Belfry News

" A 32-year old woman is missing, and authorities are clueless as to her whereabouts, even after an intensive search.

Four Disaster Recovery Centers in Kentucky are scheduled to transition or close on Saturday, June 27.

People in Pike County are once again cleaning up after recent floods. The county was declared a state of emergency on Thursday after flash floods hit several communities.

In the Belfry, Ky., area, Pearl Street residents Jack and Anne Booten watched yesterday evening as Pond Creek invaded their tri-level home for the second time in 32 days.

The National Weather Service has extended the flood warning for the southeast Kentucky counties of Pike and Floyd until 10:45 p.m., and continued a flash flood watch for counties in southwest West Virginia.

Some counties are still hovering in a state of emergency, with residents cut off by damaged roads or relying on charity and friends for housing and food, nearly a month after storms, and flooding, one disaster responder said.

Posted Wednesday, June 3, 2009 ; 02:05 PM Post Comment Updated Wednesday, June 3, 2009 ; 05:00 PM FRANKFORT, KY -- Kentuckians with losses from the May storms and flooding can now receive in-person help at Disaster Recovery Centers in Breathitt, Floyd, Owsley and Pike Counties.

Officials are still adding up flood damage costs to roads, bridges, water lines and schools, but it is already in the millions of dollars.

Five FEMA assistance centers opened Wednesday morning in four Eastern Kentucky counties where flooding May 8 and 9 left hundreds of people homeless.

Summer vacation is here early for 1,500 Pike County students, many of them flood victims.

The flood left Belfry Middle School’s Lady Pirates with no place to practice prior to the Pike County Championship Volleyball Tournament but it has been said whatever does not kill you only makes you stronger. BMS proved this cliché by beating Feds Creek Thursday night and winning the Pike County Championship. The road BMS traveled was not easy after flooding damaged their school and the opportunity to practice was limited to one practice the day before the tournament started on Monday.

The court rust from over a week’s worth of inactivity showed in Belfry’s first match against 8th seeded Dorton. Belfry, the top seed in the tournament, struggled in their opening match, dropping the first game to fall behind 0-1 in the match and needed to win the second game to stave of elimination in the first round. Midway through the second game, after a key timeout by Coach Alice Smith, Belfry stormed back to win the second game and never looked back. They won the third game effortlessly and seemed to have regained the dominate attitude that had produced a season where Belfry had gone undefeated in the county.

Belfry’s second match was against Pikeville Middle School who had defeated Mullins in an earlier match to earn the right to face the Pirates. Pikeville, the 4th seed, came in confident after just defeating Mullins and playing on their home court. The teams had played a close match just weeks earlier on the same floor that Belfry had won 2-0, but both games had been extremely close. Belfry faced a Pikeville team that was supported by a loud home crowd which seemed to drown out the Pirates supportive family and friends at the beginning of the match. This did not last long as Belfry brought their A-Game into this match with the near stumble to Dorton fresh in their minds the Pirates dominated the match shortly after it started. This silenced the Pikeville crowd and inspired a raucous Belfry faithful to cheer their team onto a 2-0 match victory.

Two schools in eastern Kentucky that were severely damaged by flooding have been exempted from completing the rest of the year.

BELFRY, Ky. - Belfry Middle School Principal James Hurley spoke to students and parents Monday evening to shed some light on the condition of the school and plans for the remainder of the term.

Pike County School officials are in a a oeholding patterna as to when students who attended schools that were flooded will return, and what will become of the recent assessment tests that were ruined.

The clean-up continues after this weekends major flooding. One of the hardest hit areas is in Pike County where one school suffered major damage.

Gov. Steve Beshear , traveled Tuesday with a crew of locally elected officials, including Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, State Rep.

Belfry Kentucky – 10:30 AM May 13, 2009 I put a call into the Pike County Emergency Management Office and talked to a volunteer that confirmed that FEMA has still not committed to come to our area to offer assistance in the wake of the recent flooding that hit the Pike County area this past weekend on May 9th. We need everyone to document the flooding by calling Pike County Emergency Management at 606 432 0210 and registering with that office so that FEMA will come and assist our area. People are encouraged to pass the word amongst neighbors and friends who may not know about this already. It is a good idea to document all of your damage with photographs where ever possible to insure that there is a record of what happened.

As cleanup efforts continued Monday across Pike and other Eastern Kentucky counties, schools were closed and tetanus shots were offered.

The sun came out Sunday, and Pike County breathed a sigh of relief. But enough roads were still impassable, and enough people still trapped by floodwaters, it was hard to get an assessment of the weekend's damage.

Yahoo News has a story about a 17 year old boy who has been threatened by his high school principle with suspension if he takes his girlfriend to her Prom at a public high school. The boy would also be ineligible to participate in his class graduation and would receive his diploma in the mail once he made up his exams after serving his suspension.

The school, which forbids dancing, rock music, hand-holding and kissing, also threatens expulsion if he is involved with drugs or sex at the prom. It is not clear what the school would define as sex, but since hand-holding and kissing are forbidden it can be assumed that these as well as any type of dancing which could be construed as sexual explicit could trigger an expulsion.

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