cbs's nancy cordes will start us off from whitesburg, kentucky. tough go for that state. >> reporter: it really has, jericka. in fact, this is the second time in a year that president biden has come to kentucky to tour devastation. first from tornadoes and now from floods that in neighborhood after neighborhood destroyed homes like these from the inside out. this is what's left of downtown whitesburg now that the north fork kentucky river has receded. crews carted off mountains of debris today after four feet of water rushed into these homes in the middle of the night two weeks ago. >> they got out with the clothes on their back. >> reporter: beverly johnson's father escaped by boat and is now living in a camper. >> this house has to be demolished. we thought we could save it but the floors are buckled and there's already mold. it just -- it's not going to be something back. >> reporter: your father wants to stay? >> he wants to stay. >> reporter: president biden toured nearby lost creek where it carted off school buses and up ended mobile homes.

cbs' nancy cordes was there in whitesburg, kentucky. >> eporter: this is what's left of county whitesburgucky river has receded. crews carted off mountains of debris after pour feet of water rushed into the homes in the middle of the night two weeks ago. >> they got out with the clother rushed into the homes in the on their back. >> reporter: beverly johnson's father escaped by boat and is now living in a camper. >> this house has to be demolished. woe thought we could safe to, but the floors are buckled and there's already model. it's not going to be safe to move back into. so they'll demolish it and try to put something back. >> reporter: with but your father wants to stay. >> he wants to stay. >> reporter: president biden toured a nearby lost creek where rushing waters carted off school buses and upended mobile homes. >> you're abamerican citizen. we never give up, stop, bow or bend, we just go forward. >> reporter: the disaster zone stretches across 12 eastern kentucky counties. as much as 10 and a half inches of rain came down in 48 hours, turning creeks into rivers in an area made m

cbs's nancy cordes starts us off from whitesburg, kentucky. tough go for that state. >> reporter: it really has, jericka. information, this is the second time in a year that president biden has come to kentucky to tour devastation, first from tornadoes, and now from floods, that in neighborhood after neighborhood destroyed homes like these from the inside out. >> this is what's left of downtown whitesburg now hat the north fork kentucky river has receded. crews carted off mountains of debris today after pour feet of water rushed into these homes in the middle of the night two weeks ago. >> they got out with the clothes on their back. >> reporter: beverly johnson's father escaped by boat and is how living in a camper. >> this house has to be demolished. we thought we could save it but the floors are buckled and there's already model. it's not going to be safe to something back. >> reporter: but your father wants to stay here. >> he wants to stay. >> reporter: president biden toured a nearby lost creek where school buses were washed away and mob

robert ray of fox weather reports live from whitesburg, kentucky. high, robert. >> hi, martha.ed. very hot, very muggy. look at this. i mean, this is all over eastern kentucky in the five counties. this is the front of a vehicle. you can see the rest of the debris that people have been piling up on this street here. unbelievable. the governor of kentucky stated earlier, 37 people have lost their lives. there's still three people that are unaccounted for. pardon the vehicles here, this is the police and fire stakes. on top of that, martha, we're looking at 10,000 people still out of power in the five counties as the heat continues. over 1,200 rescues in the past week from the air and boat. martha, just want to talk to the head chief of police here in whitesburg to get his perspective to give you an idea of exactly what all of these people have been going through. chief fields, thanks for being on fox news. i have to ask you, sir, what has the past week been for you all here? >> well, you know, this past week has been like a war zone. it's been complete total destruction, chaos.

the amburgy family in whitesburg posting an urgent call for help on social media. family members, including their 9 8-year-old grandmother mae, trapped inside their home, surrounded by rising floodwaters. >> i was afraid, obviously, for my brother, my grandmother, and my uncle. >> reporter: jd griffin rushing to rescue the family in shoulder high, fast-moving water as helpless neighbors watched in horror. >> when he's in the house, he's in there two minutes what seemed like for two hours. i thought that he'd already died. so he emerges out and it creeps his way down to the front door. >> reporter: family members say they all 12,000 still without power, as some more rain falling in the area. we made the journey to neon, the town flooded for a second time today. going through multiple mudslides to find a downtown completely decimated. the loss to these communities in eastern kentucky hitting people hard. the damage around here is pretty bad. >> it looks like a war zone around here. we need the most help you've ever seen in your life. >> a massive effort nose there. e

