FLAT GAP, Ky. — They roam the banks of the swollen creek, looking for those who were lost when a flash flood ravaged this rural eastern Kentucky community. They battle swarming mosquitoes and snake-infested creeks, piles of rubble 10 feet tall and mud so thick it sucks the shoes off their feet.

For two days, rescue crews have trudged door-to-door across this rugged Appalachian terrain, painting orange x’s on each structure they search. Hope is fading for the families who are watching them work.

“You talk to them and they say, ‘Right there is where my house used to be,’” said Randall Mulkey, a firefighter from a nearby county who volunteered to help with the search.

He’s seen homes splintered into rubble, others split in half and cars strewn in places he never could have imagined. Tromping through the mud is exhausting, he said. It breaks his heart to see people’s belongings — clothes, toys, photographs — among the wreckage and know they lost everything they had.

Three are confirmed dead and another man is still missing. The fates of four more remain uncertain. Families reported them missing, but they may have escaped safety or could be stranded in their homes, without power or phone service, police say.

Kevin Johnson believes his 34-year-old son, Scott, is dead, but his body has not yet been found.

Scott Johnson was last seen wading through rushing floodwater with his 74-year-old grandmother on his back.

He had already guided his father, uncle and sister from the raging flood that inundated their cluster of trailers. He turned back one last time to save his grandmother, whom he called Nana, and a 13-year-old family friend.