Standing in the Breach

By Brianna Stephens

Children were still scared and confused about what happened as they filed into the distribution center. Their families tried repeatedly to explain to them that their home was gone, but they were going to find help. But through their words of affirmation, Chris Griffith could see that even the adults were still afraid and in shock about what happened.

Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) operated a distribution center at its Foley Community Center campus in Martin to distribute basic essential items to children, their families, and seniors impacted by the catastrophic flooding in Eastern Kentucky. Griffith, manager of CAP’s Family Life Counseling Services, and his team were on hand at the center to listen to the survivors.

“What happens during natural disasters is people focus on their basic needs first, which is understandable, but they tend to put their mental health last,” Griffith said. “Mental health should come alongside the other pressing needs because it can impede people’s ability to do what they need to do, it can eat away at mental energy as they are fighting off negative feelings, and it can rob the joy from the successes toward reestablishing their lives. Mental health is crucial.”

At the distribution center, Griffith and his team had several impromptu conversations to help people debrief and process the depression, anxiety, loss, grief, trauma, or other emotions they felt after living through the flooding.

He remembered a conversation with one woman who was trapped in her home with the rising floodwater. Her nephews were able to escape to the roof, but she physically could not. In the dark outside her large bay window, she could see two cars that had been picked up by the rushing waters coming toward her home. She watched the cars slowly ap- proach her and anticipated she would die because of the collision. At the last second, the cars missed her home by a mere foot.

“One of the primary things that causes a traumatic stress reaction is a natural disaster,” Griffith said. “You can’t experience something like this woman did and not be deeply impacted. Post-traumatic stress will impact this community just based on the flood and nothing more. All of this is on top of the challenges people in Appalachia face because of poverty.”

In addition to the flood victims, Griffith and his team had daily conversations with CAP employees and volunteers from across all programs to help them debrief and process their experiences, too, to help combat vicarious trauma. Day after day, they saw the devastation firsthand and relived the horrors of what happened with the families they served as they heard their stories.

Paige Kirby, CAP’s director of finance, said the devastation she saw on TV and social media following the flood led her to volunteer with CAP’s disaster relief efforts in addition to her administrative duties. She drove through flooded areas to collect information from families who needed help and complete damage assessments on their homes.

“The experience was an emotional rollercoaster,” Kirby said. “I was happy to be there and to be going out and helping. Seeing what happened in person is not what I expected. It was hard to think that water did that. It strengthens my faith to see what the people in this area went through and that they are still resilient. I am thankful our counseling staff was there to help us process the things we saw and experienced.”

Just as a focus of recovery is rebuilding homes and lives, Griffith and his team of counselors at CAP are working diligently to listen and meet the mental health needs of the people of Eastern Kentucky as they try to find a new normal after the disaster.

“As counselors, we have to be attentive and provide care to each person we meet,” Griffith said. “We are present in their conversation. We are willing and able to stand in the breach with them as they relive their experiences. We are here to listen to the people in this region who need help.”