WHITESBURG, Ky. — When the small creek in front of Brian Lucas' Kentucky home turned into a roaring river one night in late July, he fled with his wife, two kids, dog and cat out the back and up the side of a hill.
Since then, they have been staying with relatives while they deal with insurance adjusters, following the historic flooding in eastern Kentucky that so far has claimed 37 lives.
Lucas considers himself lucky. Still, the only home his children — ages 10 and 15 — have ever known is a total loss.
Standing in the mud on what was his front yard, he told NPR, "I have no intentions of leaving eastern Kentucky. I don't care how high the water gets. But do I want to live here? Probably not."
The immediate challenges of disaster relief in this part of Appalachia involve getting food, water and medicine to remote communities. The floods have also interrupted efforts to build a post-coal economy in eastern Kentucky, and displaced residents in a region where affordable houses are already hard to come by and flat land suitable for building new ones is scarce.
The inland floods, a type of disaster made worse by climate change, stretched across more than a dozen counties. Hundreds of families have moved into government-run shelters, according to Gov. Andy Beshear's office.
Lucas and his family have been staying with his in-laws, just across the street from his waterlogged house in Isom, Ky., and a few miles from where he grew up.
"Family is a big thing here. You have families that live close to each other and have lived close to each other their whole lives," he said.
Piecing together a sense of normalcy following tragedy
Lucas' family is intimately aware of these economic shifts. His father was a coal truck driver who Lucas said kept getting laid off, so he went back to school to become a nurse at Appalachian Regional Healthcare — one of the single largest employers in the region. Lucas now manages medical equipment there.
Dozens of ARH employees have lost their homes. The organization has provided housing to some, as well as sending supplies to communities up in the mountains, according to Tim Hatfield, an executive who oversees six of the ARH's hospitals. The organization also lent Lucas a truck to drive after the flood destroyed his vehicles.
Another thing that defines this area, Lucas said, is that people take care of each other and take pride in fending for themselves — even in the face of tragedy. That's one reason why, with everything else going on, he visited his local barber after the flood.
"That's a small business. If you're not spending money at that small business who got hit by the flood, too, guess what? They don't exist anymore," he said.
Several organizations, such as the Mountain Association, had been trying to revitalize and diversify the local economy and create jobs in the region before the floods.
"This is not a place that corporate America is going to invest in," Betsy Whaley, chief strategy officer with the Association, told NPR.
After the disaster, they plan to provide small loans to stabilize small businesses but will need more resources to help dig businesses out of the hole the floods put them in, she said.
Local businesses and organizations brace for economic hardship
The decline of coal mining led to mass layoffs in the area, and many have pulled up stakes and moved away. Now, Whaley worries that climate change, which makes inland flooding like this worse, is creating another challenge for the region. And that could mean more residents will leave.
Painstaking efforts to build up small businesses have been literally washed away overnight. Whaley shared the example of Gwen Christon, who owns an IGA grocery store in Isom.
Christon poured money into upgrades, such as a new HVAC system, coolers and solar panels before the flooding began, Whaley said.
Getting the store ready to open again would be prohibitively expensive, Christon told The Herald-Leader, but if it closes for good, the community loses a vital business.
"Where her store is, is a food desert," Whaley said.
Another major institution, the schools, have also suffered. During a recent meeting convened by the Kentucky Department of Education, Letcher County school superintendent Denise Yonts broke down when describing their losses: two staff members dead, six schools damaged.
"Our community as a whole is devastated," she told attendees.
Districts across the region are pushing back their start dates as administrators scramble to find enough undamaged space for students.
One challenge is just how rural the area is. Going to a different school might mean an extended commute along winding mountain roads.
Poverty is another persistent challenge that about a quarter of the people of the flooded counties face, according to U.S. Census data.
"The unfortunate part is some of the communities hit were some of the most impoverished," said Perry County superintendent Jonathan Jett.
He worries this disaster could be the final straw for many who have lived here for generations.
"I think people if they leave here, they're never coming back," Jett said.
The rebuilding process begins
Getting clean water, finding new homes, and removing mud and mold from flood-damaged buildings are among the immediate concerns plaguing most of eastern Kentucky.
In Hindman, Ky., where the downtown flooded, Doug Naselroad stood Thursday in the storefront that houses his stringed instrument-building school, the Appalachian School of Luthiery.
Naselroad also runs the Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Company, named for the brook that runs through town. It's the same creek that deposited the fine brown mud throughout the school and factory, ruining guitars and expensive equipment.
"I love the people of Hindman. I love my guys. I hate that creek," Naselroad said.
The school also has a social mission, training people referred from drug court and local recovery centers to craft high-quality instruments. Some get so skilled, they are hired to work in the factory, Naselroad said.
"I have some people who are having extreme psychological distress, and for people in recovery, this is not a good thing," he said.
Even though the first order of business is mucking out the building and using lots of Lysol, Naselroad said he is already thinking about ways to spin what happened into a new opportunity.
He plans to keep payroll going for his staff. Maybe they'll make a special run of dulcimers from wood that survived the flood, he said.
"I am thinking rebuilding a factory would be good. We're going to take care of them, come hell or high water," he said, laughing. "But that's the truth, hell or high water."
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