Today is the anniversary of flooding that altered thousands of lives in eastern Kentucky. One year later, the cleanup and recovery are far from complete.
I woke up outside Whitesburg that morning to a flooding creek that crested and dropped enough by 8am that I could drive the 200 feet from the driveway to HWY15. I got into Whitesburg as the Kentucky River was flooding its banks and watched as the studio I'd worked in for 28 years took on 6 feet of water.
While the destruction of that day and its aftermath are vivid, the shock of the event is starting to fade. What stays with me is the determination of people to band together and overcome the catastrophe.
In the face of disaster, despite sudden homelessness and near death experience, ordinary people got up and said we're not going to wait for help, we're going to do it ourselves.
From first responders to casual responders to the barely responsive, it seemed everyone who could just got up and did. They rescued and they cleared. They cooked and they cleaned.
In the month after the flood, I friended several disaster relief workers who travelled from catastrophe to disaster across the country. They were all in awe of the place. After one of the worst natural disasters any of them had seen, the victims here were busy saving themselves when the help arrived.
It's that attitude that makes communities strong. Helping one's neighbor, no matter their circumstances, is the glue that holds small towns together. We are strong because we have a wealth of people who step up.
Here's an example of what I mean. Sunday morning I was on my way home to Elkhorn early. I passed Ashcamp about 7:30 coming down the creek. A little further, I was stopped by a car in the road. On the side two people were assisting a person laying in the grass.
The two were Elkhorn City Fire Department volunteers Caitlyn Wright and Denny Jackson. Over the hill in the creek was a wrecked van.
Caitlyn asked if I had any Narcan, she'd used her last dose the day before saving someone else. I didn't even have any water to offer. About all I could do was watch as she worked to keep the guy from dying. They kept him awake until another responding unit from Sycamore Fire Department arrived with the needed Narcan.
If Caitlyn and Denny hadn't gotten to that scene, there would have been one dead man on the side of that road. They volunteered for this. Both had been up all night working and both had worked a six hour wreck the day before. Everyone told me the majority of their calls now involve overdoses.
I don't know why the people who saved that life on Sunday morning do what they do. I don't know why the people who banded together to overcome a devastating flood do what they do.
But I do know if your community is made up of people like this, there is nothing it can't survive.