Former EKY teacher loses artwork, studio in flooding

WHITESBURG, Ky. (WYMT) - Doug Adams who has worked the last eighteen years as a full time, public classroom art teacher at Letcher County Central High School, retired at the end of the last school year at the age of 88.5 years old. He is among the oldest, and is possibly the oldest, full time classroom teachers in Kentucky.

What should have been a time to relax and enjoy the start of his golden years of retirement, has instead, turned into a form of a living nightmare.

It all started, he said, when he looked out a window of his work apartment and was shocked to see flood waters raging down the street in front of his apartment building.

Adams said, like many others in this region, he has suffered the loss of so much he held dear to the recent flood that has devastated the people and region of Eastern Kentucky in so many ways.

Adams said he has worked many weekends and evenings over several years, after working all day teaching, to create and build a body of artwork that he hoped might help him build some financial security for himself and his family once he retired from teaching.

He said it was a surreal and huge disappointment when he was finally able to get to his art studio and opened the studio doors to find that much of his art supplies and tools, along with his recent bodies of artwork, had been destroyed by the flood waters.

There is no insurance to help relieve the burden of the losses, Adams said. He said what makes this hard for him is his age.

Adams said he lost close to $60,000 worth of art and supplies.

Despite the loss, his art lives on throughout the city. He has sold pieces to friends and fellow Eastern Kentuckians, and some of his pieces are on display throughout Whitesburg. Adams said he is thankful that some of his work was able to make it out of the flood undamaged.

Copyright 2022 WYMT. All rights reserved.