Johnson County man who died in flood rescue attempt up for heroism award; died trying to save ‘Nanaw’
FLAT GAP – The last time Kevin Johnson saw his son Scott, he was pushing through chest-deep floodwater to try to get his grandmother out of her mobile home.
At 74, Willa Mae Pennington had chronic lung problems and weighed only about 90 pounds. She couldn’t get out on her own.
Johnson followed his son until the roiling current pushed him off his feet and against the back of a nearby mobile home on Big Mudlick Creek, swelled far out of its banks by torrential rain.
“I hollered and said, ‘Scott, you can’t make it!’” Johnson recalled. “He said, ‘I’m getting Nanaw out of that trailer!’”
Scott Johnson made it inside the mobile home, but seconds later the water lifted it and pushed it downstream.
Johnson, 34, and his grandmother both died in the flood in Johnson County last July.
Now, Johnson is being considered for a medal from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission because of his efforts to save others.
Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, then one of the richest industrialists in the nation, started the fund in 1904 after being inspired by the stories of two men who died trying to help others in a Pennsylvania coal-mine blast.
The award recognizes civilians in the U.S. and Canada who risk their lives “to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the life of another person,” according to the commission.
The fund has since awarded medals to 9,845 people — out of more than 88,000 nominees — and paid out $38 million to recipients or their survivors.
The commission lists 156 recipients from Kentucky since the early 1900s, most recently in 2014.
Jeffrey A. Dooley, investigations manager for the commission, confirmed it is researching Johnson’s actions in the flood and said it could be several months before a decision is made.
Johnson and his grandmother were among four people who died when flash flooding caused devastation along several miles of Big Mudlick Creek, from Flat Gap to Staffordsville, on July 13.
An estimated 3 inches of rain fell in an hour in a concentrated area, according to the National Weather Service.
The creek runs along a narrow valley. When water from the cloudburst poured out of the surrounding hills, the creek couldn’t carry it away fast enough.
“It was basically like a wall of water,” said Tony Edwards, a meteorologist with the weather service office in Jackson.
The water was strong and deep enough to push mobile homes down the creek like toy boats, splintering them against trees or the bank.
The flood destroyed about 60 homes and damaged scores of others, according to Gary McClure, emergency manager for Johnson County, who noted that 550 homeowners told federal officials they’d had some damage from the flood.
In addition to Johnson and Pennington, the flood killed Richard Blair, 22, and Herman Eddie May Sr., 56.
Blair was disabled and could not get out of his mobile home as it washed it away.
May was swept away when he got out of his sport-utility vehicle as the water rose around it, police said.
Kevin Johnson, who cuts timber for a living, lived in a mobile home next to his brother, Joey Johnson. Their mother, Pennington, had her own trailer a few yards from Joey Johnson’s doublewide mobile home. Big Mudlick Creek curved around the property.
Kevin Johnson, 54, said he had lived at the spot since 1977. The creek swelled out of its banks sometimes during heavy rains, but it had never reached his house, Johnson said.
Johnson was home when the downpour started at mid-afternoon July 13.
“Never seen rain like that,” Johnson said.
His wife, Polly, was gone on an errand, but his stepdaughter, Angie Click, and 12-year-old Logan Bowling, who sometimes stayed there, were with him.
ALL I COULD DO WAS HOLLER AT THEM AND TELL THEM TO HOLD ON AND PRAY.
Polly Johnson, who saw Scott’s attempt to save his grandmother…
