All kinds of people. Poor poor people.
Lots of poor people in Appalachia.
Appalachia has little to no public transportation in some parts of the region, many dont own a vehicle. A reality that people from elsewhere may be unused to. The region has more physical space, in some areas, but in every other category, it has less. Less access to food and clean
water, less affordable and safe
housing, fewer households with
consistent internet access (which makes working remotely difficult), and fewer
roads that are maintained. Out-of-state residents fleeing their own cities to escape the virus would further tax a region already taxed across the board, stretching a part of the country already stretched beyond its limits.
Nowhere is this more evident than in health care. Rural hospitals have been
closing for years. Many Appalachians, due to lack of health insurance and income and the need to travel great distances, had difficulty accessing care well before COVID-19; some don’t have primary care physicians at all, and yet the population in Appalachia is extremely vulnerable. Poverty, poor nutrition, food insecurity, tobacco use, and
environmental factors keep much of the region’s population at a
higher risk of illness.
America's poorest white town: abandoned by coal, swallowed by drugs
Beattyville’s median household income is just $12,361 (about £8,000) a year, placing it as the third lowest income town in the US, according to that Census Bureau 2008-12 survey.
Nationally, the median household income was $53,915 in 2012. In real terms, the income of people in Beattyville is lower than it was in 1980.
The town’s poverty rate is 44% above the national average. Half of its families live below the poverty line. That includes three-quarters of those with children, with the attendant consequences. More than one-third of teenagers drop out of high school or leave without graduating. Just 5% of residents have college degrees.
Surrounding communities are little better. Beattyville is the capital of Lee County, named after the commander of the Confederate army of Northern Virginia in the civil war, General Robert E Lee.
Five of the 10 poorest counties in the US run in a line through eastern Kentucky and they include Lee County. Life expectancy in the county is among the worst in the US, which is not unconnected to the fact that more than half the population is obese. Men lived an average of just 68.3 years in 2013, a little more than eight years short of the national average. Women lived 76.4 years on average, about five years short of national life expectancy
“Things were really good when I came here in ’72 and I ended up staying. When I came here there were three new car dealerships. There hasn’t been a new car dealership here since ’89,” he said. “There’s no future here. I have a sense of sadness. I wish people had a better life.”
The War on Poverty lives on through federal grants. Food stamps, employment programmes and disability allowance have cushioned many people from the harshest effects of the retreat of jobs from the region. Some families still struggle to put enough food on the table but their children are fed – if not well in the sense of healthily – at school.
Federal money also built Vivian Lunsford a new house – a spacious wooden bungalow with a balcony on two sides and forest to the back, constructed in a ravine just outside Beattyville. The narrow road from the town winds past simple log cabins buried in the trees.
“They’ve probably been there since the early 1900s,” she said. “I don’t know how people live in them. They’re real basic. Their only running water is the stream
