A tornado destroyed out buildings and damaged the roof and windows of Tabatha Adams' home in Hopkins County. (Courtesy of Tabatha Adams)

Sitting on her front porch surrounded by tornado damage, Tabatha Adams never imagined being on the other side of disaster recovery.?

As the former president of her local Rotary Club, she helped her neighbors when Dawson Springs grappled with the devastating aftermath of an EF-4 tornado in December 2021. The Western Kentucky city of about 2,400 lost 75% of its housing while 19 residents lost their lives in the severe weather outbreak that killed 74 Kentuckians.?

Adams organized disaster grants, totaling $180,000 in 2022 she said, to help her neighbors rebuild and spearheaded the construction of a memorial remembering those killed from Dawson Springs.

But now, it’s her own family that is receiving help from neighbors she had previously aided. Kentucky faced the brunt of another tornado outbreak Sunday with a particularly strong tornado — one that spurred the National Weather Service to issue a rare “tornado emergency” — tearing a track just north of Dawson Springs city limits through the unincorporated communities of Charleston and Barnsley.

A survey by the National Weather Service found the tornado to be of EF-3 strength with peak wind speeds of 160 mph and a peak width of 700 yards or nearly a half-mile. The Sunday tornado’s track was north of the path taken by the 2021 tornado and through a less densely populated area.

Gov. Andy Beshear said five people across the state were killed in the storms, including a 48-year-old woman from Hopkins County. Fatalities also were reported in Caldwell, Hardin and Mercer counties and in Louisville. At least 14 counties have declared states of emergency, and tens of thousands still were without power across the state as of Tuesday afternoon.?

About 40 homes across Hopkins County have been significantly damaged or are complete losses from the Sunday tornado, according to Kevin Cotton, the mayor of the Hopkins County seat of Madisonville. That included Adams’ home along Daylight Road, considered an epicenter of damage from the twister: her two-car garage and barn were both toppled, shingles torn off her roof and windows broken throughout her house.?

But she’s grateful her family, dog and cats are safe. She’s also not having to rebuild a second time; some homes hit by the Sunday storms were damaged or destroyed in the 2021 tornado. Adams said the 2021 tornado had missed her home by less than a mile.?

“We’re talking not even three years ago these people were picking up their lives and rebuilding,” Adams said. “Here they are again. It is unimaginable and unthinkable, and it just really makes you wonder why.”?

In recent decades, more tornado outbreaks have shifted geographically to the mid-South including Western Kentucky, which scientists say is connected to the impacts of climate change. More warm, moist air is coming from the Gulf of Mexico to collide with colder air from the Western U.S., fueling potential tornadoes across the South, scientists say.

In Hopkins County, recovery efforts at least have a head start because of the existing recovery infrastructure and knowledge on how to respond, said Heath Duncan, the co-chair of the Hopkins County Long Term Recovery Committee.?

Duncan, who’s also the executive director of the regional Habitat for Humanity organization, said a surge of hundreds of volunteers since Sunday has arrived to help clear debris and check on survivors. But the financial costs of recovery, especially what costs will ultimately be borne by local communities and residents, is still being realized.?

Duncan said the 2021 tornado destroyed not only homes but also city infrastructure from water lines to sidewalks. Rebuilding to better withstand future storms can be an “incredibly expensive endeavor,” he added. He said financial support moving forward will still likely rely on generosity of local donors and state and federal governments.?

“The process of long term recovery work has been difficult the last two years, and for me personally, the hardest thing that I’ve had to do in life,” Duncan said, mentioning he feels frustrated on the verge of anger at times over his community’s situation. “A lot of us are just tired from the 2021 tornado, and so now every time a storm blows through we’re like, ‘Please, we can’t handle anything else.’”?

Gov. Andy Beshear in a press conference with emergency management officials Monday said he believed the storm damage from across numerous counties, particularly in Western Kentucky, would qualify the disaster for FEMA’s public assistance program, which provides grants to restore infrastructure.?

But individual survivors being able to apply to FEMA for disaster aid is not guaranteed; Beshear said it would take every Kentuckian impacted to document their damage and report it for FEMA to open up aid to individuals. That’s especially crucial, he said, for those impacted who are uninsured.?

“Your willingness to track your damage and to turn it in is what could help a neighbor or someone you don’t even know from another county get that help,” Beshear said.?

While state officials wait to hear if and what federal disaster assistance Kentuckians will receive, local Hopkins County residents are still working long hours in the immediate aftermath to help their neighbors.?

Meredith and David Hyde only moved back into a newly constructed home in Dawson Springs less than two years ago after their original home was made unlivable after the 2021 tornado. On Tuesday afternoon, they drove around damaged areas in Charleston dropping off monetary donations made possible by the local Rotary Club to survivors.?

