There was recent flooding in Kentucky, but it was nothing like what happened a year ago when 45 people died in 14 counties when rivers and creeks overflowed in a historic flood. In the aftermath some people opted to move to higher ground, but others decided to stay in their homes.
Sherry Mullins vividly remembers trying to get to her house after visiting a relative a year ago. She couldn't reach it and realized her son and husband were inside.
“There was water, it looked like two rivers on each side of my house and there was no way for them to get out of there, they were trapped,” Mullins said.
There was little she could do as the creek that ran near her home became a raging river.
“So, I just stood there and I watched the neighbors’ houses go down the stream and you could hear it, it would hit the top of our house and it was like screeching as it passed.”
Two storms had stalled over Eastern Kentucky and dumped massive amounts of rain over several days. Mullins and her husband have since moved to a new home a few miles away and on much higher ground, but she still gets upset when the weather starts to turn.
“Not really an anxious person, but you know, it just brings it all back and like, when it storms, or rains really hard, you know, I’m just nervous, just like pace, like a cat in a cage,” said Mullins.
“It was horrible.”
Betty Noble also clearly remembers the flood. The 77-year-old was Mullins’ neighbor, but she decided to stay in her home once it was repaired. She said it hasn’t been easy.
“It’s been a long hard road, it’s been a long year, it really has, but we’re beginning to come back.”
To help people move, the Federal Emergency Management Agency teamed up with the state government to work on a voluntary buyout program.
FEMA ‘s Myra Shird said over five hundred people initially expressed interest in selling.
“And there are folks saying “yes, I want to stay” but we have found more are thinking about “hey I would like to move” and they’re thinking about it. “
Mullins and Noble were thinking about selling their properties to the state to become greenspace, but ultimately decided not to. For Mullins, the roots on her creek-side land run too deep.
“We were offered that option, but our property on River Caney was land that had been handed down, that were settled in the 1700’s and that is, was my parents’ heritage, you know,” she said.
And for Noble, there are just too many memories so, in her mind, selling wasn’t an option.
“I’ve had my children, and my husband passed away here, he’s buried just down the road here, I wanted to stay at my home, because I’m just too old to change it.”
Outside, in her yard she’s replaced many of the animals she lost in the flood. You can also see where landslides cleared portions of the hillsides around her home, she worries about what will happen if heavy rains come again.
“We’re back in the house, but we’re scared, we’re still scared, it still comes back sometimes,” Noble said.
But fear is not enough reason for these Eastern Kentuckians to leave, despite the flood dangers. A year later, FEMA has made offers on only about 240 properties that had flooded, but many residents are still choosing to stay.
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Sherry Mullins and her husband in her new home on higher ground in Perry County
Betty Noble and her granddaughter look through a photo album remembering the recovery from the flood that damaged her home.
The creek and retaining wall in front of Betty Noble's home in eastern Kentucky
The culvert under Betty Noble's driveway, this caught a lot of debris and made the flooding worse on her property
