Flooding Hits American Towns Far From Oceans and Big Rivers

In nearly four decades living here, Kasey Wright had never seen the North Fork of the Kentucky River flood her neighborhood at the water’s edge. Then last July, thunderstorms unleashed a deluge, sending a torrent of water 6 feet high through her home.

Nearly a year later, Wright, her husband, John, and their 12-year-old son are in limbo. The family is crammed into her parents’ house a mile away, awaiting word on whether their application for a Federal Emergency Management Agency buyout of the property is approved. They are leaning toward moving to Tennessee, prodded by their town’s longstanding economic challenges, which the flooding compounded.

“You wonder what’s going to be left here,” said John Wright, 41 years old. “I think a lot of people will leave.”