A Flood of Problems

Melissa Barlow

I attended part of the 2022 Writers’ Workshop at Hindman Settlement School in Hindman, Kentucky. However, my attendance came to an abrupt halt on Thursday, July 28, 2022. 

I had made the decision to commute to the conference from my hometown of Paris, Kentucky to save some money and be able to take care of my pets. Given gas prices and the two-hour, one-way commute, I was beginning to regret that decision on that rainy Thursday morning. 

I had seen a snippet on the news about some flooding in eastern Kentucky. However, I was rushing to get ready and didn’t pay too much attention to it. My work was scheduled to be discussed that morning in Carter Sickels’ novel writing class, so I was nervous anyway.

Being almost 50 at the time, I did not see very well in the rain, so I left home early when it was not quite light yet. I made it smoothly through Winchester, onto I-64 and the Mountain Parkway. I got off on 15 in Campton and made it to Jackson before I started to notice big problems. Traffic, which usually moved terrifyingly fast on the mountain roads, had slowed to a crawl. 

I looked to my right and saw that the creek had risen up to cover a portion of some trailers.  I saw some large objects floating in the water.  It took me a minute to realize they were actually cows.  Up ahead, a guy wearing reflective clothing was directing traffic to turn around. 

He said the road ahead was impassable.  

I turned around and went back in the direction I had just come.  I stopped at a gas station in Campton to use the bathroom.  Their power was out.  I emailed the instructor to let him know what had happened and to apologize for not attending class that day.  I did not realize at the time that no one was attending class that day and that the remainder of the conference had to be canceled. 

I later learned that, although the conference attendees and instructors who stayed on campus were safe, they were without power and water.  Many lost vehicles and possessions in the floodwaters that had risen as heavy rain fell all during the night.  The school itself was damaged and, despite Herculean efforts at preservation, lost countless irreplaceable documents.

Residents in the area were devastated.  Many lost homes, vehicles and pets.  Some did not survive.  The blow to the already economically disadvantaged area was cruel.  Along with many others, I made a small donation to recovery efforts.  However, the paltry sum would not make a dent in repairs.

Residents cleaned up and repaired what they could of their and their neighbors’ homes and businesses.  Many had to apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance.  A year after the flood, FEMA had spent more than $100 million on flood assistance.  However, some are still struggling to recover.

Was the flooding, combined with the tornadoes that passed through western Kentucky the previous December, an isolated event or an omen of things to come resulting from climate change?  I am not a scientist.  However, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), incidences of natural disasters causing $1 billion or more in damage have increased at least six-fold over the last forty years even after adjusting for inflation.  There have also recently been huge, destructive wildfires in California, Hawaii and Australia, as well as deadly earthquakes in the Middle East.  

Eastern Kentucky sees forest fires every fall. Western Kentucky sits along the New Madrid fault line and is susceptible to earthquakes.  Will we be prepared for the next disaster? Currently the University of Kentucky is collaborating with the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Cooperative Extension Services as part of the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN), to provide information on disaster preparedness and to reduce impacts of disasters. 

Will it be enough?