Mcdowell Cleanup and Restoration

McDowell is a Floyd county community on the Left Fork of Beaver Creek at the mouth of Frasure Creek about 21 miles south of Prestonsburg. Blink and you may miss it, some locals joke. This town, though small, has a lot to offer. Mcdowell ARH Hospital, Post Office, Community trust bank, and Professional pharmacy are corner stones in this town. Now home to The Bean Shack Coffee Shop, a new local favorite. They carry a 5 star rating on Facebook with 31 raving reviews! Back in 2013, severe floods in McDowell, Kentucky, left its elementary school under a foot of water and mud, causing $60,000 in damage. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated event. McDowell Elementary has a history of flooding since it was built in the 1930s.The cost of water damage restoration the 80-year-old building after the 2013 flood, combined with challenges tied to its repeatedly flooded facilities, prompted the Floyd County Board of Education to decide to close it in summer 2017. Through a consolidation plan, students were moved to a new school, outside the floodplain. Though that was not the end of suffering for this beloved school building. In 2021, Left Beaver Fire Rescue responded to the scene just before noon where they found a large amount of smoke coming from the primary building. Investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire but say it is suspicious. Seeing as the school has been closed for many years, fire damage restoration was not a concern. In the same time period thick smoke from a suspicious forest fire could be seen for several miles. The fire was considered arson and is still under investigation, according to investigators. More than 70 acres burned, as crews contained about 50% of the fire. Through Flooding and Fire disasters this community has held strong as continues to thrive!