LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) — It’s been three years since devastating flooding swept through 14 eastern Kentucky counties, killing 45 people and displacing thousands.
Samantha Turner of Perry County told FOX 56 she will never forget July 2022.
“The first thing I could hear was across the tracks; I could just hear people hollering for help,” said Turner.
As the night fell, Turner tried to reach everyone she could, including her best friend, before cell service disappeared.
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“All I could hear was her crying, and she said, ‘My granny’s house is in the creek; it’s gone.'” Turner recalled.
Three years have passed, but the pain still lingers.
She said she remembers four days after the flood, she was watching everything she had ever owned, everything she had worked for, being put into a dump truck.
“Watching yourself go through that, it’s tough,” added Turner. “But watching your community go through that is also tough.”
She remembers the days after, boots on the ground, helping those in need, even while trying to rebuild her own life.
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Now, three years later, she has a new home, thanks to the Housing Development Alliance.
“I’ve heard the governor say that when you start recovery, you start by building a house here, a house there, and then once that momentum really gets behind you and you’re able to get neighborhoods, then you start building communities,” said the executive director of the Housing Development Alliance, Scott McReynolds.
“Just being able to lie down and sleep at night and when it’s raining and not thinking, I might wake up in the morning and have nothing, or I’m not going to have to walk out on my porch and hear my neighbors cry for help because we’re going to be safe,” Turner added.
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