AARC Disaster Relief Funds Support Kentucky Member

On the night of Friday, December 10, 2021, a potent storm system moved across the central United States, resulting in widespread severe weather, including a long track of tornadoes across Western Kentucky. The EF-4 tornado began in northwest Tennessee and moved across western Kentucky, causing significant destruction in many parts of the region and affecting 11 counties. The path of this tornado was 167.7 miles long, making it the longest path for a tornado in U.S. history at the time.

I had gone to bed early that evening and was not overly concerned about the weather forecasts; however, my husband was awake and watching the news. Somewhere around 10 pm, he came, woke me up, and said the WPSD news had reported that Caldwell County needed to take immediate cover. He told me to put on jeans, a sweatshirt, and my muck boots, then go get the dog and take cover in the interior hallway bathroom. I could hear the strong winds and rain. I have never been one to really fear storms, so I still wasn’t overly concerned. As soon as we got into the bathroom and closed the door, I could hear the windows in our home exploding.  Then, as fast as it happened, it was over, followed by a sudden eerie stillness and quietness. We exited the bathroom to find the windows across the back side of our house shattered all over everywhere, along with the door to the bedroom that I had just been sleeping in, torn from the hinges, blown up the hallway toward the front part of the house, and blocking the bathroom door that we had just been sheltering in. This tornado hit multiple parts/areas of Caldwell County, causing mass destruction and 4 fatalities in the county in a matter of minutes.

As we made our way out of our home to check the damage, we realized that our neighbor’s home across the street had been destroyed and was upside down in what was left of the tree line at the back of their property. We began checking on neighbors and assessing the damage as best we could with no electricity, boarded up windows, and tarped the roof to protect us from the remainder of the wind and rain.

At this point, all I could feel was extreme gratitude that we had survived this storm, even though we had severe damage to our outbuildings and garages on our property, and our home would need new windows, roof, gutters, and siding, but our damage was minimal compared to that of many other people in our county.

In the weeks and months following the storm, we found ourselves very stressed and often felt hopeless as we tried to put the pieces of our lives/home back together.

We were very grateful to receive financial support from the AARC Disaster Relief Fund, which provides assistance to its members who suffer damage to their homes and personal property due to federally declared natural disasters, such as this tornado. The road to recovery was long and slow, and we will forever be grateful to the AARC for supporting its members in the most vulnerable of times.

Thank you to the AARC and to the other respiratory therapists/members who encouraged me to reach out for help when I felt like I shouldn’t, because so many people were impacted far more than we were. I am very grateful!