Flash flooding inundated much of Southeastern Kentucky in July 2022, including Breathitt County, above. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Researchers at public universities in Kentucky and West Virginia are planning to collaborate alongside local residents on a four-year project to better understand, predict and prepare for flash flooding in Appalachia and climate change’s impacts on it.?

Surface coal mining worsened deadly Eastern Kentucky floods in July 2022, study shows

A nearly $1.1 million award from the U.S. National Science Foundation will bring together civil engineers and scientists from environmental and social fields to study a range of topics, including soil moisture’s impact on flash flooding. Researchers also will gauge monitors installed in waterways to help tailor flooding solutions “to community goals, serving as a model for resilience planning in vulnerable communities across the U.S.,” according to the project’s description.?

Researchers will analyze decades of precipitation and streamflow data from the University of Kentucky’s Robinson Forest in Breathitt County and install soil moisture sensors throughout the research forest to better understand flooding in headwater streams.?

Christopher Barton, a University of Kentucky professor of forest hydrology and watershed management and principal investigator for the project, in a statement said researchers want to do everything they can “to build up the infrastructure to understand, predict and prepare for flash floods in this region.”?

“To best help, we also must understand how climate change and landscape alterations affect flash floods,” Barton said.?

The “novel collaboration” is also funding researchers from the University of Louisville, Eastern Kentucky University, West Virginia University and Marshall University. A main goal of the collaboration is developing improved early warning systems to alert communities when flash floods are worsening.

Eastern Kentucky University will also be using the funding to aid high school and middle school teachers develop science education programming and plant trees as a part of reforestation efforts to mitigate flash floods.

Ron Grindstaff, right, comforts his wife, Marie, as they remove belongings from their home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 30, 2024 in Old Fort, North Carolina. According to reports, at least 100 people have been killed across the southeastern U.S., and millions are without power due to the storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — White House Homeland Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall said Monday during a press briefing there are 600 people unaccounted for following Hurricane Helene, as federal officials mount a response to the catastrophic storm in states across the Southeast.

Sherwood-Randall said that could lead the death toll to rise into the hundreds, but added officials are “very hopeful” some of those missing have cell phones that are not working and “actually are alive.”

“I’ll caution you, because we’ve seen this before, those numbers vary widely,” Sherwood-Randall said. “There’s a lot of reporting that doesn’t add up about the numbers.”

The Associated Press said Monday night more than 125 lives have been claimed.

President Joe Biden, who has held multiple briefings and calls on the hurricane, also announced late Monday he plans to travel to North Carolina on Wednesday. Biden had said he wanted to wait until his presence would not be disruptive to recovery operations.

Sherwood-Randall told reporters the Federal Emergency Management Agency and numerous other federal departments have moved staff and equipment into the Southeast to assist local and state emergency responders as residents struggle to access basic necessities.

FEMA, among many other recovery efforts, was speeding up its $750 payments to households that qualified for “serious needs assistance,” which can be used to pay for essential items like water, food, baby formula and medication.

“This is not the full extent of FEMA assistance to individuals, but it’s the first element of it that becomes immediately available with a major disaster declaration,” Sherwood-Randall said. “And it gets people cash when they’re absolutely desperate for it.”

Survivors who register for FEMA’s individual assistance program will be able to receive federal help repairing cars, homes and some other types of personal property that were damaged by the hurricane, she said.

People who have damage to their homes should first contact their insurance companies, but Sherwood-Randall noted there are several federal programs that help with the rebuilding and recovery process as well.

“If people have insurance, that’s of course very important for rebuilding. If they do not have insurance, they have access to federal assistance,” she said. “But it’s a long road to recovery for people because there’s so much work to be done. We have to acknowledge that.”

People who need assistance from FEMA should call 1-800-621-3362, register on https://www.disasterassistance.gov/ or fill out an application on the FEMA app, she said.

Disaster recovery centers opening

FEMA was also in the process of opening disaster recovery centers in affected communities.

“What’s important about these centers is they aggregate federal support in one place,” Sherwood-Randall said. “It used to be the case that survivors had to go to multiple different departments and agencies to find out what kind of help they could get access to. What we do is we put everyone together, either in a standing building that survived the natural disaster, or in a trailer, if that’s necessary.”

Centers opened on Monday in Manatee County, Sarasota County and Hillsborough County in Florida, she said.

In places like Asheville, North Carolina, where FEMA likely won’t be able to open a brick-and-mortar center, employees will go door-to-door, she said.

“FEMA literally goes knocking with an iPad in hand so they can help people register for the assistance they need because they may not have power, their cell phone may have run out and they need someone to help them get registered quickly,” Sherwood-Randall said.

FEMA was also planning to install 30 Starlink receivers in western North Carolina “to provide immediate connectivity for those in greatest need,” Sherwood-Randall said.

FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission and private cell phone companies were moving to install temporary cell phone towers and allow roaming, which would allow customers to use cell networks they don’t subscribe to, she said.

So far more than 3,500 federal employees involved in response and recovery efforts related to Hurricane Helene are on the ground throughout the Southeast, including more than 1,000 from FEMA, she said.

Multiple federal agencies in action

The Department of Defense was using helicopters and high-water vehicles to assist in search and rescue efforts. The Army Corps of Engineers was helping to restore electricity, assess infrastructure, including dams, and remove debris.

The U.S. Coast Guard had diverted thousands of personnel on post-storm assessments to help get ports in Florida reopened as quickly as possible.

U.S. Department of Agriculture staff, particularly in its Farm Services Agency, were working to provide emergency assistance to farmers with damage to crops and livestock.

Additionally, more than 50,000 utility workers from the United States and Canada were in the region to help the 2 million people without power get reconnected as soon as it was possible and safe to do so, Sherwood-Randall said.

“FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are also making available generators of many different sizes that are ready to be deployed upon the request of any state,” Sherwood-Randall said. “And as power is being restored throughout parts of Florida and Georgia, power crews are being moved into other states to assist with additional restoration efforts.

“We see power outage numbers improving where restoration teams are able to gain access to communities and the debris is cleared.”

Utilities install and repair utility poles in tornado-struck Hopkins County in May 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

President Joe Biden has declared a major disaster declaration for Kentucky counties hit by a deadly tornado outbreak and other severe weather in May, opening up applications for individual Kentuckians to apply for federal aid.?

A release Wednesday from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says that federal funding, including money for temporary housing and home repairs and low-cost loans for uninsured property losses, is available to individuals in Butler, Caldwell, Calloway, Christian, Clay, Greenup, Hopkins, Knox, Logan, Muhlenberg, Simpson, Todd, Trigg, Warren and Whitley counties.

Business owners and residents in disaster-impacted areas can apply for federal assistance through FEMA’s website, through FEMA’s mobile app or by calling 1-800-621-3362.?

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and local officials in Western Kentucky had pushed disaster survivors to document their damage to increase the chances of FEMA granting individual disaster relief, which isn’t guaranteed after a natural disaster. The May tornado outbreak included one EF-3 tornado that tore a similar path to an EF-4 tornado that devastated Western Kentucky communities in December 2021, destroying some homes that were newly rebuilt after the first tornado.?

“We are once again thankful to President Biden and his administration for approving this funding. This support will be a big help for our families as they recover and rebuild from yet another terrible storm,” Beshear said in a statement. “As always, we saw our first responders and everyday Kentuckians rally to help each other in those toughest of moments, and that is why I am so proud to be Governor of this great commonwealth.”

FEMA also stated local governments and some nonprofits in 55 counties across the state are eligible for assistance to repair damaged facilities.?

Gov. Andy Beshear, right, surveys storm damage from storms in May. (Gov. Andy Beshear)

Gov. Andy Beshear gave updates on how Kentuckians affected by recent severe weather can receive assistance and how damages are being assessed.?

In his weekly press conference, Beshear said Louisville Metro Emergency Services is working with local government officials and first responders to assess damage and assist victims of an EF-1 tornado that hit Jefferson County on July 4.. Beshear visited the site along with Kentucky Emergency Management (KEM) officials on Friday.?

Beshear said another tornado touched down in Union County Tuesday night as Kentucky experienced storms that were remnants of Hurricane Beryl. Beshear said KEM is monitoring the situation and is offering assistance to county officials as requested.?

“As the National Weather Service begins to conduct surveys, we expect other tornadoes will be confirmed,” Beshear said. “The damage mostly impacted agricultural areas, and one home has reported damage.?

Assistance for previous weather events

Beshear gave updates on assistance for survivors of a few severe weather events in recent months.?

The governor said that the Small Business Administration is offering disaster assistance for businesses, homeowners, renters and nonprofit organizations affected by severe storms and tornadoes on March 14 and 15. Kentucky counties Trimble, Carroll, Henry and Oldham were affected at the time.?

Businesses and private nonprofit organizations may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace real estate, machinery, inventory and other business assets damaged or destroyed during the storms. Homeowners may qualify for loans up to $500,000 to repair or replace real estate damaged or destroyed in the storms or up to $100,000 to replace damaged or destroyed personal property.?

The deadline to apply for physical property damage applications is Aug. 26 for the March storms. To apply, visit sba.gov/disaster, call 800-659-2955 or email [email protected].?

For early April severe storms that affected 11 Kentucky counties, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has distributed more than $1.3 million in individual assistance to 902 survivors, Beshear said.?

President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for the storms in May. The counties affected were Boyd, Carter, Fayette, Greenup, Henry, Jefferson, Jessamine, Mason, Oldham, Union and Whitley.?

“Remember, it’s tough to apply for individual assistance,” Beshear said. “We met it for this set of storms because so many people submitted their damage. Even if they didn’t need individual assistance, they were helping us account for the damage so those who needed it could get it.”?

To apply for FEMA assistance, visit www.DisasterAssistance.gov, call 800-621-FEMA (3362) or by use the FEMA app.?

Beshear said Kentucky has not received a federal disaster declaration for severe weather damage during late May events, but KEM is working with FEMA to assess damage and direct survivors toward assistance. The governor said those impacted by damage should contact their local emergency manager.?

Walls and trusses for eight homes to be constructed in Wayland are stored on city land across from the 11 homes to be completed by the end of June. (Photo by Jenni Glendenning)

A religiously oriented group using volunteers from many states is doing much of the housing recovery work in flood-ravaged Eastern Kentucky.

The Appalachia Service Project has completed 24 new homes and fully repaired 40 more for flood survivors in Breathitt, Harlan, Knott, Leslie, Magoffin and Perry counties since the flood two years ago.?

ASP has 12 homes under construction and is repairing about 24 more. They say they are on pace to complete 45 new homes and fully repair 65 homes by the end of this year.

In coordination with The Home Depot Foundation and Solid Rock Carpenters (nonprofit partners from the Chicago area), ASP brought nearly 400 volunteers to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to build the wall sections for 16 new homes (nearly 450 sections in total) and loaded them onto trucks for transport to locations in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Eight houses’ worth of walls and trusses were hauled to property owned by the City of Wayland, just across Kentucky Highway 7 from where ASP is working on its 11th new home for flood survivors. An official groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for June 26.?

A home “can come together in less than a single day with the help of our volunteers and friends in Kentucky,” said Chris Schroeder, ASP’s director of new build and disaster recovery. He said ASP has “been fortunate enough to serve our friends and neighbors in these areas for many years, even before the flood.”

Schroeder expects all eight homes to be completed by the end of the year. He said the 11 near completion are expected to be turned over to the families by the end of June. Most of the 17 home applications came from people within a 10-minute drive of Wayland.

The application process in Kentucky is handled by Haley Peck, ASP’s disaster recovery office and grant compliance coordinator.

“ASP is working with private landowners and local officials to identify buildable lots, preferably out of the floodplain,” said Grant Vermilya, ASP’s Kentucky flood recovery coordinator. “There is potential for 10 to 15 more in the town of Wayland alone.”?

ASP is looking into an area of private land near where the walls and trusses are stored. Vermilya said the owner is “looking at selling because he wants to see more homes like this pop up” in Wayland.

State government and other entities have helped with the infrastructure for the 11 homes in Wayland. Vermilya said the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky donated funds to purchase the property, and the state is providing up to $100,000 per home. The rest of the gap is filled by the Federal Home Loan Bank or a collection of smaller grants, Vermilya said.

The grants, donations, and volunteer fees all go directly toward materials and logistics for building each home. The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky and the state supported the acquisition of the Wayland property. ASP says it looks forward to working with entities and local stakeholders to acquire more properties in their disaster recovery effort in Eastern Kentucky.?

In addition to the homes in Wayland, the organization will be building nine homes in phase one of the new high-ground community of Chestnut Ridge in Knott County and an undetermined number in the Skyview subdivision in Perry County.?

ASP has been connecting volunteers with communities in Central Appalachia for over 55 years. This summer, it will host more than 9,000 volunteers in 17 counties to build new homes and repair existing homes in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee counties that the Appalachian Regional Commission and other agencies have identified as economically distressed and needing help with housing.?

Of the 82 distressed counties in the ARC region, 37 are in Eastern Kentucky. Schroeder and his teams served these communities before the floods. “We’re going to be there until the job is done,” he said.

Schroeder said ASP’s foremost intention is to remain in service of families in need for many more years until the job is done and until those impacted by the flood can get back to a life they can call normal. ASP’s strategic goals are to spend the next few years building 100 new homes and fully repairing 100 more for flood survivors across Eastern Kentucky. ASP has Kentucky centers in Breathitt, Harlan, Knott, Leslie, Magoffin and Perry counties.

ASP’s overall mission is to eradicate substandard housing in Central Appalachia. Over several decades, it has brought thousands of volunteers to the region to build or repair homes for low-income families.

With the help of organizations such as the Federal Home Loan Bank and the federal departments of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development, ASP has “been able to extend timelines for another two years to meet the people of Appalachia where they are” while being mindful of taxpayer dollars and “stretching those resources as far as they can,” Schroeder said.

The government agencies ASP works with have a disaster recovery program that has been extended “because of the amount of need that they’ve seen in Eastern Kentucky,” Schroeder said. These programs normally provide financial assistance for families affected by a disaster for two years, but “because of the scope of the flood in Eastern Kentucky and other incidents as well, they extended that timeline by another two years.”?

From left, DreamBuilders volunteers Brian Rezac and Pam Brazis, Housing Development Alliance carpenter John Evans, flood survivor Farmer Baker, HDA lead carpenter Steve Hurt and DreamBuilders volunteers Andy Cabrera and Matt Biewer. (Photo by Mindy Miller, Housing Development Alliance)

Farmer Baker was holding on for his life, clutching a pair of post hole diggers, on the night of July 27-28, 2022, as part of Eastern Kentucky’s record flooding swept through his garage on Lower River Caney in Breathitt County. He had already watched the waters sweep away his wife, Vanessa, the only one of 45 victims whose body has not been found.

“I looked up to God in the garage and said, ‘You took her, take me too, but he had a purpose for me, or he would have took me. He wouldn’t have throwed me through that garage door and let me live, not unless he’s got a purpose for me. I don’t know what it is, but he’s got a purpose for me here on this earth. Hopefully I can figure it out.”

Baker spoke Friday to Mindy Miller of the Hazard-based Housing Development Alliance, which is building three homes in the Blue Sky subdivision near the Hazard airport with the help of DreamBuilders, a Maryland-based nonprofit that brought 38 workers to the site for a “blitz build” June 17-21. Miller, HDA’s director of development and communication, provided an unedited recording for this story.

Baker, who has been living with his son, told Miller he will feel comforted living on high ground, but “God knows where you’re at. … And when the time comes, he’s gonna take you, ain’t nobody gonna save you, just like Melissa that night.”

Then he offered his philosophy of living: “The Bible says if you don’t love your neighbor, you don’t love him. I love everybody on this earth, I don’t care who they are.” Choking a bit, he added, “I love the Housing Alliance for getting me this house. I appreciate it so much, you don’t realize it.”

This is the HDA’s 30th year of fulfilling low-income families’ dreams of home ownership in Eastern Kentucky.?

DreamBuilders is an interfaith community of teens and adults who build homes for those in need. This was their second trip to Hazard; last year they largely built two homes in four days for flood survivors.

The group was led by John McBeth, who founded DreamBuilders 22 years ago as a Christian youth group. He said the week at Blue Sky was one of the hottest the organization has encountered, with temperatures in the mid 90s, but “It’s a real blessing to be here, and it’s our experience that we actually get much more back than we give.”

Two DreamBuilders volunteers, Luke Gore and Maddox Shuman, said it took them 10 days to bicycle 562 miles from Westminster, Maryland, staying with friends and family along the way. They were inspired to start an Instagram account to journal their travels: @dreamcyclers.

At the worksite, Miller updated the project’s progress on social media.

The other two homes that went up during the “blitz build” are spec homes that will be available to low-income applicants in the area.

HDA says it designs individual financing packages to be affordable for new homeowners. “This usually involves the combination of a low-interest home loan, along with a subsidy that they qualify for based on different factors,” said Julia Stanganelli, HDA’s flood recovery coordinator.

For flood survivors, Stanganelli said, there are flood-specific grants and forgivable-loan funding for which HDA helps qualify the homeowners. Sometimes, flood survivors also have funds they can contribute from their FEMA awards or funds they’ve received through a home-buyout program, and some may not need to take a loan at all, Stanganelli said: “Every situation tends to be unique.”

The blitz builders had the main walls of all three homes up by Tuesday afternoon and by Friday had all three framed and under roof. The HDA says its carpenters were on the worksites to ensure all work is up to code and passes state inspection.

Now, certified plumbers, electricians, and HVAC subcontractors will come in. It will take six to eight weeks to complete a home after the exterior is sufficiently dry enough to install weather-sensitive material such as drywall, flooring, trim and paint.

Carpenter Lindsey King started out as an apprentice carpenter with HDA’s paid on-the-job training program in residential construction for people in substance-use recovery. She impressed HDA so much as a trainee that it hired her full-time, and she is now the program’s assistant trainer.?

How to volunteer

If you have a group of volunteers interested in sponsoring an HDA project, you will need a maximum of 20 people, a $25,000 contribution for sponsorship, and the ability to spend one week in Eastern Kentucky helping to change the lives of families in need.?

The sponsorship helps finance a new home for a low-income family in need, but the house-raising challenge goes beyond the house; the sponsorship plays an important role in sustaining HDA’s homeownership program for future low-income homeowners and those in need of disaster recovery, Miller said.

Volunteers do not need construction experience. HDA carpenters are onsite at all times while volunteers frame floors and walls, set roofs and trusses, put shingles on the roof, build the porches and decks, install windows and doors, and cover the exterior with house wrap and siding.

As he watched his house go up Friday, Baker said, “You know, you’ve worked you know how many years in your life. You know what you’ve got in your home and you know what you’ve got built up, and all of it taken away from you. …? People think ‘Well, you know, he lost his home, so what?’ but I lost more. In my heart, I lost more … I lost her that night and lost everything I had.”

But now he’s getting part of it back.

A man pulls a boat through a flooded neighborhood in Barataria, La., in August 2021 after Hurricane Ida hit the area, one of several storms that have battered Louisiana in recent years. Amid billions in losses, many insurance companies have left the state or increased premiums. As climate change intensifies natural disasters, policymakers across the country are trying to convince insurers to stick around. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

In the coming years, climate change could force Americans from their homes, not just by raising sea levels, worsening wildfires and causing floods — but also by putting insurance coverage out of reach.

In places including California, Florida and Louisiana, some homeowners are finding it nearly impossible to find an insurance company that will cover their property. Others have seen their premiums climb so high that they can no longer pay. Experts say the trend is spreading throughout the country as natural disasters increase.

Most mortgage lenders require homeowners to maintain insurance. Without access to coverage, millions of Americans could find themselves forced to reconsider where they live. Consumer advocates say long-overdue conversations about development in areas prone to natural disasters are being driven by property insurers, not governments.

“Insurance companies have basically become our land-use officials,” said Doug Heller, director of insurance with the Consumer Federation of America, a research and advocacy nonprofit. “In 2023, the industry suddenly seemed to wake up and say, ‘There’s climate change, forget all those times we’ve nodded our head yes and told you that you can live there.’”

As the crisis escalates, state leaders are desperately trying to convince insurance companies to stick around. States are offering them more flexibility to raise premiums or drop certain homes from coverage, fast-tracking rate revisions and making it harder for residents to sue their insurance company.

Meanwhile, a flood of new policyholders are joining state-backed insurance “plans of last resort,” leaving states to assume more of the risk on behalf of residents who can’t find coverage in the private sector.

“Insurers are the climate change canary in the coal mine.” – Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative, University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment ? ?

Industry leaders note that insurance companies have been hammered by heavy payouts — last year, 28 separate U.S. natural disasters caused at least $1 billion each in damage, according to federal figures — and say they simply can’t afford to provide coverage in the areas that face the highest risk.

Disaster costs are soaring. In the last five years, there have been 102 disaster events in the United States that caused at least $1 billion in damage. In the entire decade of the 1990s, there were 57 billion-dollar events (adjusted for inflation), and in the 1980s there were 33.

Natural disasters are increasing at the same time risk-prone areas are becoming ever more populated, and as property values are climbing. The price of repairs and replacement have skyrocketed due to inflation, workforce and supply chain issues. Insurers say costs also have been driven by an uptick in litigation and fraud.

“We’re experiencing record-breaking losses as it relates to natural disasters,” said Adam Shores, senior vice president for state government relations with the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, an industry group. “We want to be there, but when the math doesn’t work for a company, they have to make those decisions.”

While the insurance crisis is most acute in certain coastal states, climate experts say every region will face similar challenges, especially as severe storms batter the middle of the country. While some states have made marginal gains in stabilizing the insurance market, some experts say that progress may be short-lived.

“Insurers are the climate change canary in the coal mine,” said Dave Jones, the former insurance commissioner in California and director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment. “While these policy and regulatory interventions might help in the short run, they’re likely to be overwhelmed by the increasing risk and loss.”

‘The perfect storm’

In some hard-hit states, policymakers have focused on giving insurance companies more flexibility to adjust their rates and coverage options.

Four hurricanes walloped Louisiana in 2020 and 2021, causing $23 billion in insured losses. Twelve insurance companies became insolvent and dozens left the state. Residents in southern Louisiana especially have struggled to find coverage, and some have moved elsewhere because they couldn’t afford their premiums.

“It’s the perfect storm,” said Louisiana state Rep. Gabe Firment, a Republican. “We just do not have companies willing to write business in Louisiana right now, and you can’t blame them.”

Firment sponsored a measure, enacted this year, repealing a state rule that had blocked companies from dropping long-standing customers. Those dropped can join a state-run plan. Lawmakers hope that — given the ability to cancel the highest-risk policies — insurance companies will remain in the state and avoid massive rate hikes on their remaining customers.

Legislators passed a suite of other laws aimed at the crisis, speeding up the process for insurers to adjust their rates, extending a grant program to help residents fortify their homes and giving companies more time to pay out claims. Firment said the changes are designed to attract more companies back to the state, “but if we get two or three hurricanes this year, all bets are off.”

In California, many major insurers have canceled policies or stopped accepting new applications due to wildfire risk. Regulators there have proposed a rule that would allow companies to incorporate climate change projections into the models they use to set their rates.

“Insurers are not going to continue to write in every market if they can’t price accurately,” said Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications with the Insurance Information Institute, an industry-backed research group.

Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has put forth a measure that would speed up regulators’ approval of the rate revisions proposed by insurance companies. While seeking to give insurers more flexibility on rates, California leaders also have sought to protect residents by establishing a one-year moratorium on policy cancellations in disaster areas following a wildfire.

Officials at the state Department of Insurance did not respond to Stateline interview requests.

Homeowners’ insurance rates in Texas spiked 23% last year, twice the national average. The state has endured a myriad of disasters in recent years, but consumer advocates fear insurers are weaponizing climate change to jack up rates and demand looser regulations.

“[Insurance companies] are putting a gun to our heads, telling us, ‘Do it our way or we’ll pull up stakes,’” said Ware Wendell, executive director of Texas Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group. “They’re going to cherry-pick the country and only insure parts of the country that have less climate risk.”

The Texas Department of Insurance did not grant a Stateline interview request.

‘Last resort’

Kentucky AG gets funding to fight Biden administration on climate, air and water pollution rules

In several states, homeowners who can’t find private coverage are joining state-run plans. Originally intended to be a last-ditch option, because they generally offer limited coverage, these plans are seeing more and more residents signing up.

Florida has seen more than 1 million residents join the plan offered by the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. The plan, which is meant to be a “last resort” option, now stands as the largest in the state.

Insurance rates in Florida have climbed to four times the national average, following hurricanes Ian and Nicole in 2022. The state also has seen an uptick in claims lawsuits that insurance companies characterize as legal abuse.

Legislators changed state law in 2022 to disincentivize such lawsuits, ending homeowners’ ability to collect attorneys fees from insurers in claims disputes. State regulators say insurance rates have stabilized in 2024, and new companies are joining the market. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation did not grant an interview request.

But some lawmakers say state leaders are eager to help insurance companies while ignoring the underlying issue of climate change.

“Stabilization is important, but [premiums] have stabilized at high rates,” said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat. “Floridians can’t afford Florida anymore, and if we’re not taking climate change seriously, then we’re missing the point.”

Eskamani called for leaders to change land-use policies to limit development in high-risk areas.

Even as some Florida homeowners are now shifting from the state-run plan back to the private market, industry experts say the nationwide surge in state-backed policies is troubling. If such plans exhaust their reserves, states impose an assessment on either all insurance companies or all individual policyholders — known in Florida as the “hurricane tax.”

Jones, the former California insurance commissioner, noted that insurers there are worried that growing wildfire risk could force them to bail out the state plan. Nearly 400,000 Californians rely on the state plan for insurance, and state officials have warned that a catastrophic event could wipe out its reserves.

While Californians struggle to find insurance on the private market, Jones called out the insurers that are dropping policies even as they retain financial ties to fossil fuel companies.

“Why are insurers investing in and writing insurance for the very industry that’s making it increasingly challenging for them to write insurance in certain parts of the country?” he said.

In Colorado, lawmakers voted last year to create a state-backed insurance plan like those in more than 30 other states. State Sen. Dylan Roberts, the Democrat who sponsored the bill, said he heard from constituents who were getting dropped by their insurers following the Marshall Fire that swept through Boulder County in 2021.

Lawmakers hope to use this emerging climate science to charge oil companies for disasters

“We’re going to have more and more Coloradoans every year who are unable to find insurance for their property on the private market,” he said. “To have an insurer of last resort is something we hope isn’t used widely, but it’s something we need to have.”

Some consumer advocates believe states will have to get more involved. Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a nonprofit that advocates for insurance customers, said governments face the same difficult risk calculations as private companies but are tax-exempt and don’t face the same pressures to return high profit margins to shareholders.

“Publicly supported insurance programs are here to stay,” she said. “It behooves us to build them as smart as we can.”

In Washington state, regulators say they have only a few hundred policies on the state-backed plan, a sign that residents can still access coverage on the private market. David Forte, senior property and casualty policy adviser with the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, said the agency has added actuarial staff to speed up insurers’ rate revision approvals.

He also credited the work of state leaders who have invested millions to reduce wildfire risk. But he cited a 2022 wildfire that nearly swept through the town of Index, before shifting winds changed its direction.

“If that had happened, I think our property market would be different,” he said. “Are we just one bad event away? Probably.”

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

On Nov. 18, 2022, Stacey Feezor plays with her niece Delilah Jenkins, 6, in Graves County outside her camper at Camp Graves, which provided transitional housing to those who lost homes in the December 2021 tornado. (Julia Rendleman for Kentucky Lantern)

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear alongside leaders from the state’s housing corporation and local communities on Monday announced more than $223 million in bonds and grants will be invested to replenish rental housing in Bowling Green and other Western Kentucky communities impacted by tornadoes.?

Much of the region’s rental housing stock, particularly homes accessible to low-income families, including in Mayfield and Dawson Springs, was destroyed by a devastating tornado outbreak in December 2021. Local leaders have said the region suffered from a housing shortage even before the tornado outbreak.?

Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan said it was “heartwarming” that two of the rental housing developments to be funded in the Graves County seat will create homes for “the most vulnerable” in her community.?

“It was those people who lived in the subpar rental homes that are now still struggling,” O’Nan said. “What will come from our community to rebuild not only Western Kentucky but add to our commonwealth as a whole will be well worth every dollar invested.”

Plans call for 953 rental units to be built by private housing developers across Mayfield (122 units), Dawson Springs (88 units), Madisonville (32 units), Hopkinsville (76 units) and Bowling Green (635 units). The housing developments will be income-restricted to be accessible for moderate to low-income families with most rental units having two to three bedrooms, according to a release from the governor’s office.?

