‘The worst flash flooding.’ Beshear surveys flood damage in hard-hit KY counties.
It could take weeks to finish assessments of damage from this week’s historic flooding in Eastern Kentucky, but it’s safe to say hundreds of homes were affected, Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday.
Beshear flew Friday morning over several flooded counties in the region to get a first-hand look at the damage.
Beshear went to Western Kentucky earlier in the week, but it was his first flight over areas of Eastern Kentucky hit by the worst flooding in decades.
“Certainly you can see the devastation,” Beshear said after touching down in Beattyville in a National Guard helicopter to talk with local officials. “What I saw was the worst flash-flooding that I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
Beshear estimated the flood affected 200 homes just in Lee and Breathitt counties.
“It’s gonna grow from there,” he said of the number of homes with damage.
Beshear and Michael Dossett, head of Kentucky Emergency Management, said the state will request two types of disaster relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — public assistance, to help cities, counties and the state deal with damage to roads and other infrastructure, and individual assistance to homeowners.
Local officials said public assistance will be crucial in recovering from the disaster.
“We’ve got to have state help. We’ve got to have federal help,” said Jackson Mayor Laura Thomas.
Dossett said it is difficult to get approved for individual assistance, but the state is determined to apply for it.
The state has 30 days to file its applications. Officials urged people to document the damage to their homes and businesses to aid that process.
If the state qualifies for individual assistance, homeowners with damage could get up to $35,000 from FEMA that wouldn’t have to be repaid, Dossett said.
Dosseett said it’s likely officials can complete the required damage assessments in two weeks.
The initial focus of the assessments will be on eight counties that bore the brunt of the high water — Estill, Lee, Owsley, Breathitt, Powell, Jackson, Clay and Johnson.
Other assessments will follow, however. A total of 71 cities or counties in Kentucky made local disaster declarations in addition to the state declaration Beshear did, Dossett said.
Some local officials said it will take months to recover from the flooding, which hit all-time record levels in some spots.
In Clay County, where flooding broke waterlines, the county had made significant progress on repairs but some people were still without service on Friday, said emergency manager David Watson.
The county has set up five places to distribute water, food and cleaning supplies to residents.
Cleanup continued around the region Friday.
“There is just so much that has to be done,” said Lee County Judge-Executive Chuck Caudill Jr.
Breathitt County Emergency Management Director Chris Friley toured the dam under Ky. 15. with U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers Friday. Friley said engineers were removing sandbags meant to temporarily shore up the dam and replacing them with bigger rocks. Dam repairs are estimated at $10 million.
Beshear said FEMA officials will arrive Monday.
They were initially coming to figure out if the state qualifies for a disaster declaration for the ice and snow storms in February that wrecked electric lines and left tens of thousands of people without power, but will deal with the flood as well.
Dossett said those ice and snow events caused $30 million in damage just to electric infrastructure.
The threshold for Kentucky to qualify for a presidential disaster declaration in that event was $6.7 million, Dossett said.
Beshear said the state has set up a hotline for people who need help cleaning up from the flood. The number is 800-451-1954.
Beshear and others talked Friday about the flood as the latest challenge the state has faced, on the heels of the ice storm and a year after the state’s first coronavirus case.
Some counties were still clearing away downed trees from the ice storm when the flood hit.
“It has been a tough year,” Beshear said.
But he and others lauded the efforts that firefighters, police, emergency management officials, National Guard troops, utility workers, health workers and volunteers have made to deal with the disasters.
“You all are incredible,” Beshear said.
Estill County Judge-Executive Donnie Watson told the story of a widow in her 70s who was trapped in her home by high water.
At one point she fell in water that got into her house, and was wet, cold and alone. Police and others tried to get to her, but couldn’t.
Watson called the state emergency operations center, which arranged for a helicopter to pluck her off her roof.
“If not for help from you all, this woman would have died,” Watson told state officials at the meeting.
Beshear has said there were no deaths during the flooding.
However, Perry County Sheriff Joe Engle said in a news release that a woman there was killed Wednesday when she wrecked after hitting ice on Lotts Creek Road that resulted from runoff from the heavy rain and flooding earlier in the week.
The woman, Laural Gamble Webb, was pronounced dead at the hospital in Hazard, according to the release.
Beshear said that in addition to seeing the damage, he also made the trip Friday to show support for flood victims and those working to help them.
“This state is with you,” he said.
Beshear spoke at a community center in Beattyville piled with donated good, clothing and cleaning supplies. After he left, volunteers got busy carrying out boxes of food and cleaning supplies to take to flood victims.
U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers also toured flooded areas Friday with Kelly Craft, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Bill Deaton, a businessman and native of Owsley County who made a $50,000 donation to flood relief, according to a news release.
Operation UNITE, an anti-drug initiative Rogers started in his district, has set up a fund for donations to flood victims and staffers in Rogers’ office have delivered water and other items in flooded counties.
Rogers said private donations such as the one from Deaton “ are critically important for individuals who barely escaped their flooded homes with the clothes they were wearing,” because it will take time to get federal assistance in place.
Rogers said he would work with the Kentucky delegation in Congress to support a federal disaster declaration for Kentucky.
“We need to mobilize FEMA and other federal resources as soon as possible, but we cannot get that access until the declaration is approved,” Rogers said.
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 2:50 PM.
