Avian Perez looks into his family’s flooded trailer for the first time since about 8 feet of water filled it. The Perez family lives at Ramsey Mobile Home Park in Pikeville, one of the Kentucky places hardest hit by recent rainfall. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
FRANKFORT — Two Eastern Kentucky senators told fellow lawmakers that recent floods have caused multimillion-dollar damage in the region, according to some of the initial assessments.
Republican Sens. Phillip Wheeler and Scott Madon told the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee on Wednesday about the devastating damage their constituents have faced since the floods, which marred communities across the state and were followed by bitter winter weather.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said the weather-related death toll stood at 23 as of Tuesday afternoon.
Wheeler is from Pike County, which was among the hardest hit by the latest flood. He told the committee that initial assessments in the county show damage of more than $50 million to roads. Eleven bridges have been washed out in the county.
Local schools are still out due to flood damage, Wheeler added. One road that leads to a school building is a “complete loss.” Some of the schools are also being used as shelters for people who have lost their homes.
Wheeler said he has lived in the county since 1985 and has “never seen anything like it in my life.”
“To see businesses that you’ve shopped at your entire life — small businesses, clothing stores, pharmacies, grocery stores —completely underwater is something that you don’t get over real easy,” Wheeler said.
Madon, of Pineville, said the damage across the five counties he represents — Bell, Floyd, Harlan, Knott and Letcher — appears to be more than $30 million, according to the initial assessments he’s been given so far.
Residents in Eastern Kentucky were still rebuilding their communities after devastating floods in 2022. Madon said that flood had caused more public damage, whereas more homes have been affected in the latest flood. In Floyd County, more than 450 homes have been lost this time. The county lost 250 in the 2022 flood.
Madon, who was the mayor of Pineville until his election last November, said local government officials in the area are concerned about residents leaving the community.
“How many times is FEMA going to come in and pay those people?” Madon said. “Once they do that a few times, they finally start mitigating and buying them out and moving them out.”
Wheeler, who had last week expressed frustration with FEMA’s previous responses to natural disasters in Kentucky, was among officials who met with acting FEMA Director Cameron Hamilton during a site visit Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is slated to have a press conference with Beshear Wednesday afternoon in Frankfort. Wheeler told reporters after the committee meeting he appreciated her appearance in the state.
“I think that until you really see the devastation on the ground firsthand, you can’t get the full impact,” Wheeler said. “So I’m grateful that the administration is here getting a first hand impression, and hopefully that will make the aid from FEMA and the federal government flow more quickly into the hands of businesses and people who need it.”
So far, Republican President Donald Trump approved expedited disaster assistance for individuals and local governments in 11 Kentucky counties — Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Harlan, Knott, Lee, Letcher, Martin, Owsley, Perry and Pike. The president also approved an emergency declaration shortly after the flooding began on Feb. 14.
The disaster in Kentucky comes as Trump has been critical of FEMA and floated the idea of disbanding it. He has established a 20-member committee to review the agency and propose ways to overhaul its work.
Senate President Robert Stivers, a Manchester Republican who too has renewed his criticism of FEMA since the latest flood, said Tuesday afternoon that it was “too early to tell” how the federal agency’s current response has been so far. Stivers said three agencies within the White House have called him asking about FEMA’s response.
The Senate committee that heard Madon’s and Wheeler’s testimony has the power to review legislation that deals with budgets and finance issues. Its chair, Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, told reporters after the meeting that lawmakers will meet with the Beshear administration later Tuesday to discuss possible financial legislation.
“The answer is there will be something. I can’t define that yet,” McDaniel said. “I know there’s still just a lot of evaluation going on as to what folks need.”