Between July 26-July 30, 2022, torrential rain and historic floods ravaged eastern Kentucky. According to the National Weather Service, the thunderstorms caused rainfall rates over four inches an hour. Forty-five people lost their lives in the storm.
Despite unfathomable damage, Kentuckians are rebuilding not only their communities but also their lives.
We look back at survivors and watch them start over. We meet a mayor determined to lead his town to a brighter future. Learn how first responders are trying to build prepared communities and watch Kentuckians find strength and faith to build a better tomorrow.
Living in Neon
NEON, Ky. — During last year’s historic flash flooding in eastern Kentucky, residents faced swift water and landslides.
In the hollers of eastern Kentucky, your front door faces the water and your back is to the mountain.
Terry Sturgill has been looking over his shoulder his entire life, but a year ago he was hit from both sides.
Sturgill knows Letcher County well.
“Very local. Been here all my life,” Sturgill told Spectrum News 1.
A torrential rain came on July 27, 2022, and it didn’t stop.
“And it was rock and water coming so loud and so fierce that you could see it and hear it,” Sturgill recalled.
Rain water poured down the coal mountain behind Sturgill’s home, pushing everything out of its way. While other homes were being swamped or swept away, Sturgill worried a landslide would hit him before the swollen creek even could.
“It was throwing rocks at me faster than I could catch them,” the homeowner said.
“This was a lake. I’ve got all kinds of pictures if you need to see them,” Sturgill said of his front yard, which faces a small creek. By the morning of July 28, all of Sturgill’s high ground was gone. The creek that runs 40 yards from his home rose 15 feet in a few short hours. Downtown Neon is half a mile downstream.
“I’d actually already filed to run before the flood and everybody was like, ‘You still want to be mayor?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, somebody’s got to do it.’ I’m just a go getter. I love a challenge,” Neon Mayor Ricky Burke told Spectrum News 1.
Burke indeed inherited a challenge. The new mayor and full-time mechanic was also born and raised in Letcher County. In fact, Burke attended the high school when neighbor Terry Sturgill was a principal there. But not only that, Sturgill once held the title of ‘Neon Mayor’ too.
Some storefronts in Neon have rebuilt while others still show the waterline on the untouched glass. There is noticeable progress, but other buildings are frozen in time.
“They are not just ready to start back up yet, but it’s in the making. They’ll be back,” Burke said reassuringly.
Nearly a year since the flood and Burke is meeting with state leaders and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, hoping to get help to repair parts of the city’s sewer water treatment system.
“It rained so hard and so fast the water just didn’t have anywhere to go,” Burke said. “Oh, it was it was devastating. I mean, we’ve had floods before, but, you know, never nothing like this. And I really hope we don’t ever see something like it again.”
Terry Sturgill’s home was damaged, and he soon discovered an additional problem; a severe lack of contractors able to help eastern Kentucky rebuild.
“There are no workers. There were no carpenters, no plumbers. There’s no electricians. There’s no painters. You fight for one,” Sturgill said.
And many in the hollers are still fighting and evermore skeptical of Mother Nature.
Jackson Fire Department Prepared for the Future
JACKSON, Ky. — It was a scenario Charles Noble had never imagined: floodwater rising so high that the assistant fire chief would lose his home, and so fast he’d be separated from his family.
“My family personally got rescued by helicopter, airlifted out, and then the Winchester swift water rescue [team] rescued my kids and my wife,” he recalled last week.
In the hours that followed, Noble and his crew at the Jackson Fire Department wouldn’t sleep, working to save their neighbors with the help of departments from around the region.
“I’m glad that they showed up to help us because… everybody was flooded in to where we couldn’t get to our equipment anyway and we didn’t have the equipment to really do what we needed to do,” he said.
One year later, the department has a new trailer, generator and two new boats, replacing one damaged in the flood.
“This is a really vital piece of equipment to deploy because you can do some really tight maneuvers with this boat,” he said, referring to a new inflatable boat stored in a garage at the department. “It’s in the toolbox. If you never use it, it’s fine, but if you need to use it, you got it.”
The department has also purchased several pieces of new equipment, including helmets and dry suits. Noble said they’d like to have most of the crew trained on swift water rescue.
