First there was the fury of the 150 mph winds that damaged and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in Bowling Green and killed 12 people.
Now comes the frustration of recovery.
Finding a place to stay. Digging through the soggy wreckage to salvage a few clothes and personal items. Checking on filing insurance claims. Wondering what assistance will be available. Getting replacement driver’s licenses and credit cards.
That was the exhausting reality for a lot of people in Bowling Green Sunday as the city dug out from a deadly tornado that hit about 1 a.m Central time on Saturday.
Shalea Parke said she lost everything.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she said as she passed time at a Red Cross shelter at a high school and middle school complex. “It feels like you got to start all over again.”
Deborah Gibson, 68, whose home was destroyed, said it was difficult to even figure out where to start when you don’t even have a toothbrush.
She and her son, Tony Trester, 44, who lived with her, spent the rest of the night in a car outside their blasted apartment, then came to the shelter Sunday to get some food and figure out their next steps.
“It’s hard when your whole life gets taken away in a few minutes,” Trester said.
Gibson said she had been through hurricanes before moving to Bowling Green, but nothing like the ferocity of the tornado.
“For the first time, I’m breaking down,” she said. “We’re lost and so confused.”
Anthony Hickey Sr., was leaning on a pickup truck Sunday afternoon as people carried debris from his apartment to pile by the curb for pickup.
After three women stopped to pray with him, holding hands in a small circle, Hickey said he would stay at a hotel Sunday night, but hadn’t figured out much past that.
“You’re in a state of shock,” he said. “I need a home and don’t have one. It’s a rude awakening to a new life.”
But Hickey, a coach and truant officer at Warren Central High School, said God brought him through the storm and would provide going forward.
Jennifer Locke said she rode out the storm in a bathroom with her dog, a small Shih Tzu terrier named Kash. The wall of her apartment blew in against the bathroom, but she was able to get out.
She heard babies crying in the dark nearby and people yelling for help.
“It was the most awful thing,” she said.
Locke pulled a piece of drywall over her and Kash for some shelter from the rain, and waited for firefighers to get her out.
Sunday, she and her daughter, Amber Tucker, who lived with her, were digging through the mess to salavage what they could. Someone found Locke’s glasses, and Tucker had found half a $100 bill and was trying to figure out where the other half was.
Locke said someone in Edmonson County, perhaps 20 or 30 miles away, had found a photo of her and her daughter and posted it on Facebook, where friends saw it and told Locke about it.
Jacob Perdue, 27, said he hunkered over his wife, Deenalee, and their 2-year-old daughter, Kora, in a bathroom as the tornado ripped the roof off their apartment. Their car in front of the apartment ended up about 150 feet away on its top.
It is traumatic to lose a comfortable existence in seconds, he said.
“When it gets ripped away, it’s demoralizing,” Perdue said.
Even with the losses, Perdue said he felt blessed. He and his family weren’t hurt, and he has family to stay with and a job that won’t be affected by the storm, unlike some people in town.
The tornado destroyed a number of businesses in town, including on 31W, a main commercial area in town, and flattened a factory.
Still, it’s going to take awhile to shake the memories of the storm.
“A gust of wind blows and I’m freaking out now,” Perdue said.
Red Cross officials stressed that they can assist people with food and shelter needs after the storm. The Red Cross shelter in Bowling Green moved Sunday to the Jennings Creek Elementary School.
Warren County Coroner Kevin Kirby said the death toll from the storm stood at 12 on Sunday. That was 11 people from Bowling Green, many of them from the Creekwood neighborhood, and one in the county.
Police and firefighters were still searching through rubble and wrecked houses and apartments to make sure there were no more bodies to recover or injured people to rescue.
Kirby said he hoped the fatality count wouldn’t grow.
———
