Woman able to move back home two months after EKY flooding

BREATHITT COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - Some people are moving back into their homes in Eastern Kentucky after devastating flooding. For others, it’s going to take a lot longer.

Some homes still need mud-out or muck-out work. While others are being rebuilt.

In the Lost Creek community of Breathitt County, people did whatever they could to survive and salvage whatever they could.

Two months later, the finishing touches are being put on the inside of Betty Noble’s home where she and her granddaughter rode out the flood. She is grateful for the amount of work done to get her back on her feet.

“The Housing Alliance came in and they have re-done all of this here. Helped me out an awful lot. Getting it all fixed and trying to get me back into my home,” Noble said.

Folks with the Housing Development Alliance say they believe there are still 100 homes across their four counties that still need muck-out work, they believe it could take five to seven years before everything gets back to normal.

“FEMA Reports over 6,000 houses had one inch or more of water. The Red Cross says in just the four hardest-hit counties, Perry, Knott, Letcher and Breathitt,” said Scott McReynolds, with the Housing Development Alliance. “1,900 homes were either destroyed or had major damage.”

Housing Development Alliance officials say if a home is more than fifty percent damaged it could be ruled destroyed and not repairable.

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