Grocery, destroyed by E. Ky. flood and owned by Black woman who's been there 50 years, to reopen Saturday

It was the only grocery for miles around. (Image from "East Kentucky Flood")

The Rural Blog doesn't usually run notices of non-media business openings, but we're making an exception in this case because Saturday's reopening of Isom IGA in an unincorporated community between Whitesburg and Hazard, Kentucky, will be an important milepost in the region's recovery from the flooding that destroyed the grocery.

Gwen Christon in her store, ready to open (Photo
by Ryan C. Hermens, Lexington Herald-Leader)

The tragic story of the supermarket's owner, 67-year-old Gwen Christon, who has spent 50 years working in it or to rebuild it, brought outside help, and a determination to reopen, with the help of her son, Simon, who decided two years ago to follow in her footsteps. She told the makers of the "East Kentucky Flood" documentary that she worked 50 years to buy the store and pay the mortgage, and Simon said “I’m next in line to work another 50 years and get it paid up.” She and her husband Arthur bought the store in 1998, reports The Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg. She didn't own the land, but after the flood the landowner donated it to her, allowing her to get loans, reports Linda Blackford of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Carl Sivak of MDI, a wholesale grocer, told Blackford that divine intervention is all that can explain how quickly Christon has outfitted the store with coolers and freezers that are usually on back order for nine months to a year: “To get this store back together in nine months is amazing.”

MapQuest

“The Lord has just put things in order for us,” the Christons' son Simon told Blackford. “There’s no other explanation.”

After announcing that she planned to reopen April 1 (a goal she will meet Saturday), Gwen Christon said of the region, “This is our home. This is our people, and we have to stick together. . . . I think we can come back stronger. I think we can come back more together.”

Isom is in Letcher County, where one-half of 1 percent of the 20,000 or so residents are African Americans. Gwen, Arthur and Simon Christon are three of them.