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strip mining

Drowning Deaths Last Summer From Flooding in Eastern Kentucky’s Coal Country Linked to Poor Strip-Mine Reclamation

A social justice group asks the Interior Department to review the adequacy of federal law as climate change supercharges storms and turns coal hollows into dangerous chutes of water.

By James Bruggers

A rescue team from the Jackson Fire Department assists people out of floodwaters downtown on July 28, 2022 in Jackson, Kentucky. Credit: Michael Swensen/Getty Images
A home in Pilgrim's Knob, Virginia, sits empty after being lifted from its foundation by a recent flood. Credit: Chris Kenning, USA Today.

Can Appalachia Be Saved? Or Will ‘Worse and Worse’ Flooding Wash it Away?

By Chris Kenning, Connor Giffin and James Bruggers

Trucks buried in mud and debris after heavy rains in late July 2022 caused flooding in Kentucky. Credit: Wang Changzheng/Xinhua via Getty Images.

Strip Mining Worsened the Severity of Deadly Kentucky Floods, Say Former Mining Regulators. They Are Calling for an Investigation

By James Bruggers

Unemployed Blackjewel coal miner David Pratt holds his daughter Willow as he walks across railroad tracks that lead to one of the company's mines near Cumberland, Kentucky in 2019. Blackjewel miners found themselves unemployed when the company declared bankruptcy and the workers' final paychecks bounced, leading them to blockade the tracks to prevent the train carrying the mine's final shipment of coal from leaving until they were paid their wages. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Blackjewel’s Bankruptcy Filing Is a Harbinger of Trouble Ahead for the Plummeting Coal Industry

By James Bruggers

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