like this are made all the harder.

I guess I just wanted to say all this, so that someone else would know about it, because it matters. In order to know the truth of a place, you must know these details and where they come from and what they mean to the people on the ground dealing with them.