Some get so skilled, they are hired to work in the factory, Naselroad said. The school also has a social mission, training people referred from drug court and local recovery centers to craft high-quality instruments. Right: Remnants of recent flooding is seen at the factory. Left: Doug Naselroad inspects recent flood damage at the Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Co. "Our community as a whole is devastated," she told attendees. During a recent meeting convened by the Kentucky Department of Education, Letcher County school superintendent Denise Yonts broke down when describing their losses: two staff members dead, six schools damaged. "Where her store is, is a food desert," Whaley said.Īnother major institution, the schools, have also suffered. Getting the store ready to open again would be prohibitively expensive, Christon told The Herald-Leader, but if it closes for good, the community loses a vital business. Whaley shared the example of Gwen Christon, who owns an IGA grocery store in Isom.Ĭhriston poured money into upgrades, such as a new HVAC system, coolers and solar panels before the flooding began, Whaley said. Painstaking efforts to build up small businesses have been literally washed away overnight. And that could mean more residents will leave. Now, Whaley worries that climate change, which makes inland flooding like this worse, is creating another challenge for the region. The decline of coal mining led to mass layoffs in the area, and many have pulled up stakes and moved away. Volunteers help remove flood debris from Messenger Florist and Gifts in Whitesburg on Friday. Local businesses and organizations brace for economic hardship "This is not a place that corporate America is going to invest in," Betsy Whaley, chief strategy officer with the Association, told NPR.Īfter the disaster, they plan to provide small loans to stabilize small businesses but will need more resources to help dig businesses out of the hole the floods put them in, she said. Several organizations, such as the Mountain Association, had been trying to revitalize and diversify the local economy and create jobs in the region before the floods. If you're not spending money at that small business who got hit by the flood, too, guess what? They don't exist anymore," he said. That's one reason why, with everything else going on, he visited his local barber after the flood. The organization also lent Lucas a truck to drive after the flood destroyed his vehicles.Įmployees of Highlands ARH Regional Medical Center load water bottles onto a Kentucky National Guard truck in front of the hospital in Prestonsburg on Thursday.Īnother thing that defines this area, Lucas said, is that people take care of each other and take pride in fending for themselves - even in the face of tragedy. The organization has provided housing to some, as well as sending supplies to communities up in the mountains, according to Tim Hatfield, an executive who oversees six of the ARH's hospitals. Lucas now manages medical equipment there.ĭozens of ARH employees have lost their homes. His father was a coal truck driver who Lucas said kept getting laid off, so he went back to school to become a nurse at Appalachian Regional Healthcare - one of the single largest employers in the region. Lucas' family is intimately aware of these economic shifts. Health care and education have emerged as the largest employers in parts of eastern Kentucky as coal production waned in the region. Piecing together a sense of normalcy following tragedy You have families that live close to each other and have lived close to each other their whole lives," he said. Lucas and his family have been staying with his in-laws, just across the street from his waterlogged house in Isom, Ky., and a few miles from where he grew up. A Hindman Fire Department truck sits wedged underneath a bridge on Wednesday.
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