Catastrophic flooding has touched the lives of nearly all of our staff and flood policy partners-–from the 1000-year Eastern Kentucky floods that nearly destroyed ACLC’s building in 2022, to the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and Tennessee in 2024, to the severe flooding in Northern Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley in the spring and summer of 2025. When lives are lost, homes destroyed, and communities left with long roads to recovery, these aren’t just statistics. They are our neighbors, families, and colleagues.
That connection directly informs how we prioritize and approach advocacy work, and how we shape solutions alongside fellow community members.
In 2025, ACLC’s Policy & Advocacy Associate Brendan Muckian-Bates–who had already been leading a coalition advancing flood policy reform in Kentucky–saw his own community devastated by excessive rainfall. In this essay, he shares what it is like to face disaster at home, and how recovery begins with community care, mutual aid, and neighbors helping neighbors.
We recover with each bucket of muck we clean out
By Brendan Muckian-Bates
On the evening of June 14, the West Virginia towns of Valley Grove and Triadelphia were devastated with a torrential downpour. These small communities nearby Wheeling, in the state’s northern panhandle, witnessed five inches of rain in less than 30 minutes, causing nine deaths as of this writing.
Living in the Ohio River Valley means becoming accustomed to the dangers of seasonal flooding. Neighbors, friends, loved ones, even you yourself could deal with a life-altering natural disaster in the blink of an eye. Personal preparedness is certainly important – when my father moved to Moundsville, WV last year, we first reviewed the West Virginia Flood Tool to see which house he should purchase to avoid any undue water damage. Keeping valuables out of the basement, having a pump, maintaining a backup generator, stocking up on bleach and other cleaning supplies – all are tactics many Appalachians know well.
The Ohio Valley Mutual Aid was one of the first volunteer-led groups to spring into action shortly after the flooding. By June 16, the group established a supply drop-off zone, began online outreach for impacted residents, and collected a list of volunteers. When I arrived to help out, their thorough system was obvious to see. Cars could line up to drop off much-needed supplies while volunteers signed up to get name tags, service locations, and distribute assistance materials.
Driving through the devastated parts of Triadelphia with my father and several other volunteers, we noted manufactured homes completely washed away and power lines laying in Little Wheeling Creek. Uprooted trees and debris were cleared, but travel was slow and meticulous.
We arrived at the home of a Vietnam veteran and his wife, who told us a harrowing story of that fateful day. In an instant, water began gushing down National Road directly adjacent to their property. Stepping onto their porch to survey the rising waters, they saw a few neighbors caught in the high water and pulled them onto their steps. They had seen floods before, but nothing like this.
Our cohort of volunteers mucked out what we could in their basement, assisted by a friendly team of National Guard units. Nearby, the flood damaged the front door of the couple’s detached garage, and inside we could see how high it reached. Boxes stacked on shelves nearly six feet high had damage. Decades of memories, lost in an instant.
As we removed the damaged items and saved what we could, at least 10 separate families arrived and offered to help. They were loaded up with water, paper towels, bleach, shovels, buckets, all the essentials needed to start getting back to some semblance of normalcy. By the arrival of the fifth group, it dawned on us how rapidly this small community had mobilized to support one another.
Brendan Muckian-Bates (center) and neighbors helping to clean out flooded homes.
By the end of the day, we had cleaned out most of the garage; the pile of debris we created was testament to volunteers’ efforts. Surveying the neighborhood, though, we saw how much was still left to be done. As we returned to the rally point with Ohio Valley Mutual Aid volunteers, coordinators were assessing the days’ work and planning for tomorrow. Over 70 homes had been cleaned out; more volunteers were expected to arrive in the following days. A monumental effort, accomplished bit by bit.
