MIDDLEBURG, Fla. – A Middleburg woman departed for Breathitt County, Kentucky Tuesday morning to take supplies and help flooding victims -- including her family members -- where at least 37 people have died and hundreds more are unaccounted for.
“I’m just called to go,” Angel Shepherd told News4JAX. “They need help.”
Click here to donate funds to a Kentucky family that has lost everything.
Floodwaters have ripped through the home of Angel Shepherd’s aunt, Barb Turner, and her aunt’s husband, Ossie Turner, in Jackson, Kentucky. Barb Turner, 73, has stage 4 cancer, and her husband has multiple sclerosis.
Related: Middleburg woman gathering supplies for Kentucky flooding victims, including her family
News4JAX was with Shepherd Tuesday morning when she left her home with a car packed full of water bottles, cups, snacks, blankets, clothing and more. She is going to an area where people have lost everything.
Shepherd has a 10–11-hour drive ahead of her. She said her aunt Barb is giving her strength.
“Whenever anything seems too big or too challenging I look to my Aunt Barb,” she said. “If I say or feel that I can’t, then I think of her and know I can.”
The pictures and videos coming from Kentucky offer a mere glimpse into what Shepherd’s family and others are growing through.
Shepherd launched a GoFundMe page to help her family -- and the community at large -- rebuild. A process that will not be easy.
″While it all seems so devastating, what I want everyone to know is there’s a community in Breathitt County, Kentucky. We have a saying up there. You’re ‘Kentucky proud and you’re Breathitt strong’. I grew up there and lived there for 18 years. I still have that feeling.”
Click here to donate to Shepherd’s GoFundMe.