Clay Nickels and his wife, McKenzie, were awakened at 5 a.m. Thursday morning to what they thought was someone knocking on their door.
When they went to look, it turned out to be rocks from a mudslide hitting the side of their house, Clay told DailyExpertNews.
Immediately, the couple began packing their important documents and valuables and evacuated to McKenzie’s mother’s house nearby. Clay said McKenzie had a plan and packed everything in five minutes.
The Nickels live in Neon, Kentucky, in Letcher County, a part of the state that was hit hard by the flooding.
After things were under control, Clay says he and his wife went to see family.
“At one point we looked down the hill and you could see a football field completely submerged,” Clay said, “The bleachers were our guide to see if the water was receding or not.”
They then went to see Clay’s grandfather who lives nearby. The couple took life jackets with them, not knowing how deep the water would get.
After walking in chest-deep water, the two arrived at Clay’s grandfather’s house.
“He was all right, but not his house, nobody’s.” said Clay.
He tried to drive to his father and his other grandparents who live in Kite, Kentucky, about 15 miles away. But to reach them, he spent hours using a chainsaw to cut down trees that were blocking roads.
“The scariest part was hearing about the multiple fatalities,” Clay said. “People said there were deaths in my father and grandparents’ part of town and I couldn’t know if it was them.”
Everyone in Clay’s family is okay, but their homes are destroyed.
“My grandparents have 8-10 foot ceilings on their first floor and it was completely filled with water,” he said, “Furniture has been moved and destroyed.” Clay and McKenzie’s house only suffered from a small amount of water leaking inside.
His great-grandfather, who is 93, was able to leave his home before the floods got worse. Clay says he sat alone in his car up the hill for a while, waiting for another family member to pick him up.
‘It looks like a war zone here,’ he said, ‘this has affected everyone. There are very few people I know whose homes, vehicles or lives have not been changed by this.”
Clay said they’ve been told it will take at least a week to restore power and water, but he thinks it will take longer.