PERRY COUNTY, Ky. — Rebuilding efforts continue across eastern Kentucky over two years after historic flooding devastated the region and took the lives of more than 40 people. The storms also destroyed over 500 homes and damaged thousands more. It will take several more years to rebuild them all and will cost millions of dollars.
Organizations like Housing Development Alliance are taking on that rebuilding role head on. Since the floods, they have helped more than 100 people who were affected.
“The need is huge. We lost 500 homes just in the area we serve in that flood. So far we’ve built 30 new homes for flood survivors, so that’s less than 6% of the need,” said Mindy Miller, HDA’s director of development and communications.
Across the region, HDA is building energy-efficient homes in areas that won’t flood. One building site is on a former coal mine near the Wendell H. Ford Airport outside of Chavies.
At the subdivision, 11 of the 19 homes built so far are for flood survivors. More are slated to be built here and at other state-supported high ground communities in the coming months.
One person who will call the Blue Sky subdivision home is Wayne White. His home took on 13 ½ feet of water when a nearby creek rose to record levels. His family was rescued by boat and got out safely.
“Lot of water,” White said when describing the 2022 flood. ““Lot of homes floated down [Highway] 476.”
Today, his new home won’t be under the same threat, sitting far above any nearby stream.
“I love it, I like it,” White said. “I really do.”
Available high flat ground is hard to come by in this part of Kentucky. Miller adds a lot of eastern Kentuckians would rather live in a holler than a subdivision too. It’s why the organization is also rebuilding there too.
“So even though it’s not high up on a mountain, it’s still in an area that’s not flood prone,” Miller said of a home currently under construction north of Hazard.
Miller estimates it will take several more years to fully rebuild.
But the storm anxiety and memories from that night are still fresh in people’s minds here.
“We saw the impossible happen, what we thought was impossible. For creeks to rise 30, 40 feet and destroy little communities, I mean it’s just something that we never thought would happen,” Miller said.
High above the creeks and rivers that cut through the Appalachian Mountains, there is a certain amount of relief that echoes out. Now out of reach from the waters that took so much from so many.
For the last 30 years, Housing Development Alliance has supported low-income families in and around Perry County with affordable housing and home repairs. Work to help those individuals is now happening alongside the organization’s efforts to rebuild and repair their homes following the 2022 floods.