volunteers lined up at the apple shop in whitesburg to short and attempt to salvage hundreds of soaked history. just across the river, another piece of appalachian culture caked in mud after a flood ripped through this downtown dis distillery. >> first you're heart broec and the then you try to get it fixed back as soon as possible. >> reporter: community touchstones destroyed. schools, pharmacies, fire departments, and grocery stores. nothing spared in these tiny towns. >> you think of it as a store, but it's actually a gathering place for evan. >> reporter: while the fire department was doing boat rescues, their boat flooded, fire truck swept away. the majority of the deaths happened in knot county including four children. for those who survived the flood, surviving the aftermath brings new challenges, which for many becomes more difficult by the day. >> there's nothing left. everything's destroyed. >> reporter: the rural nature of the region coupled with the water crushing roads and bridges made rescue and resources difficult to come by with the national guard coming in by air and n

you can kind of see it all around along this bridge here in whitesburg, kentucky.es, in some cases houses still in creeks and rivers. we have seen cars and so there is concern about that. they have been attempting to get that out. you can probably hear the hum of a pump right now in the background. it is pulling water out of a distillery that is right next to me. we have seen people trying to do all of this work to come back from those floods that happened eight days ago. they're attempting to come back, attempting to dig out and clean up. and in addition to the flooding potential, there is also rain in the forecast for the next several days. this will slow down some of that recovery. some of that cleanup. now, jim, we are expecting an update from kentucky's governor in about an hour and a half, two hours. right now the death toll stands still at 37. he has cautioned that he does expect that to go up. we should get some updates on the situation here on the ground from him then. and potentially what to expect as this weather moves in. jim? >> dianne gallagher, thank

look at this video from the town of whitesburg. it shows a volunteer rescuing a 98-year-old grandmother. you see the people are struggling to keep their heads above water. kentucky's governor says at least 35 people are known dead, many more are missing. >> there are hundreds of unaccounted for people, minimum, and we just don't have a firm grasp on that. i wish we did. there are a lot of reasons why it's nearly impossible, but i want to make sure that we're not giving either false hope or faulty information. >> take a look at these faces. these brothers and sisters, aged 2 to 8, dead, family members say they were ripped from their parents' arms. witnesses say the waters were so powerful that in just seconds they swept away homes that had been standing for generations. cnn just obtained new video from one flood victim who says his family is trapped and cannot get out of that neighborhood. >> the whole road is blocked off. >> survivors are pleading for some help after losing every tangible thing. >> it is unbelievable. i took a chan

cnbc is live in whitesburg, kentucky about two hours south of lexington. perry, this heat, as i understand, is just suffocating. >> reporter: we have been sweating here, shep. everybody has. the high school has been incredibly hot all day. right now we are on a heat advisory. the waters are finally going down, and as these waters are going down, people just keep finding things in the water. yesterday a man who lives here said he found this. he found a truck he had never seen before. he has no idea who owns it or where it came from. connie is searching in the rubble where her house used to stand. the only thing she recognizes is a patch of linoleum flooring. the tires of her car poke out of the creek. >> it could have been so different. we could have been with other -- >> reporter: the neighbors living on both sides of her house died. four of them. >> we could've been with the rest of them and not made it, but god decided to save us. >> reporter: connie and her granddaughter were lying in the water. crawling on their bellies, they climbed up this hill. >> y

look at this video from the town of whitesburg.see the people are struggling to keep their heads above water. kentucky's governor says at least 35 people are known dead, many more are missing. >> there are hundreds of unaccounted for people, minimum, and we just don't have a firm grasp on that. i wish we did. there are a lot of reasons why it's nearly impossible, but i want to make sure that we're not giving either false hope or faulty information. >> take a look at these

william: we spoke earlier with tiffany craft the mayor of , whitesburg, kentucky.elieves at least 80% of the homes in her town were destroyed. >> i have seen things that i as a human being never dreamed i would see. i have seen bodies pulled from the river, deceased bodies. i have seen people rescued by boat in two-story homes that -- things like that. i really fully cannot describe it, what it is like right now. it is total devastation. people taking out everything they own and piling it on their front lawns, shoveling out mud in their living rooms where they were sitting hours before. it is catastrophic here right now. william: how do you bounce back from something like that? >> i don't know, i have wondered that too. i lay awake at night. i've had many sleepless nights. i just sit and look on main street, at the vibrant community that we had, and how are we going to rebuild and come back anytime soon and be what we used to be? i know we will, but i don't ve an answer for that. william: residents here will likely endure another day or so of rain before the histor