About 60% of the invested funding, about $135 million, will come from tax-exempt bonds issued to private housing developers by the Kentucky Housing Corp., the state’s public housing corporation. Another almost $60 million in federal grant funding is being made available by the Kentucky Department for Local Government. That grant is a large chunk of funding received last year from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Other funding sources include state and national housing trust funds, another federal grant and projected equity from tax credits.?

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a statement to the Lantern said the announcement was “welcome news for Western Kentucky” and that federal funding he “fought to secure” will build hundreds of new housing units.

“I’m glad to see my home state put these federal dollars to work and take this crucial next step in delivering real relief to Kentuckians,” McConnell said in his statement.

Will help Bowling Green continue ‘historic growth,’ says Beshear

Wendy Smith, deputy executive director of housing programs at the Kentucky Housing Corporation, said developers taking advantage of the government financing must agree to accept low-income housing vouchers. Smith said the potential rent range for these units is federally determined by county which would likely mean a two-bedroom apartment will go for $750 to $900 a month. Smith said it would likely be 18 months to 24 months before prospective tenants would be able to move in.?

The private housing developments receiving the funding include Leitchfield-based Wabuck Development Company, Louisville-based SOCAYR Inc., Louisville-based LDG Multifamily LLC and Lexington-based AU Associates Inc.?

Winston Miller, the chief executive officer of the Kentucky Housing Corporation, called the funding announcement “historic” because of the amount of housing being constructed along with what he said was the unprecedented combining of federal grant funding with bonds issued by the corporation.?

“To keep up with the economic and job growth, Kentucky needs to build more housing units. Today’s announcement of the 953 units is a very significant step in closing the supply gap that exists in West Kentucky,” Miller said.?

Beshear said the construction of rental housing in Bowling Green, which is receiving about two thirds of the new construction, is “absolutely necessary” to help the city continue “historic growth.” He said state officials believed the funding announcement to be the largest housing development effort in Western Kentucky in history.?

“A home is more than four walls. It’s the security of raising your family, and for those that lost the place they were living, a new unit, a new home means so much,” Beshear said.

This story was updated with a statement from U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell.

Raymond Emery searched for his dog Brandon, on the left, in the rubble of his trailer after the tornado. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

HOPKINS COUNTY — Raymond Emery has spent the past few nights leaning back in the front seat of his green minivan to stay close to his chickens and dogs. They’re among his few remaining possessions after a powerful EF-3 tornado, winds reaching 160 mph, ripped through his rented trailer the evening of May 26.

One of his dogs, Brandon, keeps a watchful eye on Emery.?

“I think he’s watching over me. I think people been mean to him in his life, but he’s a stray,” Emery said Thursday, noisy hens and roosters strutting around him. He found Brandon on the street about five months ago chasing his chickens and hungry, so he adopted him along with his other animals.?

The 60-year-old hid under his coffee table as the trailer’s walls and roof collapsed on top of him. In the dark, he dug through the debris of what was his home searching for Brandon.?

“I thought Brandon was gone because I couldn’t find him, but he was hiding in the woods somewhere,” he said.

This isn’t his family’s first loss from a powerful tornado. He said his sister lost her home when a long-track EF-4 tornado tore through the Hopkins County community of Barnsley in December 2021.

That tornado outbreak destroyed hundreds of homes across Western Kentucky in a more than 100 mile-track that devastated the cities of Dawson Springs and Mayfield. Seventy-four Kentuckians died in that outbreak.?

The Sunday tornado took a similar path as the 2021 tornado but veered slightly north of Dawson Springs, putting more scattered homes along rural roads in the path of demolishing winds. He said his sister’s rebuilt home was spared this time in Barnsley. Others in Barnsley were not as fortunate and are again facing the prospect of rebuilding. One person in Hopkins County died from the May 26 storms, among five Kentuckians killed across the state.?

Emery’s story of survival is one of several in a county recovering from its second violent tornado in less than three years. Neighbors who were spared in 2021 and came to the aid of others now face the shock and long journey of disaster recovery themselves — in a disaster that at least one official predicts will garner less attention and fewer resources than the earlier one.

Emery’s trailer wasn’t insured, and he’s not immediately sure what his nephew, who owns the property, has planned. His nearby family has offered him places to stay, but for now he’s decided to stay by his chickens. Feeding and taking care of them is what keeps him going. Brandon, too, stayed close by the tin- roofed coop, a chorus of rooster crows surrounding them.

“You got to keep going. You never know when time is going to stop,” Emery said.?

Finding support for the long path forward?

On Thursday, a crew of volunteers with an Illinois-based Christian youth ministry were tearing down the remains and rubble of Emery’s trailer one piece at a time, dishes and clothing stacked in piles next to metal and wooden shards.?

Rebecca Resillez with the Salem United Church of Christ said volunteers came to Hopkins County on Sunday expecting to work with a housing nonprofit on home rebuilds from the 2021 tornado, only to be thrust into cleaning up debris from the latest tornado.

Other volunteer groups handling debris removal and bringing supplies have come to Hopkins County in the days after the storms. A church in the unincorporated community of Charleston is serving again as a hub for packaged food, bottled water and cleaning supplies.?

“We opened the doors and God walked in,” said Margaret Purdy, a member of the Charleston Missionary Baptist Church who was ushering tornado survivors to various supplies.?

The church served as a resource hub for the area an entire year after the 2021 tornado.?

She said the impacts of this tornado may be different because homeowners hit recently may be more likely to have home insurance. But she believes local resources will be there for her fellow community members regardless.?

“You give me what I can do and I’ll do it to the best of my ability to do it, and that’s all of us,” Purdy said.?

The costs that will fall to individual disaster survivors this time are still being calculated as county and state officials push to open up federal disaster assistance to survivors.?

Nick Bailey, the emergency management director for Hopkins County, told the Lantern the damage to his county’s bridges, roads and other infrastructure plus the cost of cleaning up debris will total more than $4.5 million.?

Bailey is confident those costs will qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance to repair public infrastructure. But qualifying for FEMA assistance to individuals is a different story.?

Having enough damage across the state to qualify for FEMA assistance to disaster survivors, particularly to help uninsured or under-insured Kentuckians, isn’t guaranteed. The Brookings Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, found that only about a third of disasters that are federally declared qualify for individual aid for disaster survivors.?

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has previously urged Kentuckians to document damage and report it to local officials to make a stronger case to FEMA for the need for individual assistance.?

Bailey also said because of the much larger scale and timing of the 2021 tornado, compared to the latest tornado he generally expects less funding to aid survivors this time. He said relying on local resources, such as through the county’s long-term recovery committee, will be key moving forward. As of Friday afternoon, he said Hopkins County had 89 damaged structures with 29 completely destroyed.?

“We still have people that are going to need help. There’s going to be people that will likely fall through the cracks. But we’re going to do everything we can on the local level to support as many as we can and try to help as much as we can,” Bailey said.?

There is some aid coming to Hopkins County in the coming weeks: Kentucky Realtors, an association representing thousands of realtors across the state, announced Friday it was providing $200,000 to help recent disaster survivors pay for one month of housing expenses. Bailey said there’s also a large need for more volunteer groups to help clear debris in the weeks ahead.?

A near miss and hard memories?

Sharon Franklin, 70, lost her house in Caldwell County in the 2021 tornado. She then lived in the garage of her daughter’s home while dealing with an insurance company that wasn’t willing to build back her house. Her memories of that 2021 tornado never leave her mind, remembering the screams of family members as they huddled in the basement.

Eventually, she decided to move to a new home just north of Dawson Springs instead of rebuilding.?

“You just want to get somewhere and call it home again, and this is all I could find,” Franklin said.

Next to her ranch-style home in Hopkins County, she had installed a brand new concrete storm shelter only about a week before she had to use it.?

Seven people including her daughter, her grandchildren, and great grandchildren — along with a backyard chicken — all huddled in the shelter as the tornado came within less than a mile of her home. Trees fell on top of the storm shelter, trapping them for hours after the storm.?

While the pecan trees she loved in her yard had to be cut down due to damage, her new home is still intact.?

“People right up the road lost everything. I don’t know them but I still feel bad for them,” she said. “Nothing will ever be home anymore.”?

Gov. Andy Beshear, right, surveys storm damage from storms in May. (Gov. Andy Beshear)

The storms that swept through Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend can be triggering and compound trauma for those who have lived through bad weather before, mental health experts say.?

Need mental health care in Kentucky???

• If you are in immediate crisis, text or call 988.?
• For disaster-specific crisis care, call or text the Disaster Distress Hotline at 1-800-985-5990, 24/7.?
• To look for a mental health therapist near you, visit Psychology Today and search by ZIP code.
• Check out the Kentucky Psychological Foundation’s Behavioral Health Roadmap.
• Find a support group through Kentucky’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Danelle Sams, a therapist and the director of Four Rivers Behavioral Health’s Mayfield Office, the William H. Fuller Center, said many locals in West Kentucky already lived with a “constant, looming fear of another tornado.”?

The recent storms, which killed at least five Kentuckians, were difficult for those who lived through the devastating 2021 tornadoes, Sams said.?

“Here in Mayfield, we’re still visually seeing the aftermath” of the deadly tornadoes less than three years ago, Sams said. “We still don’t have a courthouse. They just changed the light post and put up the stoplights. For the last couple of years we’ve been working on just stop signs sitting in the road. And so, it’s a slow progression to a new community, but there’s still so many visual reminders of what happened that night.”?

So, naturally, she said, people feel anxiety when there are severe weather warnings, especially when they happen at night, like the 2021 twister.?

?Sunday’s tornado was an EF-3, according to the National Weather Service, with winds of 160 miles per hour. It covered a 700-yard swath of land north of the 2021 path.?

This sort of experience leads to “re-exposure,” Sams said, which can cause complex post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).?

‘Hornet comes in the belly’?

“Anytime there is a severe storm threat or potential risk of tornadoes, it’s like the hornet comes in the belly,” Sams said. “And that fear of ‘Oh, no, not again.’”?

Marcie Timmerman, the executive director for Kentucky’s chapter of Mental Health of America (MHAKY), said people who didn’t suffer storm damage or lose loved ones can still feel the negative effects of disasters.?

“Every time the tornado siren goes off, maybe our stress levels go up just a little bit more,” she said. “Because we know what that could mean, right? And we’ve seen it and we’ve helped our neighbors through it.”?

It’s natural to feel amped up and rushes of adrenaline during these times, Timmerman said.?

“We’re right in that immediate aftermath. It’s very normal to have a lot of feelings. It’s important to validate your feelings,” she said. “I think it’s important to talk to other people about what you’re going through.”?

Tips for processing the storm fallout — and warning signs to watch for?

If, in the next few weeks, people aren’t able to get out of bed or work through the grieving process, that’s a sign they may need to seek professional help, Timmerman said.?

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a good place to start, she said. Working with a therapist can help a person unlearn the stress reaction that the brain enters after a trauma.?

Therapy isn’t meant to “unlearn the trigger” that the body has, she said, but rather to calm it and cope with the emotions of the traumatic event.?

People should be on the lookout for a change in their daily routines, Sams said. If, instead of hanging out with friends, a person starts to isolate themselves, that’s a sign that the person needs to seek help.?

Other warning signs are:

• Turning to substances or increasing substance use to cope with the stress
• Excessive worry?
• Obsession with the weather?

Outside of therapy and crisis lines, Sams said, there are techniques people can do to help cope with stress, including:?

• Take deep breaths when you feel anxiety.
• Talk to friends and loved ones to let them know how you’re feeling.

A tornado destroyed out buildings and damaged the roof and windows of Tabatha Adams' home in Hopkins County. (Courtesy of Tabatha Adams)

Sitting on her front porch surrounded by tornado damage, Tabatha Adams never imagined being on the other side of disaster recovery.?

As the former president of her local Rotary Club, she helped her neighbors when Dawson Springs grappled with the devastating aftermath of an EF-4 tornado in December 2021. The Western Kentucky city of about 2,400 lost 75% of its housing while 19 residents lost their lives in the severe weather outbreak that killed 74 Kentuckians.?

Adams organized disaster grants, totaling $180,000 in 2022 she said, to help her neighbors rebuild and spearheaded the construction of a memorial remembering those killed from Dawson Springs.

But now, it’s her own family that is receiving help from neighbors she had previously aided. Kentucky faced the brunt of another tornado outbreak Sunday with a particularly strong tornado — one that spurred the National Weather Service to issue a rare “tornado emergency” — tearing a track just north of Dawson Springs city limits through the unincorporated communities of Charleston and Barnsley.

A survey by the National Weather Service found the tornado to be of EF-3 strength with peak wind speeds of 160 mph and a peak width of 700 yards or nearly a half-mile. The Sunday tornado’s track was north of the path taken by the 2021 tornado and through a less densely populated area.

Gov. Andy Beshear said five people across the state were killed in the storms, including a 48-year-old woman from Hopkins County. Fatalities also were reported in Caldwell, Hardin and Mercer counties and in Louisville. At least 14 counties have declared states of emergency, and tens of thousands still were without power across the state as of Tuesday afternoon.?

About 40 homes across Hopkins County have been significantly damaged or are complete losses from the Sunday tornado, according to Kevin Cotton, the mayor of the Hopkins County seat of Madisonville. That included Adams’ home along Daylight Road, considered an epicenter of damage from the twister: her two-car garage and barn were both toppled, shingles torn off her roof and windows broken throughout her house.?

But she’s grateful her family, dog and cats are safe. She’s also not having to rebuild a second time; some homes hit by the Sunday storms were damaged or destroyed in the 2021 tornado. Adams said the 2021 tornado had missed her home by less than a mile.?

“We’re talking not even three years ago these people were picking up their lives and rebuilding,” Adams said. “Here they are again. It is unimaginable and unthinkable, and it just really makes you wonder why.”?

In recent decades, more tornado outbreaks have shifted geographically to the mid-South including Western Kentucky, which scientists say is connected to the impacts of climate change. More warm, moist air is coming from the Gulf of Mexico to collide with colder air from the Western U.S., fueling potential tornadoes across the South, scientists say.

In Hopkins County, recovery efforts at least have a head start because of the existing recovery infrastructure and knowledge on how to respond, said Heath Duncan, the co-chair of the Hopkins County Long Term Recovery Committee.?

Duncan, who’s also the executive director of the regional Habitat for Humanity organization, said a surge of hundreds of volunteers since Sunday has arrived to help clear debris and check on survivors. But the financial costs of recovery, especially what costs will ultimately be borne by local communities and residents, is still being realized.?

Duncan said the 2021 tornado destroyed not only homes but also city infrastructure from water lines to sidewalks. Rebuilding to better withstand future storms can be an “incredibly expensive endeavor,” he added. He said financial support moving forward will still likely rely on generosity of local donors and state and federal governments.?

“The process of long term recovery work has been difficult the last two years, and for me personally, the hardest thing that I’ve had to do in life,” Duncan said, mentioning he feels frustrated on the verge of anger at times over his community’s situation. “A lot of us are just tired from the 2021 tornado, and so now every time a storm blows through we’re like, ‘Please, we can’t handle anything else.’”?

Gov. Andy Beshear in a press conference with emergency management officials Monday said he believed the storm damage from across numerous counties, particularly in Western Kentucky, would qualify the disaster for FEMA’s public assistance program, which provides grants to restore infrastructure.?

But individual survivors being able to apply to FEMA for disaster aid is not guaranteed; Beshear said it would take every Kentuckian impacted to document their damage and report it for FEMA to open up aid to individuals. That’s especially crucial, he said, for those impacted who are uninsured.?

“Your willingness to track your damage and to turn it in is what could help a neighbor or someone you don’t even know from another county get that help,” Beshear said.?

While state officials wait to hear if and what federal disaster assistance Kentuckians will receive, local Hopkins County residents are still working long hours in the immediate aftermath to help their neighbors.?

Meredith and David Hyde only moved back into a newly constructed home in Dawson Springs less than two years ago after their original home was made unlivable after the 2021 tornado. On Tuesday afternoon, they drove around damaged areas in Charleston dropping off monetary donations made possible by the local Rotary Club to survivors.?

Meredith Hyde, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, said she’s been mindful to provide survivors with mental health resources when they need it, some of them still processing the shock of the disaster. David and she don’t have many memories from the first couple of weeks after the 2021 tornado, she said, and “neither one of us I don’t think could have made it without the other one.”?

She mentioned one woman they were visiting provided them $500 worth of kitchen supplies after the 2021 tornado.?

“This community just takes care of each other,” Hyde said. “This is not about having to do it. This is about wanting to do it.”

Gov. Andy Beshear surveys damage in Prospect from severe weather in early April. (Gov. Andy Beshear X account)

President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for 11 Kentucky counties affected by recent severe storms in April.?

Federal assistance will supplement state and local recovery efforts in areas “ affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, landslides, and mudslides on April 2, 2024,” a White House press release said.?

Federal funding will be available to affected residents in the following counties: Boyd, Carter, Fayette, Greenup, Henry, Jefferson, Jessamine, Mason, Oldham, Union and Whitley.

“Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster,” the White House said.?

“Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures for the entire Commonwealth.”?

Residents and business owners affected by the April storms can apply for federal assistance online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 800-621-FEMA (3362) or by using the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) app. Those who use a relay service, like a video relay service or a captioned telephone service, can give FEMA the number to use that service.?

After the April storms, Gov. Andy Beshear said that a Kenton County resident died in a car accident as a result of the severe storms and tornadoes. At the time, the governor also urged Kentuckians to take photos and document any damage before cleaning up to help the state qualify for federal disaster assistance, particularly to qualify for individual assistance.

Further federal designations may be made in the future if requested by the Commonwealth and “warranted by the results of further damage assessments.”?

Craig Levy Sr. of FEMA was appointed to coordinate the federal recovery operations in the affected areas.?

Ten new homes were dedicated in Mayfield Friday for tornado survivors. (Office of the Governor)

Ten families who survived the 2021 tornadoes in Mayfield received keys to new homes on Friday thanks to $1 million from the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, Gov. Andy Beshear’s office announced.?

The Hope Initiative, a coalition of local pastors and businesses, partnered to build these homes and others — a total of 42 — for people impacted by the tornadoes that swept through the area on Dec. 10, 2021, killing 57 people and injuring hundreds.?

“The Hope Initiative is such a deserving name for this program, a program that has given us hope for new beginnings and a home back in Mayfield,” one of the new homeowners, Alexandria Lawson, said in a statement. “There are no words to express how grateful we are for this blessing.”

The Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, donated by people from all over the country to help people impacted by the twisters, has since raised more than $52 million. Money from that fund went to covering funeral expenses for those killed in the tornadoes and is being used to help build homes, among other things.?

Gov. Andy Beshear surveys damage in Prospect from Tuesday's severe weather. (Gov. Andy Beshear X account)

Gov. Andy Beshear said a Kenton County resident died in a car accident as a result of the severe storms and tornadoes that swept Kentucky Tuesday, while emergency management officials have reported no other major injuries or deaths.

Beshear in a Wednesday news conference praised emergency management officials, first responders and utility workers for their response during the severe weather outbreak.?

“This storm and the tornadoes involved had statewide impacts hitting numerous areas,” Beshear said. “I am so thankful that Kentuckians have remained so weather aware.”?

The governor said the Kenton County death occurred “when this first line of strong storms and rain were coming through” and that the death of the young man was a “tragic occurrence.”?

Beshear said federal weather officials are still surveying, but preliminary National Weather Service surveys have confirmed separate EF-1 tornadoes in Anderson, Nelson, Jessamine and Bourbon counties, along with another EF-1 tornado that hit the city of Prospect in Jefferson and Oldham counties. Other counties including some in Eastern Kentucky could have tornado damage, he said. He said he thinks at least seven tornadoes will be confirmed once surveys are done.?

The governor said states of emergency requests had been received from Union County in the west to Elliott County in the east. Cities across the state had also declared states of emergency including Ashland, Louisville, Mount Vernon and Catlettsburg.?

Additionally, Beshear urged Kentuckians to take photos and document any damage before cleaning up in an effort to help the state qualify for federal disaster assistance, particularly to qualify for individual assistance.

New legislative limits on administration’s emergency response spending

Beshear also renewed calls for the GOP-dominated state legislature to remove funding limits in the pending state budget for agencies responding to emergencies and disasters. Beshear said his administration wouldn’t have been able to respond to Tuesday’s storms in the way it did if such funding limits had been in place.

“We’ve made this plea to leadership on both sides. I admittedly don’t understand why it’s still in there when these are our Kentucky neighbors,” Beshear said, mentioning that if the funding limits remain in place he could have to call a special legislative session during emergencies to appropriate money for a response. “It’s just not smart policymaking.”

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, in an emailed statement through a spokesperson said Beshear already has “access to $100 million” in emergency spending. The spokesperson did not immediately respond to Lantern questions about if the $100 million referred to funding allocated in the current fiscal year or future fiscal years.

“If an emergency is so significant or tragic that it requires spending more than $100 million, the governor has a responsibility to call the General Assembly into a special session. Otherwise, he suggests we forgo our constitutional duties as the branch responsible for the purse of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” Stivers said. “The cost of calling the General Assembly, your representatives in Frankfort, in for a special session would be pennies on the tens of millions of dollars we’d allocate and would ensure the governor’s collaboration with the legislative branch of government.”

Emails sent to a spokesperson for Republican leadership in the Kentucky House of Representatives asking about Beshear’s renewed calls were not immediately returned.?

The latest version of House Bill 6 — the state executive branch budget passed by the legislature on the last day before it adjourned for the veto period — sets various funding limits for emergency responses:

• A $4 million limit for “emergency forest fire suppression” in each fiscal year.
• A $50 million limit for each of the next two fiscal years on funds the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs can use to match federal disaster funding “in the event of a presidentially declared disaster or emergency.”
• A $25 million limit in each fiscal year for Kentucky National Guard operations when an “emergency or exigent situation” is declared by the governor.?

Beshear in a March press conference referenced the next budget’s $25 million funding limit on the Kentucky National Guard and said that lodging at General Butler State Park wouldn’t have been able to be opened for survivors of a Trimble County tornado if the funding limit imposed by the legislature was in place for the current fiscal year.

In a January letter sent to lawmakers, State Budget Director John Hicks said a $50 million limit on matching monies for federal aid hadn’t been exceeded in past fiscal years but could be exceeded in the current fiscal year. Hicks in his letter said a $4 million limit on “emergency forest fire suppression” has never been exceeded.?

This story has been updated with a statement from Senate President Robert Stivers.

Damage in downtown Mayfield following a tornado in December 2021. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — A House shell bill was changed in a committee Monday afternoon to move millions of dollars from disaster relief funds into rebuilding projects in Eastern and Western Kentucky.?

Twenty members of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee voted for the new version of House Bill 752. The bill was later approved on the House floor.

According to the committee substitute, $11 million from the East Kentucky State Aid Funding for Emergencies (EKSAFE) will go to rehabilitate the Breathitt Area Technology Center in the 2024-25 fiscal year, if passed by the General Assembly.?

Additionally, the bill appropriates $31.6 million from the West Kentucky State Aid Funding for Emergencies (WKSAFE) in the same fiscal year to rebuild a fire station, police station and the city hall in Mayfield, as well as the Graves County administration building.?

The funds were created following devastating tornadoes in West Kentucky that affected towns like Mayfield in 2021 and widespread flooding in Eastern Kentucky in 2022.?

Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, said the technology center had “considerable damage.” He is also the bill sponsor.?

Rep. Chris Fugate, R-Chavies, thanked Petrie, House Speaker David Osborne and staff for working on the bill. Last week, while speaking against a constitutional amendment to allow public dollars to go to nonpublic schools, Fugate said on the floor that school buildings within his own district haven’t been restored since the floods and likely would never be rebuilt without funding from the General Assembly. He said the center is “totally gone.”?

A shell bill is a piece of legislation that proposes minor changes in an existing statute that is often replaced with more substantial measures once it goes to a committee. Having shell bills ready allows lawmakers to introduce substantial legislation late in the session after the deadline for filing bills.

House Bill 752 had two readings before its committee hearing.?

Lewis Ritchie pulls a kayak through floodwater after delivering groceries to his father-in-law on July 28, 2022 outside Jackson in Breathitt County. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Almost $300 million in federal aid is a step closer to reaching Eastern Kentucky to help rebuild from devastating floods, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell announced Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved Kentucky’s 2022 Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CBDG-DR) action plan, McConnell announced.

The ?plan determines how $297,994,000 in federal long-term recovery funding will be distributed in 20 Eastern Kentucky counties affected by the July 2022 floods, which took more than 40 lives and damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, said a release from McConnell’s office.

Counties eligible to receive funding through the CDBG-DR program: Breathitt, Casey, Clay, Cumberland, Floyd, Harlan, Johnson, Knott, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Lincoln, Magoffin, Martin, Owsley, Perry, Pike, Powell, Whitley, and Wolfe.

“It’s been nearly two years since flooding of historic proportions ravaged Eastern Kentucky. I saw first-hand where the floods leveled entire communities, destroyed homes, and took the lives of more than 40 Kentuckians. In the aftermath of this tragedy, I made a commitment to stand by the side of Eastern Kentuckians and fight in Washington for big, real-dollar investments in disaster recovery.

“Today, I’m proud to see nearly $300 million in long-term recovery funding move closer toward rebuilding homes and communities, revitalizing the local economy, and supporting survivors who still need our help. I will continue to partner with local leaders in the region and work to ensure these federal dollars are responsibly invested into Eastern Kentucky,” McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator and the Senate’s minority leader.

Kimberly Sapp-Allen's home is one of 376 flood-damaged properties purchased by local government in Kentucky through FEMA's buyout program. (Kentucky Emergency Management)

When floodwaters rushed through the town of McRoberts in July 2022, Kimberly Sapp-Allen and her husband packed what they could in their vehicles, left their home that sat along the rising creek and headed for higher ground.

The floods scoured several counties across Eastern Kentucky, including Letcher County — where Sapp-Allen lives. In the end, 45 people died and thousands of homes were destroyed.

“It was the darkest dark I have ever seen in my life,” Sapp-Allen, 59, said. As they waited out the storm, flashes of lightning revealed their cars were surrounded by black water and floating debris.

They returned the next day to a home severely damaged by floodwater, but still standing.

And that’s where they’ve lived since — despite the mold and the constant worry with every rain that the nearby creek would flood again.

But this month she sold the place to the Letcher County government through FEMA’s property acquisition program. This will get Sapp-Allen out of her damaged house and, hopefully, into a new home out of the floodplain.

The federal buyout program is one part of FEMA’s hazard mitigation strategy. The idea: get people and homes out of the floodplain so there will be less risk and costs associated with future disasters. FEMA provides most of the funding for local governments to purchase homes at fair market value. The properties are then demolished and county governments are prohibited from building anything on the land that could flood again.

A previous Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting analysis of FEMA’s hazard mitigation grants found the resources have been distributed unevenly throughout the state. Communities most at risk and struggling to overcome recent disasters have received fewer hazard mitigation dollars than other, more affluent areas.

The housing buyout program suffers from many of the same barriers. Usually, the program is slow and cumbersome, which prevents many rural, under-resourced communities from getting funds and frustrates survivors who can’t afford to wait years before moving on with their lives.

“It will allow us to turn our life around. It’s been such a blessing.”

– Kimberly Sapp-Allen

But in Kentucky, state officials and FEMA implemented a new, expedited buyout process after the Eastern Kentucky floods — and the changes seem to be working.

Sapp-Allen’s is one of 376 properties in Eastern Kentucky purchased through FEMA’s buyout program, a total cost of $63.8 million, according to Kentucky Emergency Management spokesperson Jessica Elbouab. She said the Eastern Kentucky buyouts have been “the fastest in the program’s history.”

The buyout process that once took years to complete ended up taking just months, Elbouab said. Officials closed the deal on the first 13 properties in Perry County — next to Letcher County — just 93 days after the flood.

Kentucky has also taken advantage of other buyout programs like one administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Letcher County is seeking final approval for 118 buyouts through the NRCS, separate from the FEMA program.

Sapp-Allen said she’s been pleasantly surprised by the speed and relative painlessness of the buyout process. She thanks government officials who took action to help people, like her, who were in need.

“It will allow us to turn our life around,” Sapp-Allen said. “It’s been such a blessing.”

FEMA’s buyout program

A September 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office found FEMA’s property acquisition program can be hugely beneficial. It removes flood risks, lowers the cost of disasters and reduces strain on the federal flood insurance program, the GAO analysts concluded.

But the GAO also found the process took three to five years to complete — too long. That deterred many eligible people from applying, or caused others to back out.

