One was coal mining, which once offered lucrative job opportunities in some of the most rural areas of Appalachia ... says people have chosen to be in poverty or to be in hardship and that ...

Vance kickstarted his public career with the memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," detailing his upbringing in a poverty-stricken ... especially in rural areas. For example, a lot of Appalachia lacks basic ...

There is widespread poverty in affected areas, where at least 33,000 people now have no electricity. The flooding - after torrential rain - caused mudslides and made roads impassable. Appalachia ...