“He was a hero,” his wife Macy told CNN. “He was the one who helped people instead of worrying about himself.”
Many flood survivors find themselves in devastated communities. Dozens of people have lost their homes. Some remain stranded due to washed-out roads, without access to clean water or electricity, unable to reach loved ones due to loss of cell service, and unable to obtain critical supplies, including medicine.
Beshear announced that eight cooling centers would be opened across the region, warning residents that the weather conditions would be “really hot and really dangerous.”
“He just wanted to go home”
As some communities begin to pick up the pieces, others mourn the loss of family and friends.
Hensley, a father of five, had just finished his shift at the Perry County coal mines early Thursday morning when he started to head home. But rising waters quickly made his usual return route impassable, his wife said.
Instead, he took an alternate route that took him to the scene of the accident. The driver of the four-wheeler was injured after the oncoming water spun him from his vehicle, Hensley told his wife by phone.
“All (Hensley) could say was ‘he’s bleeding, he’s bleeding,'” Macey said.
Without thinking, Hensley went to his brother-in-law’s house, which was nearby, to ask for help for the injured driver. But when the two returned, they couldn’t find him despite an extended search, said Chase Williams, Hensley’s son-in-law.
They decided to help Hensley get home safely, Williams said. Hensley would drive them as far down the road as possible — and as close to home as possible — and then Hensley would go to the other side of some hills where a friend was waiting to take him home to his family. The son-in-law would take Hensley’s truck back to his home for storage.
“We went down the road a little bit, but in a few minutes the water came up enough where it lifted the truck and carried us both into the creek,” Williams said.
Williams escaped through the passenger door, using a tree to pull herself up to the creek bank, where she was able to use her phone’s flashlight to start signaling for help.
Neighbors who saw the flash responded and the group began searching for Hensley.
“We looked for Gabe for a long time that night, but we were never able to find him,” Williams said.
Hensley’s body was found on Sunday. The children she leaves behind include a 10-week-old son.
“He was a family man,” his wife said. “No matter the storm. No matter how bad it got. He just wanted to get home to his family.”
Life changes “in the blink of an eye”
Bescher called the disaster “one of the most devastating, deadly floods we’ve seen in our history.”
“It hit such a huge area, affecting thousands of people,” the governor told CNN Tuesday. which will take weeks to account for all.”
It will take even longer to rebuild flooded communities, the governor said.
“Things with pictures, memorabilia, things the kids did growing up, and in the blink of an eye, it’s all gone,” Pike County Emergency Management Director Nee Jackson told CNN. “I was at a house the other night. People had taken quite a lot of things out, … trying to dry out pictures and things from their marriage, really sad things that you can’t replace.”
An estimated 30 to 40 bridges have been swept away or are inaccessible in the county, Jackson said.
In neighboring Letcher County, in the town of Fleming-Neon, residents are concerned about access to clean running water. City Hall was destroyed, with more than a foot of mud still covering its interior on Tuesday. The town’s bank, pharmacy and post office were flooded, meaning local residents – many of whom are older and still receive paychecks and pension checks in the mail – are now struggling to access their money and medicine, Mayor Susan said. Polis to CNN.
The floods also destroyed the only grocery store in the small community of Isom, one store owner told CNN.
Gwen Christon, 67, who owns an IGA grocery store with her husband, said the waters were completely polluted and ruined everything.
“Our carton of produce, dairy and boxes of frozen food were thrown all over the store. Our shelves that hold our groceries had fallen down and the groceries were all over the place,” Kristen said. “The machines floated.”
She told CNN they lost about $250,000 in inventory but are determined to reopen.
“I want to reopen because the next grocery store is 12 miles away and the other one is 25 miles away,” Kristen said. “People rely on this store.”
In Clay County, Judge/Executive John Johnson said between 100 and 125 miles of damage was reported and officials were working to rebuild roads.
On Wednesday, Beshear issued an emergency order that will make it easier for flood victims in 13 eastern Kentucky counties to replace lost driver’s licenses and other important documents for free, the governor’s office said.
Some schools in eastern Kentucky were also destroyed, while others with damage are expected to delay the start of the school year, Kentucky Department of Education spokesman Tony Tatman told CNN.
Tatman expects local school boards in the roughly 11 affected public school districts to change start days for the upcoming school year. Many of the affected schools were due to admit students back next week. Now, start dates will likely vary by district and school.
As soon as “the immediate needs for food, shelter and clothing are identified and met, and power and water services are restored, districts begin to plan for their return to school,” Tatman said.
Fundraisers to help flood victims are underway, including one organized by the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team. The team held a three-hour outdoor practice at its Lexington arena in conjunction with a flood relief telethon hosted by the Red Cross and WLEX. Donations were accepted at the door, by phone and online, and by the end of the session, more than $2 million had been raised, the school said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated who was driving Gabriel Hensley’s truck when it went into the creek. Hensley was driving.
Jarrod Wardwell, Artemis Moshtaghian, Dianne Gallagher, Amanda Musa and Homero DeLaFuente contributed to this report from CNN.
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