The analysts also found that local governments struggle to keep up with the administrative and financial burden that comes with the program.

As a result, resources for disaster management have been distributed unevenly across the country, says Jim Elliott, a professor of sociology at Rice University who studies social inequality and the environment.

“You can imagine some cities and areas have quite a few resources. So they’re able to have the personnel who have the technical expertise to be able to submit these applications upstream to FEMA and then receive the funds,” Elliott said. “In other areas, not so much.”

Normally, county governments are responsible for packaging applications and completing the complex cost-benefit analysis required to unlock FEMA funding. But after the floods in Eastern Kentucky, FEMA officials allowed Kentucky Emergency Management teams to do most of the paperwork, said Scott Alexander, the Perry County judge executive. This, he said, cut out a middleman and allowed under-resourced counties, like his, to apply.

And he’s to credit, in part, for the change.

Shortly after the flooding, Alexander said he asked FEMA officials to help Eastern Kentucky make the most of the buyouts. After that conversation, FEMA made the changes to the program that Alexander said have helped make it a viable option for people in Perry County.

Oftentimes, FEMA’s disaster assistance grants fail to cover the cost of repairing or buying a new home, Alexander said. So for many people in Eastern Kentucky, the buyout program is the best option to get their lives back on track.

“It’s the only thing that actually gives you back at least the worth of the property,” Alexander said. “It allows people to actually move on, otherwise they are just staying in their situation and fighting and scratching to get out of it.”

Where to go next

The first question most people will face if they are considering fleeing a floodplain, Elliott said, is where to go next.

Elliott’s research tracked the outcomes of nearly 10,000 property buyouts across the country. He found that people are more likely to take a buyout if they have a clear place to go that is close to their former home and maintains or improves their current lifestyle and community ties.

But in areas like Eastern Kentucky, affordable housing was already in short supply before the floods.

A report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition determined that 8,950 homes were damaged in the flood. This, coupled with the report’s finding that an average of 600 people have left eastern Kentucky each year since 1984, make displacement and population loss a real concern.

That’s why Elliott says disaster planning needs to coordinate relocation programs like FEMA’s housing buyout program with other planning efforts such as building affordable, resilient housing.

Kentucky has announced plans to build seven new “high ground” communities using money from the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund to help meet the region’s housing needs, but more housing is a top priority for local and state officials.

Sapp-Allen has 45 days to leave the home she recently sold to the county through the buyout program. She’s not sure where she’ll go next, but knows it has to be close to Letcher County.

Her husband needs to stay local to make regular dialysis appointments while he waits for a kidney transplant. Sapp-Allen plans to stay in Eastern Kentucky until that transplant comes. Then, she said she can retire and the two of them can move down to Tennessee where she has a pair of rental properties that she let her sister and family friend use after their homes were destroyed in the floods.

It’s something to look forward to, but still, the idea of giving up the home she’s lived in for over 15 years was difficult.

”You know, it’s like, you work and you work and you work, and it’s the American dream. You obey the law and you vote and you’re good to your neighbors,” Sapp-Allen said. “And then you’re almost 60 years old, and here you have to start all over.”

This story is republished from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and Louisville Public Media.?

A child looks at the destroyed First Baptist Church in Mayfield on Dec. 15, 2021. Multiple tornadoes struck several Midwest states causing widespread destruction and many fatalities. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Nearly all relief payments to Kentucky disaster survivors from state-run relief funds were made without error, according to reports released Tuesday, one by the Kentucky auditor and another by an inspector general in the Beshear administration.

Republican Auditor Mike Harmon and the Office of the Inspector General of the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet launched reviews of the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund and the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund following reporting that relief check payments to disaster survivors had been misdirected to those not impacted. The auditor launched his review after a request by a legislative committee, and the inspector general started her review shortly after.?

Both reports found that less than 1% of payments made from the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund had been in error, though the reports differed on the amount of funding that was erroneously given out. Neither report found any erroneous payments made from the Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund.?

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear had ?questioned the timing of Harmon’s audit when it was launched in the summer, calling it “grossly political” given that he was up for reelection. Beshear created through executive orders the two funds, which together sent out tens of millions of dollars that had been donated by people across the country following the 2021 Western Kentucky tornado outbreak and deadly Eastern Kentucky flooding last year.?

The state auditor’s report found $239,785 of “inappropriate” payments made from the more than $40 million of expenditures from the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, or an error rate of 0.57%, with most erroneous payments coming from $1,000 relief payment checks sent to survivors.

The inspector general’s report, by contrast, found 53 payments from the fund making up $69,785 that were “made in error” out of more than $40 million that was expended.

The two reports differed on the amount of donations that were expended from the funds, with the auditor’s report stating about $48 million had been expended and the inspector general’s report stating more than $53 million had been expended.?

“After a nearly four-month review, we found that the funds were managed with complete transparency and in accordance with the law,” said acting inspector general Geri Grigsby in a statement. “Staff exhibited strong segregation of duties across all of the fund programs and had strong or overall effective internal controls to guard against waste, fraud or abuse of funds.”

While Grigsby’s report generally commended the work of the Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet (PPC) to monitor and distribute the funds, the report recommended the cabinet formalize or refine an “internal review process” for approving the distribution of funds in the event of future natural disasters.?

The GOP-controlled state legislature passed Senate Bill 99 this year that asked the PPC to present a report to lawmakers detailing how donated funds were being distributed. A sponsor of the law Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, had questioned the constitutionality of the creation of the relief funds when the bill was advancing through the legislature.?

Harmon’s report addressed several concerns from the Republican-controlled legislature including the funds’ constitutionality. The auditor concluded the funds’ creation was constitutional, but it was “unclear” whether expending the funds without the legislature’s approval violated the state Constitution.?

“This presents a novel legal question and (the auditor’s office) is unaware of controlling authority that would enable it to make a determination on this matter,” the report stated. “(The auditor’s office) found no evidence of bad faith or misappropriation of funds on the part of PPC. The actions by the cabinet were in good faith and appear to have been focused on quickly providing monetary relief to the unfortunate victims of the subject natural disasters.”?

Both the auditor’s report and the inspector general’s report detailed why relief checks sent to survivors could have gone to the wrong people.?

Grigsby’s report stated the PPC had canceled 193 disaster relief checks to survivors for various reasons including potential fraud, wrong names, deaths of those supposed to receive the checks and printing errors.?

Millions in donations were sent for tornado relief. Survivors wonder where the money is.

Feb. 4, 2023

Harmon’s report stated that because there wasn’t an application for the relief checks, recipients may not have realized the checks were coming. Additionally, an “unclear” memo line on the distribution checks may have created confusion.?

“While the (auditor’s office) is unable to determine the exact cause for the excessive number of outstanding checks, our auditors noted it could have been from relying on potentially inaccurate or incomplete addresses from verified data sources for check distribution, and possible creating confusion among those who received payments who were not expecting a payment,” Harmon said in a statement.?

The Lantern reported in February about struggles among local long-term recovery groups in Western Kentucky to spend millions of dollars in donations given by the PCC through one of the relief funds. When mentioning the funding that went to long-term recovery groups, the inspector general’s report stated the PPC should try to create a universal application for similar recovery groups to use in the future to create a more uniform process.

The second of two workers who were trapped inside a collapsed coal preparation plant in Martin County has died.?

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in a Friday afternoon post on the social media platform X confirmed the death. The Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper had identified the second worker as 57-year-old Alvin Nees, who had been missing after the coal preparation plant at the former Pontiki coal mine collapsed Tuesday.?

“This is a heartbreaking situation and I hope everyone will join Britainy and me in praying for the families of these two workers and this entire community,” Beshear said in his post.?

The first worker, ?identified by the Lexington Herald-Leader as Billy Ray “Bo” Daniels, had died earlier this week after an attempt to free him by surgically amputating his leg had failed.?

West Virginia-based Lexington Coal Co., LLC, owned the collapsed structure and had been given a state permit years ago to reclaim the former coal mine site, which included tearing down the mine’s coal preparation plant.?

The company is led by Jeremy Hoops, the son of Jefferey Hoops, CEO of a bankrupt coal company, Blackjewel, that gained notoriety in 2019 when it withheld final paychecks from coal miners who then blocked a coal train for two months. The Harlan County miners were eventually paid by Blackjewel.?

Newly unemployed Blackjewel coal miners blockaded railroad tracks leading to their old mine on August 23, 2019 in Cumberland in Harlan County. The paychecks of more than 300 miners bounced when the company declared bankruptcy. When miners learned the company was shipping out a final load of coal, they blocked the tracks for weeks. They were eventually paid. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The search for a worker missing in the collapse of an idle coal-preparation plant is moving into a new phase as rescuers who have been combing through the wreckage now plan to use heavy equipment to remove debris, emergency officials said Thursday.

One worker, pinned under a metal beam, died Wednesday after being found by rescuers. On Thursday, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Paula Daniels, the wife of Billy “Bo” Daniels, confirmed he was the man who died.

She told the newspaper that with his consent one of his legs had been surgically amputated in an attempt to free him.?

The company that owns the collapsed structure in Martin County ?is headed by Jeremy Hoops, whose father Jeffery Hoops gained notoriety in 2019 when bankrupt coal company, Blackjewel, withheld final paychecks from employees who then blocked a coal train for two months. The elder Hoops was Blackjewel’s CEO and president.

Records with the West Virginia secretary of state identify Jeremy Hoops as manager of Lexington Coal Co., LLC based in Milton, West Virginia.

The company was issued a mining permit by the Kentucky Department for Natural Resources on Dec. 4, 2018 for the 16.5-acre site that includes the Pontiki coal preparation plant, which collapsed Tuesday evening on two workers reportedly employed by a company that is dismantling it. Local officials have identified both of them as Pike County residents.

Demolition of the structure is part of the state-permitted reclamation plan for the site.

Earlier Thursday, Jeremy Slinker, Kentucky Emergency Management director, told media that the rescue operation is moving into a new phase by removing debris in hopes of finding the still missing worker. Emergency management officials and rescuers from all over Kentucky have searched the unstable debris, using cameras, listening devices and dogs.

Slinker said rescuers had searched all the spaces and voids in the rubble and now were making arrangements for moving in heavy equipment to remove the wreckage. The briefing was posted by The Mountain Citizen newspaper on its Facebook page.?

Martin County Sheriff John Kirk in an exclusive interview with The Mountain Citizen on Wednesday praised the rescuers for braving “a very dangerous situation.” He said search crews have “crawled beneath tons and tons of steel and concrete” that has been “snapping and popping.”

Kirk said the man who died was found alive. He died as workers tried to extricate him from beneath a beam, Kirk said. Because there’s no cell service at the site, the victim was unable to speak to his wife, Kirk said, but they were able to exchange some final words with each other.

The Lantern phoned a Lexington Coal Co. number in West Virginia Thursday afternoon; the voicemail box was full.?

Blackjewel’s Harlan County miners, who gained national fame, eventually were paid when the company agreed to pay about 1,100 workers some $5.1 million in unpaid wages.

The bankruptcy of Blackjewel and its parent company, Revelation Energy, was the subject of an investigation by Mountain State Spotlight and ProPublica into how bankruptcy laws allow coal companies to escape environmental and other obligations.

(Source: Governor's office)

Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration last week announced plans for “higher ground” developments in Floyd and Letcher counties, bringing the total to seven, as part of rebuilding efforts from floods in 2021 and 2022.

The 92-acre Grand View site off U.S. 23 in the Letcher County town of Jenkins will have room for 115 homes partially funded by the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund, in partnership with nonprofit builders FAHE Housing and HOMES Inc., according to a news release from the governor’s office.

Additional land is available for future developments, playground and park space and walking trails that could eventually connect the community to downtown Jenkins.

The Johnson family donated the land in hopes of helping flood survivors and chose the name Grand View.

“What an honor and a proud moment for the Johnson brothers — Gregory, Garnie and George — to be able to contribute to Eastern Kentucky and Letcher County by donating this beautiful piece of land,” said Gregory Johnson. “We are thrilled that it will benefit the entire community and look forward to seeing the stability of safe housing provide hope and prosperity for the people of Jenkins.”

In Floyd County, the Wayland Volunteer Fire Department sold a four-acre site on Kentucky 1086? in Wayland that is build-ready with infrastructure in place. Up to a dozen homes can be built on the land, and building can start immediately, according to the governor’s office.

In partnership with the Appalachian Service Project, the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund will provide up to $100,000 per home for building and land costs. Appalachia Service Project is a nonprofit committed to building and repairing homes for low-income families.

“There are many families who want to stay in Floyd County but are in need of a safe, affordable home,” said Walter Crouch, president and CEO of Appalachia Service Project. “We always work to keep impacted families on their own property, wherever it’s safe and feasible, to limit further needs or displacements, but we’re also very grateful for our partners who’ve helped us locate high-ground, build-ready properties, like this one in Wayland, where we can keep families in the community they love — and we have local folks ready to move in as soon as these new homes are completed.”

Beshear announced an additional $8 million to help Floyd County build 33 new homes and rehabilitate one vacant home in the New Hope neighborhood in Prestonsburg. The homes will be for Kentuckians directly affected by the 2021 and 2022 flood events that impacted Floyd County.

These funds are in addition to the $2 million Beshear announced to acquire the land for the homes. The funds come from the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program.

Beshear last December announced ambitions for creating new planned communities on “higher ground” outside the floodplain in the Kentucky mountains.?

Previously announced high-ground communities, include The Cottages at Thompson Branch in Letcher County, Skyview in Perry County, Chestnut Ridge and Olive Branch in Knott County and New Hope Estates in Floyd County.

Record floods struck parts of Kentucky in July 2022. Bays Street in Jackson, the Breathitt County seat, was one of many places under water. (Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

The cost of flood insurance is a large recovery barrier for people living in Eastern Kentucky flood plains, says a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

Researcher Matt Klesta reported what locals have said: Flood insurance is too expensive for most residents. Also, floods have made affordable housing problems worse and driven locals from their homes, decreasing the available workforce.

The report, published in September, focused on the July 2022 floods and the 13-county federal disaster area. The water destroyed homes, displaced thousands of Kentuckians and killed at least 44 people. From July 26-30, 2022, up to 16 inches of rain fell, pushing creeks and rivers far out of their banks, according to the National Weather Service.

“The July 2022 flood was not the region’s first, nor will it be its last,” the researcher wrote. “It’s in these situations that close-knit communities with deep family ties to the land demonstrate their resourcefulness. However, despite eastern Kentucky’s resilience, its recovery is made more challenging by the decline of the coal industry, which has led to the loss of many well-paying jobs and a steady exodus of people from the region.”

Expensive to stay?

It’s expensive to stay. The new research says that homeowners insurance with a flood policy, on average, could cost a family in the affected areas 7% of their median household income. In the 13 most impacted counties, a flood insurance policy could cost $1,384? annually.

After receiving federal aid for flood damage, a property owner is required to have flood insurance or else be disqualified for future aid. ?The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages the flood insurance program, requires those who live in a high-risk flood area, known as a Special Flood Hazard Area, and who have a federal government-backed mortgage to have flood insurance. Those who also accepted aid from FEMA after floods — like thousands of households did in Eastern Kentucky after the 2022 floods — are also required to purchase flood insurance.

Few Kentuckians have flood insurance. Rate increases, announced earlier this year to make up for the program’s massive losses, are putting it even further out of reach.

The Fed report also shows that 74% of the some 9,000 damaged housing units were in Breathitt, Knott, Letcher and Perry Counties.

In the 13 flood-impacted counties, the report says, 37% of households, including 55% of renters, made less than $25,000 a year ?in 2021.

This is significant because “low-income households and renters are more likely to suffer permanent displacement because they often have fewer relocation options and lower-quality housing is more likely to be demolished instead of being rebuilt.”

Meanwhile, as people leave the area, the labor market suffers. The report shows that United States Postal Service residential vacancies increased by 19% from the third to the fourth quarter in 2022.

“Fewer residents mean fewer people available to fill jobs,” the paper states. And the construction industry has decreased by 24%, which further pauses housing recovery.

“This shortage of skilled trades workers, such as carpenters, electricians, and plumbers, has led to a backlog of people waiting to get their homes repaired or replaced,” the report found.

For the full report, “Resilience and Recovery: Insights from the July 2022 Eastern Kentucky Flood,” visit the site.

Laura Humphrey walks a wheelbarrow to a pile of debris while volunteering to clean up in Perry County near Hazard on Aug. 6, 2022. Thousands of Eastern Kentucky residents lost their homes ater devastating rain storms flooded the area. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Few in Eastern Kentucky have flood insurance or have ever been able to afford it. A federal agency’s new pricing system is putting it even further out of reach, jeopardizing eligibility for federal aid after future floods.?

The cost of flood insurance is a major reason that Terry Thies is trying to sell her family home in Perry County.

It’s a place her grandfather bought and her father remodeled, where she played in the nearby creek to find pretty rocks. Her father never mentioned having flood insurance on? the home because the home never really did flood much; the basement had most recently taken on water in 2011 but didn’t reach into her living space.

All of that changed when floodwaters cascaded into her community of Bulan in July 2022, reaching at least four feet up the walls of her home.?

“No way. I’m not going to try and fix that house and live there,” Thies said in late July. “I don’t care if it was a ‘1,000-year flood.’ This could be the first day of the second 1,000 years. I just am not going to put myself back in that situation.”?

Thies applied for federal aid after the floods that killed 45 Kentuckians and ruined thousands of homes across Eastern Kentucky. The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied her aid from that disaster, saying that the federal agency had given her funding after her basement flooded in 2011 and she didn’t have flood insurance this time around.?

FEMA requires homeowners to buy flood insurance if they previously received help from the emergency management agency.

“That evidently happened,” Thies said, referencing the over $4,000 she received from FEMA in 2011. “I just don’t remember the part of that (where) you had to get flood insurance.”

More than a year after the deadly flood, she now faces a financial crunch with having to pay about $2,200 a year for flood insurance on her flooded property, something that’s a burden given that she was laid off last year from her family’s pharmacy business.?

The region still is struggling with an affordable housing shortage exacerbated by the floods, and state and local leaders are slowly rebuilding new homes and establishing “higher ground” communities away from risk of flooding. Thies believes such communities are “a great thing.”?

“We just had to quit living by the creeks,” Thies said.?

She has a newly built home herself on the other side of the county thanks to a local housing nonprofit. But she can’t afford to keep the old homeplace, in part, because of paying that flood insurance premium.

A new pricing system

FEMA for decades has managed? the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), created to help cover losses by providing flood insurance through a network of private companies and local insurance agents.

Weather disasters in recent decades have saddled the federal flood insurance program with billions of dollars in debt due, in large part, to fully paying out benefits after disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Sandy in 2012. Raising premiums is one strategy for moving toward solvency in the program.?

The NFIP has millions of policies in force nationwide but very few of them in Kentucky. A FEMA report last year found that a little over 1% of the more than 1 million residential structures throughout the state had flood insurance, and the rates of those with flood insurance are similarly low in Eastern Kentucky counties.?

?FEMA requires those who live in a high-risk flood area, known as a Special Flood Hazard Area, and who have a federal government-backed mortgage to have flood insurance. Those who also accepted aid from FEMA after floods — like thousands of households did in Eastern Kentucky after the 2022 floods — are also required to purchase flood insurance.?

Calculating the cost of flood insurance premiums in the past relied on “relatively static measurements” that emphasized how elevated a property was on an existing flood insurance map. But that methodology didn’t fully account for the evolving science and data, leading to homes whose flood risks weren’t being accurately assessed through the price of premiums.?

FEMA aims to change that with a new pricing system called “Risk Rating 2.0,” which was fully implemented in April, that the agency says will “equitably distribute premiums across all policyholders based on home value and a property’s flood risk, and set rates that are fairer.”

According to FEMA’s analysis, some policyholders in Kentucky counties will see the cost of their average annual flood insurance premium double, triple or spike even further under the new system.?

Many of those dramatic increases in price are in poorer Eastern Kentucky counties, where people? are still recovering from last year’s floods. In Perry County, where Thies’ family home was flooded and the median household income is about $40,000, premiums could increase by more than 130%, from an average of $1,403 in September 2022 to $3,363 under the new pricing system.?

Martin County, where about 40% of residents live in poverty, will see one of the highest increases in annual premiums with an increase of over 290%, going from $1,143 in September 2022 to $4,509.?

Carter County will see the highest increase in the state at about 317%, going from $834 in September 2022 to an average of $3,482.?

Democratic state Sen. Robin Webb, who practices law in the Carter County seat of Grayson, said she understood why some river-bound communities could see changes in flood insurance criteria. But she doesn’t understand why a place like Carter County, though it has seen its share of floods, would have such a large spike in rates.?

“We have pockets of flooding — there’s no question. A lot of people, everybody’s like, ‘Well, move.’ They don’t want to move,” Webb said. “They can’t afford to move.”?

Existing flood insurance policyholders will see their flood insurance premiums incorporated into the new pricing system whenever the policies are renewed after April 2023. Yearly premium increases are also capped by law at 18% to 25% for people who had flood insurance policies before the new pricing system was implemented.?

But completely new policyholders — very few people in Eastern Kentucky had flood insurance during last year’s floods — are facing the full brunt of newly calculated premiums after being incorporated into the new system in October 2022.?

There are some discounts available to new policyholders, such as a discount for properties that are drawn into a flood area under a revised floodplain map.?

Scott McReynolds is the executive director of the Housing Development Alliance, a Perry County nonprofit rebuilding housing in Eastern Kentucky. He said when his organization was helping after a different flooding disaster in 2021, they ran into several people who rejected FEMA aid because accepting it would have required them to purchase flood insurance — something they couldn’t afford.?

The unaffordability of flood insurance even before the new pricing system, McReynolds said, leaves poorer Kentuckians with the risk of not getting disaster aid in the future, especially considering that typically the entire flood insurance premium has to be paid fully upfront.?

“They either have to say, ‘No, I’m not going to take the FEMA help, or they’re going to take the FEMA help and risk not getting help next time,” McReynolds said.

He likens flood insurance to a “black box” because of what is still unknown about flood insurance requirements in the aftermath of the 2022 floods. For example, he and other housing advocates aren’t completely sure whether those who accept help from FEMA and then are added into the floodplain through revised floodplain maps will have to get flood insurance.?

Those on the frontlines of rebuilding housing, including McReynolds, say they’re too busy helping with Kentuckians’ immediate needs to be able to think hard about something like flood insurance.?

“All sorts of people are taking the money,” he said. “Some of them may be taking it thinking that, ‘Hey, I’ll get flood insurance,’ and they just don’t have any idea what it’s going to cost.”

Bridging the affordability gap

Those who have studied flood insurance at a national level say answers to the affordability question likely need to come from Congress.?

Chad Berginnis, the executive director for the Association of State Floodplain Managers, said there absolutely needs to be a mechanism to help some communities afford insurance if FEMA is going to reassess and increase insurance rates to make up for debt in the program.?

“What’s really frustrating to me is that we have again Congress who, on one hand, wants to see a more solvent program, and on the other doesn’t want to solve necessarily these real situations for folks,” Berginnis said.?

Berginnis contrasted the relative lack of funding for the flood insurance program to crop insurance, which is subsidized with billions of dollars by the federal government.?

“They are using a different lens to view this insurance program, and it is deeply unfortunate,” he said.?

FEMA did not answer a list of questions from the Lantern about the affordability of flood insurance, saying the agency’s immediate priority was responding to the aftermath of wildfires in Hawaii.

Some Kentucky politicians have taken action to address spiking insurance rates under the new pricing system: Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron in June joined nine other attorneys general in challenging the new system in a lawsuit, calling it an “egregious and unlawful” price hike.?

Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, chair of the U.S. House Oversight Committee, also led a bipartisan effort to send a letter to FEMA’s administrator in May asking for more information about how FEMA’s new system could impact premiums. Other signees on that letter included Louisiana lawmakers who have also expressed frustration over FEMA’s new pricing system and the spikes in premiums seen in that state, too.?

Few Kentucky communities take advantage of discounts?

Sam Brody, a professor at Texas A&M University at Galveston who testified before Congress about flood insurance, said there are ways communities can help lower flood insurance costs through programs such as the Community Rating System, but it can be hit or miss if communities are taking part in such a program.?

The Community Rating System is a FEMA program that discounts flood insurance in communities where local flood management practices exceed the minimum requirements, such as by retrofitting flood-prone buildings or hosting activities that build awareness of flood insurance.?

Communities can receive discounts ranging from 5% to 45% on premiums, but few local governments in Kentucky, about 40 total including 11 counties, are taking part.?

“I think that’s a really important program that is not well known,” Brody said. “How do we offset rates? How do we make our communities more resilient over the long term and do it in a balanced way — not just dig walls — but do other stuff like, communicate, educate?”

In the meantime, Brody said, flood insurance affordability will still be a looming problem for flood-prone areas throughout the country, something that’s only worsened by the lack of flood-resilient community design and climate change.

“I know people who pay $4,000 for insurance a year, and that’s backbreaking for a lot of people,” Brody said. “Even areas that are like Eastern Kentucky — it’s going up, and they’ll continue to go up. And what does that mean, for, you know, the community as a whole?”

Lewis Ritchie pulls a kayak through floodwater after delivering groceries to his father-in-law on July 28, 2022 outside Jackson in Breathitt County. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

AppalRed Legal Aid will use a $1,345,226 grant to add staff to help low-income Kentuckians still trying to recover from last year’s severe storms, floods and mudslides, according to a news release from the Prestonsburg-based nonprofit.

AppalReD, or the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, is one of 14 organizations around the country sharing in $20 million of supplemental funding approved by Congress earlier this year to support natural disaster response. The awards were made by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), a 49-year–old nonprofit created by Congress to support civil legal assistance to low-income people.

AppalReD will use the three-year grant to add two attorneys and two paralegals to its disaster response team.?

LSC is also awarding AppalReD an additional $144,502 to compensate for already incurred costs related to the natural disasters.

“Over the past year all of us have become very aware of the long-term nature of our region’s recovery. Many of our neighbors are struggling to find affordable housing or continue to work on FEMA appeals,” said Evan Smith, AppalRed’s interim executive director.

?“They are living proof of the maxim ‘recovery takes years not weeks.’ This grant will allow AppalReD Legal Aid to play an even bigger part in the ongoing response, especially as disaster survivors’ needs continue to evolve over the next three years.”

Whitney Bailey, who has served as AppalReD’s disaster resource attorney over the past year, said the grant will help the nonprofit law firm “continue supporting July 2022 disaster survivors. It can be overwhelming and frustrating for disaster survivors to navigate the FEMA appeal process, title and homeownership issues, and other civil legal matters.”

After weather disasters, victims often require immediate legal assistance to file for benefits from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and insurers. They also need legal assistance to deal with landlord-tenant issues, access unemployment or apply for replacements of important documents, said the news release, which adds that disaster-caused legal issues can persist for years, including FEMA appeals, bankruptcy, predatory scams, public housing and domestic violence.

??“Disaster response involves so much more than physical repairs, as millions of Americans find out each year when their home or family is impacted by one of these devastating events,” said LSC President Ron Flagg. “Legal aid providers are integral in helping low-income families access vital services and resources that set them on the path to recovery.”

The news release says AppalReD will continue outreach to those affected by the flooding and contract with the nonprofit Appalachian Citizens Law Center to enhance services in the most severely affected places.

In response to the flood, AppalReD Legal Aid and its partners launched a Flood Survivors Legal Hotline last year to address the legal needs of flood survivors and contribute to the long-term improvement of the Appalachia region. Grant funds will also be used to support this resource and to update the AppalReD and KyJustice.org websites, which will include an informational website for flood survivors with a simplified intake form.

To contact the Flood Survivors Legal Hotline call 1-844-478-0099.

Nancy Herald, whose home was damaged in both the March 2021 and July 2022 flood, poses for a photo in her place of work, Gorgeous Grooms, in Jackson, Kentucky on December 19, 2022. Photo by Arden Barnes

More than a year after four feet of water flooded her house, Nancy Herald still doesn’t know when – or if – she’ll return to the home that’s been in her family for nearly five decades.?

Driving past the homeplace, even, is too painful. Sometimes she goes inside; sometimes she just passes quietly.

And sometimes, she said, she cries.?

Herald was one of many in Eastern Kentucky who had to evacuate when heavy rain and flash flooding hit Appalachian communities.?

The water destroyed homes, displaced thousands of Kentuckians and killed at least 44 people. From July 26-30, 2022, up to 16 inches of rain fell, flooding creeks and rivers, according to the National Weather Service.??

Breathitt County, where Herald lives, was among the worst-hit areas. Many who suffered damage in 2022 were also victims of the February 2021 floods, meaning many had to rebuild their entire lives twice.?

