Two Weeks Later, Red Crossers Caring for Kentucky Flood Victims

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Trained Red Cross volunteers are helping assess the damage in eastern Kentucky after the recent flooding. Hundreds of homes are destroyed or received major damage. Photo by Kevin Suttlehan/American Red Cross

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Red Cross volunteer Fran Boyce delivers a hot meal and a word of encouragement to those affected by the eastern Kentucky flooding. Photo by Kevin Suttlehan/American Red Cross

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Red Cross workers set up feeding vehicles in areas affected by the Kentucky floods, providing hot meals to families in time of need. Photo by Kevin Suttlehan/American Red Cross

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Red Cross volunteers board a boat that will ferry them across a flooded roadway to deliver meals to those affected by the Kentucky flooding disaster. Red Cross teams brought prepared hot meals to the site in emergency response vehicles, ferried them across the flooded roadways by boat, then loaded them onto waiting trucks on the other side for delivery.
Photo by Kevin Suttlehan/American Red Cross

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Red Cross volunteer Lukas de Saint-Clair stops to visit a young mother and her children, ages 3 and 10 months, who found haven at a Red Cross emergency shelter after the Kentucky flood disaster. Photo by Kevin Suttlehan/American Red Cross

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When his apartment in eastern Kentucky flooded, the water rose so quickly that all Jerry Combs could do was grab his wallet and flee. Flee the best he could, because he walks with a prosthetic leg which he had removed at the time. His newest prosthetic was in another room, so he grabbed the nearby older one and made his way a half-mile to the sheriff’s office where he was then taken to a Red Cross shelter. Here, Red Cross Disaster Health Services volunteer Tere Shannon consults with Jerry about discomfort caused by the older prosthetic. Red Cross Disaster Health Services procure prescription medicines, eyeglasses, and other durable medical goods for those who lost them during natural disasters. Photo by Kevin Suttlehan/American Red Cross

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The devastating damage in eastern Kentucky from the recent flooding is heartbreaking.. The American Red Cross is on the scene providing food, shelter, financial assistance, medical care, and mental and spiritual health services to those affected. Photo by Kevin Suttlehan/American Red Cross

August 11, 2022

Two weeks after tragic flooding upturned lives and destroyed hundreds of homes across Eastern Kentucky, the American Red Cross is still there, working around the clock with our partners to provide comfort and critical support to help those in need.

This is an incredibly challenging situation, and we are working closely with local officials to make sure people have the help they need as they begin the long road to recovery. Some areas remain cut off due to damaged roads and bridges and Red Cross disaster workers are bringing food and relief supplies to people by boat. Preliminary damage reports indicate that nearly 1,400 homes were either destroyed or suffered major damage.

RED CROSS RESPONSE Today, some 400 trained Red Cross disaster workers are on the ground in Kentucky helping to provide a safe place to stay, food to eat, critical relief supplies and emotional support for those affected by this tragedy. Volunteers are also replacing prescription medications, eyeglasses or critical medical equipment, like canes and wheelchairs, which were left behind in the rush to get to safety.

Wednesday night, the Red Cross and our partners provided comfort and care for more than 430 residents in 13 shelters across Eastern Kentucky. Since the flooding hit the region, the Red Cross and our partners have provided a total of nearly 6,000 overnight stays for residents forced to leave their homes. More than a dozen Red Cross emergency response vehicles are circulating through the hardest hit communities with volunteers providing meals and cleanup supplies.

With the support of local partners, the Red Cross has helped to provide some 81,000 meals and snacks to people in need. In addition, we’ve given out thousands of critical relief items to over 1,400 households.

Red Cross care teams are meeting with families who have lost loved ones to offer specialized support including disaster mental health services and other information.

FIND A SHELTER To find an open shelter, visit redcross.org/shelter or view open shelters through the Red Cross Emergency app. If you don’t have access to a computer or smart phone, call 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767) to be directed to sheltering options near you. Alternatively, try calling 211 or 311, if these services are available in your area.

YOU CAN HELP people affected by disasters like floods, fires and countless other crises by making a gift to Red Cross Disaster Relief. Donations enable the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small. Visit redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS, or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

For those interested in helping people specifically affected by the recent floods, we ask that they write “Kentucky floods” in the memo line of a check and mail it to their local Red Cross chapter with a completed donation form to the address on the form or to their local Red Cross chapter. Find the donation form at redcross.org/donate.

