Eastern Kentuckians are helping neighbors ‘from daylight to dark’ to recover from floods

Devastated by floods that have left dozens dead and damaged or destroyed homes, some Eastern Kentucky residents say a hardworking lifestyle will help them recover. Leaders at a church in Knott County have already seen that, as residents in the county have helped their neighbors clean up despite suffering their own catastrophic damage.

Jordan Hughes, a 25-year-old who lives in Knott County, said the area will push through the flooding that has wiped away much of his community.

“Up until six months ago, we had dirty well water and didn’t have city water and, we live a little bit in the past, but that will help a little bit in this exact tragedy because people around here know how to wash their clothes out in the water and gather water,” Hughes said.

“People know how to operate backhoes, and I have seen them trying to get people’s yards – or at least their driveways for now – rebuilt and back at their house, they have their own problems to deal with,” he said. “A lot of people are helping others from daylight to dark, and go home and help themselves and restart all again the next morning.”

Hughes and his family live in Knott County and their homes had minimal damage. His brother is pastor at the Lighthouse Baptist Church and his father, James, is assistant pastor. They’re using the church as a base to help others in the community get a hot meal, water or hygiene products.

On Wednesday, he was driving into hollers, delivering meals and asking people what they needed if they couldn’t leave their homes.

When he gets into neighborhoods, Hughes sees neighbors helping each other despite their own tragedy just next door.

“There are people who have lost people and everything and they are asking what they can do for others and saying, ‘What can we do today?’ and ‘Ours can wait,’” Hughes said. “I know it sounds cliche, that is just how the people here are. ... We have always tried to help our own with whatever we can.”

He recalled one picture of a girl who lived nearby who gave the shoes off her feet to someone who needed them more at the time.

“Countless things like that have happened,” he said.

Gov. Andy Beshear and other officials have also made note of neighbors helping each other in Eastern Kentucky.

“You want something in the midst of darkness that is an incredible ray of light … virtually every person in this county who didn’t have their home wiped out – and some who did – were here helping an amazing and enormous operation,” Beshear said in a press conference. “There had to be 100 plus volunteers filling people’s cars up as people came through giving them hot food to eat, baby formula, diapers.”

Growing up in a community of about 15,000 people, Hughes said everyone is like family. He has seen people who held him when he was a newborn lose everything they have, which adds another layer of devastation to an already tragic situation.

“You would not believe the amount of grown men and women that have worked their whole lives, and when you ask ‘How are you doing,’ and they just break down and cry and they say, ‘I worked my whole life for what I have, and it is all gone because of this.’”

He said people in Eastern Kentucky are givers and helpers themselves, proud and resilient, and help is needed to get through this disaster.

“People I have seen my entire life work from daylight to dawn, this 55-year-old man that wouldn’t take a donation, I took one up to him, and he is the type of person would not take a donation from anyone in the world unless he had to and I handed him a meal and he was eating it before he had it out of the bag,” Hughes said.

Donations have poured into Eastern Kentucky communities from all over Kentucky and outside the state.

“We have had people come in from Lexington and other states,” he said. “We continue to get pallets of water, and as soon as it gets here, there is a need for more.”

Boy Scout troops, football teams, basketball fans, strangers from hours away all have made efforts to help with recovery.

“It will take a lot of work and it will take a lot of help from other areas,” Hughes said. “We are very prideful people but we do understand that we will have to have help from other people.”

At Lighthouse Baptist Church, Hughes said they have been serving meals, accepting donations, and will continue to do so. The church has received an abundance of clothing, which he said is not the primary need.

The biggest need is water, hygiene products, non-perishable food and trash bags, he said. People have also donated money directly to Hughes, so he can buy materials necessary for those he is serving.

Hughes said the whole community needs support from others to carry on.

“It is hard to imagine what it all looks like without being here,” he said. “We are trying to let people know how bad it actually is. This isn’t just Eastern Kentucky crying wolf. There are homes that, where they were sitting, it is just the foundation now. Some homes you can’t even find because they were washed down the creek.

“Four babies are dead and I have broken down many times about that. … We need everyone’s prayers going forward.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2022 at 6:57 AM.

Taylor Six

Lexington Herald-Leader

Taylor Six is the criminal justice reporter at the Herald-Leader. She was born and raised in Lexington attending Lafayette High School. She graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in 2018 with a degree in journalism. She previously worked as the government reporter for the Richmond Register.