i had @13000 photos in icloud... yesterday I updated my phone and now there is nothing!!! I checked to make sure images were there... bought extra storage a couple weeks ago ALL for nothing!!!! that is years of my kids lives I cant find!!!!!!!!!

checked to make sure images were there

To be clear... where is "there"?

On the phone? On iCloud? On both? Do you use the iCloud Photo Library? Did you create a backup?

I am very sorry. Did you do anything you think might have produced this result. Also, on iCloud.com, after clicking on Photos, have you clicked the Recently Deleted tab in small letters at the right side? It might be easier to do this on a computer, but you can do it from your phone. If your photos are in Recently deleted, the you can recover them. Also, have you backed up your phone up to a computer. You should be able to recover your photos from using the backup.