Doing it a third time is unthinkable.?

“I still am not comfortable with … going back just because I’m afraid it’ll flood again,” Herald said of her homeplace. “And … I just don’t want to have to go through that again.”?

Herald isn’t alone in that worry.?

Dana Fugate, who lives in Jackson and serves as the secretary of the Long Term Recovery Team in Breathitt County, said “people are at different stages in recovery.”?

How far they’ve come depends on if they had flood insurance, among other factors.?

Some are back home after a year of rebuilding, Fugate said. “But then you still have people who are in limbo,” like the person who recently started rebuilding after a full year.?

“Resources are drying up, as they do,” Fuagte added. “Out of sight out of mind. And people don’t really understand that there’s still a great need.”?

Volunteer skilled labor is in high demand, she said. Breathitt Countians need plumbers and electricians and people to help remove debris.

“Some are just needing some finishing touches, some are needing major repair still,” Fugate said.?

One major change the federal government should address is making sure that recipients of disaster relief money get access to financial literacy education, according to Jamie Mullins-Smith, the co-chair of Breathitt County’s Long Term Recovery Team.?

That’s because not everyone knows how to manage thousands of dollars and how to invest it in a way that will aid their long term recovery, Mullins-Smith said. And once the money has been spent, it’s too late.?

“There needs to be some financial literacy and some accountability on the federal government with that. When they hand these individuals this funding, it’s very hard for them to understand exactly what that’s for,” she said.?

Sometimes that comes down to a recipient just not understanding the instructions.?

“We at a local level are kind of left to deal with that,” Mullins-Smith said. Case managers can help guide survivors and make sure they don’t get duplicate services. There are a little fewer than 400 people in Breathitt County still under case management, she said.?

The biggest issue, several told the Lantern, is housing, which is a “major problem” that persists.

Breathitt County Circuit Clerk James Elliot Turner estimates about 500 people have left his county – many because of the “housing crisis.”

They’re going to nearby areas that have homes, like Perry County, he said.?“Population is dropping every day in this county until we get good housing – affordable housing,” he said.

Breathitt County was already poor before back-to-back floods, he said.

But the water meant “the?poor got poorer.”?

“The folks that have lost loved ones … don’t ever recover from that loss,” he said. But also: “People have lost their homes for a second time in less than a year, buddy, it’s just devastating.”?

Emotional toll tarries?

A year to a year and a half after a disaster, many people experience high levels of hopelessness and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to The Center for Disaster Philanthropy.?

People working on the ground say some people in Eastern Kentucky have more depression, anxiety and general stress. When it rains, people worry.?

“The barrier is getting our survivors to understand that there is some value to addressing your mental health,” said Mullins-Smith. “We (are) promising you that if you will at least reach out that there (are) resources for you. There’s therapists, there’s coping skills that we can teach you.”?

Some don’t reach out because of the general stigma surrounding mental health, she said. Others just want to get back to the way things were.?

Many have an “overwhelming desire to want to find some normalcy,” she said. “So they prioritize their recovery over their mental health, which only exacerbates it.”?

Outside of therapy, there are coping skills that can help reduce and manage stress day-to-day that Mullins-Smith shares with people.?

They include:

• Yoga?
• Music
• Relaxation?
• Listening to a sound machine (but not rain)?
• Journaling?
• Setting realistic goals. You can’t rebuild a house in one day, but you maybe can paint a wall.?
• Take a deep breath?
• Walk away from what you’re doing and do a positive activity?
• Close your eyes
• Schedule time for yourself?
• Get a stress ball?

Higher Ground?

There is a continued need for affordable housing, especially in the form of apartment complexes, in this area of Eastern Kentucky, locals said. ?

“There was a housing issue before the flood,” Fugate said. “And … afterwards, it’s just … 10 times worse.”?

Some intended to move to higher ground or away, Fugate said, but were not able to do so. Instead they returned to the floodplain, knowing they could lose everything again.?

“Hopefully, we’ve had our 1,000-year flood and it won’t happen again for quite some time,” she said.?

The state is working on “higher ground communities” to get people out of the Eastern Kentucky flood plains. Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration has announced four so far in Knott, Perry and Floyd counties.?

He’s said that “we can’t just rebuild, we also need to revitalize” Eastern Kentucky, which includes building in a way that is resilient in the face of possible future floods.?

Meanwhile, Herald can’t bring herself to sell her homeplace.?

She’s lucky, she said, to have found a new house outside the floodplain, on higher ground.?

She just watches as the seasons pass, studying the weather and what it does to houses that, like her old one, are in the floodplain.?

“Emotionally, psychologically, I’m not ready to let go of the old house yet,” Herald said. “There’s still a real strong emotional attachment there because it was my home for so long.”

Coming Friday: The high costs of flood insurance

President Joe Biden talks on the phone with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, June 7, 2023, about the Canadian wild fires and the smoke blanketing parts of the U.S. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Philip King, the mayor of Bardwell, poses inside his flood-damaged city hall. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

BARDWELL — Mayor Philip King has a problem. A flash flood on July 19 turned Bardwell’s Front Street into a river and dumped at least seven inches of water on city hall.

Spending the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed for repairs would be a waste, he says, because the building would just flood again, as it did in 2009.

“If you redo it, you’re going to have another flood, you’re going to be in here again,” King said. “It just is what it is.”?

Bardwell, the Carlisle County seat of 700 residents, sits about 20 minutes from the site of the Fancy Farm Picnic, which on the first Saturday of August draws politicians and media from across Kentucky and beyond for speeches and theatrics as it did again this year.

With so many ears attuned to what visiting politicians say in westernmost Kentucky, the Lantern set out to hear also from people who live there.

On the eve of this year’s gathering, Bardwell felt even more removed than usual from the hoopla.?

Looking drained as he examined where flood-damaged flooring and drywall had been stripped away, King, who hasn’t been to the Fancy Farm Picnic for a decade, said rural West Kentucky is “pretty well forgotten about” — a sentiment shared by others, including elected officials, interviewed by the Lantern.

Local priorities differed – sometimes sharply — from what political candidates shouted from the stage.?

For example, Calloway County resident Mary Buck, who founded a mutual aid group, would like to hear candidates talk about poverty and how to provide affordable housing and transit to ease its effects.

But that is a “pretty heavy subject,” which, she figures, is why politicians prefer to focus “more on the hot button topics.”?

“It needs to be talked about,” she says. “It needs to be more than talked about — it needs to be fixed.”?

Up on the Fancy Farm stage, facing cheers and jeers, few, if any, candidates mentioned poverty or affordable housing, though they did tout “infrastructure.”?

Cameron versus Beshear

Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron largely focused on social and cultural issues and attacked “the Biden agenda.” Cameron criticized Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear for posing for a picture with a group of drag queens and slammed Beshear for COVID-19 public health restrictions on gatherings, including religious ones.

“He sent the state police after Christians on Easter Sunday. He closed down Main Street and bent over backwards for Wall Street,” Cameron said.?

Meanwhile, Beshear criticized Cameron for his running mate choice of Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, and Mills’ support for a controversial pension law that sparked teacher protests and was struck down by the Kentucky Supreme Court.?

“When I went to court and saved the pensions of every teacher and every police officer, Robby was mad — Robby was big mad,” Beshear said.?

Beshear also touted his economic development record, saying “billions of dollars” of investment was coming to Western Kentucky while also highlighting rebuilding efforts following the 2021 tornado outbreak that hit the region and devastated the Graves County seat of Mayfield.?

Edge of homelessness

Buck, the mutual aid group leader in Calloway County, assumed Mayfield’s recovery efforts would be mentioned at Fancy Farm because they’re in the same county. But she had also hoped more systemic issues faced by Kentuckians would come up.?

Buck sees those systemic issues regularly through her organization, the Calloway County Collective, a nonprofit associated with the local United Way chapter that helps residents with a variety of needs, medicine, food, baby supplies and more. The organization started as a Facebook group to help Kentuckians in her West Kentucky community support each other in the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic.?

Just recently, a friend Buck has known “probably since middle school” reached out to her.?

“She did not want to reach out to me, I know. But she was just absolutely desperate. And she has been living in a hotel for over 100 days,” Buck said. “She’s been working every single day to pay for a hotel room so that she and her son aren’t homeless.”?

Her friend’s situation, she said, reflects larger community needs that she often sees while running the mutual aid group — especially the lack of affordable housing and affordable transit to get people to work in Murray, Calloway County and West Kentucky.?

A University of Kentucky analysis found that Calloway County had the highest housing demand out of all 120 counties in the state. Two other Jackson Purchase counties, Fulton and McCracken, were also among the top 20 counties for demand.?

“I think that it’s harder to address some of these issues that we face so often when we’re dealing with anyone who’s in a bad situation,” Buck said. “I think it’s hard to say that people aren’t able to feed themselves and clothe themselves and pay their own bills without already sounding like we’re failing and our politicians are failing us.”?

Buck said she believes Calloway County has enough jobs, but it’s another hurdle to have reliable transportation to get people to their jobs. For those who do have a roof over their heads, she said, paying for that housing can sometimes make something like a car payment difficult.

Disaster recovery

In Mayfield, a community that struggled with poverty before an EF-4 tornado took out a significant amount of lower-income housing, bringing in well-paying jobs is also top of mind.?

Derrick Parrott, a Mayfield city council member who helps students at the local school district who face personal and academic challenges, said there are still people with immediate needs in Mayfield that aren’t being met.?

“It’s a tough task,” Parrott said. “People have a tendency to fall through the cracks. It’s just important that we do our best to make sure that those that are in need get the help that they deserve.”?

Since the tornado, Parrott said that those in power throughout the state government have been a lot more supportive and communicative, which he appreciates. But he can’t help but wonder why it took a “tornado to be noticed.”?

For Crystal Fox, a social worker who’s the president of a nonprofit working to help empower minority youth in Mayfield, addressing the basic needs of families is vital before her community can be rebuilt for the longer term.?

“We need to make sure that our family’s basic needs are met before we can focus on these long-term goals of building back a community that was not thriving to the best of its ability before,” Fox said.?

Another Mayfield resident, Atina Lindsey, was part of the throng enjoying barbecue and bingo on the grounds of Saint Jerome Catholic Church where she is a member. Saint Jerome put on its 143rd Fancy Farm Picnic on Saturday.

“I think Western Kentucky gets left out a lot in the grand scheme of Kentucky,” she said. “They want to say they swoop in and help and do a lot of things. But we don’t see it.”

Lindsey still worries about the area’s recovery from the devastating tornadoes and wants to see more progress with the rebuilding of Mayfield. She wants a new courthouse after the tornado toppled the centuries-old downtown building. Graves County’s temporary circuit court clerk’s office is operating out of a Mayfield strip mall.?

“I’m Republican through and through, but I just want somebody that’s going to do the job regardless of who they are,” she said.

‘ … what are you going to do?’

In contrast to more traditional campaign events and debates, Fancy Farm is known for its “roasting” and jokes, says Fancy Farm political director Steven Elder.?

He said the political events leading up to the speeches also provide West Kentuckians with an opportunity to meet candidates and elected officials in person to share their views and concerns.?

“We enjoy the zingers, we want to have a lot of fun,” Elder said. “It’s them being here in Western Kentucky that provides the people here the opportunity to talk about the issues they want to hear about.”

But those jabs and attacks also play a role in why King, the Bardwell mayor, hasn’t attended the picnic in more than a decade. He last showed up at the invitation of former Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

He said candidates are more likely to “bash each other” than talk about the needs of communities like his.?

As mayor of Bardwell, King’s top priority is getting a new city hall built out of the floodplain — something that he estimates could cost around $1 million — a daunting and expensive challenge for a small community like his.

“’Don’t even bring up who’s running against you. It’s ‘what are you going to do? And how are you going to get there?’” King said.?

As much as King would like to hear candidates offer practical solutions to current problems, he predicts that “COVID closures” and “gender” could drive Carlisle County voters’ choices in November — along with “people looking for a change.”

Correction: The spelling of Philip King’s first name was corrected.

Damage left from the December 2021 tornado can still be seen in downtown Mayfield, Friday, November 18, 2022 in Graves County, Kentucky. ( Kentucky Lantern photo by Julia Rendleman)

Five Mayfield families were given keys to new homes Friday as the region continues to rebuild after devastating tornadoes as well as recent flooding.?

Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman joined The Hope Initiative in bestowing the keys, a governor’s office press release said. The Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund gave $500,000 for the homes and has supported The Hope Initiative’s building projects with $5.4 million total.?

Kroger provided the families with kits that had food and cleaning supplies. Beshear thanked donors to the relief fund and Kroger for supporting the homes.?

“Mayfield has such a bright future, and we will be here every step of the way as they keep moving forward,” the governor said in the press release.?

Stephen Boyken, president of The Hope Initiative and lead pastor of His House Ministries, said in the press release a priority long-term need is “housing solutions for renters whose homes were lost or destroyed by the tornado.”?

?“While we are celebrating progress today with the dedication of five more homes, there still remains a long path ahead of us on the road to recovery,” Boyken said. “We are grateful for the commitment to rebuild and the continued support of Gov. Beshear’s office. The financial support from the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund is allowing us to put the pieces and the people of our community back together one home at a time.”

The Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund was created after tornadoes tore through Western Kentucky iin December 2021. More than 80 people died. Since then, the fund has raised more than $52 million in donations.?

Kentucky voters rewarded Gov. Andy Beshear for his efforts on behalf of Eastern Kentucky after devastating flooding. Above, Beshear spoke to media in Whitesburg after the flash floods of July 2022. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

The day after the one-year anniversary of devastating floods in Eastern Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear announced plans to provide 34 single-family homes to house flood survivors.

Beshear said Thursday that $2 million in Community Development Block Grant funds will be given to the county to acquire two vacant lots — a total of 34 acres — in Prestonsburg. The funds will be used to rehabilitate one home and build 33 new homes along Cliff Road and Old Cliff Road. No timeframe was given on how long the project will take to complete.?

According to a press release from the governor’s office, the lots are out of the flood plain. Kentuckians directly affected by 2021 and 2022 flood events in Floyd County will be housed in the homes.?

After the property is acquired, funding to help Floyd County build supportive infrastructure, such as water, sewer and roads, will be announced. The Mountain Housing Corporation will be the site constructor.?

“Housing remains the top priority as we continue rebuilding from the floods,” Beshear said in a statement. “We promised to be with Eastern Kentucky until every structure, home and life is rebuilt. We’re keeping that promise, and we’ll be back here soon with more updates on this project.”

Last summer, flooding killed 45 people across the region. Other “higher ground” sites have been announced in Talcum, which is near the Knott-Perry county line, as well as near downtown Hazard.?

Flooding began on July 26, 2022. Since then, residents, housing advocates and state officials have worked to secure permanent shelter for victims of the floods.??

Floyd County Judge/Executive Robbie Williams said in the press release that recovering from the floods “would take years” and added the county’s residents are “still standing, and we’re building a better future for our people.”?

“We celebrated a lot of good news today in Prestonsburg,” Prestonsburg Mayor Les Stapleton said in the press release. “We have more good news coming, and a lot of reasons to hope. We are grateful for these funds and will keep building a better future for our people.”

Beshear will travel to Eastern Kentucky again on Friday. While in Knott, Letcher and Perry counties, he will share more updates on initiatives to rehouse flooding victims.

Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is seeking to unseat Beshear in this year’s gubernatorial race, campaigned in the region Thursday. He had stops in Perry, Letcher, Harlan and Bell counties.

Stacey Feezor plays with her niece Delilah Jenkins, 6, outside her camper at Camp Graves where she lives with her family in transitional housing after losing everything in the December 2021 tornado,. Nov. 18, 2022 in Graves County. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Julia Rendleman)

FRANKFORT — State Auditor Mike Harmon’s office will conduct a “special examination” of the Beshear administration’s handling of disaster relief funds at the request of a legislative committee.

The focus of the audit will be the Public Protection Cabinet’s administration of the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund and the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund, a Thursday news release from the Office of the Auditor of Public Accounts said.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear responded by defending his administration’s handling of the donated money as the “most transparent disaster recovery funds that I’ve ever seen.” Beshear called the audit’s timing “grossly political.”

The co-chairs of the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee, Rep. Adam Bowling, R-Middlesboro, and Sen. Brandon Storm, R-London, wrote in a letter requesting a review earlier this week that more than 200 checks were “issued from these funds to persons who did not request the monies or who have later stated no objective need.”

“As a result,” the lawmakers’ letter said, “the Committee has serious concerns about the due diligence and general oversight of the funds. There is a lack of transparency surrounding the solicitation, administration, and procurement rules regarding these funds, including but not limited to the establishment of objective criteria for the disbursement and subsequent disbursement.

“In addition, testimony provided at legislative hearings suggests that the Executive Branch did not seek any formal opinions regarding the ethical parameters for such solicitations or register under appropriate federal guidelines.”

In his weekly news conference, Beshear? questioned the timing of the audit with a governor’s election on the line and asserted the review will not be impartial, given that Harmon was one of a dozen Republican candidates seeking to unseat Beshear a few months ago and now supports Republican nominee Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Beshear’s opponent.

“??Listen, for somebody who was running for governor that is supporting the other candidate to announce an audit on something like this three months and two weeks before an election, we all have to admit that’s grossly political, and we shouldn’t be doing it,” Beshear said.

He said records have been made available to the public and members of his administration have testified in front of lawmakers numerous times. The governor said attacking “something like this for politics is really wrong,” and that dollars from the funds have supported rebuilding homes, paying for funerals and other services.

“Anybody who got one of those payments, who’s moving into one of these homes, ought to be upset that people would bring politics into this,” the governor added.

When asked about the lawmakers’ concern about the lack of an ethics opinion regarding the funds, Beshear said the law does not require one.

Because he was a candidate for governor, Harmon is recused from the relief funds examination, a spokesman for his office said. Measures have been taken to recuse Harmon from any examinations or audits regarding the executive branch.

The auditor’s office said its examination will cover the period between Dec. 11, 2021 and June 30, 2023.

After the examination is concluded, the office will issue a report to the Public Protection Cabinet identifying weakness and offer recommendations to improve controls and procedures, according to a response letter signed by Assistant Auditor of Public Accounts Farrah Petter. The cabinet will be legally required to respond to the Auditor’s Office and the General Assembly with a “corrective action plan.”

Petter’s letter also says the auditor’s office will bill the cabinet and not the relief funds “so that the people of the Commonwealth can be assured that no money donated for flood or tornado relief will be used to pay for the special examination.” The hourly rate is $84 per hour as well as travel costs. A preliminary estimate will be available at a later date.

Following the 2021 tornadoes, more than $52 million in donations poured into the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund. Some ways the dollars have been spent include paying for funeral expenses, new housing and giving $1,000 checks.

The Beshear administration’s handling of the relief funds came in for criticism during this year’s legislative session after media reports of checks being?sent to the wrong people,

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported the Kentucky Treasury canceled checks meant to go to tornado victims after learning some recipients were not affected by the storms. The newspaper said the Cabinet had issued about 10,040 checks, which equated to more than $10 million, from the tornado relief fund.

The newspaper reported Thursday that the Treasury had canceled more than 200 checks and that Beshear previously said fewer than 20 were the result of possible fraud and 26 had been returned with an explanation that did not necessarily indicate fraud. Those instances were referred to FEMA.

The Kentucky Lantern reported in February that relief funds remained unspent in some counties, despite the needs of ?survivors.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed a law sharpening oversight of relief funds, which Beshear signed.

In Letcher County, Gov. Andy Beshear announces plans for a housing development for flood victims, The Cottages at Thompson Branch in Marlowe. (Photo provided by governor's office)

Local, state and federal groups are working together to secure housing for flood survivors in Letcher County.?

The fiscal court of the Eastern Kentucky county previously voted to transfer about four acres of property to develop a small housing site near Whitesburg. The land has space for 10 housing units.?

According to a recent news release from the governor’s office, the manufactured homes will be known as The Cottages at Thompson Branch.?

Last July, devastating flooding struck Eastern Kentucky, killing 44 and destroying hundreds of homes.

Through FEMA’s Direct Housing and Sales and Donations programs, eligible survivors can purchase the homes. Money from the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund will also help families “prepare for long-term occupancy by adding a foundation, exterior touches such as porches, shutters and landscaping that together add beauty and resilience to the structures,” the release said.?

“This is a first-of-its-kind partnership with local, state and federal groups coming together to support this new, safe, high-ground community and 10 families who lost their homes in the historic floods,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement. “The creative approach puts resources to work quickly and also creates a beautiful, resilient home.”

The Letcher County site is the latest in state efforts to rebuild homes in Eastern Kentucky. Beshear previously announced that 75 acres near the Knott-Perry county line would be used to establish a new community on “higher, stable ground.” Another site near Hazard was announced in January.?

Eastern Kentucky SAFE funds and a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission will be used to make infrastructure for The Cottages at Thompson Branch permanent. Once complete, FEMA will move the first structures to the area. Eligible families will be contacted with additional details.?

Letcher County Judge-Executive Terry Adams said in a statement that the community “will be a nice addition to our county when it’s finished.” He added that he hoped the area would be “the first of many high-ground housing projects of this caliber” and “a model project” for similar efforts.?

In his weekly news conference last Thursday, Beshear said the Commonwealth Sheltering Program was sheltering 83 households affected by the Eastern Kentucky floods. At the time, 299 households had been transitioned out of the program.?

An example of some of the terrain that puts flat sites in short supply. The view is from High Rock trail at Bad Branch Falls State Nature Preserve in Letcher County. (Letcher County Tourism)

Letcher County has given the state a 3.5-acre tract near Whitesburg to be used for a small housing development for victims of the July 2022 flood. It seems likely to be the first fully occupied such development.

The site, known as the Marlowe property, is on Sandlick Creek, less than a mile outside the Whitesburg city limits. Letcher County’s fiscal court voted to transfer the property to the state at a special meeting May 25.?

The site is just big enough for eight to 10 housing units, and is far smaller than donated sites in Perry and Knott counties that the state is also developing for housing. Modular housing is planned for the site, so it could be completed before the larger sites. It has already been leveled, and a road is in place. Homes at the site will be connected to City of Whitesburg sewer, and Letcher County water.?

A source close to the project, who did not want to be named because Gov. Andy Beshear is planning an announcement about it soon, said the state is working directly with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on it.?

FEMA will provide the one-, two- and three-bedroom homes, which will eventually be rooted to permanent, solid foundations that can withstand future disasters, the source said.?

Some infrastructure improvements must be made to the site, including water and sewer lines and other utilities, but for the most part the site is ready to go, the source said, adding that local officials, the Beshear administration and FEMA have already done much work to make the site ready for development.?

Letcher County has hired five engineering firms to work as a team and develop a comprehensive recovery plan for the county. Lexington-based QK4 Inc. was brought in to help consider infrastructure needs in the plan and potential future projects. While it is not working directly on the Marlowe project, QK4 Planning and Environmental Project Manager Eunice Holland said the project would likely eventually be included in the comprehensive plan.?

“Our job is to identify and develop a comprehensive plan to help the community recover from the flooding events and also be more resilient for future flooding events,” Holland said.?

The plan will consider existing and incomplete infrastructure, housing and economic development projects, in addition to new projects that need to be addressed after the flood. They will also help county and city officials apply for grants that could help with projects while the plan is still being developed. Holland said they hope to have a completed plan within a year.?

“If we’re a few months in, and we know of a source of funding they can apply for, we’ll help them,” Holland said. “We’re not going to wait because we don’t have time to wait.”

All housing development projects led by the state are intended to move people to higher ground, out of floodplains.?

Steep terrain in Letcher County has made it difficult to find enough flatter and higher ground for larger developments, Letcher County Judge-Executive Terry Adams told The Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg in discussing the transfer of the Marlowe property.?

The property was donated to the county 20 years ago as the site of an animal shelter, but the county joined a regional shelter instead. In the wake of the flood, and the housing crisis it worsened, the fiscal court and state officials revisited the site to consider it as a possible housing development.?

The Mountain Eagle reported May 31 that Beshear’s deputy communications director, Scottie Ellis, said the governor plans to make an announcement about the project “in the near future.”

This article was republished from The Rural Blog, a publication of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues based at the University of Kentucky.?

Land donated near Talcum in Knott County is slated to become the site of a new community. (Photo provided by the governor’s office)

The state has hired two engineering firms to plan and develop housing at two Eastern Kentucky sites for survivors from last summer’s devastating floods. Both are on former surface mines, and Gov. Andy Beshear indicated that others could be announced soon.

Beshear said last week that H.A. Spalding Engineers of Hazard will design infrastructure, including utilities, roads, bridges and sidewalks, at both sites. Bell Engineering, headquartered in Lexington, will design and manage development of homes, civic facilities and mixed-use residential buildings.

The two “high-ground communities” will be built on sites in Perry and Knott counties. The Knott County site is close to the Talcum community, near the Perry County line, and totals 75 acres. This property was donated by Shawn and Tammy Adams and could expand to nearly 300 acres. The Perry County site, 50 acres donated by the Ison family, is about five miles from downtown Hazard.

Beshear repeated that his administration is looking for more sites and said he hoped to have “a good update on that in the next week to two.”

Money from the Team Eastern Kentucky Fund will jump-start the project. The fund is also being used to partially finance small-project house construction with the help of local nonprofits. A Letcher County home was started in March, and four more are in the works.

Many victims are still in temporary housing; 114 households are still living in travel trailers, four are still living in hotels, and 14 are in state parks, according to the Commonwealth Sheltering Program.

The Spalding and Bell firms will coordinate with the state, Kentucky Housing Corp. and local nonprofits. Lisa Townes of H.A. Spalding said they look forward to the opportunity to be a part of building new communities for Eastern Kentuckians.

“All of us . . . know someone who lost their home and all their possessions, so this is very, very meaningful to us,” she said.

What kind of community?

Mark Arnold of Bell Engineering said his company is committed to building a residential community that “captures the spirit, heritage and history of Appalachia.”

“That’s where many of us were born, and where many of our families are from, and that’s what’s important to us,” Arnold said, adding that the firm doesn’t want to “build subdivisions where people live because they don’t have a choice (but) build places where people want to put down roots, build real community, and begin to really re-establish their lives.”

The state is “trying to build places where people want to relocate,” Public Protection Cabinet General Counsel Jacob Walbourn said at the East Kentucky Leadership Conference in Hazard on April 28. “Telling people in Eastern Kentucky they have to move is very dangerous, because it’ll create a lot of resentment.”

Though officials say no one will be forced to move into the developments, Anna Eldridge, one of the young people invited to speak on a panel at the conference, opposes the plan though her family is still living in a trailer while they rebuild.

The high-school senior said she feels like it will cause more problems than it will fix, that there won’t be enough room for everyone in her Letcher County community to move, and she fears a loss of jobs in the community if people leave.

More than anything, she’s afraid such developments will take away from people the very things that she thinks makes living in Eastern Kentucky worthwhile.

“Eastern Kentucky is not about having all kinds of city things. It’s about being able to go out in nature and explore and be outside, and you won’t be able to do this on a strip job,” she said. “I feel like they are trying to city-fy something that shouldn’t be.”

Eldridge advocates rebuilding where individuals’ houses once were, in a creative way that incorporates approaches from other places where people have lived with and near flooding for generations.

However, state officials are focused on rebuilding homes out of floodplains, and this means moving to higher ground.

More money needed

Walbourn said at the conference that one of the biggest barriers is money. He said that for every dollar donated to the Team Western Kentucky Fund after that region’s 2021 tornadoes, only a quarter was donated to the Eastern Kentucky fund. There is about $13 million in the Eastern Kentucky fund, while the Western Kentucky fund has $52 million.

“I hope we as a state can come together to commit to Eastern Kentucky to do rebuilding0 right,” Walbourn said. “We need to stack and marshal resources.”

That’s why donations of land for housing projects are critical. They save the state money it would otherwise use to buy property and allows it to use those funds to hire engineering firms and others to manage development.

Arnold said he and his team are on the job as of Thursday’s announcement and are excited to get started. He was already thinking about new and different ways to design and build high-ground housing developments in Eastern Kentucky before the flood, so when Spalding reached out to bring in Bell as a partner, he leapt at the chance.

“We’re super excited and can’t wait to jump in,” Arnold said.

One of the first things Arnold said he wants to do is talk with flood survivors about what they want and need, so Bell can better understand their perspectives, and potentially implement those things in their designs. Arnold has worked with local partners in Mayfield for more than a year on plans for their downtown rebuild after a December 2021 tornado.

