VEVAY, Ind. — Russ Bragg bends over and picks up a log. He walks down to the Ohio River banks and tosses it into a pile. The pile is growing.
When he gets back up to his fence, he sees a headlight from a car. Then, he shows me a lottery ticket from a Cincinnati gas station almost an hour away. Bragg says it's all part of the trash and debris left over from flooding in early April. Flooding that damaged homes and communities all over the Tri-State.
“I’m one of the lucky ones,” Bragg said, before pointing to a backyard decimated with tree limbs and tires. “There’s a lot of homes like this down through here.”
For more on what you should do if your home or business has flooded, find resources by clicking this link.
Bragg called WCPO 9 News after watching our flood coverage. He wanted to know why other communities were getting so much help — and his small town in Switzerland County wasn’t.
“Thank you for coming out here,” Bragg said. “You’re the first news anchor I've seen.”
He thanked me because he feels forgotten by state officials.
“People need help,” Bragg said.
I asked him to show me around his community, where he's lived since he was a senior in high school. But first, he showed me what his home looked like last week. He holds up his phone and swipes to a picture where brown water comes up halfway up his fence.
“That’s the backyard area,” Bragg said.
WATCH: We take this resident's concerns to officials in the video below:
The retired firefighter drove me to some of the most impacted areas, and we almost got stuck trying to reach a woman who says her appliances were floating in floodwater last week. So I called her.
Debbie Carter says she's living at the nearby Belterra Casino. Before the floods, she was in the process of selling her home. She laughs before describing what her week has been like.
"Horrible," Carter said.
We used FaceTime and she showed me the muddy water and debris leftover in her home. Carter told me she didn’t have flood insurance because it was too expensive.
I asked her if she’d gotten help.
“No,” Carter said. "We haven’t gotten any help."
When the Indiana governor declared state of emergency mandates in 18 counties last week, Switzerland wasn't one of them. I called the governor's office on Monday, and followed up with Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security as well. Local officials were asking questions, too.
The declaration matters because it opens the door to help fund cleanup efforts. State officials added Switzerland County to its emergency list late Tuesday.
In Vevay, County Commissioner Ryan Harrison gave me a first-hand look at the damage. He said the county is paying for dumpsters, and many of them are full. In one hard-hit area, Harrison stops and talks to a group of residents.
“The last time this happened was 2018, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was this time,” Harrison said. “This is going to be a long road.”
For him, the state of emergency declaration wasn't important. It's what happens next. It's the follow-up. Something he says he hasn't seen from state officials yet.
That's why he was out this week, still visiting impacted communities.
“You’re not forgotten about in Switzerland county," Harrison said. "We’re here to help you.”
Homeland security officials tell us they're still completing damage assessments for more than 35 counties in Indiana. Once that's done, they say the process to apply for funding will be shared with you.
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If you would like to help in some way, Switzerland County Commissioner Ryan Harrison says you can email him at: RLHarrisonSwitz1@gmail.com
