‘We’re still in trouble.’ One tiny town’s touchstone disappears under Ky. floodwaters.

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)

In March 1973, an IGA grocery store opened in the small Letcher County community of Isom.

Gwen Christian, who grew up in nearby Red Fox, started working there that summer. In 1998, she and her husband, Arthur bought the Isom IGA, and for 30 more years, they worked there, eventually bringing son Simon into the business.

But as of last Friday, the business is over, destroyed by more than six feet of muddy water that crested inside the store, covering cans and bread loaves in a toxic slime. All the thousands of pounds of groceries inside the 16,000 square foot store were condemned by the health department. None of it, Christian found out Monday, was insured against flooding.

Christian said that although the small creek running behind the store had sometimes risen after heavy rain, not once in 50 years had it jumped its banks. But Wednesday night, as she kept waking up to the sound of torrential rains, she started to worry.

By 6 a.m. Thursday, she and Arthur were on the road, cutting trees that blocked the way from floods in their own Knott County community of Red Fox.

“We turned off (Route) 15, and I said ‘we’re in trouble, we’re in bad trouble,’ “ Christian said Monday, as she wiped tears off her cheeks. “We’re still in trouble.”

In rural Kentucky, a grocery store is more than a place to buy food. It’s a community center, a helping hand, a major employer. The Christians employed 23 people, which in Letcher County, is considered a sizeable number for one business. Those people are all out of a job for the foreseeable future.

But, she said, “they’re my family, they’re not really employees. It’s an extension of our family.”

One of those employees, Lisa Walters, has decorated cakes for 30 years. Another, Angela Combs, came down to help fill shopping carts full of mud-spattered peanut butter jars into a pile for the landfill. Combs has worked at the Isom IGA for four years. “It’s a family here,” she said. “This is heartbreaking, and it’s heartbreaking to throw all this away.”

Other volunteers came from the IGA distribution headquarters in Hickory, N.C., to help clean up the store, which was already emitting a stench of rotting meat and vegetables. Denise Stalland drove over from Christiansburg, Va. partly because it was a company store, partly because the Christians are such long and valued customers.

“They do things for the schools, they become part of people’s lives,” Stalland said. “Folks have come in from everywhere.”

Two American flags hung limply from the entrance in the light rain that had started again on Monday. A vending machine was marked with a hand-written “Out of Order” sign, the small stuffed animals inside stained with mud.

The Isom IGA wasn’t the only victim. The water stretched in a heavy lake across the parking lot, destroying a flea market, a Subway, the pharmacy and local health clinic. It even stretched across the road into two houses located just above it.

But unlike other businesses, Gwen Christian isn’t sure she wants to come back. She’s 67 years old, and it would take, conservatively, more than $1 million to renovate, and buy back all the food and supplies now being tossed. She’s particularly upset about what she thought was a comprehensive insurance policy for the store, including policies against fire, tornadoes and hurricanes. Just not floods.

“This is our livelihood,” she said. “All I have left is a house.”

Like many people this week, Gwen Christian seems still in shock at the incalculable loss that she faces.

And on Monday at the IGA, another scene was repeating itself: shock, tears, and help as people reached out to help. Some of the Christians’ friends set up a tent and served chili out of a crockpot. Across the parking lot, Ian Duff and his West Virginia church set up supplies and food for folks to pick up. Duff’s parents live across the street; theirs was one of the houses destroyed by the six foot lake that appeared Thursday. He moved to Point Pleasant, W.Va., several years ago, but packed up a truck of food and other supplies as soon as he heard the news.

“They’re phenomenal people,” he said of the Christians. “This is just so hard on everyone.”

Gwen Christian can be reached at [email protected]. Learn about other ways to help Eastern Kentucky flood victims here or visit Appalachian Flood Support Resources.