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Millions in disaster relief dollars coming to Kentucky

Jackson mayor Laura Thomas, accepting a check from Governor Beshear for flood relief
Gov. Andy Beshear Youtube
Jackson mayor Laura Thomas, accepting a check from Governor Beshear for flood relief

Millions more in federal funding is coming to communities across Kentucky hit by natural disasters. In eastern Kentucky, the city of Jackson, in Breathitt County, has been awarded $2.3 million dollars to build eight homes for flood survivors and make future expansion for more homes possible.

During a press conference, Jackson mayor Laura Thomas said she hopes this just the start of more improvements for her community.

  “Its been a long time coming, but we desperately need housing and in Breathitt County we have a good team of helpers, thank goodness, with our partners with Fahe, and HDA and many others in the community are helping. We have struggled to find land we can build on, but this will be our first win, and we hope to have many more.”  

Letcher County was awarded $8.7 million dollars to build 29 homes to help flood survivors. Seth Long is the executive director of Homes, INC. During a press conference on Thursday, he said Letcher County is no stranger to housing concerns.

  “We had a housing crisis before the flood, the flood certainly heightened that. We’re making good progress, but we have a long way to go. I always say if it were easy, everyone would be doing it, but its hard work and its good work and we’re thankful to be in this position.”  

Millions more were awarded to counties in western Kentucky who dealt with both tornado and flooding disasters in recent years.

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Stan Ingold is WEKU's News Director. He has worked in public broadcasting for 18 years, starting at Morehead State Public Radio before spending the past 10 years at Alabama Public Radio. Stan has been honored with numerous journalism awards for his public radio reporting.
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