“When you come into a community that’s been devastated, it’s a different process,” he said. “You have to understand they’re dealing with trauma, and they may not be willing to talk yet” about plans for the future.

He said the projects in Perry and Knott counties are already well on their way, and that Team Kentucky and the myriad state agencies who have worked on them are handing the projects over with everything necessary in place and well-organized.

“We’re moving forward at a really good pace,” he said. “even though it doesn’t feel like it if you live there.”

This article was republished from The Rural Blog, a publication of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues based at the University of Kentucky.?

Laura Humphrey walks a wheelbarrow to a pile of debris while volunteering to clean up in Perry County near Hazard on Aug. 6, 2022. Thousands of Eastern Kentucky residents lost their homes ater devastating rain storms flooded the area. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

HAZARD — How does one of the nation’s poorest rural regions recover from the most disastrous flooding some of its communities have ever seen?

“Neighbors, heroes and leaders.”

That answer was the three-legged theme sounded repeatedly by Peter Hille, chair of the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation, at its annual conference in Hazard Thursday and Friday — exactly nine months after the flash floods left many in Southeastern Kentucky wondering about their region’s future.

The 35th annual East Kentucky Leadership Conference made clear that the disaster had created a greater sense of community among neighbors, some of whom responded by becoming heroes and leaders. Several were spotlighted in the annual East Kentucky Leadership Awards:

• Kate Clemons of Hazard, who didn’t know anyone in Knott County but organized free-food distribution there immediately after the flood and is still running a food center in Hindman;
• Whitesburg firefighter Charles “Red” Colwell, who can’t swim but rescued 14 people from deep, rushing floodwaters and is now chief of the department in the Letcher County seat;
• Nathan Day of Knott County, who rescued nine people and told Hazard’s WYMT, “I just feel like if everyone would open their doors and open their hearts, this world would be a better place.”
• Gwen Johnson of the Hemphill Community Center in Letcher County, a distribution site for supplies and place of refuge and healing space where people could gather to feel a sense of community;
• Donna Campbell and the Lost Creek Fire Department in Perry County, which rescued people and served as a distribution center for supplies, and is organizing rebuilding of homes;
• The Rousseau Volunteer Fire Department in Breathitt County, which rescued 15 people, including 12 in an attic, and has helped more than 4,000 families;
• Scott McReynolds and the Housing Development Alliance, which helped preserve 41 homes, repaired 31 and placed six families in new homes, and has applicaitons for 120 more.
• Gerry Roll and the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, which has raised more than $7.4 million for flood relief and has written more than 8,000 checks.

For each plaque handed out Thursday night, 10 to 20 more people or organizations deserve the same recognition, McReynolds told the crowd at Hazard Community and Technical College.

Roll, CEO of the foundation, said in accepting its award, “We’re here for you. We are you, you are us. That’s what community is.”

The foundation and other philanthropies made major differences in the recovery, said Lynn Knight, an economic development consultant in Washington and New Orleans who has done much post-disaster work and attended the conference.

Knight also told the Institute for Rural Journalism that the region is fortunate to have several community development finance institutions, such as Hille’s Mountain Associationand the Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp., which can play a role in financing the recovery. The combination of CDFIs and philanthropy make the region unique, she said.

The disaster has helped some local governments and officials overcome political and geographic rivalries that have often impeded progress in the region.

“The biggest success we’ve had is tearing down the walls” between local governments, said Perry County Judge-Executive Scott Alexander, quoting Hazard Mayor Donald “Happy” Mobelini as saying that “If something’s good for the city, it’s good for the county, and if something’s good for the county, it’s good for the city.”

Alexander said Friday morning that should also apply to competition between counties for jobs. “There’s nothing wrong with somebody living in Perry County and working in Knott County,” he said. “So let’s look at Appalachia as a whole. Let’s tear those barriers down.”

Much of the conference was devoted to the experiences, opinions and hopes of high-school students in the region, which will be the topic of future reports from the Institute for Rural Journalism.

The reporting is being done by Ivy Brashear in her role as the Institute’s first David Hawpe Fellow in Appalachian Reporting, named for the late Louisville Courier Journal editor who was born in Pike County and was the newspaper’s East Kentucky Bureau chief in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The fellowship is for students at the University of Kentucky, Hawpe’s alma mater. Brashear, a native of Perry County, is a Ph.D. student in the UK College of Communication and Information. If you have story ideas for her, you may email her here.

This story is republished from The Rural Blog, published by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky.

Don and Malissa Young stand on their property, in the location their living room was before debris contractors took their home without permission. (Photo by Justin Hicks/Louisville Public Media)

This article is republished from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.

On a steamy day in August, Don Young dug through the rubble that used to be his home. He was desperately trying to salvage the most precious possessions representing the life he’d made in the Letcher County community of McRoberts.

Floods last July ravaged Young’s community and much of Eastern Kentucky. But the wreckage that surrounded him that day was not caused by the storm.

How KyCIR analyzed Eastern Kentucky flood debris data

Instead, it was caused by companies hired to pick up debris in the months after the flood.

Without any notice, cleanup crews ripped apart the home that Young shared with his wife, Malissa, for nearly 30 years. The mobile home had been lifted off the foundation, but was still intact.

For weeks the Youngs had been working to pack up what they could from the inside: Baby photos, home videos, memorabilia from Don’s time spent as a state police officer.

“Stuff like that, you can’t replace it,” he said. “You wouldn’t have took millions for it. And they just came and destroyed it like it was nothing.”

Malissa Young, a Letcher County public school teacher, grew up on this plot of land. Looking over the dirt lot where her home once stood, she said she’ll never move back.

“It’s like a death. You go through it once with the house and it being flooded,” she said before trailing off.

“…and then they come in and tear down everything that you did save and haul it off,” Don said, finishing her thought.

A Kentucky Transportation Cabinet official overseeing the cleanup process called Don personally and afterwards told him to file a negligence claim with the state Board of Claims. They filed a claim seeking $400,000 to pay for the house and their belongings.

Instead, the state formally denied any liability in a response to the Youngs’ claim. An attorney for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet argued the couple’s house was taken by an unnamed third party. In fact, the response said the Youngs “may themselves have been negligent in failing to remove or secure their personal property.”

Don Young said he couldn’t do any heavy lifting to remove their belongings because of an old back injury. Plus, the couple said their vehicles were destroyed and they had nowhere to put their property after the flood.

It was all they could do to survive, they said, and make periodic trips to check on the property before the unannounced demolition.

The Youngs said cleanup workers claimed to have knocked on the door before tearing down the house. No one answered, and workers made no other attempts to call or locate the property owners. John Moore, a project manager with the Transportation Cabinet, said crews were advised to make contact with residents before starting work on their property, but that was not always possible due to the urgency of the task.

The Board of Claims is yet to decide on the Youngs case.

An investigation by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting found that the Youngs’ story was an early failure among many in the state and federal government’s attempt to clean up debris and dangerous materials left by the flood.

In daily reports, advisors from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regularly expressed concerns about crews taking trees or other materials that did not fit federal criteria for debris removal after a disaster. KyCIR heard from residents on multiple occasions that contractors removed debris such as valuable trees from private property without permission or cut half-mile long access routes through forests. It left them feeling overtaken and ignored by the very people charged with helping them.

Meanwhile, interviews with residents, as well as progress reports and data from the Transportation Cabinet show that there’s still plenty of debris left in Eastern Kentucky even though the state officially ended the cleanup mission in December.

People living in the area contacted state and county leadership and even organized a work stoppage to sound alarms about the danger posed by lingering debris. But state officials said the cleanup process was held back by federal agencies negotiating jurisdiction over removing debris from streams.

More cleanup projects are underway to address those concerns, but time is not on Eastern Kentucky’s side. When heavy rains descendedon the region again in February, leftover debris clogged drains and exacerbated flooding. The way some locals see it, the debris removal process that was supposed to help them recover instead made them more vulnerable.

A looming danger

Between July 26 and 30, 2022, a historic round of thunderstorms came through Southeastern Kentucky, dropping more than a foot of rain. Streams turned into creeks, creeks into rivers, rivers into destructive torrents.

When all was said and done, the flood caused damage across more than a dozen rural Appalachian counties and killed 45 people.

According to the National Weather Service, more than 600 helicopter rescues were needed to evacuate people trapped by quickly rising floodwaters. The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky reported 1,722 homes were totally destroyed and 3,986 homes were partial losses.

Early estimates from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the July floods created nearly 2 million cubic yards of debris in the waterways alone. That’s enough to fill the Churchill Downs racetrack and infield 23-feet high, according to a KyCIR analysis.

Debris included vehicles, campers, doublewide trailers, uprooted trees and storage buildings, according to an early Corps assessment report.

Experts say this debris poses a threat unique to mountainous Eastern Kentucky. Whatever is left in the streams that scour the valleys will eventually clog the flow of water. Water with no place else to go will end up over the banks and flood nearby property.

Blockages were already starting to form, according to a Corps report from August.

“The affected streams are beginning to reroute themselves,” the report stated. “If more precipitation causes these streams to top their banks, these debris jams will result in even more county wide flooding.”

Justin Branham was one of the Corps staffers who wrote those estimate reports. He grew up in Letcher County, less than half a mile from the Youngs’ home. He said the same creek that flooded the Youngs’ property ruined his parents’ garage, destroying vehicles, tools and other valuables.

Most of eastern Kentucky was in danger of flooding again because of debris piles blocking waterways, according to Branham.

“You’re living in a valley that’s 100 yards wide, and you’ve got a house, a creek, a road and a railroad,” Branham said. “And you’re going to cause flooding to it if you don’t get that stuff out.”

All that debris needed to get cleaned up, and quickly. Procurement documents show that, within a week after the flood, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet signed a contract with Florida-based Ashbritt Inc. to lead the cleanup process. Since August 2022, the state has paid the company $157 million according to procurement records.

Ashbritt Founder and Chairman Randal Perkins and other executives did not respond to a detailed list of findings and requests for interviews.

While announcing the contract on Aug. 4, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said debris would be removed “at a rapid pace.” But more than eight months after the mission began, material still clogs streams and litters hollers across eastern Kentucky.

‘Too many coaches, not enough players’

From the beginning, the debris removal process hit snags. And it was dangerous.

In an email obtained through an open records request, Kentucky Division of Emergency Management officials said that when workers were scoping out debris on Aug. 19, a man came out of his house with a gun and flak jacket “demanding to know what they were doing.”

The encounter prompted one emergency manager consultant to express “great concern regarding the safety of the contractors,” according to the email addressed to Jeremy Slinker, director of the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management. Perry County Emergency Management Director Jerry Stacy warned crews that “there had to be some precautions taken.”

In a daily report compiled by several staffers, an Army Corps of Engineers advisor wrote that even trying to get an accurate assessment of the amount of debris was hindered by “too many coaches, not enough players.”

“The efficacy and efficiency of the mission is suffering from miscommunication and lack of coordination,” said another Corps report.

George Minges, chief of emergency operations for the Corps’ Louisville district, said the agency did an “adequate” job supporting the state and FEMA during the cleanup process.

“I think we had outstanding communication with those partners,” he said.

But local officials still didn’t have an accurate picture of where debris was located and which areas were hardest hit, according to the report. Scouting crews would show up at a site only to find no debris. Other crews would bounce from one county to another before finishing the job.

A Corps report from a few days later shows small cleanup contractors were zooming around the counties, picking up debris from roads and waterways with little to no coordination or supervision.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse local governments for debris removal when that debris threatens health, safety or property. To make sure cleanup is done by the book, FEMA requires governments to hire monitors who watch over cleanup crews.

In reports, the Corps expressed concerns over the supervision provided by Thompson Monitoring, the company hired by Kentucky to serve this role. Corps advisors found monitors resting in their cars or positioned where they couldn’t actually see the work.

When emailed for comment on the debris removal mission, Thompson Monitoring declined to be interviewed and instead forwarded the request to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

According to interviews with state officials and people involved in the cleanup process, the Transportation Cabinet decided to organize the project into two distinct sections: One mission focused on roads, another focused on clearing out the waterways.

The waterway mission would prove the most difficult part of the cleanup process, in part because creeks often run through private property. This created tension between cleanup workers and residents who were already going through a terrible ordeal.

People like Laverne Fields said they watched as crews cleaned up some debris, but left other material behind, seemingly without any explanation.

The flood left Fields’ house straddling a creek in Letcher County with bags of debris piled out front. She said debris contractors wouldn’t touch the bags of garbage. Instead they tore the house down before she could recover a safe containing vital documents she would need to get help from FEMA down the road.

“They ripped our bedroom off, that’s where [the] safe was at,” Fields said. Fields said she was never able to find the safe.

“I don’t know who they worked for,” Fields said. “They didn’t even ask me…They yelled at me over it.”

They didn’t have to ask.

Contractors and monitors interpret FEMA’s debris removal policies to determine what is debris and whether it needs to be removed, without input from property owners.

‘You picked the wrong house’

Don and Malissa Young said they spent the night of the flood watching the torrential downpour and worrying.

A neighbor’s house crashed into theirs. They jumped into the rushing water, which pulled them down the flooded street. Don, who can’t swim, said he survived by holding onto a neighbor’s porch. Malissa said she clung to a tree branch with their two small dogs tucked under her arm until the water receded enough for a rescue.

Their doublewide trailer was lifted off the foundation. Don Young said he knew it was waterlogged, but many of their belongings inside were still salvageable.

The Youngs took refuge with a relative in Virginia, just across the state border with Kentucky.

They returned every few days to check on their property when they could borrow a vehicle, since theirs were destroyed. The Youngs said that, over the next few weeks, they salvaged what they could in plastic bins until they could return with a larger vehicle and someone to help move heavy items.

The work was slow and emotionally grueling.

Then on Aug. 22, the Youngs said they got an alarming call from their neighbor: A cleanup crew was tearing down the house. If they wanted to save anything left behind, they needed to get there quickly.

They raced back to McRoberts to find their house half demolished, the scoop of an excavator poised above the rest as the workers took a break for dinner.

Don Young confronted the cleanup workers. He wanted to know who authorized the crew to take his home without so much as a warning. Young said a field supervisor from Thompson Monitoring Services introduced herself and told him to take his complaints up with Gov. Andy Beshear.

“She said the governor told them to tear down anything that they thought was in danger of causing a flood if it rained,” Don said. “I said, ‘Well, you picked the wrong house.’”

The Corps report about the incident said everyone on the site that day had concerns “regarding the notification process for owners of trailers, homes, or storage buildings being removed.” It ended with a plea: “Better messaging is needed by state and local officials.”

Justin Branham was the Corps staffer who wrote that report and knows the Youngs personally. He said when things went wrong during the cleanup process, contractors would point the finger at him and the Corps. Since he was from the area, Branham became the face of the project to many of his neighbors. It didn’t sit well with him.

“You’re pitting people against people they don’t need to be pitted against, they should be working as a team,” Branham said. “And I should be able to go out into my community and say I’m doing the best I can to help these people.”

Later that week, Don Young called Beshear’s office, upset and wanting to talk “man to man,” according to an email from the governor’s office summarizing the call. Don said a constituent services representative said he couldn’t speak with the governor, but that they would pass his concerns along to the appropriate agency.

Emails show the governor’s staff reached out to the Transportation Cabinet and emergency management team for an explanation.

Jim Garrett, head of volunteer programs for Kentucky Emergency Management, wrote back that work crews needed to be given “better messaging on what they are doing.” Garrett said he was concerned about “any state employee starting a conversation with upset constituents with ‘Governor Beshear said…’”

John Moore, with the Transportation Cabinet, responded to the governor’s team, saying that at this point in the cleanup process, “there was a great sense of urgency to gather the debris expeditiously to avoid additional flooding.” Moore said he would reach out to the Youngs directly.

Moore called Don Young, who explained the situation as he saw it: The home was not in danger of falling into the creek and causing additional flooding, Don said, and he sent pictures showing the exact location of the house.

After the conversation ended, Moore emailed the Youngs instructions on how to file a negligence claim with the state Board of Claims. After the Youngs filed their claim in November, the Transportation Cabinet responded that the couple’s home was demolished by an unnamed third party. The Kentucky Board of Claims is yet to decide on the Youngs negligence claim, pending a hearing that has not yet been scheduled. The Youngs now have a lawyer and are exploring other avenues for legal action.

Cleanup crews were paid by the ton for debris removed.

Don Young alleged that fact explains why crews were in such a hurry to demolish his house.

“Somebody saw a dollar sign there and just tore it down, I think,” he said.

Just two days after crews demolished the Youngs’ home, the state bestowed anyone working on debris cleanup with the legal right to enter private property through a memorandum of understanding between the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet and the Transportation Cabinet. The environment cabinet has the authority to enter private property in emergencies that threaten public health. The cabinet extended that authority to crews clearing flood debris through this memorandum of understanding.

“The debris can not only impede stream flow but also may threaten the release of hazardous substances,” the memorandum of understanding explained.

To clean up debris, the Transportation Cabinet and its contractors were allowed to “enter into private property to, among other things, characterize and remove flood debris.”

Kentucky environmental attorney Randy Strobo said Kentucky law seems to justify that authority. But he said that power should be used carefully and communicated clearly.

“I think that needs to be limited. It’s not like you can do whatever you want,” Strobo said.

John Moore, with the Transportation Cabinet, said in an interview that cleanup crews were instructed to make attempts to contact property owners before starting the work.

“We advised them to work ahead to the greatest extent possible to knock on doors…but due to the urgency of the waterway, [we needed] to clear out the bridges and waterways to prevent additional flooding,” Moore said. “That was not always possible. The urgency of the mission was paramount.”

Even before the incident with the Youngs, Corps reports suggested that “law enforcement be available” if homeowners attempted to prevent the removal of structures.

Nearly a month later, the same work crew that demolished the Young’s home was confronted with threats and resistance when they tried to cut down live trees they considered to be a hazard to future flooding. This time they tried the law enforcement approach. A young, untrained police officer arrived on the scene to tase and arrest the homeowner.

The homeowners had no prior notice or information about what was happening and the mission debris workers were on. Like the Youngs, they’re also investigating legal remedies.

‘Those hanging on by a thread will be left with nothing’

Despite this broad authority to enter private property, many residents began to feel the cleanup crews were not being sufficiently thorough. Records show nearly 300 calls to a debris hotline managed by the Transportation Cabinet. Some residents called multiple times over the course of months.

A series of complaints from the Calhoun family in Knott County show four calls from October to January complaining about debris blocking the creek near their home. During a call on Jan. 3 Victor Calhoun reported that the creek was still blocked with trees, garbage and siding.

On Nov. 18, a Letcher County resident who lives near Rockhouse Creek told a hotline operator that FEMA “has cleaned the creek but it has been done incorrectly.” Two weeks later, he called again to report that FEMA’s work had changed the path of the creek and it was “eating out 4-5 feet sections at a time of his land.”

Communication between various work crews and government agencies removing debris from waterways deteriorated as the mission dragged on.

That’s largely because another federal agency had stepped into the complex mix: the National Resources Conservation Service, a subdivision from the United States Department of Agriculture.

FEMA and NRCS both allow crews to pick up stream-clogging debris, but they follow different timelines. FEMA’s work starts immediately while the NRCS is more focused on long-term stabilization. There’s some overlap in those tasks, and FEMA guidelines stipulate that the agency won’t pay for any work the NRCS takes on, even if the NRCS doesn’t have the funding needed at the time. Moore with the Transportation Cabinet said that created an “impasse” that held up progress.

“At the very early stage in order for FEMA to get moving, they had to draw a line in the sand,” Moore said.

“The amount of sediment still sitting in these choked channels is incredible and the mission mostly funded by FEMA to remove it is being squandered and ran amuck. There are people hanging on by a thin thread up here and if another decent rain hits, those hanging on by a thread will be left with nothing.”

– Justin Branham in an email to state officials in September

Many of the debris workers weren’t privy to that line in the sand. They were constantly told by monitors to leave behind massive piles of debris. Not only did it mean they were passing up a chance to make more money, they felt like they were leaving dangerous garbage in communities they were supposed to be helping.

“They were changing guidelines every single day,” said John Collins, a local business owner who worked as a subcontracted debris hauler under Ashbritt, the company hired by Kentucky to manage the debris project. “They wouldn’t let us get any sediment. They wouldn’t let us get anything out of the creek. All you could get was a few dead trees and some garbage.”

Others noticed the problem including Corps staffer Branham, who wrote a scathing email to state officials in late September. Branham was writing as a concerned citizen, and in interviews with KyCIR has been clear he does not speak on behalf of the Corps.

“The amount of sediment still sitting in these choked channels is incredible and the mission mostly funded by FEMA to remove it is being squandered and ran amuck,” Branham wrote. “There are people hanging on by a thin thread up here and if another decent rain hits, those hanging on by a thread will be left with nothing.”

Some work crews even went on a temporary strike in October, unhappy with how they were being directed to leave behind areas of waterways full of debris. Neither the strike nor Branham’s warnings resulted in meaningful changes.

Unlike FEMA, the NRCS needs to apply for funding on a project-by-project basis. This means much of the stream work left to do in eastern Kentucky will need to wait until the agency secures funding and lines up agreements with local governments.

NRCS engineers and public information officers will not release information about when and where their work in Eastern Kentucky will take place. However, KyCIR found data on an online map last updated in September 2022, showing nearly 450 locations in Eastern Kentucky marked as “Approved NRCS Sites.” NRCS employees confirmed this data was accurate at that time, but has now changed.

Also in October, Gov. Beshear made an appearance at the University of Kentucky’s Blue and White basketball game, a pre-season scrimmage in Pikeville. Beshear said in a pre-game interview that workers were making great progress towards removing debris from eastern Kentucky.

“We are close, which is amazing three months out, to take that chaos and ship it out of town, out of county and out of state,” Beshear said.

But records show there was still plenty of work left to do.

In late November, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wrote a memo to state officials estimating the scope of work left to do. In ?Letcher County, they expected another six to eight weeks.

But Ashbritt told crews to wrap up work by Dec. 22, just five weeks later.

Calvin Waddles, a district magistrate in Knott County, reached out to the Transportation Cabinet in early August to complain about a complete blockage of the Beaver Creek near the border with Floyd County, according to a daily report from the Corps. He asked that the blockage be given priority status because rain could cause “a second round of flooding in the area.”

Waddles said the Beaver Creek blockage was still not cleared as of March 6.

“They still need to come back, this needs to be cleaned up,” Waddles said in a phone call. “There’s debris, basically, from mountainside to mountainside.”

An analysis from Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting found that as of Dec. 22, only 59% of the debris initially estimated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to be on ground following the flood had been picked up.

State officials said those estimates included categories of debris that FEMA wouldn’t pay to clean up, and as such were not the focus of the initial cleanup project.

When presented with KyCIR’s findings multiple times, a legislative representative for FEMA said “state and locals are responsible for debris removal” and that they are “supposed to have contracts in place” before a disaster. Kentucky did not. The representative was unsure if it would affect FEMA’s reimbursement. Despite promising more information, they never contacted us again.

Regardless of who pays, debris left behind is more than an eyesore. It can make future flooding worse.

‘Band-Aids on bullet wounds’

Nearly seven months after what survivors have labeled the “big July flood” Tonya Boggs walked up to the podium at a monthly meeting of county officials. She was visibly frustrated. Her mother, Teresa Burke, stood beside her for support.

“It’s hard when you’re trying to rebuild what was destroyed, and then here this happens, and the water came right back in my house,” Boggs told county officials, politely trying to contain her anger.

The weekend before, a heavy rainstorm prompted the governor to declare another state of emergency for 22 counties due to flooding and landslides. Nearly a dozen of those counties were still trying to recover from July’s floods.

Boggs and Burke told officials that, even before the rain, debris clogged brand new culverts that were installed by cleanup crews. Then during the February storm, an embankment upstream gave way and washed down the creek, further clogging the culverts until they dislodged. That led to another flood in the house she’s frantically been trying to restore since July.

“Those culverts are halfway…and some of them are more than halfway full of just pure mud and sand and dirt and rocks,” Boggs said.

Many county officials were upset, too. Letcher County Judge Executive Terry Adams said he knows the culverts are “inadequate.” But he said that’s the only thing FEMA or the state will pay for. He said the temporary work often isn’t appropriate for the stream.

”The state and FEMA would not do that,” Adams said. “They wouldn’t put a bridge back in [where one had been before].”

Some of the local contractors who worked on the waterways were at the meeting too. They said they predicted this would happen long before Boggs’ house flooded again. Their warnings went unheeded, however, and they were constantly told to leave debris behind without much of an explanation.

“Every time we get a lot of rain this is what’s going to happen,” local debris contractor Wade Adams said. “It’s not our fault. I know everyone is mad at the contractors, but we can only do what we were told to. You can’t just clean out a part of the creek. ”

Most in eastern Kentucky say this is a familiar story. Government officials make TV appearances, but don’t listen to locals. They make promises they can’t deliver.

Candice Fields, disaster coordinator for the Kentucky River Area Development District, said the help that does come is akin to a “band aid on a bullet wound.”

“Andy Beshear gets on [the TV] and says, ‘Oh, things have changed,’” said Angela Collins, a Letcher County resident who is married to contractor John Collins. “Well, get your high horse down here and see how much it changed. Because they left garbage! Do we deserve garbage all over our land? No, we don’t. We’re not a bunch of you know, nutsy hillbillies. We’re human beings just like everybody else.”

To make things more dire, Collins said everyone knows spring is the wettest season in eastern Kentucky. Now, everyone is bracing for the worst.

In this aerial view of Dawson Springs on Dec. 13, 2021, homes are heavily damaged from a tornado three days prior. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — Kentucky officials are opening up applications this summer for almost $124 million in federal funding to help rebuild housing and infrastructure primarily in tornado-impacted Western Kentucky, which Gov. Andy Beshear said could help rebuild around 600 homes.?

The federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will go to rebuilding homes, rehabilitating and rebuilding rental properties and reinforcing electric and water infrastructure for potential future disasters. The funding is also directed to help some Eastern Kentucky communities that were hit hard by flooding in 2021, separate from flooding that devastated the region in the summer of 2022.

Beshear at a Wednesday news conference encouraged those impacted by tornadoes or flooding in 2021 and still in need of stable housing to reach out to local nonprofits or housing authorities about the new funding.?

“We’re taking a big step forward in helping our neighbors who are impacted by the tornadoes of 2021 and the floods of 2021. Many lost their homes, some lost everything that they own,” Beshear said. “We’re going to spread the wealth to those who need it the most.”

Eighty percent of this funding will be directed to Graves, Hopkins, Warren and Breathitt counties, while the remaining monies will go to 36 other counties.?

The Kentucky Department of Local Government (DLG) plans to open applications for local governments, nonprofits, private companies and other groups to apply for housing funding on May 1. Applications to reinforce and repair infrastructure will open on June 1.?

Beshear said he expects a separate tranche of HUD funding to be made available to the state to address the homes and infrastructure lost in the 2022 summer floods in Eastern Kentucky, something that Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell has said will be near $300 million.?

Community leaders on the front lines of tornado recovery in Western Kentucky were enthusiastic about the federal funding but also made clear it would likely not solve the entirety of an ongoing affordable housing shortage.?

Mayfield-Graves County Long-Term Recovery Group Executive Director Ryan Drane said there was a “housing shortage crisis” on both ends of the state before tornadoes impacted Western Kentucky in 2021 and floods impacted Eastern Kentucky.

“We feel like this is going to be a great opportunity for many of the communities to, you know, on the road for recovery,” Drane said. “Is it going to make the entire region whole? I would say not. But we weren’t ‘whole’ before the disaster hit.”?

The DLG consulted last year with local housing authorities, federal officials and more to create an analysis of what unmet needs remained for housing and infrastructure in Western Kentucky following the tornadoes. That initial analysis found, even with the funding, there was more than $110 million in unmet needs to address housing.

“The discrepancies between the need and the funding are the result of the increased need for affordable housing,” the initial state plan stated.?

HUD announced tens of millions of dollars in additional recovery funds for Kentucky in January to reach the total of nearly $124 million the state is receiving, but even then the DLG’s latest plan states the “calculated unmet housing need will still not be met.”?

Adrienne Bush, the executive director of the housing advocacy group Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky, said once the flow of federal funding into Kentucky ends, state lawmakers need to reassess what else needs to be done to address housing needs.?

“We’re going to spend a lot of time this interim talking about the remaining unmet housing needs in the context of the 2024 budget and what the state will need to put up in order to finish the job,” Bush said.?

Bush credited the GOP-controlled state legislature for passing a law this year to establish a rural housing trust fund supplemented with $20 million already set aside for disaster recovery by the state. A coalition of nonprofits this year had unsuccessfully asked the legislature for $300 million over two years for affordable housing construction.?

