Missy Allen, special projects director for the Floyd County Fiscal Court, said many residents have taken up offers from the Army Corps of Engineers to buy up properties and businesses located in flood zones. She noted the county has used Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds to help secure safe housing.
"All of this has created a huge housing shortage for our county," Allen explained. "We want our people to stay here. They want to stay here. We have received a CDBG-DR grant and are actually working on a housing project here near Prestonsburg called New Hope Estates."
Local leaders are currently mapping out land for future development to bring construction out of the floodplains and onto higher ground. Thunder Ridge Business Park is a proposed 50-acre site located on a former racetrack property. The project is a collaboration between the Floyd County Fiscal Court and the Big Sandy Area Development District.
Allen added the county is building a community resilience hub, a facility to provide shelter and aid to affected residents during disasters. It will also act as a central gathering place for sharing information on resilience strategies.
"Being able to have a central location in our community that people can come to if they are in threat of being flooded," Allen emphasized.
According to the Mountain Association, since the 2022 flooding that killed 45 residents and wiped out thousands of homes, eastern Kentucky counties have grappled with eight more FEMA-classified natural disasters, including other destructive floods, tornadoes, landslides and mudslides.
