On the morning of July 28, 2022 eastern Kentucky awoke to find the landscape of this area changed forever from historic flooding. Lives were lost, multiple homes and business were destroyed cars flooded or washed away and many of our farms were damaged or destroyed including livestock losses, structures, and equipment and feed loss.  It’s estimated that in the 4 Counties that had the most severe flooding, Breathitt, Knott, Letcher and Perry, that more than 5000 homes were damaged beyond repair and more than 400 farms were impacted. 70 of these farms were in Perry County.

     I immediately began receiving numerous calls, not from flood victims, but from people that wanted to assist the farmers that were impacted. There was never any doubt that Extension would respond and assist but the question was how. We had to find storage buildings and locations to house feed and other items that were on their way to us. We had to figure out how best to distribute these donations and donated funds. From this, rose one of the largest team efforts that I have ever been involved with. I wish I had the verbiage to put it all in writing but it would take writing a book to cover everything that went into this.

     Our main objective was to find a location to house donations. The ANR Agent in Breathitt County and local leadership were able to secure a 43,000 sq. ft. warehouse. Working with Mountain Cattlemen Association Leadership, I was able to secure another location, Meade Tractor, in Perry County to use as a donation drop-off. We were in business. The donations started rolling in just a few days after the flood. Over a four month period we received 10 tractor trailer loads of feed, more than 4000 square bales of hay, more than 2500 round bales of hay, fencing supplies and many other farm items. These items came in from as far away as Colorado and South Carolina. We also had donations come in from other states like W. Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana and from all across Kentucky.   

     With the assistance of some of our co-workers, who had recently been through a similar disaster, we modified a needs assessment they had used successfully. This needs assessment was used to identify farmers who had immediate needs. We advertise on local media outlets for farmers to request one of these assessments, fill it out and return it to your local Extension Office. We used these needs assessments to make sure farmers that were affected got some assistance. I also developed another assessment form to get a dollar amount of what they lost. Using a percentage of loss from the funds we had, each farmer that filled out this form received a direct payment based on the percentage of farm loss. We had more than $160,000 in cash donations to give out. 98 farmers received some direct payment amount. All these funds were ran through the Mountain Cattlemen Association which was already set up as a non-profit to handle funds like the Tobacco Settlement funds.

     This is still an ongoing relief effort and will be for the foreseeable future but to date, more than $400,000 has been given out to farmers who had flood damage.  Countless volunteers  and Extension Agents assisted with this effort and are still assisting. We know this was just a patch and we couldn’t totally replace what was lost. But we know our efforts sustained farmers who would have probably just gave up on farming forever. We gave them enough to hang on until they got back on their feet.

     Besides all of the above, the Perry County Extension Service opened our office up to house law enforcement agencies from other parts of the state who came in the assist our local law enforcement.      

     Our office also supplied shelters with food, water and other essential items. Our office cooked in remote areas to help feed people who had no means to cook for themselves. More than 400 people were given at least one hot meal from the Extension Service.

     From this disaster came some positive things. It pulled a region together working for their survival. It taught me that there is a lot of good people in this world who will drop everything to help out their neighbor in times of crisis. It showed me what the Extension Service can do when confronted with a disaster. We are a team and this proved it.

 Do to one feed store’s generosity, who had a raffle to raise money to go to flood relief, one nonprofit was formed because of his donation of $31,000.00. The lady that received the donation, was relying on donations to feed flood victims. She said she always wanted to start a nonprofit and that donation made it happen.