The long cleanup begins
(This article first appeared in the May print edition of the Hendersonian.)
Wendy Bean says she’s not sure what’s going to happen to her home except for one thing.
“I’m not going to live in this house,” she said.
Bean, whose house sits on Ky. 811 in the Reed-Beals area, is one of 300 to 500 residents that Magistrate Keith Berry estimated are dealing with flooding damage in the eastern part of Henderson County.
For Bean and many others who live in the area, flooding is simply a part of life. She said lesser floods seem to occur at least yearly and most often in February. Those levels are more manageable.
But this is the second flood since Bean bought the house in 2015 that water has risen into her house and caused massive damage. The other, in 2018, saw water rise to about seven inches above the floor. After that flood, she used insurance money to gut the moldy, muddy home and repair it. That took three months, she said.
This time she said she doesn’t have the stomach for it.
“I feel like it’s too much for me to deal with,” she said. “I’m physically and mentally just drained.”
April’s flood waters reached a level about 13 inches above her floor. Her home sits about two feet off the ground, so her best estimate is that the water level around her house was a bit more than three feet. In other areas near her home, such as her backyard, water levels appeared to have reached five feet above the ground, she said.
For Henderson County residents, especially residents living east of the Spottsville bridge, April was a harrowing month.
It started with predictions of local tornadoes and heavy rainfall that would lead to historic flooding. A National Weather Service meteorologist out of Paducah said that it was the type of rainfall that years from now when people talk about “the flood”—“this would be the event.”
He was right. The NWS said that observations in many places in the county saw 8.5 inches of precipitation from April 2-April 6 when the area was pounded by heavy storms. Many areas saw more.
The NWS said the average rain for April is about 5.14 inches. So, in a matter of four days, the month’s average plus three more inches fell. Soon after the rain stopped, local rivers began to swell.
The Ohio River at Evansville crested at 47.67 feet on April 10, which placed the level a hair beneath the 48-foot moderate flooding designation. According to NWS, April 10’s Ohio River reading placed it at number 7 of the highest crests on the Ohio River at the Evansville gauge, which historically has been used to measure flooding at Henderson.
According to NOAA, the Green River at Spottsville crested on April 12 at 39.93 feet.
Bean, meanwhile, cleared out belongings in three rooms of her house—her bedroom, her 17-year-old daughter’s bedroom and the living room—on Monday, April 7, moving the items to storage.
The next day water was in the house, she said. The day after that on Wednesday, April 9, she returned with her father, Jack Horton, and they wore waders to get into the house and fetch some of the crafts that her mother, now deceased, had made for her. But they were not able to get to everything.
After that, she couldn’t get back into her home until April 15, she said.
Since then, she said an insurance representative has come to look at her home.
“They think it’s going to be a total loss,” Bean said.
She left a garage-full of items behind in a detached garage, thinking that since there were large items standing upright, such as a refrigerator, and other items were stored in plastic totes, the water might not cause too much problems. She was wrong. When she was finally able to open the garage, she found it in total disarray, like a tornado had hit, she said.
Residents affected by flooding are encouraged to continually check the Henderson Emergency Management Facebook page, which has regularly posted new information and methods to get assistance in the past weeks.
Recently, emergency management officials announced that the command center was moved from its U.S. 60/Peters Road location in Beals to St. Augustine Catholic Church in Reed.
Additionally, those who need cleanup help can call the Crisis Cleanup hotline at (270) 887-4657 to register. And, any groups or individuals who want to volunteer can contact Kelsi Dunham Johnston at United Way of Henderson County at 270-826-2107 or kdunham@uwofhc.org.
On Friday and Saturday, a 911 Gives Hope drive for flood relief occurred at the Henderson Walmart. Shoppers purchased items from a wish list of relief-related products which will then be donated to event representatives who will then pass on to families in need.
At its April 22 Fiscal Court meeting, the Henderson County Fiscal Court moved $1 million from its reserve funds into its current year budget. Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider said the money was made available to use as the county waited on an emergency declaration from President Donald Trump.
Schneider said moving the money allows the county to cover any big expenses before a disaster declaration is made. As of April 26, that had not yet occurred.
Weeks after the flooding, many peoples’ lives in the county have returned to normal. But drive east on U.S. 60 and pass over the Spottsville bridge and “it is not normal,” Schneider said. “It is going to be a long time before their world is ever right again.”
Schneider didn’t have a number for the amount of damage but said the damage is in the millions of dollars. Residents, he said, are “going to be dealing with it for a long time, if they decide to stay in their homes at all.”
Throughout the weeks of flooding and its aftereffects, Bean said she’s had several days of tears, her life out of balance, her plans unknown and her house a wreck.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” she said.
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