A year after historic flooding in Eastern Kentucky, progress is being made as small communities continue to recover.

On a recent quiet July morning in Letcher County, life looked fairly normal in Neon, or Fleming-Neon as most folks call it. The post office was busy with local customers, the auto repair shop was buzzing with activities, and the local bank had a nearly full parking lot. Sunshine and blue skies were the order of the day.

It’s hard to imagine that just one year ago, this small mountain community, along with many others in the region, was devastated by historical flooding that left behind destroyed homes and businesses, shattered nerves and dreams, and worst of all, loss of life.

An overview on the National Weather Service’s website notes, “Between July 25 and July 30, 2022, several complexes of training thunderstorms developed south of I-64 and brought heavy rain, deadly flash flooding, and devastating river flooding to eastern Kentucky and central Appalachia. These thunderstorms, at times, caused rainfall rates over four inches per hour across complex terrain that led to widespread devastating impact.”

Some people lost everything they owned while others have spent much of the past year repairing, rebuilding, or simply moving on to another town to get back to some semblance of normalcy.

Ashley Crabtree has grown up in this area and recalls the night the storms moved through. 

“My family and I were fortunate to be away on vacation when we got the first call about the floods, and water being on our road,” she said. “But it was the second phone call from someone telling us the water was in the house that sent us packing and heading back.”

While Crabtree admits the main concern through all of this was that her family was safe, she recalls the varying emotions she felt while heading home to unknown damages to her home and community.

“It was very real, and scary, and I felt a lot of different emotions all at the same time,” she said. “We didn’t know what we were going to find or what we would do. But the most important thing was, we were all safe.” 

While her family lost most of their belongings, they were able to save their home with a lot of work that is still going on today. 

“It was very emotional for us but trying to see the positive side of things got us through the whole process,” Crabtree said. 

Mark Wright is the Kentucky Farm Bureau agency manager in Letcher County and also a lifelong resident. He said the flooding was like nothing he had ever seen before.

“It was a very emotional time, but thankfully we were able to get to the office and take care of our customers, even though we didn’t have power at first,” he said. “I've never seen anything this devastating in our area, especially dealing with the insurance side of it.”

Wright recalls his office being full of people soon after the flood and how overwhelming it seemed to be at times. But he also reflected on one incident where a member came in not thinking he was covered by his insurance policy only to discover he was.

“When we told him, he just bent over in front of all these people (in the office) just whelping and crying that he had coverage,” Wright said. “He stills thanks us when we see him.”

Wright added that it has taken a while to see, but progress is being made in county communities such as Neon.  

“We recently had fireworks on the 4th of July, so we are seeing progress although we have a long way to go to get back to where we were before the flood,” he said.

Crabtree said she has grown up in this area of Kentucky and leaving after the flood was never a part of her family’s plan. And now, as the one-year anniversary of the flood passes, their home is nearly back to normal, thanks to the help from neighbors and KFB.

“Mark has been wonderful with us, and answered any questions that we had,” s­­­he said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of things that we really had to do, just filled out some paperwork. So, they took a lot of stress off of us.”

Crabtree added that it has been interesting to see, in a time of need, how people came together to support each other, something that has helped her and her community. Much of that support has come from outside the area.

Farm Bureau members from throughout the state began to make their way to the area immediately after the storms to help in numerous ways.

Volunteers from Pendleton County were some from many counties who made the trip to several Eastern Kentucky communities.

This Northern Kentucky county is nearly 200 miles away from many of the affected areas but the distance was not a challenge for Jim Meadows, a local farm supply company owner and county Farm Bureau board member.

He, along with an army of volunteers from his area, has made three trips, so far, to the flood region to help feed those in need after last summer’s disaster.

“We have a trailer that has been put together to prepare food and when we heard of the need from our Area Program Director Mike Tobin and Director, Field Services Julia Rollins, we did not hesitate to go, each time taking more than 30 volunteers with us,” he said. “It was unreal, what we saw, and we were amazed at how many people came out who were in need.”

Each time Meadows made the trip, he set up the trailer at the KFB office in Hindman. Altogether, Meadows said they fed over 3,000 meals, including a full Thanksgiving feast a week before the holiday.

We had a lot of support and help in getting the meals together and it was just a Godsend to us to be able to do something like that,” he said. “God had to have a hand in it.”

Crabtree said it’s a little difficult now to sleep when it storms at night, but this place is home and a place where they intend to stay.

“This is our home, and we have family here who support us and help us out when we need it,” she said. “I grew up here and this is where we just want our kids to grow and experience things.”