The Red Cross stands ready to provide blood and blood products as needed in response to disasters of all sizes. Blood can take up to three days to be tested, processed and made available for patients, so it’s the blood already on the shelves that helps save lives in an emergency. We encourage eligible individuals in unaffected areas to make an appointment to give blood by using the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting redcrossblood.org, or calling 1-800-RED CROSS to help ensure a sufficient blood supply.

This deadly flooding — along with the heavy rainfall in Missouri, explosive wildfires in California and the recent heatwaves — are clear examples of how more intense climate-rated disasters are happening more often and are leaving behind devastation.

Over the last two years, on average, the Red Cross has responded to a new, major disaster every 10 days. We see firsthand how families and communities are suffering and depending on us for help with our volunteers continuously on the ground, setting up shelters, arranging for hot meals and offering comfort for people forced from their homes.

CORPORATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS HELP The generous donations from members of the Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program (ADGP) and the Disaster Responder Program enable the American Red Cross to prepare communities for disasters big and small, respond whenever and wherever disasters occur and help families during the recovery process.

ADGP $1 Million members are: Amazon; American Airlines; Anheuser-Busch Foundation; Bank of America; Best Buy; Caterpillar Foundation; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Costco Wholesale; Delta Air Lines; Elevance Health Foundation; Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation; FedEx; Lilly Endowment Inc.; Lowe's Companies, Inc.; McDonald’s Corporation; Microsoft Corp.; Nationwide Foundation; PayPal; PetSmart Charities; The Starbucks Foundation; State Farm; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited; Truist Foundation; VSP Vision; Walmart and the Walmart Foundation; and Wells Fargo.

ADGP $500,000 members are: Altria Group; Aon; Bread Financial; Calmoseptine, Inc.; Capital One; CarMax; Citi Foundation; The Clorox Company; Darden Foundation; Delta Dental Community Care Foundation; Dollar General; Edison International; Energy Transfer/Sunoco Foundation; Ford Motor Company Fund; Fox Corporation; General Motors; The Home Depot Foundation; International Paper; The J.M. Smucker Company; Johnson Controls Foundation; The Kroger Co. Foundation; Liberty Mutual Insurance; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Mastercard; Merck; Mondelēz International Foundation; New Balance Foundation; Organon; PepsiCo Foundation; Salesforce; Southeastern Grocers Gives Foundation & Southeastern Grocers, home of Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie; Stanley Black & Decker; Target; The TJX Companies, Inc.; Toyota; United Airlines; UPS; USAA; Visa Foundation; The Walt Disney Company; and The Wawa Foundation.

Disaster Responder Program members are: 7-Eleven Cares Foundation; Adobe; The AES Corporation; American Express; Ameriprise Financial; Assurant; AT&T; AvalonBay Communities, Inc.; Avangrid Foundation; Barclays; Big 5 Sporting Goods; CDW; Choice Hotels International; Cisco Foundation; CNA Insurance; The Coca-Cola Company; CSX; The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation; Discover; Duke Energy; Dutch Bros Foundation; Equitable; FirstEnergy Corporation; Gopuff; Harbor Freight Tools Foundation, LLC; HCA Healthcare; Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation; HP Foundation; Kaiser Permanente; Kimberly-Clark Corporation; The Kraft Heinz Company Foundation; The Labcorp Charitable Foundation; Lenovo Foundation; LHC Group; Major League Baseball; Marathon Petroleum Foundation, Inc.; Martin Marietta; Mattress Firm; McKesson; MetLife Foundation; Neiman Marcus Group; NextEra Energy, Inc.; Northrop Grumman; Northwestern Mutual and the Northwestern Mutual Foundation; Old Dominion Freight Line; Pacific Life Foundation; Procter & Gamble; Prudential Financial; Raytheon Technologies; Reckitt; Rodan + Fields Prescription for Change Project, a project of New Venture Fund; Ross Stores Foundation; Ryder System, Inc.; San Manuel Band of Mission Indians; Security Finance’s Lending Hand Foundation; ServiceNow; Southwest Airlines; Tata Consultancy Services; U-Haul International; U.S. Bank Foundation; and Zurich.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.