Katie Myers
Folkways ReporterKatie Myers is a writer, environmental educator, and amateur water scientist. She splits her time living in both East Kentucky and East Tennessee. In addition to her reporting for Inside Appalachia, she’s also a reporter with the Ohio Valley ReSource and WMMT. She's covered southern politics, social movements, and environmental justice issues with Scalawag, Science for the People, Current Affairs, Commune Magazine, and others. She is a proud recipient of the Kristi Havens Fellowship through Sundress Academy for the Arts.
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St. Vincent’s Mission has been doing the work of feeding, clothing and sheltering the people of Floyd County, Kentucky, since 1968. Recently, the mission looked for help to reduce overhead costs in a county with a poverty rate of 27%, well above the state and national average. The mission installed an array of solar panels. -
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Unplugged oil and gas wells and abandoned mine lands pose serious health risks to residents. But according to reports from the regional think tank Ohio River Valley Institute, those sites could be providing thousands of jobs for the region, if the federal government invests in mitigating the issues.
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In addition to chronic flooding, many Appalachian communities deal with landslides induced by rains. Climate change has been shown to increase the frequency and intensity of rainfall throughout the Ohio Valley, and major flooding events have now disrupted eastern Kentucky communities twice in the span of a month.Some residents say mining adds to the risk.
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Once an economic behemoth, Blackjewel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On Friday, March 19, Judge Benjamin A. Kahn approved the bankruptcy plan.
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In a region where highways, dams, water systems and other infrastructure necessities are aging, repeated severe weather events have added to the strain, forcing communities to spend their resources fixing new problems rather than on improved resilience and upgrades.
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Puppetry blurs the line between play and politics, between protests, pageants, and parades - all of which have a storied history in the South. Knoxville, Tennessee’s annual puppet pageant was initiated by a group called Cattywampus Puppet Council.
