Volunteers continue to be sought as eastern Kentucky communities work to recover from last month's historic flooding. Jim Garrett is the volunteer and disaster services coordinator with Kentucky Emergency Management. He said in previous disasters the number of volunteers tended to trail off a few weeks after the main rain event.
“When we move into long-term recovery and repairing, rebuilding homes we actually see fewer volunteers coming. So, we’ll be setting up long-term recovery groups in the local communities that we’ll get that information out so people can plan their trips,” said Garrett.
Garrett said this past weekend there were around a thousand volunteers from the Latter-day Saints church and about 700 from the Southern Baptist. He noted more help will be needed in a variety of ways including working at distribution centers. While much of the focus continues on cleanup, Garrett added some rebuilding is also underway.
“Well it’s happening. You know that's not a kind of set time. For example, in Owsley County, we’ve already built a new home through partnership housing and volunteer efforts there. They have two more under construction,” said Garrett.
The state volunteer coordinator said individuals can sign up to volunteer and join an existing organization.