Kentucky suffered a shortage of almost 79,000 affordable housing units before tornadoes and floods destroyed and damaged thousands of homes, according to an analysis of data from the American Community Survey for 2016 to 2020.?

Local leaders from Western Kentucky who joined Beshear on Wednesday remained optimistic the funding would move their communities forward, including in the small city of Dawson Springs, hometown to the governor’s father, former Gov. Steve Beshear.?

“We’re seeing that rebuilding all in Dawson Springs, but there’s so many that can’t get there from where they are right now,” said Hopkins County Judge-Executive Jack Whitfield. “This funding is going to take care and help those so much who may not be able to otherwise afford a new house.”

A sinkhole developed in a Crittenden County dam last year. County officials decided to breach the dam with an excavator to prevent its possible failure. (Photo by Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet)

FRANKFORT — Kentucky dam safety officials faced a potentially dire situation last year: A sinkhole was rapidly growing in the slope of a dam in Crittenden County. A failure could have sent 180 million gallons of water cascading toward private developments and the local hospital.?

And there was no emergency plan. That’s because until last week Kentucky was one of a handful of states that does not require emergency plans for hazardous dams.

That’s changing under a law enacted by the legislature and signed Friday by Gov. Andy Beshear that will require some hazardous dams, including the one in Crittenden County, to have emergency action plans on file.

Senate Bill 277, sponsored by Sen. Johnnie Turner, R-Harlan, saw unanimous final passage by the state House of Representatives on the last day of this year’s legislative session.?

The legislation would require owners of dams with a hazard classification from the state as “significant,” “moderate” or “high” to have emergency action plans in case a dam should fail, potentially endangering lives and property downstream.

Emergency action plans are documents maintained by dam owners that identify potential ways a dam could fail, identify the responsibilities for monitoring a dam and mandate a procedure for what to do in an emergency situation. In particular, according to the State Association of Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO), these plans include water inundation maps were a dam to fail and a flow chart of who to call in what priority in an emergency situation.?

The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting found, as of 2019, that dozens of “high” hazard dams in poor or worse condition had no emergency action plans on file. Before the legislature enacted SB 277, Kentucky was one of seven states that didn’t require emergency action plans for “high” hazard dams as of 2021, according to ASDSO.?

Similar legislation had been filed in past years without gaining traction. A dam safety bill last year was amended to add? unrelated language that would have gotten rid of a Kentucky permitting program for animal waste operations not overseen by the federal government. That bill did not pass.?

Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, said at a Senate committee hearing that last year’s version of the bill “got tied up with some stuff there at the end.”?

Commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection Tony Hatton also spoke during the? hearing last month and recounted the crisis in Crittenden County.

“We saw last year, for instance, down in the city of Marion — through no fault of their own, they have a dam that impounds water that’s their drinking water supply, which makes it even doubly important, and they began to develop a fairly slow leak in the dam,” Hatton said.?

“When there was a decision made that we needed to take a look at this, there was a period of time there, where there were so many voices speaking, we didn’t really have a plan and know which way to go.”

Local elected and emergency management officials in Crittenden County at that time clashed with state dam safety officials over how to address the growing sinkhole in the dam, and the city of Marion — which owned and maintained the dam — did not have an emergency plan on file to give specific directions on how to address the situation.?

At the legislative hearing, Hatton said it was important to at least have a plan in case of an emergency. He said the state had already done much of the “heavy lifting” regarding the work needed for these plans and is ready to provide dam owners with prepared inundation maps and extra assistance developing such plans.?

Crittenden County emergency management officials ultimately decided to breach the dam with an excavator to prevent a potential failure, allowing for the water to drain out of the reservoir that was Marion’s primary water source. Since that breach, the small city has dealt with a water shortage and now faces expensive options to refortify its water infrastructure.?

Hatton said the situation in Crittenden County “worked out okay in the end.”?

“But having had a plan in place, I think, we would’ve responded more timely and effectively,” he said.

Terry Thies adjusts the post of the bed that belonged to her mother. It’s the same bed she woke up in to find that her home had flooded overnight last July. (Photo by Xandr Brown.)

This story is a collaboration between The Daily Yonder and Grist. For more, watch the Daily Yonder’s video “How Broadband and Weather Forecasting Failed East Kentucky.”?

Terry Thies wasn’t worried about the rain that pounded on her roof last July.?

She had received no flood warnings before going to sleep that night. Besides, her part of rural Perry County in Eastern Kentucky often gets heavy rain.

So early the next morning when her foot hit the water lapping the bottom of her wooden bed frame, Thies’ first thought was that the toilet had overflowed. But as she scanned her bedroom for the water’s source, she realized this was something else entirely.?

“I came into the kitchen and opened the door and water was flowing down the lane,” Thies said. “Water was in my yard and rushing down. And I was like, well, I guess I’ve been flooded.”?

In the days leading up to the storm, the National Weather Service predicted heavy rain and a moderate risk of flooding across a wide swath of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. What happened instead was a record-breaking four-day flood event in eastern Kentucky that killed a confirmed 43 people and destroyed thousands of homes.?

And though the National Weather Service issued repeated alerts, many people received no warning.

“Not a soul, not one emergency outlet texted me or alerted me via phone,” Thies said.?

“Nobody woke me up.”?

Thies’ experience in the July floods reveals troubling truths about Kentucky’s severe weather emergency alert systems. Imprecise weather forecasting and spotty emergency alerts due to limited cellular and internet access in rural Kentucky meant that Thies and many others were wholly unprepared for the historic flood.?

Efforts to improve these systems are underway, but state officials say expansions to broadband infrastructure will take at least four years to be completed in Kentucky’s most rural counties. In a state where flooding is common, these improvements could be the difference between life and death for rural Kentuckians.?

But there’s no guarantee they’ll come before the next climate change-fueled disaster.??

An urban bias in forecasting

The first system that failed eastern Kentuckians in July was the weather forecasting system, which did not accurately predict the severity of the storm. A built-in urban bias in weather forecasting is partially to blame.?

“Did we forecast (the storm) being that extreme? No, we didn’t,” said Pete Gogerian, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service station in Jackson, Kentucky, which serves the 13 eastern Kentucky counties affected by the July floods.?

For the days preceding the storm, the Jackson station warned of a ‘moderate risk’ of flooding across much of their service area. Observers with the benefit of hindsight might argue that a designation of ‘high risk’ would have been more appropriate. But Jane Marie Wix, a meteorologist at the Jackson station, wrote in an email to the Daily Yonder that the high-risk label is rarely issued, and simply didn’t match what the model was predicting for the July storms.?

“When we have an event of this magnitude, we’ll go back and look at, are there any indicators? Did we miss something? Was there really any model predicting this kind of event?” Gogerian said. “But when you looked at (the flooding in) eastern Kentucky, it just wasn’t there.”

“I don’t think anyone could have predicted just how bad it was going to end up being,” Wix wrote.??

Wix says the moderate risk warning was enough to warn people that the storm could have severe impacts in many locations. But the model’s inaccuracy demonstrates a flaw in the National Weather Service forecasting model system that was used at the time of the flood.?

Extreme weather is hard to predict in any setting, but rural regions like eastern Kentucky are at an additional disadvantage due to an urban bias baked into national weather forecasting systems, according to Vijay Tallapragada, the senior scientist at the National Weather Service’s Environmental Modeling Center.?

Forecasting models depend on observational data — information about past and present weather conditions —to predict what will come next. But there’s more data available for urban areas than for rural areas, according to Tallapragada.?

“Urban areas are observed more than rural areas … and that can have some, I would say, unintended influence on how the models perceive a situation,” he said.

Although spaceborn satellites and remote sensing systems provide a steady supply of rural data, other methods of observation, like aircraft and weather balloons, are usually concentrated in more densely populated areas.

“Historically, many weather observations were developed around aviation, so a lot of weather radars are located at major airports in highly populated cities,” said Jerry Brotzge, Kentucky state climatologist and director of the Kentucky Climate Center. “That leaves a lot of rural areas with less data.”?

Weather prediction models are based on past events, so the lack of historical weather data in rural areas poses a serious challenge for future predictions, according to Brotzge. “For large areas of Appalachia, we just don’t know the climatology there as well as, say, Louisville or some of the major cities,” he said.

This lack of current and historical weather observation can leave rural areas vulnerable to poor weather forecasting, which can have catastrophic results in the case of extreme weather events.?

Rural forecasting solutions?

A new forecasting model, however, could close the gap in rural severe weather prediction.?

The new Unified Forecast System is being developed by the National Weather Service and a group of academic and community partners. The modeling system is set to launch in 2024, but the results so far are promising, according to Tallapragada.

“In the next couple years, we will see a revolutionary change in how we are going to predict short-range weather and the extremes associated with it,” he said.

The problem with the current system, said Tallapragada, is that it depends on one model to do all the work.

A new application called the Rapid Refresh Forecast System is set to replace that single model with an ensemble of 10 models. Using multiple models allows meteorologists to introduce more statistical uncertainty into their calculations, which produces a broader, and more accurate, range of results, according to Tallapragada. He said that although the new system is not yet finished, it has already proven to be on par with, or better than, the current model.?

The Rapid Refresh Forecasting System will mitigate the disparity between urban and rural forecasting because it depends more on statistical probabilities and less on current and historical observational data, which is where the biggest gap in rural data currently lies, according to Tallapragada.

The system could also mean improved accuracy when it comes to predicting severe weather, like Kentucky’s July flood event.

“The range of solutions provided by the new system will capture the extremes much better, independent of whether you are observing better or poorly,” Tallapragada said. “That’s the future of all weather prediction.”

As extreme weather events become more common due to climate change, this advancement in weather forecasting has the potential to transform local and regional responses to severe weather. But without massive investments in broadband, life-saving severe weather alerts could remain out of reach for rural communities.

The crucial role of broadband

Over a year before the July 2022 floods devastated eastern Kentucky, some counties in the same region were hit by floods that, while not as deadly, still upended lives.

“There were no warnings for that flood,” said Tiffany Clair, an Owsley County resident, in a Daily Yonder interview. “It was fast.”

Clair received no warning when extreme rains hit her home in March of 2021, which severely damaged nearby towns like Booneville and Beattyville. “I did not think that those (towns) would recover,” Clair said.

Businesses and homes were impaired for months after the flood, affecting not only the people in those communities but those from neighboring communities as well.

“We live in a region where we travel from township to township for different things, and (the March 2021 floods) were a blow to the region and to the communities, because we’re kind of interlocked around here,” Clair said. “It’s part of being an eastern Kentuckian.”

A little over a year later, Clair faced more flooding, this time enough to displace her and her children. They now live with Clair’s mother.

This time around, Clair did receive an emergency warning, but questioned the method through which these warnings were sent. “(The warnings) did go all night, the last time, in July,” Clair said. “But if you don’t have a signal or if your phone’s dead, how are you getting those?”

During severe weather events, people are alerted of risk through a handful of ways. Weather information reported from regional National Weather Service offices is disseminated through local TV and radio stations, specialized weather radios, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s wireless emergency alert

But in rural eastern Kentucky in July, the most common way people learned about the flooding was by seeing the water rise firsthand, according to a report from the Kentucky Department of Public Health.?

The agency surveyed people from over 400 households in Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Knott, Letcher, Owsley and Perry counties, as well as displaced residents living in three shelter sites. The goal of the study was to understand how the floods affected Kentuckians and determine ways to better prepare for the next emergency.?

Nearly 14 percent of households in Letcher, Knott, Owsley and Perry counties and 28 percent of households in Breathitt, Clay, Floyd and Pike counties reported difficulty accessing internet, television, radio, and cell service for emergency communications during the floods. Cell phone service and internet access were the top two communication methods residents reported the most difficulty accessing.??

The floods killed a confirmed 43 people: 19 from Knott County, 10 from Breathitt, seven from Perry, four from Letcher, two from Clay, and one from Pike County. Several more people died after the floods due to related health complications.?

In Knott and Breathitt County, where death counts were the highest, approximately 32 percent of residents do not have broadband access, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. And in 10 of the 13 counties flooded in July, more than a quarter of residents lack broadband access.?

Rural areas across the country are underserved when it comes to broadband, but eastern Kentucky is a special trouble spot, where high costs to serve rural customers have stopped internet companies from setting up broadband in rural areas. In 2017, Kentucky ranked 47th in the nation for broadband access, according to the Kentucky Communications Network Authority.?

“There’s a lot of frustration because a lot of these internet service providers are profit-based companies,” said Meghan Sandfoss, executive director of the state’s newly created Office of Broadband Development. “So it’s hard for them sometimes to make a business case for the more remote and low density locations.”

The state’s effort to expand broadband has sputtered for years due to missteps by government officials, according to Propublica reporting. An internet connectivity project, KentuckyWired, was launched in 2013 with the goal to construct 3,000 miles of high-speed fiber optic cable in every Kentucky county by 2018. The project didn’t reach its final steps until fall of 2022, according to a KentuckyWired construction map.

Getting the cable laid down is only one part of the process: for individual households and businesses to actually access the internet, third-party providers need to connect their own fiber systems to the network, according to the Kentucky Communications Network Authority. This “last-mile” infrastructure is critical to broadband expansion, but progress has been slow.?

“That might be another 10 years or 20 years while all that last-mile stuff gets built,” said Doug Dawson, a telecommunications consultant, in a ProPublica interview from 2020.?

To speed up this process, both the state and federal governments have recently directed funds toward improved internet connectivity and last-mile infrastructure.?

In June of 2022, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced a $203 million investment in last-mile infrastructure funded through the American Rescue Plan Act. Another $20 million of grants was opened in September for broadband providers to replace utility poles that provide connectivity in underserved areas. And early this year, another $182 million in federal funding was awarded to fund Kentucky’s “Better Internet” grant program.?

This grant program is focused on making it more commercially feasible for private internet providers to reach rural areas, said Sandfoss from the Office of Broadband Development. The priority is to build broadband infrastructure in unserved locations where there is no internet, versus under-served locations with limited internet access.

“A frustration we hear frequently is that all these new locations are being connected and everybody else has to wait,” Sandfoss said. “But that’s just the federal funding priority, and that’s the way we’ve got to do it.”?

Construction on the state’s broadband infrastructure expansions is expected to occur over the next four years.

As extreme weather continues to batter rural Kentucky — floods in February killed one person in rural Marion County – some locals aren’t waiting for governmental changes to better protect themselves in the face of disaster.?

Terry Thies, whose childhood home was flooded in July, has decided to sell her house.

“Now that it has flooded, it will probably flood again,” Thies said. She plans to move up the mountain, away from the creek that damaged her home. “I just don’t want to go through it again.”

But for Kentuckians who don’t have the financial means to move away from higher-risk flood areas, they may be stuck in place. Eastern Kentucky is in the middle of a major housing crisis: affordable housing is sparse, buildable land outside flood zones is limited, and construction costs for new homes can be prohibitively expensive.?

“(The flood) was horrible, but we were very, very lucky,” said Tiffany Clair, whose home was destroyed in the July flood. Clair and her children were able to move in with her mother when they lost housing. “But the next time I don’t think we’ll be that lucky.”

Clair believes that rural Kentucky’s ability to withstand the next natural disaster hinges on the actions taken by local and state leaders.?

“We can’t do anything to prepare for it. It is going to take our leaders, it is going to take our politicians,” she said.?

“They’re the ones that have to prepare for it because we can’t.”

Additional reporting by Caroline Carlson and Xandr Brown.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/equity/kentucky-flood-extreme-weather-forecast-alert-broadband-internet/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

Natural disasters on both ends of Kentucky have increased the demand for affordable housing and rents. Delilah Jenkins, 6, runs home after getting off the bus last month at Camp Graves in Graves County where she lives with her family in transitional housing after being displaced by the December 2021 tornado. (Julia Rendleman for Kentucky Lantern)

FRANKFORT — Although it was much less than they had hoped, affordable-housing advocates in Kentucky are applauding the legislature’s decision to put $20 million into a new Rural Housing Trust Fund.

The money is not a new appropriation but comes from more than $400 million the legislature had set aside last year for disaster relief and recovery on both ends of Kentucky.?

??Final approval for the $20 million came Thursday night as lawmakers accepted legislation hammered out in conference committees.

On Friday, Adrienne Bush,?executive director of the Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky, issued a statement thanking lawmakers and their leaders.?

The initial $20 million in seed money “will empower communities to scale up their housing response and finally allow Kentuckians to begin to rebuild their lives,” Bush said, while also allowing “communities to respond to current disaster housing needs, as well as respond to future needs in underserved communities.”

??Jim King, CEO of Fahe, a Berea-based nonprofit that works with other nonprofits to finance affordable housing, thanked Senate President Robert Stivers and the General Assembly for?“providing this initial funding to address the critical need for housing in the communities of East and West Kentucky still reeling from recent natural disasters.?

“We hope to continue working with state leadership to secure long-term investments in safe, stable housing that working families can afford,” King said.

Housing advocates said the state money will help bridge a gap while Eastern Kentucky waits for more federal disaster money to flow to the region. ?Ten Eastern Kentucky counties will share in $300 million in disaster funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Sen. Mitch McConnell announced this week.

Catastrophic housing situation

Even before tornadoes and floods wiped out thousands of homes, Kentucky suffered a shortage of almost 79,000 affordable housing units, according to an analysis of data from the American Community Survey for 2016-2020.?

After flash flooding last summer destroyed and damaged thousands of homes in Eastern Kentucky, some public officials said new housing construction had become critical to the region’s economic survival.?

“Perry County was in a housing crisis prior to the July 2022 flood disaster. Now we are in a catastrophic housing situation,”?Perry County Judge-Executive Scott Alexander said in January.?

A coalition of nonprofits ?asked the legislature to put $150 million this year and another $150 million next year into?an Affordable Housing Emergency Action Recovery Trust Fund, dubbed AHEART, and to commit to increasing state support for affordable housing construction in future state budgets.

On Feb. 21, advocates rallying at the Capitol renewed their call for the legislature to tap the state’s record surplus, sometimes called the “rainy day fund,” to help finance housing. “Lord knows we’ve had some rainy days here in Kentucky,” Scott McReynolds,? executive director of the Housing Development Alliance in Perry County, told the February rally. The state’s rainy day fund has been projected to reach $3 billion by mid-2023.

Citing flood victims “buying storage sheds to live in because that’s all they can afford with their FEMA” assistance, McReynolds also said “you can’t start planning until you know your budget.”

Stivers told reporters that day that discussions were underway that could lead to housing legislation during this session.

The $20 million being set aside for housing comes from money the legislature last year put into State Aid Funding for Emergencies or SAFE: $200 million to recover from tornadoes in the west and $213 million after floods in the mountains. The newly-approved legislation taps the funds for $10 million each to be spent in the respective regions.

The housing provisions — added to House Bills 448 and 360 and finalized behind closed doors in free conference committees — create an 11-member Rural Housing Trust Fund Advisory Committee with the state agriculture commissioner as its presiding officer.?

The Rural Housing Trust? Fund would ?be housed in the Kentucky Housing Corporation and could receive state and federal money, grants and gifts. The fund can be used?to makes loans or grants for acquisition, construction or rehabilitation of rural housing units in areas impacted by the tornadoes and floods.

The Senate added a provision replacing the lieutenant governor with the commissioner of agriculture on the Kentucky Housing Corp.’s board of directions.?

Gov. Andy Beshear is expected to sign the legislation.

McConnell says $300 million coming from feds

Ten Eastern Kentucky counties also are in line for $300 million in federal assistance through a HUD disaster-assistance program, McConnell announced this week.

The Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program provides flexible funds for long-term recovery in communities affected by natural disasters, according to McConnell’s office. ?The money can be used for a variety of purposes, including helping local governments cover their cost share of federal disaster recovery programs from other agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Highway Administration. Communities can also use these funds to address their unique housing needs and promote economic development.

The state will oversee the HUD funding to Breathitt, Casey, Clay, Cumberland, Floyd, Harlan, Johnson, Knott, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Lincoln, Magoffin, Martin, Owsley, Perry, Pike, Powell, Whitley and Wolfe counties.

The federal government funding bill that Congress approved in December provides an additional $3 billion in CDBG-DR funding for the country’s hardest-hit communities, according to the news release from McConnell’s office.

“Senator McConnell was the only current member of the Kentucky delegation to support this legislation, which made today’s funding possible. In addition, as a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senator worked to secure funding for multiple federal programs that would support Eastern Kentucky’s recovery efforts, including the CDBG-DR program,” according to McConnell’s office.

An analysis??by the Ohio River Valley Institute and Appalachian Citizens Law Center estimates the cost to rebuild and repair housing lost to last summer’s flood will be $450 million to $950 million, depending on how many homes are relocated to less flood-prone areas. The lower figure is for rebuilding in areas that flooded rather than acquiring new sites at higher elevations. The report says that the higher-cost option could prove more economical in the long-run by?averting future damage and also likely saving lives during future floods.?So far state and philanthropic sources have provided $159 million for rebuilding and repairing housing, according to the report.

Downtown Mayfield on Nov. 18, 2022. Damage from the December 2021 tornado still dominates the view. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Julia Rendleman)

FRANKFORT — A House committee on Tuesday approved a Republican-backed bill that would?charge the state officials overseeing millions in disaster donations with setting out regulations for how the donated funding can be applied for and used.

House Bill 257, sponsored by Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, would take the millions of dollars donated to the state’s two disaster relief funds — the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund and the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund — and put the money into a separate trust account.?

Petrie, speaking before the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee which he chairs, said the bill language is an attempt to have the donated monies go “to the purposes for which those funds were solicited.”?

“This would create a type of trust fund in which those type of solicited funds would go into, brings them on budget, so the General Assembly can appropriate,” Petrie said. “We’re going to appropriate those funds back out for the purposes that they were supposed to be used for in the first place.”

Any future donations raised by a governor, other state constitutional officers, legislators or members of the judicial branch would also go into this trust fund and be appropriated for the use that the donations were solicited for.?

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration and the Public Protection Cabinet have been under fire by Republicans for relief checks sent out of the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund that erroneously went to people not affected by the December 2021 tornado outbreak.?

In responding to previous criticism, Beshear has said the two disaster relief funds were “an open book” and available for examination through open records requests.?

The Public Protection Cabinet has already pledged the entirety of the $52 million raised in the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund for various purposes including paying for the funerals of disaster victims, rebuilding housing and meeting unmet needs of survivors.?

As of Feb. 16, more than $24 million of the about $52 million in the Western Kentucky relief fund remained unspent but pledged for individual unmet needs and housing. As of Feb. 20, more than $8 million of the about $13 million raised in the Eastern Kentucky relief fund remained unspent, pledged for housing and additional relief payments.

Spokespersons for Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Office and the Public Protection Cabinet said Petrie’s bill wasn’t necessary but that they didn’t oppose it.?

Rep. Myron Dossett, R-Pembroke, mentioned the criticized relief checks specifically when voting to advance Petrie’s bill. Living in one of the tornado-impacted counties, Dossett said he’s had people reach out to him who erroneously received relief checks.?

“I have seen firsthand the use of the Team Western Kentucky funds, there within Christian County and also there within my home,” Dossett said. “I think it’s very important that we are able to have some transparency.”

Another Republican lawmaker from Christian County is also sponsoring a bill that would require the Public Protection Cabinet to present a report of how donated funds have been spent and the decision-makers behind how the funds were spent. That bill passed the state Senate last week.?

Petrie’s bill, House Bill 257, would also require the Public Protection Cabinet to produce monthly reports to House and Senate committees on who is making donations to the established trust fund and how the donations are being spent.?

This article was updated with statements from the Public Protection Cabinet and Governor Andy Beshear’s Office.?

Correction: This article previously stated the GOP-controlled Kentucky legislature would have control over future disaster donations. According to Senate Bill 257, future donations would be accounted for based on the purpose the donations were solicited for.?

On Nov. 18, 2022, Stacey Feezor plays with her niece Delilah Jenkins, 6, in Graves County outside her camper at Camp Graves, which provided transitional housing to those who lost homes in the December 2021 tornado. (Julia Rendleman for Kentucky Lantern)

FRANKFORT — The Senate passed a piece of legislation from a Western Kentucky lawmaker that seeks answers to how donated disaster relief funds have been spent so far.?

A committee substitute version of Senate Bill 99 passed 33-2 Wednesday. Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, said on the floor that he filed the bill after a Hopkinsville resident reached out to him saying he erroneously received a $1,000 relief check.?

Westerfield previously told the Kentucky Lantern that the bill would apply to both the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund and Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund.

On the floor, the senator said he didn’t fault Gov. Andy Beshear and his administration for creating the funds but questioned their constitutionality as they are not within the legislative branch’s oversight, which includes state dollars.?

“There’s not a member up here from the far right to the far left to the middle that’s going to oppose fundraising for people that are hurt in natural disaster areas, but what happens when the cause is something that only half of us like?”?

The bill calls on the Public Protection Cabinet to provide a report to the Legislative Research Commission by the end of the fiscal year, which is the end of June, over the specifics of how donated disaster relief funds have been spent so far, who’s made the decisions over the funds and what mechanisms are in place to prevent fraud, among other questions.?

The report the proposed legislation would require would also extend to analyzing other disbursements from the tornado relief fund, such as about $12 million given for individual unmet needs and life essentials.?

The nays were from Democratic Senators Gerald Neal of Louisville and Reginald Thomas of Lexington.?

After the passage, the Republican Party of Kentucky issued a statement:

“It appears bipartisanship is alive in Frankfort, at least when it comes to investigating the blunders of the Beshear Administration,” RPK spokesman Sean Southard said. “Private individuals and corporations stepped up to assist Western Kentucky recover from those tornadoes, which brought tragedy and devastation to our state, and the governor and his team sent an untold amount of money to people unaffected by the tornadoes. As of today, we still don’t know how much money went to the wrong people. We applaud the Senate for holding Andy accountable and seeking more transparency into how he’s used his slush fund.”

Record floods struck parts of Kentucky in July 2022. Bays Street in Jackson, the Breathitt County seat, was one of many places under water. (Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — As advocates rallied at the Capitol to support affordable housing, especially for Kentuckians displaced by flooding, Senate President Robert Stivers said discussions are underway that could lead to housing legislation during this session.?

Stivers, R-Manchester, filed what?he called a “shell bill” that can be used as a vehicle for funding construction where housing has been lost to disasters.?Tuesday was the final day for filing new bills in the Senate. The House’s deadline for filing new bills is Wednesday.

Stivers’ filed Senate Bill 196,?identified as relating to the Kentucky affordable housing trust fund, but offering no other details.

“With a lot of questions out there, and we’ve been having meetings on this, we didn’t want there to be a situation that we couldn’t have a vehicle to work with,” Stivers said.?

Housing advocates welcomed Stivers’ remarks.

“We are grateful for Senate President Stivers’ attention to the commonwealth’s housing needs post disaster. We look forward to continuing conversations as this legislative response to the tornadoes and floods unfolds,” said Adrienne Bush, executive director of the Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky.

Tom Manning-Beavin, president and CEO of Frontier Housing, said, “That’s encouraging that there’s a willingness to put a placeholder out there and to hammer out the details of something that can get passed.” Frontier Housing?builds affordable housing in 16 Kentucky counties,

Within the past two years, Kentuckians in the western part of the state have faced devastating tornadoes and in the east, severe flooding. Some steps have been taken to rebuild these communities, but non-profit organizations working in the regions say more resources are needed.?

On Tuesday, Eastern Kentucky residents gathered with representatives of housing nonprofits and advocacy groups on the Capitol grounds to highlight the need to sustainably rebuild communities.

Federal assistance won’t come close to need, analysis shows

Based on data from FEMA, 8,950 homes were damaged in the 2022 flood, including 542 homes that were destroyed and more than 4,500 homes that sustained major damage, according to a new analysis released Tuesday by the Ohio River Valley Institute and Appalachian Citizens Law Center

One of the report’s authors, Eric Dixon of ORVI, said that six in 10 households with flood damage have incomes of less than $30,000 a year.

Few had flood insurance, and households with lower incomes received less FEMA aid than households with higher incomes, according to the analysis.?

The cost to rebuild and repair housing lost to last summer’s flood will be $450 million to $950 million, depending on how many homes are relocated to less flood-prone areas, according to the report. The lower figure is for rebuilding in areas that flooded rather than acquiring new sites at higher elevations.?

So far state and philanthropic sources have provided $159 million for rebuilding and repairing housing lost to the floods. That amount covers just 17% to 35% of estimated need.

While Kentucky is in line for additional federal funding over the next few years, experience suggests it won’t come close to meeting need, say the two nonprofits. ?The largest federal funding bucket would likely be Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Funds (CDBG-DR), but the amount available to Kentucky will not be announced for several more months.?

