Perry Co. woman spends 16 hours on mountain with grandma to escape rising floodwaters

PERRY COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - We’ve heard harrowing stories of escape from flood victims over the past week. People clinging on to what they could, to not be swept away by floodwaters.

“The whole time I was just, ‘please let me make it back home to my family,’” said Naomie Williams, who lives in Perry County.

Williams and her 82-year-old grandmother, Carylon, were the only two people in their home Thursday evening when floods hit southeastern Kentucky.

“When we walked out in it, it hit us chest deep,” Williams said.

They were treading water for over an hour trying to reach a hill behind their home.

“I can’t describe the feeling that I felt in the water. I felt helpless honestly. It was so strong, but we made it out of there because of the Lord honestly,” Williams said.

Naomie said there wasn’t much for her to grab onto as she was trying to keep herself and her grandmother, who can’t swim, above water.

“It was just a limb, not even a tree, a limb is what we held onto. Somehow, I managed to pull us both up out of the water. Then when we got onto the hill, we couldn’t stay steady for more than five minutes. Cause as we stayed, the water kept on rising. So it was like a continuous climb up a steep mountain,” Williams said.

It was a climb that lasted 16 hours until help came.

“The next day the rescue squad came and got to us, best day of my life for sure,” Williams said.

Naomie and Carylon made it out of the hills with nothing but some scratches and poison ivy.

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