The cold muddy water had surrounded her car before she realized it, and when a police officer came to her door to help her, they waded out in water above her knees.
Water ultimately reached a depth of two feet in the house, soaking furniture, personal belongings, drywall and carpet, and damaged her car, as well.
There hadn’t been water in the main level of the house, where she ran a day care, since the 1980s, Deaton said Monday as she came back to look at the damage.
“I cry some and then I try to laugh,” Deaton said. “It’s overwhelming, it’s stressful, it’s heartbreaking.”
Across Eastern Kentucky on Monday, people set about the weary job of digging out from yet another flood, following devastating flooding in 2022 that hit many of the same counties.
Local officials were busy trying to get water restored where lines washed out, deliver bottled water and getting a handle on the number of destroyed or damaged homes and businesses.
Volunteers delivered food, and neighbors helped residents and business owners with a process familiar to many in the region:
Muck out the slick, gooey mud standing several inches deep in places. Dig through the wet, muddy debris to salvage photos, papers and other belongings if possible. Pile up what can’t be saved outside to be hauled away. Get ready to tear out drywall and carpet.
And know that it’s going to be weeks or months before things are fully cleaned and restored in some cases.
Charles and Juda Hall, who live near Deaton, were sorting through damaged belongings Monday as Hazard Mayor Happy Mobelini helped city workers load debris into a dump truck to be hauled away.
Every few minutes, Charles Hall got his wife’s attention to ask if she wanted to try to clean some items and keep it, including a large family photo and small wooden chairs their grandchildren have used.
Water got several feet deep in the couple’s basement Saturday and early Sunday, but they had the brick home jacked up and a new foundation installed in the mid-1970s to raise it about nine feet and get the main floor above flood level.
If not, the house would have been heavily damaged.
The worst part about the flood was having to toss out pieces of history, said Juda Hall.
“You’re throwing out things that are treasured possessions,” the 82-year-old said.
Casey and Kelvin Hernandez didn’t have to leave their home in Hazard because of flooding and were able to move their cars out of danger before the water rose, but it got several feet deep in the basement and wiped out their heating system.
On Monday, a mattress and other damaged items from their basement were piled in the driveway, waiting for city crews to come with a truck and clear them away.
They had flood insurance, but with a $10,000 deductible, the flood is still going to be a big financial hit.
They don’t know when they will have things in order for their two children to come home. The kids were at a family member’s house when the flood hit.
“I don’t know when we will be back in this house as a family,” Casey Hernandez said.
Jerry Wayne Stacy, the emergency manager in Perry County, said early in the day he didn’t have a count yet on the number of homes and businesses flooded.
However, Perry County Judge-Executive Scott Alexander said his office had received about 200 calls from people reporting flooding at their homes.
And Bailey Richards, downtown coordinator for Hazard, estimated as many as 60 businesses were affected by the flooding along Main Street and other parts of town.
“We knew it was coming,” she said of the flood. “We did not know it was going to get that high.”
Kevin Johnson, an attorney in town, said the water got about five feet deep in his office in on Main Street.
On Monday, his family and members of the Hazard High School football team helped carry out soggy furniture and other items and push mud out of the building.
Johnson said he had owned the building about 14 years and it had never flooded.
“You don’t imagine how hard it is,” he said. “It’s sad.”
Johnson said he would have to gut the inside of the building and rebuild.
A little way up the street, people were helping clean out the office of Chris Gooch, a certified public accountant.
Gooch had moved to the rented office on Main Street in January after fire badly damaged his building across the street.
Gooch said the office he rented after the fire had not flooded for 40 years. But on Monday, facing the busy tax season, he was looking for another office.
“You just gotta persevere,” he said. “We can’t just throw our hands up.”
The water got into the main living area in some houses, soaking drywall, carpet and furniture, and in the basements of several others. It destroyed or damaged anything stored there, including family photos and keepsakes.
Even in in houses with no damage on the main floor, the water destroyed heating systems, leaving people to depend on space heaters or kerosene for heat — or forced to find other places — with frigid temperatures on the way later this week.
Areas in Pike County also were hit hard by flooding Saturday and early Sunday, including the Mullins area and Coal Run Village, a small city adjacent to Pikeville.
Wanda Wood said she was at her home just off U.S. 23 in Pike County Saturday night when an emergency worker came to her door and instructed her to leave immediately.
The Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River was rising quickly behind her house.
Wood said she and her daughter and a friend left with just the clothes they were wearing.
When she was finally able to get in and look at her house Monday, she saw the water had filled the first floor and nearly risen to the second floor.
“Devastating,” she said Monday.
James Hall, who owns an apartment building down the street from Woods’ home, opened the door to one unit to show the damage.
Furniture was soaked and tossed about; the refrigerator was tipped on its side, and the smell of mud, decay and mold was beginning to build.
“Pray you never go through it,” he said.
In Coal Run Village, more than 20 businesses at a shopping center called Weddinngton Plaze were flooded, said Stan Falk, an owner of the development.
On Monday, the parking lot was slick with mud, and some of the business owners were trying to figure out cleanup, insurance and repairs.
Trish Moore, owner of Head’z and Toe’z, a hair salon, said when she left work about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, she and some other business owners had talked about the potential for leaks in the roof from the rain, but not about getting flooded.
Water got several feet deep in her salon, however.
She got her first look at the damage Monday. Equipment and furniture were tipped over and soggy, hair products were destroyed.
The wall appeared to be buckled in one spot.
“It’s way worse than I ever imagined,” she said. “It’s a total loss.”
Moore began cleaning out the shop Monday afternoon and was still working as dusk approached. At one point, a coal miner she didn’t know stopped to ask if he could help and ended up carrying out debris.
Moore said she’s determined to get back in business, though she doesn’t know how long it will take.
“My bills don’t get paid unless I’m in here,” she said.
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