A year ago, the Sunshine Hills neighborhood was a thriving subdivision full of homes. Today, the streets are lined with empty concrete pads and houses in various stages of construction.
Hector Merced works for his son’s construction company. He said they’ve rebuilt multiple houses and businesses since the tornado, and there’s one thing everyone wants: a way to shelter from storms.
Merced said a lot of homes in this area are built on concrete slabs. But just about every project he’s worked on this year has included some sort of storm shelter or basement area.
“I don’t blame them, because the experience of this happening — I never seen this in my life,” Merced said, shaking his head. “I’m 46 years old and [I’ve] never seen nothing like this [tornado].”
Daniel Carmack, a realtor in the London area who sits on the board of the Bluegrass Realtors association, said basements and shelters are a big selling point these days in the region where the tornado hit .
“It's somewhat new for all of us,” Carmack said. “In our area, you know, that's never been a concern as much. But when your community lives through a devastating tornado like we just went through — now it becomes more of a necessity.”
That necessity has emerged as experts say tornado alley is moving east, and places like London could be more likely to get severe weather in the future.
But Laurel County property assessment data shows that just less than one-third of residential homes here have basements. They’re even outnumbered by mobile homes, which the National Weather Service says are some of the worst places to shelter in a storm.
Carmack said since the tornado, he’s seen lots of mobile home dwellers eying safer, permanent houses.
“They are now looking at stick-built houses, whatever the cost is, they're trying every way in the world to do a stick-built home,” he said. “It has affected the mindset of people, especially in central and eastern Kentucky.”
Carmack said he’s also seen a big uptick in above ground shelters.
For those, the Kentucky legislature just passed a law that might be a big help. Starting in January 2027, the state is launching a program to reimburse homeowners up to $5,000 for the costs of building a safe room.
London resident Tina Carnes was still in the process of getting one installed when the first anniversary of the tornado rolled around recently.
It’s a gray poured concrete cube built into the back of her newly framed garage, eight inches thick on top and 16 inches thick around the sides.
Carnes' family survived the tornado a year ago by taking shelter in a closet in the center of their house. While they squeezed inside, the tornado ripped off the roof and the second story above them. Standing in her new shelter, she said her family is still traumatized, and she isn’t going to rely on luck again.
“I was like, I don’t know what to do. Just give me a safe place to go, just make me a concrete room,” she said. “Make the garage where I could stay in there overnight if I need to, with my animals. We'll go in the storm shelter.”
Carnes feels so strongly about storm shelters, she even ran for Laurel County judge-executive, the top job in county government. Due to the time and financial restraints that her own recovery demanded, she campaigned mostly on social media with one major promise: She’d work to get public storm shelters all around the county.
Some handpainted campaign signs sat in her yard, just beyond her new house and its storm shelter.
“They're not very pretty,” Carnes laughed. “I just painted on them, because again I'd rather use my money to rebuild than to, you know, do it on political signs. My main goal is to try to have a safe place for people if there is a storm coming.”
Carnes was unsuccessful in her bid for office during Tuesday’s primary election, but said she’s still “proud of the effort and passion” she brought to the race.
This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKU Public Radio in Kentucky, and NPR. Sign up for the weekly Porch Light newsletter here for news from around the region.
