Answering a call for aid

Aug. 4—As of Tuesday, at least 37 people in Kentucky died during the catastrophic flooding that ripped through the eastern part of the state.

"One of the reasons this one was so deadly was because it did flood overnight," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said. "People were asleep, and by the time they woke up, they were already in a very dangerous situation."

The damage and destruction are widespread, but so are the volunteers looking to lend a hand. A few men from Wilson County, who did the same thing last year for the victims of the Waverly floods, are pitching in again to help deliver needed goods to flood-ravaged areas.

William Shipper of Shipper Trailer Rentals and Sales, John Wayne Davis of Volunteer4Christ, and Dennis Tacker of Shipper's Collision Repair were at Tacker's auto shop at 813 North Cumberland Street in Lebanon on Tuesday. They were loading up donated items into a tractor-trailer. They will receive items daily from noon to 6 p.m. until the trailer is full.

"Our major food items are going to a place called CANE Kitchen in Whitesburg (Kentucky)," Shipper said. "They are cooking meals all day long, and if they have the help, they say they are even taking the meals to people who can't get out."

CANE is a 9,000-square-foot commercial kitchen at the former Whitesburg High School building available for rent to farmers, entrepreneurs, commercial usage, and as an event venue. It is an acronym for Community Agricultural Nutritional Enterprises, Inc.

Although he had been through the area on a motorcycle ride, with little knowledge of the damaged places, Shipper mentioned that he got online and started looking for places and ways to help.

"We talked to First Baptist Church in Whitesburg, and they have an account set up for flood victims," Shipper said. "If anyone wanted to just donate money, they could write a check and send it directly to them."

Whitesburg is in Letcher County and is very close to the state line with Virginia.

"The high school in Letcher County is taking donations," Shipper said. "The guy at CANE kitchen sent me to them for anything that they could use, like the water, tarps, batteries and things like that. We are going to sort what we can and hopefully drop it off at those two places."

Davis added, "They don't want any clothes or furniture like they did at Waverly. They want certain items or a donation. Instead of passing it to a bunch of people that don't have room to put anything."

Once the trailer is full, they plan to make the approximately five-hour drive to Eastern Kentucky.

"We're either going to take it up on Saturday or Monday depending on when the trailer gets full," Davis said. "If we are going to take it, we want to take a whole load."

The items that are needed are tarps, fans, air mattresses, phone charges, extension cords, plastic totes, batteries, shovels, scissors, dog food, paper towels, plastic plates/cups, toilet paper, plastic utensils, socks, underwear, baby/infant items, non-perishable food, hygiene and feminine products, bottled water, pre-packaged snacks, trash bags, blankets, cleaning supplies, mops and brooms.