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Hello Jesse,
Having just returned from the floods of southeast Kentucky, I have a lot of voices echoing through my mind. Many of them lead me to a question: Are we, in our ever-evolving disaster response world, willing to stand up do something about the ongoing poverty and disaster vulnerability in the hollows?
In many of these counties, the median household income is $30,000 or less. If a flood survivor wants to build a house, and needs land, the only option is along the river line or creek banks.
The steep slopes of the Appalachians cause water to rush quickly into the narrow valleys below, sometimes swamping hollows before residents have a chance to escape. In this storm they had 20 minutes. A three- inch rain will cause major flooding. This rain produced 8”-12” in less than ten hours.
As I assessed damages and supported the rollout of MDS Early Response Teams, I heard words of love and support for MDS’s response—but I also heard calls for doing something different, calls for working together to move people out of harm’s way and help them build safe places to live.
Let me share some voices I heard from my tour:
- “Flooding keeps the poor people poor. We’ve had this problem for 100 years—it’s time we do something different." (Wayland Mayor, Jerry Fultz)
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“Many people in my community live paycheck-to-paycheck or month-to-month, and sometimes there’s more month than paycheck.” (Homer Pigman, sergeant, Kentucky Fish & Wildlife)
- "You know what’s going to happen as soon as you muck out a house? They are going to move right back in, because they have nowhere to go.” (Kay Thomas, Montgomery Baptist Church, Emmalena)
As we roll out our response to flood survivors in Kentucky, I want to express my deep gratitude for volunteers and donors who are making this possible. I also want to assure you that we are at the table thinking creatively about how to respond in ways that leave the people of Kentucky more disaster resilient than ever before.
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