‘Appalachia Rises: Come Hell or High Water’ raises $152,000 during flood relief telethon, more donated after

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (WYMT) - On Wednesday, the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky announced the Appalachia Rises: Come Hell or High Water flood benefit telethon raised more than $152,000.

“For right now we know we’re at at least a hundred and fifty two thousand, and that is an amazing amount for a three hour event that you know we pulled together as a community of people wanting to help one another,” said Gerry Roll, CEO, Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky.

The event was held at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg and many country music artist were there, such as host T. Graham Brown, the duo Halfway to Hazard, Tyler Booth and Taylor Austin Dye. There were also performances and messages from Wynonna Judd, Lee Greenwood and others.

Roll said one million dollars has already been distributed by the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky into the community.

“Right now we have already put out right at a million dollars, and we have about another million pledged to go out in the next couple of weeks and we will continue to do that as money continues to come in,” said Roll.

The foundation has around eight thousand applications for assistance as of Tuesday.

Roll said, “That direct support is gonna go to those eight thousand households who have come to us and said we are suffering and we need help and our job is to get them what they need.”

On Tuesday, the grand total was $152,000, but the Citizens Bank and Trust Company of Jackson donated $10,000 on Wednesday.

If you would like to donate money to the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, you can click here.