These are the people we lost in the Eastern Kentucky flooding
Sons, daughters, parents, grandparents.
Cooks, musicians, photographers and miners.
The victims of the late July flooding in Eastern Kentucky that left over three dozen dead — with more fatalities feared — along with countless residents displaced, homes washed away and businesses destroyed were all of those things and more.
Here are stories, anecdotes and details about some of the victims, based off interviews with family and friends, media reports, social media posts and obituaries.
Do you know someone who died in the flooding in Kentucky? Please reach out to reporter Billy Kobin and weekend editor Keisha Rowe at bkobin@courierjournal.com and nrowe@gannett.com.
Walter Hinkle
76, of Oneida
Walter Hinkle was a lifelong Clay County resident and "one of the sweetest men," said Diann Norvell, 69, who grew up near him.
"Everybody loved him, and he loved everybody," she said.
Hinkle loved photography, playing guitar and walking along Cane Branch, his family said in his obituary. Hinkle's niece, Debra Hinkle Gay, wrote about her uncle in a Facebook post Friday:
"I sure love Uncle Walter, he didn't just call me Debra … it was always Debra Carol ….. I took him home last week and I always told him I loved him when he would get out of the vehicle and he would grin and say Yeah I know …. I think it embarrassed him. He loved having his picture taken and music and his cigarettes. Uncle Walter you will be so missed … I will miss seeing you on your way to the store or on your way back every day. I love you and I know you're with Jesus and Papaw Boss, Mamaw and Daddy but we're still heartbroken."
−Jonathan Bullington
Eva Nicole "Nikki" Slone
50, of Pippa Passes
Eva Nicole "Nikki" Slone was "a very well-liked person in Pippa Passes," Jessica Brown, the daughter of her boyfriend, said.
Brown told The Courier Journal that Slone died after venturing out to check on a woman she would take care of.
"Her body was found about 1.5 miles at Alice Lloyd College from where her car was found," Jessica Brown said. "They believed she had got out of her car and tried to walk home."
Slone's obituary notes she was born in Michigan and is survived by numerous family members and relatives, including two children, a grandchild (with a second one on the way), her boyfriend or "companion," her sister and stepfather.
−Billy Kobin
Nellie Mae Howard
82, of Chavies
Nellie Mae Howard was a "Devout Christian and loved her flowers, especially her rose bushes," according to her obituary.
Howard is the great-aunt of Perry County Sheriff Joe Engle, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
Her obituary notes she is survived by a daughter, four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, eight great-great grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends.
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−Billy Kobin
Clarence and Jewel Sturgill
79 and 64, of Eolia
Clarence and Jewel Sturgill raised four children, three sons and a daughter, and were grandparents to five grandchildren, according to their obituaries.
Family members declined to be interviewed. But the daughter-in-law posted a tribute to the couple on Facebook last week, saying "no better two people ever existed. They will be missed every single day moving forward but I will do my best to live my life in a way that would have made them proud."
−Jonathan Bullington
David Campbell
78, of Rowdy
David Campbell's nephew, Eric Wigdahl, started a GoFundMe that had already raised over $1,000 to support Campbell's daughter and her immediate family.
"My poor cousin not only lost her father during the flood but also had severe damage done to her home. No family should have to go through something as horrific and tragic as she and her family have had to endure," Wigdahl wrote. "Please consider donating whatever you can to help her and her family."
Wigdahl added that all funds raised will go directly to the daughter and her family to help with funeral bills, temporary housing, food, supplies, clothing and "anything else her family might need during this difficult time."
−Billy Kobin
Bobby Junior Beaver and Betty Beaver
46 and 73, of Fisty
Cody Thompson told The Courier Journal that the bodies of his father, Bobby Junior Beaver, and grandmother, Betty Beaver, were found after they had been swept from their home in Fisty during the flooding.
−Billy Kobin
Betty Jean Estep
67, of Isom
Betty Jean Estep could cook.
Her head was filled with a cookbook of dishes passed down from generations of family who lived in the hollers of southeastern Kentucky. The recipes were never written down.
“I don’t think we measured anything,” said her daughter, Misty Baker, 47. “You just do what you were taught to do.”
Baker’s favorite was her mom’s soup beans – pinto beans cooked for hours until they become almost like a stew, served with sauerkraut and onions, potatoes and cornbread.
No one who visited her house left hungry. And if they couldn’t make it, she’d bring a plate to them.
“She always checked on people,” Baker said, “always made them feel like she cared.”
A Vicco native, Estep was a full-time mother of three, a grandmother of 10 and great-grandmother of three.
Baker said she and her mom spoke at least once a day, often more than that.
“I don’t care if we talked 10 times that day, there was always an ‘I love you’ at the end of each call,” she said.
They talked the night before she died. A few hours later, asleep on her couch in Richmond two hours away, Baker woke to a panicked call from Ronnie Holcomb, her mom’s boyfriend of 17 years.
It was sometime after 3 a.m. on Thursday, July 28. Holcomb, who at the time was staying at the couple’s cabin in Tennessee, said he thought Estep was missing, possibly swept away in the rushing floodwaters rising across the region.
Baker got dressed and posted an urgent message on Facebook asking anyone near Isom if they could see what was happening. Then she scrolled through other posts and, seeing how bad the flooding was, realized she couldn’t make it to her mom.
Baker tried to calm down. Her mom was a smart woman, she told herself. And despite having two small heart attacks over the previous five years, she was tough.
She just doesn’t have a signal.
She can’t call.
She knows to get away.
Sometime after daybreak, Baker got another phone call. The storage building broke loose in the flooding and slammed into Estep’s trailer. Fearing the worst, she and her son ran out the backdoor and tried to escape to higher ground up the hill behind her home.
In the darkness, she told her son she couldn’t breathe. He needed to find help.
By the time it arrived, it was too late. Estep was dead of a heart attack.
“You wish you could take that night back and say everything that you ever wanted to say,” Baker said. “But I think she knew. We had that relationship. … I will forever miss my best friend.”
− Jonathan Bullington
Adam and Elizabeth Combs
75 and 71, of Fisty
Adam and Elizabeth Mae Combs, a couple from Fisty, died at their home July 28. A family member did not wish to provide additional comment.
Their obituaries note they are survived by three children, four grandchildren, a great grandchild and numerous siblings.
Tributes posted to the Hindman Funeral Services website also included dozens of messages from family and friends about the couple.
A niece of Adam Combs wrote, "you will be missed...and your service fighting for this great country will NEVER be forgotten."
"You were always a loving caring lady," said one of the tributes to Elizabeth Combs.
−Billy Kobin
Brenda Webb
81, of Oneida
Brenda Webb was an Oneida native, a mother of two and grandmother of two and a great-grandmother of two, according to her obituary.
"I can't express how heartbroken I am for Brenda's loved ones," one woman wrote in a tribute posted on Britton Funeral Home's website.
−Jonathan Bullington
Gabe Hensley
30, of Yerkes
Hensley's wife told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he was a coal miner and father of a 10-week-old son. Hensley and his brother were trying to help people when Hensley's truck was swept away, according to his wife.
According to his obituary, the Perry County man was an underground roof bolter.
"Gabe was kindhearted and always willing to help others," his obituary says. "He enjoyed riding ATV's. Gabe was a family man. Most of all, he loved spending time with his children."
Hensley, according to his obituary, is survived by his wife, son, four daughters, brother, three sisters and a host of "family and many friends."
This file will be updated.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Eastern Kentucky flooding: People lost in Knott County, Floyd County
