LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Extreme heat in the forecast this week could hamper flood recovery efforts in eastern Kentucky. 

"It’s going to get really, really hot. And that is now our new weather challenge," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at his Tuesday morning briefing on the disaster.

Cooling centers are opening as temperatures expected to soar.

The rain that unleashed massive floods in 13 Kentucky counties was diminishing Tuesday, leaving survivors to face a new threat: baking in the heat as they try to recover.

The death toll stood at 37 on Tuesday after more bodies were found Monday in the ruined landscape. And while more than 1,300 people have been rescued, crews were still trying to reach some people who remain cut off by floods or mudslides, Beshear said. Hundreds remained unaccounted for, a number that should drop once cellphone service is restored and people can tell each other they’re alive.

Beshear called this the most devastating flood in his lifetime, and relief is pouring in from across the state.

The governor surveyed damage on Tuesday starting in Pike County. He stopped at the Red Cross command center at Shelby Valley Elementary school. He stopped to greet volunteers. He later told them, “The grief is palpable, but we will get back on our feet”

There are stacks upon stacks on donated items from bottled water to cleaning supplies at the school. All of those items are being sent to hundreds of hollers in eastern Kentucky where even after almost a week, some families remain trapped in their homes.

Bridges are washed out in Pike county and some roads are still impassable. Cell phone service is being restored, but water service is still struggling. Many communities still don’t have power, and many more have no home to return to.

State Rep. Angie Hatton, who represents hard-hit Letcher County, said no community has helped their people more than neighboring Pike County, which just endured their fourth destructive flood in 18 months. It's just another example of Kentuckians helping Kentuckians.

“We will rebuild, come hell or high water,” Hatton said.

[How to help eastern Kentucky residents recovering from deadly flooding]

Beshear is touring Pike, Floyd and Breathitt counties Tuesday to survey the damage. 

"It is absolutely devastating out there," he said. "It’s going to take years to rebuild. People left with absolutely nothing. Homes that we don’t know where they are, just entirely gone. And we continue to find bodies of our brothers and sisters that we have lost."

Beshear said he talked to President Biden, and that individual assistance is now approved in seven counties, including Pike and Floyd.  He said FEMA reps are already on the ground in the region. 

Cooling stations are being set up in buildings that were spared the floods as more than 9,600 customers remain without electricity in eastern Kentucky, Beshear said.

"With the heat coming up, we put out the call for cooling stations," he said. "And they have been set up in time, in fact, before this heat. We may, for the first time, be ahead of the weather.

"I know you may be out there working to salvage whatever you can. But be really careful Wednesday on Thursday when it gets hot. We’re bringing in water by the truckloads. We’re going to make sure we have enough for you. But you’re going to need a cool place at least to take a break."

For hundreds of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed, that place was an emergency shelter. As of Tuesday, nearly 430 people were staying at 11 such shelters, and 191 more were being housed temporarily in state parks, Beshear said.

Courtesy Kentucky National Guard Public Affairs Office

President Joe Biden declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to 13  counties flooded after 8 to 10 1/2 inches of rain fell in just 48 hours in parts of eastern Kentucky.

Chris Campbell, president of Letcher Funeral Home in Whitesburg, said his 90-year-old grandmother lost the entire home where she’s lived since 1958. She managed to escape to a neighbor’s house with only some photos. Everything else is gone. And now he's handling burial arrangements for people he's known personally, like a 67-year-old woman who had a heart attack trying to escape from the rising water.

"These people, we know most of them," he said of the town about 110 miles southeast of Lexington. "We’re a small community. It affects everybody."

The Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief fund has accepted nearly 18,000 donations for a total of $2.3 million. 

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