“After the 2021 tornado and flooding disaster, Kentucky calculated unmet needs for housing, infrastructure, economic revitalization, and public services to be over $202.3 million. Unmet housing needs alone were greater than $110 million.However, the total CDBG-DR award was $74.9 million, with only $39.9 million allocated for housing. Based on this example, it is probable that there will still be unmet housing needs even after the CDBG-DR funds are allocated and exhausted.”?

“Lord knows we’ve had some rainy days”

Advocates called on the legislature to tap the state’s record surplus, sometimes called the “rainy day fund,”? to help finance housing? construction. “Lord knows we’ve had some rainy days here in Kentucky,” said Scott McReynolds,? executive director of the Housing Development Alliance in Perry County.?

“There are people buying storage sheds to live in because that’s all they can afford with their FEMA” assistance, McReynolds said. He added the legislature could help nonprofit housing builders by committing dollars to a trust fund because “you can’t start planning until you know your budget.”

Stivers, speaking to reporters, talked about the need for planning, including moving people out of flood-prone areas and how to provide infrastructure, such as water, sewer, electricity and roads. The 2022 flood covered places that had never flooded.

Stivers didn’t rule out the possibility of the shell bill becoming an appropriations bill. As a shell bill, SB 196 could be amended as discussions continue.??In the past, he’s commented on expanding the uses of state dollars already allocated to recovery in Western and Eastern Kentucky. During a three-day special session in August, the legislature approved a $213 million flood relief package but none of that money was designated for housing.?

Stivers also filed a second bill, Senate Bill 197, that relates to disaster recovery. He said the bills have different purposes.?

Displaced flood victims speak

Several people who lost their homes to flooding spoke at the event organized by affordable-housing advocates; several said they feel forgotten.

Arnold Weaver said his family thought they would have to leave Kentucky until the nonprofit HOMES Inc. helped arrange to build a new house for them on higher ground. “Just take a ride through Letcher County, as well as other counties that flooded, you’ll see there’s a lot of need there,” said Weaver.?

Manning-Beavin, of Frontier Housing, read a statement from Magoffin County resident Benetta Gibson whose family is living with mold in their home as a result of last summer’s flood. A full-time college student and mother of five, she said she was told that FEMA denied her application for aid and an appeal because the family had stayed in the home after the flood “even though I didn’t have anywhere to go live with five kids for months and months and them in school, so I stayed in my home and risked it.”

As a result, she said, two of her children have been hospitalized with asthma which she attributes to the mold. Frontier Housing has plans to repair the home, answering her prayers, she said, but?“we are always going to have that fear. … I can’t go through another flood; the aftermath of one is so heartbreaking.”

Terry Thies, 70, who lost her home and her chihuahua to the flood, said she will be paying a mortgage for the first time but is grateful for the help she has received from the Housing Development Alliance in building a new home to replace the one where her grandparents and parents had lived before her.

The home, which was not in the floodplain but filled with 28 inches of water, was “the entirety of the inheritance I had from parents.” She said her community of Bulan in Perry County was pretty much destroyed and she has lost track of long-time neighbors forced by the flood to scatter.

“The legislature really needs to step up for us,” Thies said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Command Sergeant Major Tim Lewis of the Kentucky National Guard secures Candace Spencer, 24, while she holds her son Wyatt Spencer, 1, while being airlifted on July 30, 2022 from flooding in Breathitt County. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

A Kentucky advocacy group is calling on the federal government to launch an investigation into whether a legacy of surface coal mining in Eastern Kentucky exacerbated the catastrophic, deadly flooding the region faced last July.

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC), a progressive, grassroots organization known for lobbying on environmental issues, made public Monday a letter it was sending to federal surface mine regulators. The letter not only requests an investigation into whether a relationship exists between surface coal mining and the severity of floods but also calls on federal officials to investigate a state agency charged with inspecting surface coal mines.?

Steve Peake, the pastor of Corinth Missionary Baptist Church, spoke about how the floods around July 28 impacted his Letcher County home and community of Neon compared to previous decades. Peake said two feet of water came onto his property and into his home, floating away his garage and car.?

“We had had some floods but we’d never had anything like the flood that came through July 28,” Peake said during a virtual press conference. “Water came off the mountains I think where the strip mining had took place — nothing on the mountain to hold the water back. So it all came down.”

KFTC created an interactive map showing the proximity of surface mining to where dozens of Kentuckians died in the flood. The map pulls from a dataset compiled by the group of where flood victims’ died through obituaries, news stories and other sources. The map then compares those approximate locations to where large-scale surface coal mines are, using data from the environmental advocacy nonprofit SkyTruth.?

The group’s request to federal officials hones in on the implementation of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act — established in the 1970s in the wake of a coal slurry dam failing and killing 125 people and leaving thousands homeless in West Virginia — that regulates the reclamation of abandoned mines and oversees active mines. The Office of Surface Mining Regulation and Enforcement (OSMRE), where the letter was sent, was created through the legislation.

Beverly May, a member of KFTC and an epidemiologist working at the University of Kentucky, said the interactive map gets to the heart of the group’s question: whether decades-old federal legislation meant to protect people and the environment from the adverse effects of coal mining had worked as intended.?

“Was the (Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act) faithfully implemented to carry out its purpose of protecting human life?” May said. “And if it wasn’t, then what do we need to do to protect people from the next major rain event and the next flood that’s surely coming?”

The group’s letter specifically asks federal officials to investigate Kentucky’s Division of Mine Reclamation and Enforcement (DMRE), the state agency in charge of inspecting surface mines for compliance with the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.?

“We are gravely concerned that incomplete reclamation of inactive mines and regulatory failure to enforce contemporaneous reclamation of active mines contributed to the devastation of the July 2022 flood,” the letter states. “The US Office of Surface Mining has the authority and the moral and legal duty to investigate whether inadequate enforcement of reclamation laws by the DMRE contributed to loss of life and property.”

Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet spokesperson John Mura in a statement said federal officials have been “in touch” with the state’s mining regulation agency “almost daily and has received frequent positive feedback” on the Cabinet’s oversight of mining operations.?

“The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet would welcome any Department of the Interior (DOI) analysis of any surface mining contribution to the flooding in eastern Kentucky from the July rain event that produced upwards of 14-16″ of rain in some places, over 600% of normal,” Mura said, referencing analysis from the National Weather Service.?

The Office of Surface Mining Regulation and Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment.?

Davie Ransdell, a former supervisor for the Kentucky Division of Mining Permits and a member of KFTC, said the group also tracked more than 100 complaints made to the state in the months after the 2022 floods that describe slides, slips and pond failures. KFTC’s letter also asks federal officials for more assistance to help document such reported surface mining failures.

Ransdell was one of two former mining regulators who called for an investigation shortly after the July 2022 floods into whether surface mining increased the severity of the disaster.

Peake, the Letcher County pastor, said he prays such an investigation could help provide a liveable future for people who want to stay in their Eastern Kentucky communities.?

“We love the mountains. That’s why we’re still living here,” Peake said. “We’d like to see things rectified so that we can continue living, not under the threat of going to ave another flood.”

Stacey Feezor plays with her niece Delilah Jenkins, 6, outside a travel trailer at Camp Graves, where Delilah's family lives in transitional housing after losing everything in the December 2021 tornado. Photographed Nov. 18, 2022 in Graves County. (Photo for Kentucky Lantern by Julia Rendleman)

Republican lawmakers want more oversight of disaster relief funds following a report that checks from donations had been sent to people unaffected by the December 2021 tornado outbreak.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported earlier this month thousands of dollars worth of $1,000 relief checks, provided through the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, were sent in December to Kentuckians unaffected by the tornado outbreak. Since then, Republicans have voiced strong concerns over how the more than $60 million in donations collected after tornadoes and floods have been spent.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who’s up for reelection this year, has recently pushed back on the criticism and defended the transparency of the disaster relief funds, also explaining the decisions made by the Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet (PPC) that oversees the funds.?

A leader of a long-term recovery group in Western Kentucky on Friday cautioned against politicizing the disaster, while also acknowledging the need for determining ways to improve disaster response on local and state levels in the future.?

“I would suggest that everyone realize that mistakes were made,” said Wynn Radford, the chair of the Christian County Long Term Recovery Group. “Let’s not make this political theater and throw people under the bus.”?

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, who represents Christian County, said he was spurred to file a bill seeking answers about the donated funds in part because a Hopkinsville resident reached out to him saying he erroneously received a $1,000 relief check.?

“He lives in Hopkinsville and there was (tornado) damage in Hopkinsville. But not with him,” Westerfield said. “We want to know what’s going on.”

The bill, according to Westerfield, would require the PPC to provide a report to the Legislative Research Commission by the end of the fiscal year, which is the end of June, over the specifics of how donated disaster relief funds have been spent so far, who’s made the decisions over the funds and what mechanisms are in place to prevent fraud, among other questions.?

“We want to get to the bottom of where the money’s at, where it’s going, and they need to be able to answer,” Westerfield said.?

While concerns have been raised with the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, Westerfield said the bill as written would also apply to the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund, even though there hasn’t been any reported “goof ups” with that donation fund.?

The report the proposed legislation would require would also extend to analyzing other disbursements from the tornado relief fund, such as about $12 million given for individual unmet needs and life essentials.?

Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, who serves as chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, told the Lantern a bill of his own seeking oversight of the donation funds is forthcoming but declined to provide details about what the bill would look like.?

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported the pending legislation from Petrie would, among other aspects, create reporting mechanisms for the fund and could require money raised by constitutional officers for disaster relief to go through a regular appropriations process.?

The newspaper had also reported Republican State Auditor Mike Harmon, one of 12 Republican gubernatorial primary candidates, was considering a potential audit of the funds, either through a third party or through his office without Harmon’s involvement.?

Michael Goins, a spokesperson for Harmon’s office, said the office would not be “self-initiating” any audit because of ethics concerns with Harmon being a candidate for governor.?

“Our office is monitoring any action by the General Assembly concerning any potential audit or examination of the West Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund,” Goins said.?

A PPC spokesperson Kristin Voskuhl in a statement said the disaster relief donation funds are “fully transparent” and that PPC officials have testified in front of legislative committees four times about the use of the funds.?

“We are proud to be a part of the work accomplished with these funds and welcome legislative review,” Voskuhl said.

“This is an open book”

Beshear echoed the PPC’s comments in a Thursday press conference, delivering rebuttals to the concerns raised by Republicans while defending the transparency of the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund.

He said every disbursement from the donation funds can be examined through open records requests and are available to view on the respective donation fund websites.?

“This is an open book. Everything here’s a public record,” Beshear said. “In terms of oversight or reporting, we’re happy to do regular reports, and if people want to put that into law, that’s fine.”

He said people who received some of the $1,000 relief checks sent in December either were on a list of a private insurance company or on a Federal Emergency Management Agency list as having received some amount of funding after the tornado outbreak.?

Beshear also warned lawmakers against enacting legislation that would “end the ability to have these funds or their flexibility.”?

He said if such a bill would require a legislative appropriation for donated disaster relief funds to go to survivors in future disasters, then it could take more time than necessary to get funding into the hands of survivors.?

He pointed to the establishment of the West Kentucky State Aid Funding for Emergencies, or SAFE fund, as an example of the slower legislative process. It took the GOP-controlled legislature and the Democratic governor four months after the December 2021 tornado outbreak to sign into law a bill that established the SAFE fund, which provides local governments, schools and utilities with millions of dollars in funding to rebuild and recover.?

“All they’ll do is mean that there is less money available in future events,” Beshear said. “It took them four months to create the Western Kentucky SAFE fund while people suffered.”

A need for feedback

Radford, the chair of the Christian County recovery group, has been on the forefront of helping disaster survivors in his local tornado-impacted communities, the volunteer organization only being established months after after the December 2021 tornado outbreak.

Radford was one of several long-term recovery group leaders who raised concerns about months of delays in using the $12 million in donations set aside from the tornado relief fund for survivors’ individual unmet needs and life essentials.?

The Lantern reported more than 90% of the $12 million meant to go to individual unmet needs — with local long-term recovery groups in charge of having survivors apply for some of the unmet needs funding — had gone unspent as of mid-January. Long-term recovery groups say unreasonable and restrictive rules prevented them from getting the funding into survivor’s hands sooner.

Beshear and the PPC have defended rules put onto the $12 million, saying such rules were needed to prevent funding from going to fewer survivors and make the most of the donations.?

Radford said he understands the need? for improving disaster response for the future, proposing the idea that other counties in Kentucky could form long-term recovery groups ahead of a disaster to be better prepared.?

Another idea that’s front of mind for Radford: improving communication with those on the front lines of disaster recovery.?

Radford suggested PPC officials or other relevant stakeholders could travel to Western Kentucky to meet with long-term recovery groups working in the disaster areas to get direct feedback and recommendations on how to improve disaster response in the future.?

“Get these guys out of Frankfort down here. We’ll meet them in the afternoon. We’ll knock this thing out. It’s not that hard,” Radford said.

Doug Irby, 46, walks around the trailer where he and his children lived after the Dec. 10, 2021 tornado destroyed his residence. Irby, who has done mold remediation for tornado victims for free, said there are a lot of “unmet needs” in Graves County and that unspent relief money should be released for repairs. (Photo for Kentucky Lantern by Julia Rendleman.)

MAYFIELD — Doug Irby, owner of a mold removal and home foundation repair company, sees daily reminders that Kentuckians still need help to recover from the tornadoes of December 2021.

Yet most of the donations that Kentucky has set aside to help victims pay for unmet needs remain untapped, leaving survivors wondering if that help will ever come.?

Driving in Mayfield, the Graves County seat and one of the hardest hit communities, Irby points to the blue tarps of damaged roofs dotting residential streets.?

“You can ride around and say, ‘Hey, they need a roof. Why don’t they have the money?’” Irby said. “We’re going past year one, going into year two — and these people are living in these (damaged) homes with their families. And it makes me so mad.”

Donors from around the country sent $52 million to help tornado victims

After the tornado outbreak, more than $52 million in donations poured into the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund from all over the country. The money has been disbursed in several ways, including paying for funeral expenses, new housing and $1,000 checks to survivors.

Last July, pressed by frustrated local recovery leaders, the state provided $12 million from the fund for addressing survivors’ unmet needs, from replacing ruined appliances to replacing damaged roofs.

Long-term recovery groups run by volunteers in impacted communities were to handle the applications for aid, which would require final approval by the state Public Protection Cabinet.

As of mid-January, only 10% of the money had reached survivors, while $10.8 million of the $12 million remained unspent.?

How has so much generosity still not reached its intended recipients?

• Leaders of long-term recovery groups in Western Kentucky say unreasonable and inflexible rules from the state led to money held in Frankfort not reaching survivors.
• Of particular concern is a $3,500 state-imposed cap on payments to applicants, which the local groups say is too low to meet most needs, such as replacing a vehicle.
• In some counties, a lack of caseworkers to process applications for funding further strained efforts to use the millions of dollars of donations.?

Ryan Drane, the executive director of the Mayfield-Graves County Long-Term Recovery Group, says he does not fault state officials who had to create a system for providing practical, individualized aid after a massive disaster.

?“But when it comes to disaster recovery, you can’t manage it like you do state funding for it to be effective and efficient and equitable to all survivors,” Drane said.

“There certainly should have been more input and direction from those who were here, boots on the ground working with the recovery every day to make determinations as to how and what the money should be spent on.”

Struggling to put money into survivors’ hands

Emails and other documents received through open records requests, along with interviews with leaders of long-term recovery groups and Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet (PPC) officials overseeing the donation fund, convey the struggle and frustrations surrounding the delays in putting money into survivors’ hands.

The Graves County group had spent less than 1% of its more than $5.6 million from the tornado recovery fund by mid-January.

Others are in a similar situation, though not all. Caldwell County has spent about 97% of its $525,000 in funding for unmet needs. The Hopkins County group had spent 46% or $304,000 of its allocation by mid-January.

Irby is one of hundreds in Graves County who has applied for funding and is still waiting. In the meantime, he tries to make a difference by helping dozens of tornado survivors. He’s offered his mold treatment and foundation repair services for free or at a steep discount.?

Mold treatment is among the eligible uses for the unspent relief funds, but, says Irby, it should not be delayed.

“You start getting the mold issues and stuff in homes and where homes are unrepairable,” Irby said. “We need faster response times on everything.”

State makes some concessions

The state recently extended the states of emergency for some counties beyond Jan. 14, when they were set to expire, which gave the groups more time to get the money into survivors’ hands.

And, in November, in a concession to recovery groups, the state loosened a rule that local leaders had insisted was an obstacle to approving aid.?

The state had required “good faith efforts” to first use other funding sources before tapping the tornado relief fund. The state’s motive was to protect survivors from running afoul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A state official told the Lantern that in previous disasters FEMA demanded refunds from disaster survivors when a duplication of benefits is discovered.

“We like to make darn sure that we’re not putting anybody at risk of losing the FEMA money,” Jacob Walbourn, general counsel of the state Public Protection Cabinet, told the Lantern in December.

But the local groups were afraid of running afoul of the state, leading to months of delays in getting funds out the door.?

The Graves County group had forwarded no applications for approval before the rule change, but is now processing hundreds to send to the PPC.??

“I don’t think that the individuals and corporations who donated to this fund would have cared if their funds were the last in, or the first in,” Drane said.

He said private funders sat on money waiting for the state-held donations to be used. Churches asked why they should spend thousands of their members’ dollars when millions of donated dollars held by the state should be available.

In Warren County, rather than try to “prove, really an unknown” — that no other funds were available to help an applicant — the recovery group opted not to use any of its $466,000 and rely on other philanthropic resources instead.

“It was hard for us to say that this is the ‘last resort’ when we have our donation dollars that have flowed in that we can use,” said?Brent Childers, chair of the Bowling Green-Warren County Disaster Recovery.?

Nearly four months after recovery groups sought a change in the guideline, the PPC agreed, changing what had been a requirement to avoid duplicating aid to an encouragement to do so.?“(I)t is our intent that funding from the tornado relief fund can be combined with other funding to provide for the unmet needs in each county,” DJ Wasson, the state Public Protection Cabinet’s chief of staff, notified them in a November email.

From Drane’s perspective, the change lifted the burden of exhausting all other means before touching the donation fund and allowed Drane’s recovery group to move forward.

Is $3,500 enough for anything?

But the state has not budged on the $3,500 payment cap per application, despite requests from recovery groups to raise it to $10,000.?

Walbourn, the PPC’s general counsel, said the cabinet included recovery groups in the decision to set the $3,500 cap, a limit that he said “made a lot of sense” given the rising costs of unmet needs.

“I understand the PPC’s approach,” said Drane, the higher the limit, the fewer “people you can assist.”?

But $3,500 falls short of need in many cases, like purchasing a reliable vehicle for a survivor. Only partially assisting someone who has suffered losses delays their recovery, he said.

“We’re having to ask that survivors hold the money until we can find other sources of funding that right now aren’t available.”

Drane said the groups have provided data from past natural disasters to support raising the limit.?

Mark Dowdy, chair of the Fulton County Long-Term Recovery Group and senior pastor of Cayce Baptist Church, agreed that the $3,500 cap was too low.?

Fulton County had asked for $240,000 total from the tornado relief fund, reporting that eight families needed help. Based on the eight households, the state’s formula qualified Fulton County for $14,000, which Dowdy called “really a slap in the face.”

The tornadoes killed one person in Fulton County and destroyed more than 60 structures.

“The state, their intentions may have been good, but they were not a help to us at all.” Dowdy said.?

Fulton County has received other help from the state donation fund, though: Habitat for Humanity has helped rebuild a few homes in Cayce with funding provided from the tornado relief fund.?

Dowdy said while that support for housing was appreciated, the lack of support for his community’s unmet needs was disappointing. He said the county has instead tried to help survivors through other private and grassroots efforts.

‘Some groups were less responsive’

A PPC spokesperson in a statement said there were “necessary restrictions” on the use of unmet needs funds to make sure they reached as many people as possible.?

“As counties were spending money, according to the guidelines of the program, we worked with them to get their money spent. Some groups were less responsive,” said Kristin Voskuhl, the PPC spokesperson.?

The state formula took the number of estimated people with unmet needs — submitted ?by each county in May — and multiplied that by $1,750.?

Christian County’s recovery group still has 95% of its $733,250, said the group’s chair Wynn Radford, because it discovered too late that the money could not go to survivors of a Jan. 1, 2022 tornado?along with those in the Dec. 2021 outbreak. The group had based its request on need created by both tornadoes but?could distribute money only to survivors of the first.

Radford said it left their group with a lot more money than they can use.?“Here’s the question: the unused money. Where does it go?” Radford said.?

Voskuhl, the PPC spokesperson, said plans for reallocating unspent funds have not been finalized. All of the $52 million from donations has been committed for various purposes, although more than $24 million of the committed amount remains unspent.?

Voskuhl said the recovery groups are now addressing longer-term needs and the PPC did send out more than $9.6 million in short-term relief checks to survivors in February 2022.

The PPC came under fire this week by Republican lawmakers and state Treasurer Allison Ball after the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that an additional round of relief checks sent to survivors in December, totaling more than $10 million, went to people in error.

Beshear defends rules, points to counties that have used most of their funding

At a Thursday news conference, Gov. Andy Beshear defended the rules put in place by the PCC, saying that the unmet needs funding was “promised to go directly to tornado survivors and not to any overhead.”?

Beshear pointed to counties that have used most of their funding as proof that the rules work.?

“It’s $52 million of aid, even if it takes a little longer through one part. That’s really helping people,”? Beshear said. “I like the long-term recovery groups. We want to work with them. We want to work through it all. But I certainly think that if you look at a couple of counties, they’ve shown that you can get these dollars out the door.”

Beshear said the regulations were in part to satisfy concerns raised by Ball, the Republican state treasurer, about delegating responsibilities to the new nonprofit recovery groups, rather than the funding coming directly from the state to survivors.?

As of Jan. 12, only four of the 11 county recovery groups had spent more than 10% of their funding allocation: Caldwell, Hopkins, Muhlenberg and Taylor counties.?

Case worker challenges

Last October, recognizing the need for more case workers to help verify the information on applications, the Community Foundation of Western Kentucky, a nonprofit based in Paducah, created a new organization to hasten the process.?

“There was a lack of case managers, and there was a lack of an organized way to track information,” said Chris Dockins, the foundation’s chief operating officer.?

The new organization, the West Kentucky Disaster Recovery and Resiliency Center, has 12 application navigators aiding long-term recovery groups.

But still not every applicant has a case worker or navigator, said Drane.?

“We’re trying to develop efficiencies as we go along in the process, to get these things going as quickly as possible and get checks out to the survivors who desperately need it.”?

The Graves County recovery group received about 430 applications in December. Four navigators have been hired to go through applications.?

“What we’re trying to do is verify what needs to be verified . . . that we’re completing the application in the way that the state would like to see it completed.”

Meanwhile, the state asked judge-executives in counties that want more time to distribute funds to request an extension of their states of emergency.

Caldwell, Christian, Graves, Hickman, Hopkins and Marshall counties received extensions until July 2023. Warren, Fulton, Muhlenberg, Ohio and Taylor counties did not request extensions.

Waiting for help

Gregg Knight was a case worker in Graves County until leaving the job last year and still gets calls for guidance from former clients who need help with needs the tornado created, whether directly or indirectly.?

They have few alternatives, she said, other than moving away from their community or trying to pay for what they need, even if it’s a financial burden. “There are people I know that are just flat out paying it out of pocket.”

Knight has worked with Irby, the tornado survivor who’s helped other survivors through his small business, to connect Irby with survivors who still need help.?

For now, Irby waits to hear back about his application. He said he gets a generic email every week or so that reminds him he hasn’t been forgotten.?

He has something other survivors are still seeking: a permanent roof over his head at his rental home near Wingo, a few miles south of Mayfield.?

He had moved himself and his kids to the rental home four months ago from a trailer. They had moved into the trailer because their previous home in Mayfield was unsafe after the tornado. That trailer became unbearable to live in, too, electricity problems making the place feel like “an ice cube.”?

He bought new appliances and started rebuilding his life with some of his children at their modest home, the memories and trauma of the December 2021 night still fresh in his mind.?

“Soldiers go to war and get PTSD from violent actions that happen,” Irby said. “Every time there’s a tornado or a tornado warning or a siren, it’s going to trigger people. It triggers me.”

He still wakes up with his heart pounding some nights, remembering being in his truck with his kids racing to get to shelter. He remembers the blackness of the twister covering the sky, only illuminated briefly by flashes of lightning. He remembers the farmhouse doors being blown open and the worries that his kids could be sucked outside by the winds.?

Ultimately, it’s his kids he thinks about when he helps other survivors in the region, conscious efforts informed by his faith.

“I’m following the path I believe that I’m being led on and by helping people, maybe they can help somebody,” he said. “My kids are watching me.”

The Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund committed $600,000 in funds to build eight new homes in partnership with two housing nonprofits, the Housing Development Alliance in Hazard and Homes Inc. of Whitesburg, Gov. Andy Beshear’s office announced Tuesday.

The fund is providing $75,000 per home for building materials.

“While we are at the beginning of long-term rebuilding projects, we are also working to make an impact with new housing in the shorter term,” Beshear said in the release.

The fund is also assisting flood survivors with home repairs by providing $200,000 in matching funds through a partnership with Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky. The money will go directly to individuals and families located outside of a designated flood plain for essential repairs with no administrative costs.

“These funds provide an immediate impact on the number of houses we are able to build. Literally, overnight, hundreds of people lost everything they’d worked so hard for, and now, they are struggling to rebuild their lives. Each house is a promise of hope for a family,” said Scott McReynolds, executive director of Housing Development Alliance Inc.

“Housing can’t wait. Repairing and building homes is our highest priority and our No. 1 need across the region.?This matching grant means that 80 additional families can benefit from little- or no-cost repairs,” said Gerry Roll, chief executive officer of Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky. “We believe that reclaiming the power of community for Appalachian Kentucky begins with investing in the people rooted here.”

To date, the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund has raised over $13.1 million from more than 41,000 donors. To contribute, click?here. For other information regarding flooding in Eastern Kentucky, visit?governor.ky.gov/FloodResources.

Laura Humphrey walks a wheelbarrow to a pile of debris while volunteering to clean up in Perry County near Hazard on Aug. 6, 2022. Thousands of Eastern Kentucky residents lost their homes ater devastating rain storms flooded the area. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday announced a second site on higher ground in flood-ravaged Eastern Kentucky —? this time near Hazard — where plans call for initially building about 150 houses.?

The project would be partially funded by the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund in partnership with local nonprofit builders, says a release from the Governor’s Office.

The 50-acre site, five miles from downtown Hazard, is near the Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center, schools and shopping centers. The first site, announced by Beshear in December and dubbed the Olive Branch community, sits near the Knott-Perry County line in Talcum.?

Beshear made Tuesday’s announcement with local officials at the Perry County Courthouse. A news release from the Governor’s Office said the Ison family contributed “prime land for the project.”?

“This land is located near the heart of Hazard and can be a real boost to the community. There’s really no better use for such a great piece of land than to improve housing. Better and more housing attracts better jobs and a better future,” Paul Ison said in the press release.

In a statement, Beshear said: “Rebuilding on high ground is a chance to lift up entire communities with upgraded infrastructure and safe, affordable, energy-efficient homes. But our work in Eastern Kentucky is not done until there is prosperity in the entire region.”

Southeastern Kentucky was devastated by flooding almost six months ago. The official death toll is 44. Rebuilding is on the minds of many residents and state leaders. Some advocacy groups have turned to the legislature to fund a $300 million emergency affordable housing package over the next two years, but a bill has not been introduced. Lawmakers return to Frankfort Feb. 7.?

The Governor’s Office said more parcels of the land in Perry County will be developed during later phases of the project.?

The state is evaluating sites for rebuilding in Perry, Knott, Letecher and Breathitt counties, which account for 75% of homes lost to flood damage. All potential building sites will have geotechnical testing during the planning and construction process, the Governor’s Office said.?

“To be at this point so quickly is a great day for the community. As we work to rebuild and recover, housing is one of the biggest issues that we face,” Perry County Judge-Executive Scott Alexander said. “Perry County was in a housing crisis prior to the July 2022 flood disaster. Now we are in a catastrophic housing situation. I want to thank Gov. Beshear and his team, as well as the legislators, for such a quick response to working with Perry County to help solve the housing situation.”

