BEATTYVILLE, Ky. — Business owners in Beattyville were devastated on Monday to survey the flood damage to their stores. Rebekkah Early, the owner of Red River Tattoo Company LLC, took a boat ride down the streets where cars drove just hours earlier. She put her all into the shop that was her dream, and part of her livelihood, but she'll now have to rebuild that dream.

"I'm not so good right now," Early can be heard telling the men who accompanied her by boat Monday. Her Facebook live stream displayed her reaction to the damage. "Oh no!" she gasped.  

"We don't know what to do," Early later told Spectrum News 1. "I'm kind of the 'black sheep' in the community, you know...I'm a tattoo artist. I'm a piercer," she added, explaining she never received COVID-19 help or relief. She's hoping there's a path forward to help. 

Lee County Emergency Management Director Jon Allen expects the flooding event will be declared a FEMA disaster. Allen said people and pets were rescued from their homes early Monday. He's monitoring other areas with rising waters.

"We have a personal care home, a nursing home here, that we're not going to evacuate, but we're sheltering in place. Water is encroaching on it pretty quickly. And it's just difficult times right at the moment here," Allen added. 

As of Monday evening, he reported no flood-related deaths or injuries. But he added this flood is like no weather event the town has seen in decades. People have mentioned the river likely cresting Monday, but Allen felt the waters still rising. He expects they could recede Thursday. 

Early hasn't lost hope for recovery yet, though she says she must take it just day by day. 

"I have nothing. Everything is gone. And I don't know who to contact about any of this, you know. It's...we're living paycheck to paycheck as it is right now," she grieved. "I know that I can't give up. I know that I just can't walk away from this, because I've put everything into."

Stay with Spectrum News 1 as a team of journalists heads to Beattyville for more coverage of this story throughout the day Tuesday.