The biggest lesson from the last year, he said, is you can never be too prepared.
“We’re here waiting and anything that we could do to help, we’ll do everything in our power to get to you and help you,” he said. “We’re trying to better our department as best as we can to suit the environments that’s still yet to come.”
Helping Neighbors Rebuild
KNOTT COUNTY, Ky. — For many in eastern Kentucky, moving to an area outside of a flood zone just isn’t possible without help. Last year’s floods also impacted some of the poorest areas in the state. In the flood’s aftermath, organizations with deep ties to the region have stepped up to build homes for flood victims.
Housing Development Alliance, a longstanding pillar of affordable housing in eastern Kentucky, is doing just that. The organization’s efforts are helping survivors like Alvin Sizemore, who lost everything when his home was destroyed.
“It’s been hell,” Alvin said about the last year, describing the challenges he faced since last August, such as a lack of permanent housing. However, that struggle is about to change with the nearing completion of a two-bedroom, one-bath home for Sizemore and his wife.
“Oh, this is a nice place. They’ve done a real good job on this,” Sizemore said.
Mindy Miller, development and communications director for Housing Development Alliance, says Sizemore’s home is the 11th her organization has built this year. The goal is to build 20 by the end of 2023.
Since the flood, the alliance has scaled up its operations and has hired locals to help with construction. The help given to survivors is happening on top of the decades-long work of helping low-income families in the area find affordable housing.
“You know, the more that we can offer great things for our community and can continue to build homes and make new homeowners, new taxpayers, new customers for local businesses, the better that we are doing for our community and hopefully keep people here for a long time,” Miller said.
The financial burden for clients is kept manageable, with affordable financing that keeps monthly payments low.
“His payment will be under $200. It’ll be probably around $195 a month,” Miller said.
Sizemore’s home is also being built far above a nearby creek in an area that won’t flood.
“This is a dream come true,” Sizemore said. “These people never gave up on me.”
Other organizations in the region have also stepped up like HOMES, Inc in Letcher County. So far, HOMES, Inc has completed 13 homes outside of flood zones, and has a goal of reaching 24 by the end of the year. However, their biggest challenge remains finding suitable land for construction.
Sweet Sounds of Flood Recovery
HINDMAN, Ky. — The historic 2022 floods in eastern Kentucky touched nearly every end of Knott county and beyond.
Businesses in and around downtown Hindman were submerged in record-high water. We introduced you to the Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Company shortly after the flood. A year later, the second chance workshop is recovering like other businesses in the area.
One year ago, the morning before director Doug Naselroad could make it to the Troublesome Creek shop or the Appalachian School of Luthiery, flood waters blocked access to and through the main road in Hindman.
‘“It was five feet deep over here, and I had a Toyota over here,” Naselroad said as he recalled that tragic day.
He stays near the business and watched the flood water quickly consume the area within minutes. It covered cars and eventually the first floor of buildings right outside of his home.
They lost around $100,000 worth of instruments and heirlooms alone, not to mention property damage and excessive clean-up.
However, a week later, Naselroad and other volunteers began searching for the misplaced guitars and valuables to be salvaged, like the Hindman dulcimers: a collection that once stood in the community artisan museum.
“When we finally found it, it was filled with mud and swollen,” Naselroad said about one of the specialty pieces. “We thought that it wasn’t too bad, but when it dried out, it needed some repairs.”
Cleaning their workspaces and restoring instruments to their pre-disaster glory haven’t been their only challenges.
Troublesome Creek provides a special mission of serving people who are recovering from addiction.
Luthier Anthony Parsons says when such a loss happens, it can be a fight for folks who are working to overcome other struggles. He says it ultimately comes down to life-changing decisions.
“And if I don’t have a job or whatever, you start having one of those panics about what to do if this doesn’t work out anymore,” Parsons said. “But you have to be strong enough to say no matter what it will be alright.”
Life-altering for all of them, Naselroad says the crew of instrument mechanics has proved that regardless of the obstacle they help their peers and neighbors.
“I had no idea on earth of all the people that were gonna rise to the occasion and help us,” Naselroad said.
Now they are working toward making the business even more welcoming.