including this unidentified man who entered a nearly submerged home in whitesburg last thursday, a witness over the next half hour he helped bring a 98 year old woman and each of her family members to safety over hundreds of homes without more it is devastated. and a lot of this lot of the homes have heroes. thousands remain without power or clean water. people are showing up at churches and shelters, donating everything from clothes to baby formula. i can promise you these are some of the hardest working most brazilian people you'll ever find. it will be put to good use, and we'll rebuild and governor bashir estimates it could cost millions to repair damaged infrastructure. across the state in hazard, kentucky. i'm nicole valdez, fox weather. california is getting over half a billion dollars over the next five years to try and prepare for climate change that money from the biden administration is part of a $7.3 billion project to improve infrastructure in anticipation of disasters and extreme weather fueled by climate change. states can use the money to improve and build new roads, bridge

william: we spoke earlier today with tiffany craft, mayor of whitesburg, kentucky on the eastern edgee state. she believes 80% of the homes in her town were destroyed. >> i have seen things that i, as a human being, never dreamed i would see before. i have seen bodies called from the river. deceased bodies. i have seen people rescued by boat. in two story homes that are just -- things like that. i really fully can't describe it, what it's like right now. it is just total devastation. people taking out everything that they own and piling it on their front lawns, shoveling out mud in their living rooms where they were just sitting less than hours before. it is catastrophic here right now. william: how do you bounce back from something like that? >> i don't know. i have wondered that too. i lay awake at night, and there have been many sleepless nights. i just sit and look on main street, of the vibrant community we had, how are we going to rebuild and come back anytime soon and be what we used to be? we well, i know we will. but i don't have an answer for that. william: residence here wi

including this unidentified man who entered a nearly submerged home in whitesburg last thursday, a witness says. over the next half hour he helped bring a 98 year old woman and each of her family members to safety over hundreds of homes without more it is devastated. and a lot of this lot of the homes have heroes. thousands remain without power or clean water. people are showing up at churches and shelters, donating everything from clothes to baby formula. i can promise you these are some of the hardest working most brazilian people you'll ever find. it will be put to good use, and we'll rebuild and governor bashir estimates it could cost millions to repair damaged infrastructure. across the state in hazard, kentucky. i'm nicole valdez, fox weather. alright another nice day today. kind of cool saturday. cool sunday. cool today kind of cool and warmed up in the afternoon when the clouds cleared a little bit, but i'll sure no fog a little bit warmer out at the beach is today. golden gate bridge. i should never gets old. the bridge never gets old. it's amazing to be my agents. every time you

including this unidentified man who entered a nearly submerged home in whitesburg last thursday, a witnesss. over the next half hour he helped bring a 98 year old woman and each of her family members to safety over hundreds of homes without more that is devastated. and a lot of this lot of the homes have heroes. thousands remain without power or clean water. people are showing up at churches and shelters, donating everything from clothes to baby formula. i can promise you these are some of the hardest working most brazilian people you'll ever find. it will be put to good use, and we'll rebuild and governor bashir estimates it could cost millions to repair damaged infrastructure. across the state in hazard, kentucky. i'm nicole valdez, fox weather. we'll take a look at the last 24 hours in that region, and it's been wet for more than a couple of days been wet for four or five days out there in the nation's midsection from the mississippi valley over the ohio valley, and it's because you've got this little pressure kind of lingering up in here and then the jet stream just driving storms righ

this family in whitesburg posting an urgent call for help on social media. family members including their 98-year-old grandmother mae trapped inside their home surrounded by rising floodwaters. j.d. griffin rushing to rescue the family in shoulder high fast-moving water. family members say they all survived. a feeling of gratitude and community as the weight of how much has been lost and what's ahead is still unknown. the damage around here is pretty bad. >> it looks like a war zone around here. this community has come together more than anything but the work is not done here. we need the most help you've ever seen in your life. >> reporter: there is a very long road to recovery ahead here and one person telling me that the infrastructure in a lot of these communities is so old that it's not as simple as just repairing some of these issues. they will have to be replaced and that means that it will take months, not weeks, to get basic things like water back on in some of these communities. michael? >> as the man said they need as much help as you can imagine.