Local businesses are among those impacted as eastern Kentucky recovers from last weekend’s flooding.
Those in Hazard say the flood hit sooner and that floodwaters were higher than expected.
Hazard’s downtown is mostly populated with locally owned shops, many of which depend on daily income from sales.
Bailey Richards is the downtown coordinator for the city of Hazard, and has been organizing recovery efforts for local businesses. She says around 60 businesses downtown have been affected.
“Most of our businesses are pretty well into the clean out part, getting the mud out, getting the water out. Several of them have already removed affected drywall after they've had, you know, insurance adjusters and things like that come in, and then it's mold mitigation,” Richards said.
Richards says those mom and pop stores are among the most impacted.
“We've been working very, very hard at revitalizing our downtown, and so I've worked very closely with a lot of these people, and nearly all of those are their first businesses. They've only been open for a relatively short period of time, and this is a new thing,” Richards said.
That holds true elsewhere in eastern Kentucky. Blake Moss is a Public Administration Specialist with the Big Sandy Area Development District, which covers Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin, Martin and Pike counties.
“I would say all five of our counties have dozens of businesses that have been affected at minimum,” Moss said during an interview with Eastern Standard. “And I know Coal Run (in Pike County) was the most affected. I don't remember the specific number, but I believe 166 structures have been affected there, and half of those are small businesses.”
The district is offering resources for affected businesses through its FIRE program.
Richards says she has a volunteer list of more than 300 people helping with the local effort in Hazard. That also includes larger organizations like churches and classes.
She says the best way to support those businesses is donating to the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky. A comprehensive list of ways to support the flood effort is available here.
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