Kentucky remembers tornado victims as rebuilding continues

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Chris Bullock has a lot to be grateful for as she decorates her new home for Christmas, after spending much of the past year in a camper with her family.

One year ago Saturday, a massive tornado obliterated wide swaths of her Kentucky hometown of Dawson Springs, leaving her homeless after a terrifying night of death and destruction.

Things look much different now.

In August, Bullock and her family moved into their new home, built free of charge by the disaster relief group God’s Pit Crew. It sits on the same site where their home of 26 years was wiped out.

“God’s sent blessings to us,” Bullock said in a phone interview leading up to the anniversary. “Sometimes we feel there’s a little guilt, if you will. Why were we spared?”

The holiday season tragedy killed 81 people across Kentucky and turned buildings into mounds of rubble as damage reached into hundreds of millions of dollars. Elsewhere in the state, Mayfield took a direct hit from the swarm of December tornadoes, which left a wide trail of destruction. In Bowling Green, a tornado tore through a subdivision. It was part of a massive tornado outbreak across the Midwest and the South.

In Dawson Springs and other Kentucky towns in the path of the storms, homes and businesses have been springing up steadily in recent months. Government assistance, private donations and claims payouts by insurers have poured into the stricken western Kentucky region.

“It’s more than encouraging,” said Jenny Beshear Sewell, the mayor-elect of Dawson Springs and a cousin of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. “In a storybook, it is like the turn to the next chapter. That’s how it feels. That’s what it looks like.”

On Saturday, the state’s Democratic governor led commemorative events in western Kentucky recalling the horrifying opening chapters of the tragedy. The gatherings remembered those who died and paid tribute to the rescue workers who pulled people from the wreckage — as well as the volunteers who have pitched in for the massive rebuild.

At the ceremony in Mayfield, the governor recalled scenes of destruction he saw one year ago in the town as “more devastating than anything I’ve ever seen in my life.” Neighbors dug through rubble to pull people out, and first responders worked long hours while not knowing if their own homes were still standing, he said.

“What I often tell people when it seems like maybe we’ve lost our hope in humanity — if you get to that point, just watch what people are doing right after something as devastating as these tornadoes,” Beshear said. “Watch how they’re trying to help. Watch how the things that we were arguing about a month before don’t matter at all. And how our goodness shines through.”

The work to rebuild includes providing economic opportunities, Beshear said, two days after announcing a project that will create 80 jobs in the Mayfield area.

“It’s not just enough to repair buildings,” he continued. “We’ve got to restore hope. We’ve got to give people a reason to stay and rebuild, to continue to allow towns like this … to not only survive but to thrive.”