A Day That Will Live In Infamy….

To paraphrase a famous speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Yesterday, February 5, 2008, a day that will live in infamy, Muhlenberg County was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the powerful forces of an F3 Tornado!" 

I have seen the results of serious weather phenomonen on television and in other communities, but it doesn't register it's ugliness like when it hits at home.  My family was lucky.  We received literally no damage.  When driving to town Wednesday morning, aside from the normal flooding from cypress creek, I couldn't tell how serious the situation was.  If I hadn't listened closely to my scanner the previous evening for hours, I would have thought we had a thunderstorm.  The lights at my house never so much as "flickered."  Everything downtown seemed normal.  Although most businesses and the banks weren't open, this was not unusual because it was before their regular opening time.  When I turned onto 431 and headed toward the office, I could see some debris where the area around IGA had been flooded the night before.  Again, this happens every time we get a pretty hard rain.  Nothing unusual here. 

I proceeded under the viaduct and on to the intersection where I could see the stoplight wasn't working.  I then noticed that all power was out in that normally busy area.  There was a police cruiser with it's blinking lights beside the intersection, along with a military humvee.  The make-shift sign said "No Left Turn."  Traffic was starting to get heavy, especially coming from Greenville and from the Parkway.  I proceeded through the intersection south on 431 and noticed a light pole broke off in front of the Car-O-Noda Motel.  This was the first sign of real trouble.  As I progressed further, I could see a gazebo overturned in front of Best Western and about half of the red shingles on the Pizza Hut were missing.  On the left, I saw about half of Day's Inn's roof was completely gone and nearly all of the windows were blown out.  An eighteen wheeler lay beside the motel in the parking lot on it's side.  It was destroyed for the most part.  Behind the tractor-trailer I could see the remnants of two houses, one belonging to Alberta Love and the other was the former home of Mayor John A. Lile.  A little further, I could see damage to Eugene Harris' home and the trees around it looked as if a giant logging operation had simply ravaged the land of trees.  Another humvee prevented us from turning onto Welborn street, so I continued over the Parkway.  When I got to Youngstown Road, I turned around and headed back to town.  As I crossed the bridge back over the Parkway and looked over to my right, I couldn't believe my eyes.  It looked like Baghdad on the six o'clock news!  Debris was everywhere and every house in my eyesight had major damage.  None seemed to be spared.

As the day trickled on, more stories came to light.  People in the Gaslight Park area were dazed but for the most part unhurt.  Three people in Greenville weren't so lucky.  They died.  I can only imagine what was on the minds of the residents of the affected areas as they looked at what was their home the evening before.  How do you go about picking up the pieces?  Where do you start?

As I came back into the business district I could see television crews with their antennas up, airing live scenes for the morning and noon news.  Traffic was really starting to get heavy by now.  I suppose a lot of them were people from neighboring communities who saw it on the news and wanted to come and see it first-hand or possibly find a way to help.

Tuesday evening at around 6:00 p.m., things were pretty normal.  The TV stations were warning of possible rough weather but nothing was specific yet.  A lot of attention was being focused on Super Tuesday and the nominations for President.  Somehow, that doesn't even seem so important now.  Not in our little world.

Anyhow, as the evening went on, Channel 5 (Nashville) kept breaking in with weather updates.  They went on to say that a possible tornado was headed for South Muhlenberg County and to take cover.  I grabbed my portable scanner and turned it on for the first time in about a year.  It was extremely busy.  Finally, I heard someone say "confirmed sighting of a tornado near Greenville...Advise to take cover!"  A few minutes later, the reports started coming in.  Nolan's Trailer Park hit hard.  Lots of damage in and around North High School.  I thought of Johnny & Gail (Clark) who were at the game watching their youngest son, Jake play OwensboroJul Senior.  I silently prayed for their safety.  The radio was really getting busy now. "Lots of damage in the Hillside area of Powderly" someone said.  A little later, I heard patrolman Jason Lindsey come on the air and talk of trees down and damage on Maple Lane.  I knew this had to be tough because both he and his parents live on Maple Lane.  A few minutes later, it was becoming clear that this wasn't just an ordinary storm that we get once or twice a year.  This was dead serious.

I heard Fire Chief Ricky King come on the air and take control of the situation.  He began putting people and equipment in place with the skill of a conductor.  Things were really starting to click.  Reports were coming in quickly.  They started checking residences for people to evacuate. Gears were already in motion to open shelters and get people to them.  I knew things were bad.  I had worked several storms with emergency personnel over the years but nothing this catastrophic.  I felt a swell of pride for our emergency workers.  Their years of training were paying off.  They were making the best they could of an extremely bad situation.  It was another hour before I learned that Chief King (Ricky) was choreographing his end ot the situation while his own home was pretty much destroyed.  His wife and daughter managed to go to her Sister's home for safety.  Ricky spent hours making sure everything was working like he knew it should and it was after midnight before he could go back and check on his home.  He was too busy making sure everyone else was OK.  This is what heroes are made of.  It made me proud to know him and I knew that night that I made the right decision when I recommended him for Fire Chief nearly ten years ago.

I listened intently as emergency personnel from other communities that were spared left the comfort and safety of their homes to help those in need.  They seemed to come from further and further away, even neighboring counties.  Several command posts were set up in the areas of the most destruction.  It's amazing that hundreds weren't injured or killed. 

I'm sure most of you have had time to see the damage by now.  Power was out in at least one-third of our county.  It's amazing that by daylight, KU managed to mobilize nearly 100 crews of repairmen and tonight (Thursday) nearly all power has been restored. 

I was reluctant to send out a blog today (or even this week) because many of you that live in these areas receive it.  Our prayers are with you and with your families.  We will be a much stronger community as a result of this.  It'll take a while, but we'll bounce back...stronger than ever.  This has taught us that we can deal with any emergency that comes our way.  I cannot help but think of the lyrics of a song made famouns by Frankie Laine, and later Elvis Presley and Marty Robbins entitled "Lord, you gave me a Mountain:

                                                             But this time, Lord, you gave me a mountain
                                                             A mountain I may never climb
                                                             And it isn't a hill any longer
                                                             You gave me a mountain this time.

I have no doubts we'll not only climb this mountain.....We'll conquer it!!!