() — Belinda Asher was sleeping at her home in eastern Kentucky when she was abruptly awoken shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday by a flash flood alert on her phone.
“By 2 a.m., everything I had was completely under water,” Asher, 37, told .
At least eight people have died and “hundreds will lose” their homes after heavy overnight rains and widespread flooding in eastern Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.
Asher, her husband and their three children live on the line between Breathitt and Perry counties. She said her three-bedroom home was completely washed away by flooding.
“I don’t have a plan, I don’t know, how do you start from scratch?” Asher said.
He had lived in that house for about seven years and in the area all his life, he told . “Everything is gone. I think I saw my porch in the creek as we were leaving, and I saw part of the door frame,” Asher said.
His brother’s house is also gone. He said that he knows of at least 10 or 15 other families who also lost everything.
“Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Asher said.
Asher said that when the water started to rise overnight, the family went to their barn to save the animals inside and were able to get their horses out. Asher said that he managed to save the dogs from him, but that he is still missing a cat that he hopes will show up in the next few days.
Asher and his family are now staying with his brother-in-law in the nearby town of Hazard. She says she’s thankful she made it out alive with her family and her pets, crediting the flash flood warning for saving their lives.
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‘s Jamie Gumbrecht contributed to this report.
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