The Kentucky Department of Agriculture estimates the historic flooding that hit eastern Kentucky last July did more than $3 million in damage to the nearly 140 produce growers in the region.

But a new program through the Kentucky Horticultural Council is getting small produce farmers back on their feet and growing again.

The council has partnered with ag programs at four high schools to repair small farm equipment damaged by the flooding.

We were very concerned with what we could do, what kind of impact we could have in a meaningful way to help growers within this area who were impacted by those devastating flooding events on their farms.

We wanted to be sure that any growers that had equipment that was damaged, that that we could do as much as we could to get that repaired and back in their hands before they wanted to start preparing for their spring season.

Now, when you lose one thing, you take taken a leg, you know you're taking a hit.

I had some of the Taylors and stuff that got water up around them and and I was lucky to get a program here that helped us repair those and get them back running.

We received this equipment before Christmas break.

First thing you obviously worry about is the water seeping in to places it should not be, and then also the silt and the dirt getting inside the motor, which can be act as an abrasive and as motors working could wear out the parts as well.

We could tell they had been like underwater in the flood and there was a lot of dirt and other debris like in the flywheel and everywhere.

All the debris got in the motors and just kind of clogged everything up like the carburetors and just wouldn't let fuel get through.

We just had to take it apart the engine and get clean out all the dirt and debris that was inside there and put it back together.

We've been you know, we've been working on it quite a while just to try to get them in tip top shape.

I didn't have any idea what was wrong with these motors.

So to watch the kids, they really got into it.

They were like, okay, what's what's what do we need to do next?

So it was really gratifying to see them, to get involved with it and to learn a true hands on skill that they can take out of this class and use later in life.

Those students were able to, you know, get in, do some diagnostics, do some repair work.

And then what we did with those pieces that weren't repairable, we were able to report that back to the grower of like, okay, here's the diagnostic X that the students went through and it's most likely that this is the problem.

And then that grower can decide what they want to do at that point.

And we've worked on other equipment.

Maybe somebody would bring in from the community.

It wasn't an emergency, but, you know, this meant something to be able to give back to some people.

And the kids knew where they came from.

They knew that this was from an affected region.

Just catastrophic, disastrous effects from that flood.

And I think it did carry little extra special meaning.

None of these were large pieces of equipment, but those were important to those producers.

And the you know, if you had to replace those, it would be thousands of dollars.

I think for a lot of the producers, this determining whether they were going to stay in production or not.

And I made a great deal.

To me, it's very good at one of them come back with a battery in it.

And I was very impressed with that.

You know, they went to the trouble to buy me a battery to put in the graveley, the one that's returned.

And when you can help get help replacing it, hit it.

It's a great deal.

This was a bright spot.

They thought they had lost everything.

And so when they they start to see that you haven't lost it all, we're going to help you.

And, you know, they get their equipment back and that works.

Oh, come on, boys.

Come on, we're out.

We just wanted to help everybody out and get just kind of give them back their stuff.

It just makes us happy that, like me personally, I can help a farmer get back on their feet by replacing their engines and fixing it for them.

It very nice to know that we could help relieve some of that stress, maybe some financial burden.

The Kentucky Horticulture Council said 58 growers have applied for the program, each with multiple pieces of equipment in need of repair.

The equipment is being divided among high schools and Montgomery Robertson and Spencer Counties and Western Hills High School and Frankfort.