In Knott County, the early plans for the Olive Branch community included small, medium and large home lots as well as senior apartments, park and recreation space and an elementary school. In Tuesday’s press release, the Governor’s Office said the homes in Talcum will be partially funded by the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund.

“Initial planning has begun and will include an improved water treatment facility, roads and utilities for the area which will benefit the entire region,” the press release said of the Olive Branch project. “Infrastructure projects have multiple funding streams, including Eastern Kentucky SAFE funds” and federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

About 40 travel trailers sit in a lot along Lakeside Drive in Jackson on Dec. 20. Some have lived here for months. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

JACKSON — Last time she checked, flood insurance would cost Carolyn Combs and husband Lou about $1,100 per month.

That was before the 2021 and 2022 floods swept through her family’s home in Jackson, destroying everything inside.

“I couldn’t imagine what it is now,” Combs told the Kentucky Lantern in mid-December. “But I already work two jobs. That’s three car payments. I can’t.”

According to the United States Census Bureau, the median household income in Breathitt County was $32,259 in 2021, roughly $20,000 less than the statewide median. That income comes out to about $670 a week.

A family making that salary and charged that amount for flood insurance would need to be able to devote about 41% of their income for that coverage.

Combs said it was her family’s lack of the expensive flood insurance that the the Federal Emergency Management Agency – better known as FEMA – cited as the reason for not assisting them financially in 2021 and 2022.

A FEMA spokesperson has not yet responded to a request for comment. The FEMA website, however, says the agency cannot duplicate benefits that insurance covers.?

The Combs’ experience may not represent everyone’s experience. In September FEMA reported that a flood insurance policy in Kentucky with the National Flood Insurance Program costs on average $1,174 a year, or ?roughly $98 a month. The cost varies based on the amount of coverage, deductible chosen and the flood risk or flood zone of the insured property, according to the FEMA release.

The Combs did not get the help they needed from the government, Carolyn said. But local nonprofits stepped up.

Neighbors, as well as national and Appalachian organizations, helped them get drywall, insulation, new flooring and more.

A flood-prone lot

Lou’s grandparents built the original home back in the 1980s. It flooded that same decade for the first of four times while they’ve had it.

The family rebuilt higher, hoping the water wouldn’t reach them again. It did, though, in 2009. Then in 2021, and most recently in 2022.

Carolyn’s mother fell sick with COVID-19 right as the 2021 floods came. Mere months later, her mom died. And Carolyn lost all her belongings, including the clothes in the closet that still smelled of her.

“Everything that I had of hers from her funeral or that was hers personally, it’s all gone,” she said. “I didn’t get to save anything” except her mom’s Bible, she added.

She also lost all her daughter’s sports jerseys and old t-shirts. She’d planned to make them into a quilt to celebrate Maddie’s graduation next year.

Despite losing everything over and over, the Combs will stay in Jackson.

“People will say, ‘Well, I wouldn’t go back if I was you. I’d just go somewhere else,’” Carolyn said. “And I’m like, ‘you don’t leave home. You fix it, and you go back. Every step you get done is closer than what you were when you first started…you don’t leave home.’”

The family is painting their newly-replaced drywall and hoping to move back in by next summer.

“We’ll get back home hopefully a little bit after spring,” Carolyn said. “I was hoping sooner but I don’t think the weather is going to cooperate.”

Months in a travel trailer

Paul and Carrie, who declined to share their last name, have lived in travel trailers for three months.

The couple, who lived in a camper on land that’s been in the family since the 1970s, didn’t flood in 2021. The 2022 floods did not concern them at first.?Water had never come close to flooding their family land. They also didn’t have cable TV or cell service and didn’t know the forecast.

They just went to bed like any other night, they said. When they awoke, the floors were wet.

“It was raining,” Carrie remembered. “We thought we had a leak in the roof.” They got to work trying to find tarps for the roof and dry up the floor.

“I don’t think it dawned on us that it was coming up through the floor,” Carrie said. They stayed there for about a month while they tried to salvage what they could.

Finally, when their mattress turned black with mold, they knew they had to leave.

They said they stayed first at a temporary RV park in Hazard for a month then in Jackson for the past two. Their trailer is one of about 40 in the Jackson lot.

FEMA approved them for some help, Paul said, but they needed to find the physical title for their camper. That took a long time, and now they wait for processing.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Paul, a National Guard veteran, said. The couple feels pressure to leave the temporary trailer, but they don’t have anywhere to go. Police patrol around the RV park, he and Carried said, and a staff member wears a gun, which the couple says feels threatening and disrespectful.

A Kentucky Emergency Management spokesperson said staff do not open carry and that some residents at this park had requested more police presence.

“We don’t want to be here any more than anybody else does,” Carrie said.

The couple does not plan to stay in the area. Once they get enough money together to buy a travel RV, they’re going to leave and travel the country.

Eyes on the government, legislature

Breathitt County locals say there’s a real need for road repair in the floodplains and surrounding areas. Water washed away blacktop and gravel, making it difficult for some to get in and out of their land.

Some say they want to see more dollars allocated to fix the roads and other infrastructure damaged by the floods.

“It’s going to cost a lot,” said?Wallace Caleb Bates, who is from Jackson and sits on the board of Aspire Appalachia. “You’re dealing with curvy roads, roads that naturally weather very easily because they’re either really low and near the water or they’re really high . . . it concerns me that, because there’s been this recent push surrounding infrastructure, that it won’t be considered for . . . flood stricken counties.”

Bates also said he’d like to see housing funding be a “major focus” of the 2023 legislative session.

“When you talk about economics, you look at housing,” he said. “When you look at housing, you look at jobs . . . it’s so broad, that no one person can fix it. It’s going to take years worth of fixing.”

But, there is concern among him and his friends that lawmakers don’t see enough potential return on investment when it comes to rebuilding Appalachian communities. That thought hurts.

At least one legislator,?Sen. Brandon Smith,?is determined to invest in the area properly.

Smith, who represents Breathitt County and other areas in Eastern Kentucky, recently told the Lantern that such investment in the area must happen before people leave.

“We’re going to reinvest back in your community because we believe this community is going to grow and not just die on the vine like every other coal town down here, just kind of to be forgotten to history,” Smith said while distributing water to people recently in Letcher County, a nearby neighbor of Breathitt. “We’re not letting that happen. I’m certainly not gonna let that happen on my watch.”

“Our whole country was built on the backs of people from Eastern Kentucky,” said Mandi Fugate Sheffel, who owns the Read Spotted Newt bookstore in Hazard and lives in Breathitt County. “Coal fueled the Industrial Revolution, and we continue to get sh*t on and sh*t on and sh*t on.”

Reporter McKenna Horsley contributed to this report.

Nancy Herald shows a photo of her home during the March 2021 flood in Jackson, photographed on Dec. 19. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

JACKSON —About five months after deadly flooding and heavy rains displaced thousands of Eastern Kentuckians and killed at least 44, many still need help to replace basic household supplies.?

The plea from many in Breathitt County going into hard winter is, they told the Kentucky Lantern: Don’t forget about us. And: there are still many needs, including permanent housing.?

Over four days from July 26 to July 30, 2022, 6 to 16 inches of rain fell, according to the National Weather Service. The “incredible rainfall also led to significant rises and flooding on many rivers,” NWS reported.?

The result was homes underwater, cars washed away, buildings flipped and people killed.?

That weather event came a little more than a year after floods in 2021 devastated the same region, the worst flooding there in some 50 years.?

In the weeks after the disaster, donations poured into the region—clothes, food, volunteers to muck out damaged homes. Now, as survivors focus on rebuilding, they still need help.?

“The first thing I say when anybody asks (what people need) is: gift cards and money,” said Justina Salyers, who is from River Caney. “And the reason I say that is because they’re spending all their money on fixing their homes. So, they’re buying drywall, they’re buying furniture, they’re buying flooring. So the biggest thing that I see that I can give them, and they’re not overloaded with, is money, and they can go out and buy groceries or whatever they need.”?

Others said there’s a need for building and construction supplies, food and financial planners to come in and help people sort through their money situations.?

“They’ve had a lot of wonderful toy drives and coat drives, but I feel like people really need help with housing,” said Jackson Mayor Laura Thomas. “Whether that’s helping with a rebuild, or helping them get rental assistance or helping them get…into more permanent housing.”?

In the nearby Knott-Perry county line in Talcum, Gov. Andy Beshear announced in late December, 75 acres–with the possibility of 300–has been conveyed for a new community on higher ground that could mean “dozens upon dozens” of houses outside the floodplains.?

Even when people get into permanent housing, Thomas said, “then they’re going to need household supplies…and people need food. We’ve had…kids that have participated in Shop with a Cop that wanted to buy food.”?

Jackson woman Carolyn Combs said the bottom line is: people need everything because they’ve lost everything.?

“Everything that I’ve had the last 15 years of my life is gone,” she said. ?“If there’s nothing that (people) can do when it comes to…physically donating something, we could always use prayers. If it hadn’t been for prayers, and just God working through people…we would have never made it this far.”?

Some said they felt abandoned as some organizations moved on from Eastern Kentucky to the next big disaster.

“There’s other disasters,” Marine and Jackson resident Dexter Dunn told the Lantern. “You got Florida down there. You got the wildfires out west. That’s all it takes. You look at Western Kentucky…they had the tornadoes.”

Dunn swung his son in his arms as he spoke while he cooed and smiled. Baby River Slade got his name because his momma waded through flood water when she was eight months pregnant with him.

They survived.

“We knew given the next national disaster or whatever that it would just fall to the wayside,” Dunn said of the area. “You know, nobody would be here to help…It just doesn’t end after the trucks leave.”

Many Eastern Kentucky flood survivors say the recovery would go much slower without local nonprofits that have stepped up and provided furniture, food and other items to folks in need.?

You can help Eastern Kentucky flood survivors by donating online to such organizations as:?

• Aspire Appalachia?
• Samaritan’s Purse?
• Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky?
• United Methodist Mountain Mission?
• Housing Development Alliance Inc.?
• Mission of Hope?
• Appalachians for Appalachia?
• Appalachian Regional Healthcare Foundation Flood Relief Fund?
• Eastern Kentucky Mutual Aid?
• Save the Children?
• Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund?
• American Red Cross?

Did we miss an organization or fund? Please let the author know at [email protected].?

Nancy Herald motions toward her home, damaged in both the March 2021 and July 2022 floods, while standing near the North Fork of the Kentucky River in Jackson on Dec. 19 (Photo for Kentucky Lantern by Arden Barnes)

JACKSON — When the 2021 Eastern Kentucky floods came, Nancy Herald’s basement filled to the rafters.?

She lost roughly 50 years of cherished Christmas decorations stored along the concrete wall, along with the washer, dryer and refrigerator.?

Because of that experience, the family thought they’d be ready when the 2022 floods came more than a year later. They emptied their basement of recently-replaced items and moved them upstairs, thinking everything would be safe on the main floor.

That was not the case. They lost all they’d replaced from 2021 – and much more.

Located?in Kentucky’s mountains less than two hours southeast of Frankfort,?Breathitt County was home to almost 14,000 people before the floods.

The Herald family is one of many here who were flooded both times.?They, and many others, are survivors twice over, left to ponder whether to uproot themselves and leave or risk rebuilding where they are, fearing more floods in the future.

A Kentucky Lantern reporter and photographer spent three days in mid-December reporting in Breathitt and Perry counties talking to survivors of the double floods about their experience rebuilding their entire lives twice.?

Many said they had just finished – or were well on their way to – replacing all the items lost in the 2021 waters when the 2022 rains came. They lost not only their progress, but more of their belongings than ever before.?

Some have since left the region while others say they will when they can afford to do so. Others still have no choice but to return to land owned by their families and rebuild there?in the floodplain.

No matter if they stay or go, they must rebuild a whole life from the ground up – a massive effort that some estimate could take a whole decade.

They want to see state and federal lawmakers invest in long-term housing solutions, which they say are a must for any stable economic rebound.

Jackson Mayor Laura Thomas foresees a long rebuilding process and says new housing is necessary to recovery.

Scott McReynolds, executive director of the Housing Development Alliance in Hazard, previously estimated the region needs at least 2,300 new or rebuilt houses at a cost of more than $600 million.

“It’s going to take years and we will have to find ways to recoup the lost population and the lost tax revenue,” Thomas told the Kentucky Lantern.

‘We knew the water was coming.’

After the 2021 Eastern Kentucky flooding, Herald and her family worked to repair the damage done to the home her parents built in 1974. They put in new drainage and repaired a crumbling retaining wall leading to the basement.?

“It cost us a lot of money that we had to pay ourselves,” the Jackson woman told the Kentucky Lantern. Those 2021 floods devastated the region, the worst in about half a century.?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency — better known as FEMA — recommended? she get flood insurance in 2021. But, because she was working to replace a lifetime of household belongings, she could only afford the minimal amount.?

Then, in summer 2022, “we knew the water was coming,” Herald said of the July floods that killed 44 people and displaced thousands.?

“We knew we didn’t want to stay in the house and be … marooned and stranded and maybe need assistance,” she added.?

So, her family left their home place before the North Fork of the Kentucky River could rise from behind the house and cut off their exit.?

Before leaving, though, she moved her replaced belongings from the basement upstairs, figuring the lower area would flood once again.?

Resting on the library shelf was her Grandma’s Bible. She left it behind because she thought it – and the whole upstairs – would be safe.?

“When it was over the house had about four feet of water,” she said. “And the things we had carried upstairs were, of course, destroyed.”?

That family Bible was cemented with mud on the shelf and covered in mold. Along with many other belongings, Herald could not save it.?

‘Emotionally, it’s crippling.’

On top of the physical toll and loss of property, the floods were – and continue to be – traumatic mentally. Some said their anxiety increased during the disaster and continues to be severe.?

“Physically it’s very, very hard. Financially, it is devastating,” Herald said of the back-to-back floods that forced her family to start over again and again. “Emotionally, it’s crippling, and, mainly, it is life altering.”?

After a historic flood destroys your home twice, she explained: “You don’t think the same. You don’t view things the same way.”?

“I don’t think I am as sharp as I was,” she said, adding that: “I really think people suffer from PTSD. And people say, ‘Yeah, it’s OK to grieve.’ I know it’s okay to grieve, but I don’t have to? like grieving.”?

Mayor Thomas agreed. Her constituents’ mental health suffered from the catastrophic waters, she said. Even those who didn’t lose belongings watched as their loved ones and neighbors suffered.?

“Just the whole disaster of seeing people in pain and seeing what people are going through…It has affected everyone,” she said. “We just heard stories of people holding on to each other and seeing family members washed away or holding onto a tree limb for six hours.”?

Those images and experiences stick.?

“Rain has taken on a whole new meaning since, even, ‘21,” she added. Whenever there’s rain in the forecast, she said, people worry about how many inches could come, what damage it could do. “And so we do hear a lot of that…that people are really stressed.”?

Mandi Fugate Sheffel, who owns the Read Spotted Newt bookstore in Hazard and lives in Breathitt County, helped distribute cash to survivors for EKY Mutual Aid.?

“We needed that because FEMA was slow,” said Sheffel. “People needed money immediately.”?

She passed out $200 per household at her discretion, she said. As she did so, she collected people’s trauma stories.?

“Every house we stopped at, everybody wanted to share their story…I think that’s where the mental health part comes into play for me is that we shouldered a lot of that, which is fine, but I felt like I was not qualified…” Sheffel said. “I couldn’t really give any feedback. I just listened.”?

Some survivors told the Lantern that now, five months later, they would benefit from on-the-ground mental health therapy.?

Many who spoke with the Lantern said they were so grateful for what they had – their life, health, and in some cases, their faith. Most pointed to neighbors who lost more than them and said they felt blessed.?

More than concern for themselves, many locals said they worried about the family down the street, a loved one, the children.?

‘You think these kids are okay until they start talking.’?

Margaret Henson is a library media specialist in the Breathitt County School system and teaches elementary school children. She said the floods have been especially hard on her kids.??

Grief counselors came into Marie Roberts, one of the schools where she works, after the flood. They gave children the option to draw some of the things they lost in the waters, Henson said. One child drew the school’s missing secretary. Another drew a family member found too late.?

“You think these kids are okay until they start talking,” Henson told the Kentucky Lantern. She said the school staff’s strategy all semester was to put on a normal face for the kids, but it was difficult.?

“We always (ask) ‘what did you do this summer?’ and you try to get away from the flood stuff,” Henson said. “But when a child looks at you and says, ‘Well, I almost drowned,’?…what do you say to that, except for ‘we’re glad you’re here and that’s all it matters’?”?

Despite all they’re going through, Henson said her kids’ grades did not plummet and they let no work slip.?

Why stay in a floodplain??

Many left Breathitt County after the most recent flood, and others told the Lantern they plan to when they can. But many others plan to stay, rebuild, and hope floodwaters don’t come again for another 100-plus years.?

Despite their fears that the land might flood again, this place is home.?

“The culture here is a real appreciation and love for place,” explained Wallace Caleb Bates, who is from Jackson and sits on the board of Aspire Appalachia. “Land carries so much more value than just being property to live on. It’s something that folks pass down through generations. And for a lot of families who deal with intergenerational poverty, their land is something they can pridefully pass on … across generations.”?

Many who thought they lived high enough to avoid 2022 damage were wrong. The water kept coming, kept rising.?

“Because of the landscape, I think it’s going to be hard to get everybody out of the floodplain,” Sheffel said. “And also, like, what even is the floodplain anymore?”?

Those who do stay will face many challenges in the coming years, a big one being the diversification of the local economy, and long term housing solutions.?

“If you’re losing…revenue and your budgets are based on a certain amount of revenue, then … there is … legitimate concern that the city could charge the people additional tax dollars to make up for the loss,” said Mayor Thomas.

But, she wants to avoid tax increases. “I don’t believe in that,” she said. “I think that we need to look for creative ways to expand the tax base and to … bring in new people and you can’t bring in new people if you don’t have anywhere to house them. And we need jobs, we need industry.”?

The push and pull between long-term economic growth and immediate survival is an “ongoing chicken-egg thing” there, she added.?

Bouncing back could take a decade, some estimate. ?

Some locals estimate it will take Jackson five to 10 years to recover from the double flooding, provided it doesn’t happen again in the near future.?

Herald’s flood home is now gutted, cold, empty. The river bank is gone and the cliff above the water is closer to the house now. Dried and muddied corn stalks, trampled into the ground, missed their chance at harvest.?

The invasive kudzu that washed in with the 2021 floods stayed and took over the back yard. It masks only partially the upside-down shed at the back of the lot. Herald doesn’t know where it came from.?

She also doesn’t know if she’s coming back to this house. She received $11,000 from FEMA in 2022 after an agent called the structure a “total loss.” The family now lives in a home about a half mile away.?

“Right now, we don’t have plans to go back,” she said. “Honestly, I want to see if it floods this winter. And if it floods next spring. I want to see how much more erosion there is. … And I keep coming back to this, but it is so true: psychologically, emotionally, I’m not ready to let go of it. Because it’s home, even though home is where I live with my family.”?

She walks through the skeleton of the flood house and she shakes her head over and over. Nothing left but beams where walls once were. She points to the place on the wall where the lost Bible sat. Downstairs, there’s still dried mud on the basement ceiling pipes.?

Maybe the structure will be home again, Herald muses. Maybe.?

But: “It’s scary…because you don’t know what’s coming next.”?

She always comes back to the water, the worry over losing everything again.?

“Maybe it will happen again and then again maybe it won’t,” she said.? “That’s the thing, that uncertainty. You just don’t know. That’s why we aren’t willing to take a chance on it. We just don’t know if we’re going to go back or not.”?

For now, the stray calico cat her family calls Floodgate – who appeared after the summer disaster – meanders in the abandoned yard.?

Land donated near the Knott-Perry county line for a new community announced Tuesday by Gov. Andy Beshear. (Photo provided by the governor's office)

HINDMAN — Surrounded by elected officials from around the region, Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday unveiled plans to build a new community on “higher, stable ground” at a former surface coal mine near the Knott-Perry county line in Talcum.?

Speaking at the Knott County Courthouse, Beshear said the couple who are giving 75 acres for the project — Tammy and Shawn Adams — suggested naming it Olive Branch, an allusion to the biblical story of Noah’s Ark in which a dove bearing an olive branch signals the end of a devastating flood.

Massive flooding struck Eastern Kentucky last July, killing 43 and destroying hundreds of homes.

Beshear has recently emphasized the necessity of rebuilding outside flood plains to protect life and property.??

“What this is higher, stable ground where we can build neighborhoods where people never have to worry about it being flooded again,” he said. “And we can reimagine the future about where we locate schools and medical clinics, parks and other opportunities. And it’s a chance to grow.”?

The governor said work at the site will begin early next year with road building; he also said water treatment capacity must be improved. As many as 300 acres could be available for building, Beshear said?but the state is waiting to see if it will need to be purchased or if the Adamses will convey more.?On the initial acres, “dozens upon dozens” of homes can be built, he said.?

“What an incredible couple to give up one of the most valuable things in Eastern Kentucky, flatland, for the betterment of their brothers and sisters,” the governor said.

Tammy Adams is the daughter of the late Elmer Whitaker, who was born at a coal camp in Perry County, built a fortune as a coal operator and launched a chain of banks that bears his name. When he died in 2014, his obituary said, “In the coal business, he was mining and selling his assets each day he worked. The banks allowed him a way to invest in others and grow his assets.”

In a release from the governor’s office, Tammy Adams says, “This property means a lot to us, but what means more is that we are able to see it help so many. We are grateful to Gov. Beshear for his vision and proud that we can contribute to this project.?We even have an idea for the name of the community: Olive Branch, a symbol of peace and recovery.”

Beshear said the Knott County project is the first of several communities that are part of his administration’s long-term housing plan.?

Beshear told reporters that the plan addresses the challenges of rebuilding communities outside Eastern Kentucky’s flood plains and securing flat land for housing and supporting economic development. In July,?a huge rainfall over a short timeframe caused normally small creeks to swell into deadly flash floods.

The governor said building the communities will take time because “we want to build it right.” That includes improving water treatment facilities as well as building roads and utilities.?

Beshear said the state is evaluating land in Knott, Breathitt, Perry and Letcher counties, which account for about 75% of the homes lost to flood damage.?

Ideas for the first Knott County location include small, medium and large lots for homes; senior apartments, parks and recreation spaces; and possibly an elementary school.?

?Beshear has said? that his administration and others including FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were looking at a few potential sites in counties affected by flooding.?

As of Dec. 9, the Commonwealth Sheltering Program was housing almost 700 Eastern Kentuckians in travel trailers in Letcher, Floyd, Pike, Knott, Breathitt, Clay and Perry counties. Then, 87 households had been transitioned out of the program and into long-term options.?

According to a release from the governor’s office:

Rebuilding a community

Beshear said a selection process for the homes will be rolled out after infrastructure work is completed. Likely, a few organizations with different systems will be involved, such as Habitat for Humanity and FEMA.?

After almost six months since the floods, Eastern Kentuckians are still facing challenges.?

While Beshear was at the courthouse in Hindman, Kate Clemons and other volunteers were across ?the street handing out meals to flood victims. He stopped by to talk with them Tuesday afternoon, she said.?

With help from different donory, Clemons, who is from Hazard, estimated that a few hundred people or so a day are fed a hot meal. She also tries to help flood victims by getting them other resources, such as heaters or gift cards to Lowe’s to repair their homes. Much of her coordination is through her personal Facebook page.?

As severe winter weather is anticipated over Christmas weekend, Clemons said she worries that people will freeze to death. She has heard from some residents whose HVAC systems or gas lines were washed out in the flood.?

“They don’t have anywhere to go. There’s no shelters. The hotels are full,” she said. “They don’t have money for a house.”?

Clemons said she was appreciative of Beshear and the announcement of the community, but she wanted to highlight the immediate needs.?

“They’ll have to spend money developing. I don’t know how long that will take but I am just so thankful that Andy truly cares enough that he kept his word to help us with the housing.”

On Main Street, the Appalachian School of Luthiery and Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Co. began sharing a building after the flood. The company is a nonprofit organization that maintains the school.?

Doug Naselroad, the director of the instrument company, said the school’s building up the street and the company’s factory along the creek were both destroyed during the floods.?

“This is a building that was eight feet underwater and it’s been restored,” Naselroad said “The machinery has been replaced or refurbished and we’re ordering more.” The school will likely remain in the building, but the company intends to rebuild its factory though it will take time, he added.?

When it comes to asking why Appalachians stay in their community, Naselroad said there’s a better question: Why leave??

“If you want to define who an Appalachian person is, it’s a person who never got beat out,” Naselroad said.

Christmas decorations hang from a shattered window in Mayfield on Dec. 13, 2021, three days after an EF-4 tornado hit the town. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Western Kentucky communities that were devastated by a violent tornado outbreak last year are marking the one-year anniversary of the natural disaster this weekend with gatherings in churches, candlelight vigils and more.

For elected officials and other community members organizing the events, it’s a chance to remember what was lost — lives, entire streets of homes and historic buildings — while also noting the progress made to rebuild houses and come together as a community.

At least 80 Kentuckians lost their lives in a tornado outbreak that tore through communities from Cayce — in the far western tip of the state — to Bowling Green, destroying and damaging thousands of homes along the way.

Mayfield

First responders the night of December, 10, 2021 were helping pull survivors out of the rubble of Mayfield Consumer Products, a candle factory that collapsed when an EF-4 tornado struck the town of about 10,000. Nine people died in that collapse, including a corrections officer for the local jail who was supervising inmates working in the factory.

Now, one local official said hundreds of people making up first responders and other community members plan to walk about two miles Saturday morning from the former site of the candle factory to downtown Mayfield.

Tracy Warner, the emergency management director for Graves County, said search and rescue personnel from Louisville and emergency management staff from Northern Kentucky plan to join the walk. She said it could be an opportunity for first responders and survivors to reconnect.

“Just like an ambulance — you take them to the hospital, you drop them off, you might never know how they were from then on out,” Warner said. “If some of them transported somebody to a hospital, to actually — if they do reunite — to be able to say, ‘Oh, I helped you and you’re doing amazing.’”

Saturday afternoon at Graves County High School gymnasium, the local governments for Mayfield and Graves County will also hold a commemoration service titled, “A CELEBRATION OF HOPE: WE WILL REMEMBER.” Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan said the service at 2:30 p.m. CST is foremost for the local families who lost loved ones in the storms.

“Rebuilding is so vitally important, but we can always rebuild. Those lives will never come back,” O’Nan said. “This is just a small thing we can do to let them know that…we haven’t forgotten people.”

Dawson Springs

Dawson Springs was also in the 165-mile-long path of the EF-4 tornado that devastated Mayfield. Nineteen people died in the Hopkins County city of less than 3,000, and an estimated 75% of the community’s housing stock was destroyed.

A local church, Dawson Springs Primitive Baptist Church, had its roof torn off by the violent winds. Pastor Jeff Winfrey said the house of worship on East Walnut Street has been repaired, and his congregation plans to have a service at 2:30 p.m. CST Saturday, conveying a message of hope for the future.

“We try to console some who have lost so much,” Winfrey said. “And give hope to the town that we can someday get back to some semblance of what we had.”

Later that evening at 6 p.m. CST, the town will have a candlelight service at City Park. The service will be followed by a dance at the community center that evening.

Dawson Springs mayor-elect Jenny Sewell, who won the position unopposed in this fall’s general election, said rebuilt homes are also being dedicated and showcased that day.

“The fact that people are beginning to have their homes rebuilt, and the fact that other people had come on in to help them to make that happen. I mean, that is a celebration. That is a tremendous celebration,” Sewell said. “We can say that it’s somewhat bittersweet — no kidding. We know what the ‘bitter’ was. But the ‘sweet’ is that the page is turning.”

Other communities

Cities large and small in the region are also marking the anniversary with gatherings and services as shows of community solidarity.

• Marshall County residents plan to gather Saturday afternoon to honor and observe the lives lost from the storms.

• The Bowling Green-Warren County Disaster Recovery Group will hold a vigil this Sunday to remember the 17 lives lost there from the tornado outbreak, inviting community members to “focus white light upward” with flashlights, candles and more.

• The Muhlenberg County town of Bremen will hold a memorial service at 5 p.m. CST Saturday at a local elementary school for those lost in the disaster.

Beshear to visit region

Gov. Andy Beshear told media on Thursday that his Saturday visit to the region will start in Hopkins County before going to Marshall County and then Mayfield. The visit will be a time to commemorate those lost and celebrate rebuilding, he said. “In many ways, every challenge we’ve been through, whether it’s the pandemic or these (natural disasters), we both mourn what we’ve lost, but we also celebrate the heroism of so many people.”

McKenna Horsley contributed to this story.