‘RISING’ documents loss, resilience, and Kentucky’s long road back

Most Clark Countians will remem­ber the trag­ic flood­ing that struck Eastern Kentucky in the sum­mer of 2022. Many peo­ple and orga­ni­za­tions here respond­ed by pro­vid­ing food, water, sup­plies, and oth­er assis­tance to neigh­bors in need after the dis­as­ter. For those who live in low-lying areas of Clark County — espe­cial­ly near the Kentucky River — the fear and dam­age caused by flood­ing are not abstract ideas. 

That local con­nec­tion makes RISING, a 2025 doc­u­men­tary pro­duced by Team Kentucky, feel espe­cial­ly rel­e­vant. The 60-minute film chron­i­cles the his­toric 2022 flood, the lives it dis­rupt­ed, and the ambi­tious rebuild­ing effort that fol­lowed across Eastern Kentucky. 

Rather than focus­ing only on destruc­tion, RISING tells a broad­er sto­ry about strength, grief, pub­lic ser­vice, and long-term recov­ery. It presents Eastern Kentuckians not sim­ply as vic­tims of a nat­ur­al dis­as­ter, but as peo­ple deter­mined to rebuild their lives and com­mu­ni­ties on safer ground. 

The doc­u­men­tary blends archival footage and pho­tographs with first­hand accounts from flood sur­vivors, first respon­ders, and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers. Those per­son­al sto­ries give the film its emo­tion­al weight, while the lead­er­ship nar­ra­tives help explain the scale and com­plex­i­ty of the recov­ery effort. 

One of the film’s strongest ele­ments is its focus on col­lab­o­ra­tion. It high­lights the work of state, fed­er­al, and local offi­cials, along with the Kentucky National Guard, first respon­ders, non­prof­it part­ners, and ordi­nary cit­i­zens who stepped for­ward in the after­math of the flood. 

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear plays a promi­nent role in the doc­u­men­tary, as do Rocky Adkins and for­mer mete­o­rol­o­gist and cur­rent Winchester res­i­dent Jim Caldwell. Their appear­ances help con­nect the emer­gency response, the pub­lic com­mu­ni­ca­tion sur­round­ing the dis­as­ter, and the con­tin­u­ing work of rebuilding. 

The film also explains the state’s effort to con­struct new high-ground com­mu­ni­ties on for­mer coal mine sites out­side flood­plains. Completed com­mu­ni­ties such as Wayland in Floyd County and The Cottages at Thompson Branch in Letcher County give the doc­u­men­tary an uplift­ing tone, show­ing vis­i­ble progress rather than leav­ing view­ers only with images of loss. 

In the hours imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing the flood­ing, Gov. Beshear launched the Team Kentucky Emergency Relief Fund to help pro­vide food, shel­ter, and oth­er neces­si­ties dur­ing recov­ery. The fund also paid for the funer­als of 44 peo­ple who lost their lives in the flood. 

Donations to the fund have con­tin­ued to arrive from across the coun­try and around the world. Today, the fund sup­ports sur­vivors by help­ing off­set the cost of homes on high­er ground. Ninety-three homes have been com­plet­ed, with more under con­struc­tion, and once the effort is com­plete, more than 500 fam­i­lies are expect­ed to live in the new high-ground communities. 

That prac­ti­cal focus is what gives RISING much of its pow­er. The doc­u­men­tary does not min­i­mize the destruc­tion, the loss of life, or the grief that fol­lowed. But it also refus­es to end there. Instead, it shows recov­ery as a long, dif­fi­cult process built through coör­di­na­tion, per­sis­tence, and the will­ing­ness of com­mu­ni­ties to imag­ine a safer future. 

My wife and I recent­ly screened the doc­u­men­tary and were deeply moved by the sur­vivors’ sto­ries, the images of ruined homes and com­mu­ni­ties, and the reminder of the lives lost. We were also encour­aged by the coör­di­nat­ed efforts of Team Kentucky, the Kentucky National Guard, first respon­ders, local lead­ers, and ordi­nary cit­i­zens who came togeth­er to ren­der aid and sup­port dur­ing a trag­ic time. 

RISING pre­miered in September 2025 at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg and has since been screened in mul­ti­ple Kentucky cities and in lim­it­ed the­atri­cal runs. It is free to stream on Tubi and is also avail­able on Prime Video, with pro­ceeds sup­port­ing dis­as­ter relief. 

As a film, RISING suc­ceeds because it bal­ances emo­tion with infor­ma­tion. It is not mere­ly a record of a dis­as­ter; it is a por­trait of resilience and a reminder that rebuild­ing after tragedy requires both com­pas­sion and sus­tained com­mit­ment. For Kentuckians, and espe­cial­ly for view­ers in com­mu­ni­ties like ours that under­stand the threat of flood­ing, the doc­u­men­tary is pow­er­ful, sober­ing, and ulti­mate­ly hopeful. 

Gov. Beshear is encour­ag­ing any­one impact­ed by the flood­ing of 2021, 2022, or 2025 to vis­it HousingCantWait.org and com­plete an inter­est form. A team mem­ber from Fahe will con­tact appli­cants, deter­mine eli­gi­bil­i­ty for Disaster Recovery hous­ing, and pro­vide help through the hous­ing process.