Man on a Mission Delivering Aid to Kentucky Flood Victims

Oconee County, SC (Special Submission by Wayne Morton) — Thurman Coward is an 83-year old retired U.S. Navy petty officer with a pacemaker and one partially-functioning kidney. But through his efforts in the Oconee County community of Salem, he has delivered more than 30,000 pounds of food, clothing, and necessities to flood victims in northeastern Kentucky and continues to make regular trips -often by himself pulling a 20-foot trailer.

The area near the towns of Lynch and Neon, where President Joe Biden visited soon after the deadly floods struck last July, lost a total of 43 residents, some of them children swept away from their parents.

Coward, a former mayor of Salem who retired from the maintenance department of the Lake Keowee gated community of  Keowee Key after 32 years, was introduced to the needs of the region when he and friends narrowly escaped the flashflooding while delivery supplies to missionaries aiding the poverty-stricken communities. The area which had depended on coal mining as its only industry suffered substantially when the mines closed. He began delivering the goods 16 years ago and was near the town of Lynch when he heard the news about the floods which were the results of more than 14 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period.

“We got out in the nick of time as bridges were being washed out, but I knew we had to go back and help  those people”, he said.

As houses, barns, automobiles, and bodies were washed away, relief and aid from federal sources such as FEMA has been slow in coming.

“About the same time, the hurricanes in Florida pulled many resources there, but left those poor people of Kentucky without hope, Coward said. “We have made thirteen trips back to the area and continue to go whenever we can fill up the trailer from donations gathered at his Salem church and dropped off by county residents who have been made aware of the plight of the Kentuckians.

“We have received support from several groups and individuals, but the needs are enormous as many in those areas are still homeless and trying to rebuild from the total destruction,” he noted.

Coward said some bridges were rebuilt after the floods, but floodwaters from November and December rains washed those away again.

“About half of the schoolchildren in the three-county area cannot attend school because the buses have no roads and bridges to travel and most of the families who have vehicles see them piled up along the path of the floods,” he said. “It really looks like a third world country and the emergency still exists and will for some time.”

Coward and a crew of growing volunteers, many retirees, are making the one-day 600-mile roundtrip  to deliver what is collected locally.

“It is exhausting, but we know God wants us to do all we can to help those who have little food, few clothes, no livable homes, sleeping in the elements, and having no hope as they have experienced the loss of loved ones in the floods,” he said.

“One couple grabbed their four children -two each-and tried to escape, but the children were swept away from their parents” arms.”

Coward has received some monetary gifts from Oconee churches in the form of cash cards , and he is available to tell congregations and other group how they can help the flood victims as he has complied photos to show in explaining the extent of the on-going needs. His wife Myrtle, a retired postmaster in Salem, had traveled to Kentucky with her husband but is now giving care to her 98-year old mother and is unable to leave.

This “man on a mission” can be reached at (864) 903-0852 for donations of food, clothing, and necessities and to share with churches and civic groups. Volunteers to make the one-day trips are also needed.