Pippa Passes Cleanup and Restoration

The city of Pippa Passes is located in the state of Kentucky, in Knott County. Pippa Passes, KY is a beautiful and unique place to call home. The Appalachian mountain range provides breathtaking views for residents and visitors alike. Its formal name was chosen to honor benefactors of Alice Lloyd College. Residents commonly call the community "Caney" or "Caney Creek". The small city is located in the mountainous Appalachia region, an area of coal mining. This settlement was known as "Caney" or "Caney Creek" before 1916, when Alice Lloyd arrived from Boston, Massachusetts. She solicited funds for the construction of a local post office and the founding of Caney Creek Junior College, which were opened in 1917 and 1923, respectively. A donation from the Browning Society led to the post office's being named after Robert Browning's Pippa Passes. In this verse drama, he coined the phrase "God's in His heaven, all's right with the world." (Given the U.S. Postal Service's preference for monogrammatic names, this location was known as "Pippapass" until 1955.) Between July 25th and July 30th, 2022, several complexes of training thunderstorms developed south of I-64 and brought heavy rain, deadly flash flooding, and devastating river flooding to eastern Kentucky and central Appalachia. These thunderstorms, at times, caused rainfall rates in excess of 4"/hr across complex terrain that led to widespread devastating impacts. While it did not rain continuously during this 4-day stretch, the overwhelming amounts of rain and resultant flooding led to 39 deaths and widespread catastrophic damage. The highest rainfall total report was from southern Knott County, where 14.00" fell in this 4-day stretch. Many homes and businesses on the area required water damage restoration. The estimated peak rainfall totals of 14-16" from the 26th through 29th are historically unheard of. There is less than a 1 in 1,000 chance of that amount of rain falling in any given year over a 4-day period. (NWS as the source of this info) The Pippa Passes Post Office closed for renovations after severe flooding impacted operations in eastern Kentucky. They reopened on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022.