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SBP Responds to Historic Flooding in Eastern Kentucky

Eastern Kentucky and other parts of Appalachia experienced devastating flash flooding on Thursday, July 28, 2022. This historic event across the area has claimed at least 39 lives and left many residents without shelter. Most Kentucky families don't have flood insurance, as localized flooding is uncommon in these rural areas.

We have connected with local partners, community, and government leaders to assess the impact and offer our resources to support recovery. Just a few months after the historic flooding, SBP, in partnership with the Kentucky River Area Development District and long-time partners Toyota, is hosting a Regional Recovery Acceleration Week in Eastern Kentucky to advise elected officials, leaders from area foundations and recovery NGOs on how to best ensure prompt, efficient, and predictable recovery in the aftermath of the historic flooding.

• Distributing educational resources to help them navigate recovery, including avoiding contractor fraud, maximizing insurance, and navigating FEMA. Survivors have both remote and in-person options for education through Zoom webinars, in-person training, and our Equip App, enabled by AT&T.
• Launching FEMA appeals clinics, including direct FEMA appeals, a "train the trainer" program, and a call-in clinic in partnership with Amazon Web Services, to help as many disaster-impacted people as possible navigate the process.
• Partnering with state, parish, and municipal leaders in affected areas to ensure communities secure access to vital federal and state recovery funding, protect survivors from bad actors and set clear and aggressive recovery goals to build back quickly and more robust than before.
• Working with local nonprofit partners to ensure they have the training, resources, and funding they need to rebuild homes quickly, efficiently, and sustainably via our SHARE fund, which includes the provision of AmeriCorps volunteers to expand rebuilding capacity as well as direct grants to nonprofits to build local capacity to respond (funded through generous corporate partners).