Beshear provides updates on eastern Ky. flooding and relief efforts
Published 10:55 am Friday, August 19, 2022
- Flooding ravaged several eastern Kentucky counties in the waning days of July. Clean-up and recovery efforts are ongoing. (Kentucky Today file photo)
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During his regular weekly press conference on Thursday, Governor Andy Beshear said the death toll from the historic flooding in eastern Kentucky last month remains at 39, while two Breathitt County women are still missing.
The deaths have occurred in five counties: 8 in Breathitt, 2 in Clay, 19 in Knott, 3 in Letcher and 7 in Perry. The missing women are Vanessa Baker, 60, and Nancy Cundiff, 29. Both were last seen at their respective homes in the Lost Creek community.
Four hundred and fifty-five people are still being housed in congregate shelters or at Kentucky state parks in the area, according to the Governor.
Beshear said 94 travel trailers have been moved from the area of the tornado outbreak in western Kentucky last December and have been or are being set up at Jenny Wiley, Carr Creek, Mine Made and Crocketsville campgrounds. “Seven hundred plus have applied for the trailers, and we are going to be augmenting the 100 trailers we’ll have available. Probably doubling that number at least,” he said.
He reported the total number of donations to the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund is 34,157 and the donated amount stands at $6,715,099. A total of 39 funeral payments have been dispersed totaling $390,000. To donate online, visit TeamEKYFloodReliefFund.ky.gov.
The update on utilities flood area includes all wireless providers now report full restoration. Power outages now stand at 74 customers, down from 27,000 on July 29. Drinking water connections remaining without service stand at 2,634, down from 40,000 on July 28.
“It is important, even for those who have been through the most difficult of times these last couple of weeks, to see that there is a big bright future in front of us,” Beshear said. “Yes, we might get knocked down, but we don’t get knocked out, and we also don’t get knocked backward. As a commonwealth, we can pick up our brothers and sisters in the west and the east, rebuild lives, rebuild towns and also move forward in providing the type of economic opportunity for our kids and our kids’ kids that we have always dreamed of.”
For the latest information on services available for flood victims, go to governor.ky.gov/FloodResources.
