‘A long road.’ Western Ky tornado survivors send advice, help to flood-ravaged east

On Wednesday morning, I called Hopkins County Judge Executive Jack Whitfield to ask him what advice he had for the leaders of Eastern Kentucky as they navigate the unfathomable destruction of flooding in several counties. Just eight months ago, Whitfield had witnessed the same levels of devastation when tornadoes tore through Western Kentucky on Dec. 10, 2021, literally stripping the small towns of Bremen and Dawson Springs off the map.

Whitfield was already in his truck driving to Breathitt County with a load of supplies, including water, buckets and several thousand dollars of gift cards for displaced folks.

“I think even without the tornado coming through I would want to do this because having seen the amazing outpouring of support and assistance after the tornado there’s no way I could not reach out in some way,” he said. “I don’t know where we would have been without the support from other counties and states that we got.”

His advice ranged from the mundane — find a place you can properly store the masses of cleanup and building supplies — to the more difficult — get your local people organized quickly so you’re ready for the influx of federal and state officials who’ve come to help.

“But I know from experience that right now, they are completely overwhelmed.”

Certainly, Kentucky seems to have been overwhelmed by natural disasters in the past few years, from terrible floods to devastating tornadoes to even more terrible floods. But as each end of the state experiences its own disasters, they are learning from each other how to cope.

On Tuesday, Bremen Mayor Allen Miller had already visited Hindman to see his friend, Mayor Tracy Neice. Bremen lost 11 residents and most of its buildings in the tornado.

“Tracy came up and brought equipment and supplies from the city,” Miller recalled. “He came up and sat on an excavator for five days, so of course when this happened, we felt like it was time to give back.”

Miller had been sending supplies and giving Neice his contacts, helpful folks from FEMA and the Red Cross, as well as national volunteer groups that arrived in Bremen last year, some of which are still helping out. “Maybe those groups that have been helping us can go that direction when they’re done here,” he said.

Miller said his main advice to leaders is to pace themselves.

“I know it’s hard because I went through it,” he said. “You have to take time for your self, to step back to gather your thoughts and then come back with a fresh look. Early on I felt I had to be there all the time, I had to keep pushing but it comes to a point where you have to back up and take a break. If you wind out getting down and burnt out then you’re not doing your city any justice.

“It’s a long road,” he said. “It’s not a water outage or power outage that you spend a couple of days on — you’re in this for the long term.”

If you want to know just how long this kind of disaster recovery takes, Mayfield, the most populous area to get hit, is still clearing debris, and just beginning major construction downtown.

That they are rebuilding is in part due to the strength others brought to the ravaged community, said Mayor Kathy O’Nan, who sent a Mayfield fire truck down to Eastern Kentucky as soon as she heard about the floods.

“I feel like a broken record talking about this, but I learned about how kind human beings can be when there’s so much despair around them, and I want all the leaders, and all the people to know that our prayers, our hearts, our condolences go out to all of them,” O’Nan said. “We want them to know we’re sending them as much strength as we possibly can.”

Like most, O’Nan had no experience with this level of disaster; she learned to start asking questions of every expert who came to town.

“You have to ask more questions than you ever think you could ask,” she said. “I’ve learned that FEMA will not tell you what they can do, they will do a lot but they rely on you to tell them what you need, that initial response.”

Recovery as redo

In Western Kentucky, they’ve taken stock of many things they used to do, and are using the tornado as a kind of redo for improvement. Whitfield told me, for example, that in Hopkins County, sirens will be used only for tornadoes because people had become too blase about them when they were used for heavy thunderstorms. (There are still questions to be asked and answered about what kinds of warnings Eastern Kentucky residents got as the water rose.)

In Mayfield, which has a larger percentage of renters left homeless, they are taking a larger look at affordable housing, and how city regulations can aid its production.

In every community, these efforts start with what leaders call their “long-term recovery groups,” organizations of mostly volunteers, with some paid employees who handle everything from disaster relief funds to helping people find ways to reconstruct their homes. These groups also help coordination between all the helpers, whether FEMA or volunteers. Bureaucracy in the midst of crisis can be ... frustrating.

Grief and trauma

But in the midst of building codes and construction permits, it’s important to remember the grief and trauma that people will be suffering for a long, long time. O’Nan says she still regularly checks on emergency management employees to see how they’re doing. When school started back, “we could check on the children and that let us check on families, too,” she said. “I looked forward to school starting because it brought normalcy to a chaotic time.”

But none of Mayfield’s schools were damaged. In Eastern Kentucky, numerous schools were flooded, making it unclear exactly when and how some children will get to school this month.

The trauma is real and has to be dealt with gently, said Joey Reed, pastor of Christ United Methodist Church, on of the many churches in downtown Mayfield that was totally destroyed.

“I have encountered numerous folks who are now very aware of their own mortality,” Reed said. “I’ve talked to people who had a very close call and realized they very easily could have died during that tornado. The stress and trauma that realization has on some people is very very real, and it needs to be treated gently and without platitudes.”

Reed said some see tornadoes and floods as some of judgment from God. “But just as God was not in the tornadoes, God was not in the floods and the place people will see God is in the resilience of the community as it rallies around our leaders and survivors as they help provide recovery to those who have lost so much.”