BREATHITT COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Last July, a mother had to escape raging flood waters along Bowling Creek in Breathitt County. She had to tie her children together to prevent them from being swept away.
Jessica Willett’s mobile home was destroyed by the flood, and nine months later she’s finally got a new one to replace it.
But Willett says her new double-wide mobile home can’t be delivered until the flood-damaged road to her property is fixed.
Neighbors feel for the family, and for so many in the area still trying to get their lives back in order.
"They don't even bring a school bus down in here,” Janet Noble said. “We have to take our little grandchildren up to the head of the creek up here.”
Noble was just recently able to move back to her property of 40 years. Her new mobile home was covered by FEMA.
Noble said FEMA’s one-on-one assistance after the flood went a long way.
“They’ve really helped this community, now,” Noble said. “Some of them think they haven’t done enough but now they’ve done quite a bit.”
Some bridges in the area are being built back, but there’s still much more to do.
LEX 18 reached out to the Breathitt County judge executive’s office to learn when the stretch of Bowling Creek Road near Willett’s land will be repaired, but we haven’t yet heard back.
For flood survivors like Noble, the fear of rising water is persistent.
Noble recalls seeing a wave of water the day of the floods last summer. She said if it ever gets that bad again, she’ll be evacuating.
“I’d leave before it got to the bank, I’d be gone,” Noble said. “That scares you when all of a sudden you see water coming.”
But Noble said she, and most of the people in the area, plan to continue to live near the creek.
“It’s the only home we have,” Noble said. “We’ve lived here for, let's see, we’ve been married about 40 years. All our children’s raised here, everything we have’s here.”
