Chief Wilson is one of the people featured in The Daily Yonder is continuing flood coverage.

The Daily Yonder is published by the Center for Rural Strategies, which produced East Kentucky Flood, a half hour documentary on the flood that aired here on KCET.

We recently spoke to Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies and publisher of The Daily Yonder, who is based in Whitesburg, about telling the stories of those who survived the flood while living through it himself.

Looking at the destruction afterwards, we were trying to figure out what we could do, how we could be of service.

And we just thought, Well, why don't we take this moment and gather some stories, since that's what we're good at?

A lot of people had witnessed things they had never expected to see, and so the stories were amazing.

A fireman who couldn't swim.

Going with a kayak and rescuing 14 people.

Went into their house as it may in chance that she were on the couch.

It was obviously about next to her sitting on the couch.

I was able to float her up and get got her right here.

And I was like, Wow.

I mean, I couldn't I couldn't get her over there.

So I actually just found some adrenaline and I just was able to put her in that car.

And I said, we have to go.

We have to go now.

I cannot slam.

Those stories began to define the blood in very human race.

I call them the hillbilly, hillbilly refugees that have moved out of here.

They knew we weren't going to get any help from anybody else.

And I started calling.

So I just tell them the best I could and when the roads opened up, they rolled in here.

It's often hard to get your bearings when things are moving so fast.

But a year later, we begin to get a glimpse of our trajectory, where we stand, where we need to go.

And I think there's a lot of people who are still here and committed to making something better happen.

So I'll be optimistic.

Yeah, you can watch the East Kentucky Flood documentary on our website online and on demand at Katie Dawg.

For additional content, check out the Daily Yonder website.