Middle East

‘We never had anything like this here’

Grief, despair in tiny Kentucky town after tornadoes
In this aerial view released yesterday, shows destroyed homes and businesses after a tornado ripped through town the previous evening in Mayfield, Kentucky. PHOTO: AFP, REUTERS

Buildings razed, cars overturned, trees ripped from the ground -- there were end-of-the-world scenes in the small Kentucky town of Mayfield.

Stunned and shaken, its residents on Saturday tried to grasp the extent of the damage caused by a series of tornadoes that swept across six US states, killing more than 80 people.

On Broadway, the main street in this town of 10,000 people, old red brick buildings that were once a source of local pride were shattered by the storm.

Mitchell Fowler's restaurant was a family business for nearly four decades, until the tornado destroyed it. The windows were blown out, the kitchen damaged, the roof torn off, and a section of the exterior wall fell.

On Friday, after a tornado warning from local authorities, Fowler closed the restaurant around 8 pm, told his employees to go home and set off for his own home some 8 miles (13 kilometers) outside town.

Amid rubbles of their home, a father comforts his daughter in Dawson Springs, Kentucky. PHOTO: AFP, REUTERS

"Before I got home, it was gone," Fowler said of the restaurant.

"This was my restaurant, a family business for 38 years, I raised my family here, all my kids work here. It's devastating," Fowler told AFP.

Next to his restaurant, dozens of cars lay upside down or turned to the side.

An old green and white car was miraculously left intact by the storm, but the roof of the garage that housed was gone.

The tornado wreaked havoc over a strip about a kilometer wide, crossing the city from west to east.

Torn electric poles littered the ground.

People retrieve merchandise from a store in Mayfield. PHOTO: AFP, REUTERS

"It looks like a bomb has exploded in our community," Mayfield resident Alex Goodman told AFP.

"We knew it was coming, but we did not have anywhere to go," said David Norseworthy, 69, a resident who works in construction.

"We never had anything like this here."

Comments

‘We never had anything like this here’

Grief, despair in tiny Kentucky town after tornadoes
In this aerial view released yesterday, shows destroyed homes and businesses after a tornado ripped through town the previous evening in Mayfield, Kentucky. PHOTO: AFP, REUTERS

Buildings razed, cars overturned, trees ripped from the ground -- there were end-of-the-world scenes in the small Kentucky town of Mayfield.

Stunned and shaken, its residents on Saturday tried to grasp the extent of the damage caused by a series of tornadoes that swept across six US states, killing more than 80 people.

On Broadway, the main street in this town of 10,000 people, old red brick buildings that were once a source of local pride were shattered by the storm.

Mitchell Fowler's restaurant was a family business for nearly four decades, until the tornado destroyed it. The windows were blown out, the kitchen damaged, the roof torn off, and a section of the exterior wall fell.

On Friday, after a tornado warning from local authorities, Fowler closed the restaurant around 8 pm, told his employees to go home and set off for his own home some 8 miles (13 kilometers) outside town.

Amid rubbles of their home, a father comforts his daughter in Dawson Springs, Kentucky. PHOTO: AFP, REUTERS

"Before I got home, it was gone," Fowler said of the restaurant.

"This was my restaurant, a family business for 38 years, I raised my family here, all my kids work here. It's devastating," Fowler told AFP.

Next to his restaurant, dozens of cars lay upside down or turned to the side.

An old green and white car was miraculously left intact by the storm, but the roof of the garage that housed was gone.

The tornado wreaked havoc over a strip about a kilometer wide, crossing the city from west to east.

Torn electric poles littered the ground.

People retrieve merchandise from a store in Mayfield. PHOTO: AFP, REUTERS

"It looks like a bomb has exploded in our community," Mayfield resident Alex Goodman told AFP.

"We knew it was coming, but we did not have anywhere to go," said David Norseworthy, 69, a resident who works in construction.

"We never had anything like this here."

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