VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Flood relief kits and pallets of water from Operation Blessing reached Kentucky on Saturday.
Record flooding hit Eastern Kentucky this week with reports of mudslides, landslides and water up to people’s knees. 25 people have died as a result of the high water.
When Anthony Lloyd, the Senior Director of U.S. Disaster Relief of Operation Blessing, learned about the flood, his team sprang into action.
Operation Blessing sent videos to 10 On Your Side of the team putting together flood relief kits to send to Kentucky. Trailer trucks full of supplies traveled to Kentucky to address the immediate needs of those affected.
“Lined all the products that go in the kit that has been in an orderly fashion. They move the bucket along,” Lloyd said.
The team also has people on the ground to help them identify where they can help.
“We use the network of local officials and management officials to kind of zero in on areas where we can help beat the greatest need,” he said.
Lloyd told 10 On Your Side there was a need for items like clean-up supplies. The buckets they were putting together are filled with items like garbage bags, paper towels, cleaners, gloves and hand sanitizer.
“Something to give everybody a boost,” Lloyd said. “We want to make sure we have as big of an impact as we can.”
Lloyd told 10 On Your Side the supplies could potentially impact hundreds.
“There are 72 boxes, I believe, of one of those pallets. If you send you to know five or seven of those pallets,” Lloyd said.
This type of emergency assistance isn’t new for Operation Blessing. They have helped bring supplies to Ukraine and to the scene of other natural disasters like Hurricane Ida. Lloyd said that’s why the team prepared throughout the whole year.
“You do well during something like this because you prepared before it,” he said.
The non-profit is also prepared to step in for the clean-up efforts.
“We might do debris clean up. Those are things that will occur after a flood like this,” Lloyd said.
Operation Blessing will perform a damage assessment later to decide if more supplies are needed or if they need to help with the clean-up efforts.
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