In several Laurel County neighborhoods, residents will be cleaning up for days, seeing what, if anything, can be saved. Around midnight Friday, a tornado roared through Pulaski County, where one person was killed, and Laurel County, where 17 died.
Two of the survivors are Mayme Caudill and her teenage grandson. She says her daughter called to say the tornado had been spotted at the London-Corbin Airport, not much further than a stone’s throw from her home – and to get in a closet.
“The house started shaking, and it then the next thing I heard was like rumbling, like a loud noise. Next thing was just like glass breaking everywhere and wood breaking and we couldn't hardly open the closet door to get out.”
Well before sunup, help was on the way, and crews arrived for search and rescue and other needs. Members of the Anderson County Fire Department drove two and a half hours. Jimmy Robinson is their deputy chief.
“So we went into where the actual, the tornado had came through. So there's a lot of damage to homes, homes destroyed. I mean, just debris everywhere.”
Early Saturday morning, shelters with donated supplies like food, cots, bedding, water, and even pet food were set up at First Baptist Church and South Laurel County High School in London. Heather Lynn helped organize the massive relief effort at the high school, which included shovels for the clean-ups.
“We're a very tight-knit community, and when something goes wrong, we all pull together as one, and we always build back.”
The outside help included the Kentucky National Guard and other local units, and it was needed. Laurel County Sheriff John Root has lived in the county all his life.
“This is probably, I'm going to be honest with you, I'd say, when it's all said and done, I've got 40 years law enforcement, I'd say this is going to be the worst incident that I've ever saw.”
Back at Mayme Caudill’s home, she says she’s still in shock. And though she’s glad they made it through a 15 to 20-second nightmare that seemed much longer, she feels badly for her co-survivor – who’d been through this before.
“My grandson was in that tornado at East Bernstadt 10 years ago, got flew out, and he was like, ‘Mamaw, it's not gonna happen again, is it?’ I just held him and told him to hold on to me he'd already and I told him it wasn't gonna happen, but it did.”
