FRANKFORT, Ky. — Cleanup continues nearly two weeks after flooding ravaged eastern Kentucky, and lawmakers are looking at multimillion-dollar repairs of infrastructure.
The hardest hit areas of the Feb. 15-16 floods include Pike County and many of its surrounding counties. Two lawmakers representing the state’s eastern-most counties said it was among the worst flooding events they ever saw.
State Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, said it will take many residents months, possibly even years, to rebuild.
“I have lived in Pikeville since 1985, and I’ve never seen anything like it in my life," Wheeler said.
Wheeler said Pike County has lost 11 bridges and early estimates are the replacement of roads and infrastructure in the area is at least $50 million alone.
“We’ll dig out of this," he said. "It's going to take some time, it’s going to take a lot of money, but we’ve seen a lot of commitment from both our state and federal officials."
Freshman State Sen. Scott Madon, R-Pineville, said his hometown of Pineville is surrounded by a floodwall built in the late 1970s for $70 million. He said while it would be ideal to have floodwalls for everybody, the cost nowadays would be at least half a billion dollars, he predicted.
However, Madon said some action can be taken right now in the area.
“I hear that more, especially since the flood," Madon said. "If you can just dredge our creeks and cut our trees and stuff back, I do believe that would help quite a bit (with water flow)."
Madon said his five-county district is looking at an at least $30 million price tag of damage. His district includes Bell, Floyd, Harlan, Knott and Letcher counties.
He said there is now concern of people leaving the area entirely and never returning.
“How many times is FEMA going to come in and pay those people? Once they do that a few times, they usually start mitigating and buying them out and moving them out," Madon said.
President Donald Trump approved federal assistance from FEMA for the area, which Wheeler said he thinks could use some reform.
“A lot of times, there is a lot of red tape," Wheeler said. "Sometimes, benefits don’t get to people as quickly as you hope."
As of Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., said the death toll from flooding stands at 23.