BREATHITT COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Two years ago, more than 40 people died when historic flooding hit 13 counties in Eastern Kentucky.
For one Breathitt County woman whose new home was overtaken by floodwaters, life is finally starting to return to normal.
In the summer of 2022, Katie Turner and her husband didn’t even have time to move into their dream home before the flood nearly swallowed it.
“Five, six days after you close on your first ever home, a one in a 1,000 year flood comes and you can't get assistance from anybody to help you,” Turner said.
LEX 18’s Leigh Searcy first talked to Turner after FEMA told the family they wouldn’t get help because they didn’t have proof of occupancy of the home. But days after LEX 18 started asking questions, Turner said FEMA notified them that they were eligible for assistance after all.
“We had a right to get help like everyone else did,” Turner said.
Returning to relative normalcy has taken time.
“When you're going through the process of rebuilding you're focused so much on that, getting into a home and having a place to live, that you don't have time to deal with everything you went through,” Turner said.
Since the floods, Turner has struggled with anxiety around severe weather – and she knows she isn’t the only one in the area with that problem.
“I don't do well with any kind of bad weather at all, it's not just rain,” Turner said. “It's any kind of bad weather now.”
Through it all, Turner said the good has outweighed the bad.
“Help comes from the most unexpected places really, I mean the people you think you're going to get help from, not so much,” Turner said. “The majority of the help that we received came from strangers and people we didn't even know. People who helped from the goodness of their heart.”
A house once bare and stripped to the studs is now warm and welcoming.
“You want the walls to have joy and be able to have laughter,” Turner said. “Get past all that and really enjoy life and time you have.”
