The Voltage Youth Group of Cornerstone Community Church in Kunkletown was training in the days ahead of their mission trip to Lynch, Kentucky.

Once they arrived, they planned to repair homes and organize an event for children of the community.

And then the rain started to fall.

“Our first day of training was July 27, and that’s when the rain began in Kentucky,” said Pastor Jeremiah Dowling, who heads the youth group.

The storms didn’t let up, and continued for the next three days.

“There was flooding. I wasn’t sure where it was compared to where we were going,” Dowling said.

It turns out that the devastated area was exactly where the group was heading.

But it didn’t curtail travel plans.

The group - seven youth members and two adults - made its way to Kentucky during the tail end of the rains.

“As we were driving there, we saw houses in streams. It was pretty intense,” Dowling said.

They arrived July 30, and the next day they were helping flood victims.

Plans had certainly changed, Dowling said.

Instead of building handicapped ramps or renovating homes, the group helped at four homes that were consumed by the raging waters.

“I was actually really excited because sometimes you see disasters on TV but you are never really able to do anything about it, except maybe donate some money,” said youth group member Sam Knudsen, 18, of Saylorsburg. “So to have the opportunity to help these families in such desperate times, it was really a fulfilling experience.”

The first house where they helped had lost its entire downstairs to flooding, Dowling said.

“There was nothing really salvageable,” he noted.

The youths cut out Sheetrock and pulled waterlogged insulation from the walls.

“If you don’t tear that stuff out, mold will start growing.”

At another home, the group helped remove water from a basement.

“There was lots of mud and gunk,” Dowling said.

The two other homes had similar damage.

Knudsen, a 2022 Pleasant Valley High School graduate who recently enlisted in the U.S. Navy, said he spoke to all homeowners.

“We were able to talk to the four families, pray with them and show them the love of God,” he said. “All of the families, even though they were going through such a hard time in their lives, were all very welcoming and nice. Surprisingly, they were all very hopeful and knew that God would be there for them.”

It was the first time Knudsen was able to pray with so many people, and he credited the opportunity with “getting him out of his shell.”

Ellie Wilds, 15, said the firsthand view of the flood was eye-opening.

“I didn’t think it would be that bad, but one time when we were driving past a house and there was a car that was stuck on a fence,” she said, noting that waters deposited it there.

Wilds, who lives in Albrightsville and attends Jim Thorpe High School, said some homes suffered intense damage.

“We had to rip the floor out of one of the places,” she said.

The group stayed in a home when they weren’t working, and it wasn’t affected by the floods, Wilds noted.

Dowling said the group’s hard work was appreciated by the residents.

“The residents never expected something like this to happen,” Dowling said. “It wasn’t in a flood plain, and it never happened before in that area. They didn’t have flood insurance.”