BREATHITT COUNTY, KY. (LEX 18) — When disaster struck via record-breaking rain and flooding, a small family-owned motel provided safe housing for those who were displaced. Six months later, a survivor returned to that hotel to plea for more help for her community.
When heavy rain brought record flooding and submerged her rental, long-time resident Stephanie Clemons had just hauled her husband home from the hospital.
"We got back and water was almost to our road. By the time I got him in, I was getting a couple of things together. The water had come up so fast and we could hardly get back down the road," Clemons recalled.
They had to take a railroad track to get out.
"It seemed like it all just hit at once," said Clemons.
They had no time to prepare or to brace for what would be a long road ahead to recovery.
Six months later, the influx of people that came to help have since dried up like the water. Clemons feels so has the resources for financial assistance.
"It's kind of like we're left alone now," said Clemons. "When it got to the point that we actually needed them they all just disappeared. It dissipated."
The Clemons family is one of eighty-one households in temporary FEMA housing units. She says many in the community in similar situations are unsure about the future.
She received two Team Kentucky Flood Relief checks but says she does not know how to get more help.
"I'm stuck in the mobile unit and don't have any clue. I could be put out anytime and then I'm going to be homeless again with nothing," she explained.
More than $154. 6 million has been poured into 13 counties in eastern Kentucky for recovery.
Soon after the disaster was declared, Disaster Survivor Assistance teams visited more than 24,000 homes and individuals to offer guidance on the recovery process, assist with applications for federal assistance, and to help those who already applied to complete and submit required paperwork.
Most of the in-person help is no longer there.
FEMA and the Commonwealth opened eight Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs) to meet with disaster survivors face-to-face and assist them in accessing federal and Commonwealth programs to help in their recovery. Throughout the recovery, more than 17,000 visits to the DRCs were facilitated.
Those centers are now closed.
Currently, 243 families are housed in travel trailers. Kentucky State Parks are now housing 28 people, down from the 360 people sheltered on September 1, 2022.
Yet, Clemmons says she is one many who feel they are falling through the cracks of the process. Because she's struggling to survive daily.
"There's still people that need essential everyday stuff," said Clemons.
She feels like red-tape and restrictions are making resources difficult for people to access.
"It's you go here for help and it's a, well you need to go here, and you need to go there. Everyday people that work and lives paycheck to paycheck can't do that," said Clemons.
Clemons says being low income with no credit is a major hurdle to true recovery.
"We're still being denied," said Clemons. "We've jumped through every hoop. We're turned in everything they've asked for and we're still denied."
"I absolutely feel like my family was left behind," said Clemons.
The only thing that's really changed is she's now back to relying on her local community help, rather than relief funds or kind strangers from out of town.
"It's been all people from here that's helped bend over backwards," she said.
