Flood survivor is gifted a new home

WHITESBURG, Ky. (WYMT) - Shirley Holcomb lost her home the night of the floods.

Holcomb was trapped in her home with her granddaughter for hours, with water up to their necks.

“It was horrible, it was like a nightmare that you couldn’t get out of. You were just stuck right there to watch it,” she said.

On Tuesday, Holcomb received a new home on the spot where he old one used to stand.

“We stood on the old porch of the old flooded home with Tracy, Shirley’s daughter, and I looked around and just said ‘we can build a home here,” said Appalachia Service Project President and CEO, Walter Crouch.

The Appalachia Service Project built Shirley’s new home, and it’s hopefully the first of many for flood survivors.

“We’ve been in this area for over 50 years as an organization, and so we really would like to build a minimum of 100 new homes if the funding becomes available,” said Crouch.

Six more families are in line to receive a new home, with work already started on two.

“To see the result of so many people volunteering and caring about not just this family, but families all throughout Eastern Kentucky, and to watch Shirley get the key to her new home was a pretty emotional moment,” said Kentucky’s First Lady Britainy Beshear.

Local and state representatives were there, including the First Lady Britainy Beshear and State Representative Angie Hatton.

“We’ve been on television in Eastern Kentucky a whole lot with this flood, and this is finally a really happy one,” said Hatton.

All of the furniture in the home was also donated for free.

“There’s not even words to say how grateful I am, and that God sent them my way and I got the help I needed,” said Holcomb.

Holcomb’s home is the first of a projected 50 homes to be built for ‘phase one’ of the Appalachia Service Project’s long-term Eastern Kentucky flood relief efforts.

Copyright 2022 WYMT. All rights reserved.