We asked the Governor how it felt to be on hand to help with construction.
“Amazing! You feel God in what’s going on. You see neighbors helping neighbors, but you also see a solution. Building on high ground, the most complicated rebuild that I think the nation has ever seen, is going to be a success. And everybody who lives up here will never have to worry about being flooded ever again, “Beshear said. “If we do this right, we don’t just protect people, we address affordable housing in eastern Kentucky, and we make sure that more people are moving to this region, not moving away.”
The house under construction at the end of the block will become Samantha Turner’s home. Her family lived through several floods, including the one in 2022 that claimed the lives of 45 Kentuckians.
“The water got; I watched it rise up to my trailer. I watched it hit the floor and was kind of just trapped there, not knowing what to do,” Turner said, “Being able to hear across the railroad tracks, neighbors just screaming for help and just not being able to get to them.”
Turner said she had been displaced for so long, but now sees the light at the end of the tunnel.
“I never thought it was truly going to get better, but I’m able to stand here today and say that it did get better,” said Turner.
Since the historic flooding of 2022, Beshear’s administration and other state and community leaders have been aiming to build neighborhoods on elevated land outside floodplains or high-risk flood zones. Several high-ground communities are being planned or under construction across the state.
Beshar also announced more than $8 million in funding for Perry County and $28.7 million to build infrastructure and high-ground homes in Letcher County.
The Governor said that not only are homeowners seeing something tangible, people who gave to the Team Kentucky Storm Relief Fund are watching their donations at work.
“$100 thousand from the Relief Fund is going into each of these five homes and so many more,” Beshear said. “I mean, what we’re investing is a better safer life for our families and everybody who invested is going to see these pictures and know they were making a difference. Know that we took those dollars and did what we promised. We rebuilt lives.”
First Lady Britainy Beshear made her annual donation of tulip bulbs from the State Capitol to the projects. Once construction is completed, they will be planted at high-rise sites.
