Amid destruction, London community shows strength, resilience after tornado
LONDON, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW) — In the aftermath of the powerful tornado that tore through parts of Laurel County, stories of destruction and heartbreak are being met with just as many examples of hope, resilience, and neighborly love.
For longtime London resident Jeff Cornett, the storm turned his life upside down in an instant.
“I’ve lived here for 40 years, now everything’s gone,” Cornett said. “Hey, we’re alive. We’re here.”
Cornett says he was sheltering in place when the tornado hit. What happened next was terrifying.
“My power blinked on and off a few times,” he said. “Next thing I knew, I was in the air, getting sucked into the garage. I woke up looking into the sky where two stories of a brick house used to be.”
He suffered injuries, but thanks to a quick response from a neighbor, he was able to get help quickly. His family also made it through safely.
Just down the road, Nathaen Kirby, a firefighter from Corbin, was on duty when the tornado struck his own neighborhood.
“You know it’s your neighborhood, you know it’s your home,” Kirby told ABC 36. “But in that moment it feels like it’s not. It’s dark, it’s rainy… it takes a while for those feelings to kick in.”
Kirby said his family is safe, and cleanup efforts began almost immediately with help from his church and fellow firefighters.
As stories of community support continue to emerge, so do reminders of the challenges ahead. Cornett said his family has already dealt with looters in the hours after the storm.
“Twenty-four hours after it happened, we had people here breaking into my grandma’s car,” he said. “Just stealing from people who have nothing.”
Still, the good continues to outweigh the bad. Volunteers have been delivering water and meals, and one man set up a grill in downtown London to begin feeding those in need right after the storm passed.
Even as the debris piles up, the people of this region are proving what it means to come together in a time of crisis.