Meredith Hyde, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, said she’s been mindful to provide survivors with mental health resources when they need it, some of them still processing the shock of the disaster. David and she don’t have many memories from the first couple of weeks after the 2021 tornado, she said, and “neither one of us I don’t think could have made it without the other one.”?

She mentioned one woman they were visiting provided them $500 worth of kitchen supplies after the 2021 tornado.?

“This community just takes care of each other,” Hyde said. “This is not about having to do it. This is about wanting to do it.”

Christmas decorations hang from a shattered window in Mayfield on Dec. 13, 2021, three days after an EF-4 tornado hit the town. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Western Kentucky communities that were devastated by a violent tornado outbreak last year are marking the one-year anniversary of the natural disaster this weekend with gatherings in churches, candlelight vigils and more.

For elected officials and other community members organizing the events, it’s a chance to remember what was lost — lives, entire streets of homes and historic buildings — while also noting the progress made to rebuild houses and come together as a community.

At least 80 Kentuckians lost their lives in a tornado outbreak that tore through communities from Cayce — in the far western tip of the state — to Bowling Green, destroying and damaging thousands of homes along the way.

Mayfield

First responders the night of December, 10, 2021 were helping pull survivors out of the rubble of Mayfield Consumer Products, a candle factory that collapsed when an EF-4 tornado struck the town of about 10,000. Nine people died in that collapse, including a corrections officer for the local jail who was supervising inmates working in the factory.

Now, one local official said hundreds of people making up first responders and other community members plan to walk about two miles Saturday morning from the former site of the candle factory to downtown Mayfield.

Tracy Warner, the emergency management director for Graves County, said search and rescue personnel from Louisville and emergency management staff from Northern Kentucky plan to join the walk. She said it could be an opportunity for first responders and survivors to reconnect.

“Just like an ambulance — you take them to the hospital, you drop them off, you might never know how they were from then on out,” Warner said. “If some of them transported somebody to a hospital, to actually — if they do reunite — to be able to say, ‘Oh, I helped you and you’re doing amazing.’”

Saturday afternoon at Graves County High School gymnasium, the local governments for Mayfield and Graves County will also hold a commemoration service titled, “A CELEBRATION OF HOPE: WE WILL REMEMBER.” Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan said the service at 2:30 p.m. CST is foremost for the local families who lost loved ones in the storms.

“Rebuilding is so vitally important, but we can always rebuild. Those lives will never come back,” O’Nan said. “This is just a small thing we can do to let them know that…we haven’t forgotten people.”

Dawson Springs

Dawson Springs was also in the 165-mile-long path of the EF-4 tornado that devastated Mayfield. Nineteen people died in the Hopkins County city of less than 3,000, and an estimated 75% of the community’s housing stock was destroyed.

A local church, Dawson Springs Primitive Baptist Church, had its roof torn off by the violent winds. Pastor Jeff Winfrey said the house of worship on East Walnut Street has been repaired, and his congregation plans to have a service at 2:30 p.m. CST Saturday, conveying a message of hope for the future.

“We try to console some who have lost so much,” Winfrey said. “And give hope to the town that we can someday get back to some semblance of what we had.”

Later that evening at 6 p.m. CST, the town will have a candlelight service at City Park. The service will be followed by a dance at the community center that evening.

Dawson Springs mayor-elect Jenny Sewell, who won the position unopposed in this fall’s general election, said rebuilt homes are also being dedicated and showcased that day.

“The fact that people are beginning to have their homes rebuilt, and the fact that other people had come on in to help them to make that happen. I mean, that is a celebration. That is a tremendous celebration,” Sewell said. “We can say that it’s somewhat bittersweet — no kidding. We know what the ‘bitter’ was. But the ‘sweet’ is that the page is turning.”

Other communities

Cities large and small in the region are also marking the anniversary with gatherings and services as shows of community solidarity.

• Marshall County residents plan to gather Saturday afternoon to honor and observe the lives lost from the storms.

• The Bowling Green-Warren County Disaster Recovery Group will hold a vigil this Sunday to remember the 17 lives lost there from the tornado outbreak, inviting community members to “focus white light upward” with flashlights, candles and more.

• The Muhlenberg County town of Bremen will hold a memorial service at 5 p.m. CST Saturday at a local elementary school for those lost in the disaster.

Beshear to visit region

Gov. Andy Beshear told media on Thursday that his Saturday visit to the region will start in Hopkins County before going to Marshall County and then Mayfield. The visit will be a time to commemorate those lost and celebrate rebuilding, he said. “In many ways, every challenge we’ve been through, whether it’s the pandemic or these (natural disasters), we both mourn what we’ve lost, but we also celebrate the heroism of so many people.”

McKenna Horsley contributed to this story.