Violent storms swept through Kentucky Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, bringing intense rain, winds and a few radar-indicated tornadoes in several Kentucky communities.
Gov. Andy Beshear assured Kentuckians Thursday that there are no reported fatalities as a result of the storm. He said one family in western Ballard County sustained injuries in the storm. Officials said a family was sheltering under the awning at Bethel Cumberland Presbyterian Church when the tornado hit, injuring four people including a critically-injured 8-year-old child.
No injuries have been reported in Louisville yet, according to Mayor Craig Greenberg. Several commercial buildings sustained severe damage in Jeffersontown in the path of one suspected tornado. Greenberg issued a state of emergency for the county as the city deals with the damage and braces for excessive rain in the coming days.
“We are very fortunate that when the storm came through and when these strong, damaging wings came through … nobody was hurt,” Greenberg said.
The National Weather Service has not yet officially confirmed the tornadoes, which require ground surveys, or their severity levels.
Power outages also followed the storm's path as it swept across Kentucky. In the Purchase and Pennyrile areas, more than 7,000 people were without power at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night. At 6 a.m. Thursday, about 2,100 LG&E/KU customers in Jefferson County were without power.
There is still a slight risk of severe weather — tornadoes, hail, damaging winds — in the next couple days, but waves of showers and storms are the most likely threat over the next several days, according to the National Weather Service.
Damage in east Louisville
Outside the now severely damaged commercial building in Jeffersontown, retired employee Dana Hardin surveyed the damage to the office she used to go to everyday. She worked at Gordon-Darby Inc., a government contractor, for more than 24 years.
“It was like we were family, you know?” Hardin said. “It wasn't a transient company. People worked here for 10, 20, 30, 40 years.”
Her husband went closer to the wreckage, pulling out the framed diploma of one employee. The corner office of one of the owner’s was completely destroyed, another framed diploma hanging off the destroyed structure. Hardin said they live nearby, but were lucky to avoid any damage.
Next door, the KEP Electric building was reduced to rubble. Wads of insulation littered the ground and clung to nearby trees. In nearby residential areas, trees lay uprooted in yards and electrical poles stood at dangerous angles.
The hit in western Kentucky
Emergency management officials in western Kentucky shared reports Wednesday of downed trees and power lines from the storm.
In western McCracken County, Christ Community Church sustained significant damage to its main sanctuary building. Pastor Tim Turner said sheriff’s deputies called him Wednesday night to let him know that a potential tornado was passing right by the church.
“I drove down here, and on the way down, somebody told me that the roof was gone. And I thought, ‘well, we can build that back.’ I pulled in the parking lot, and the building's gone. And so [I’m] just kind of shocked, kind of at a loss,” Turner said.
The pastor said they chose to cancel Wednesday evening services before the storms arrived.
“We could be standing in the hallway of a hospital mourning 20 or 30 of our church members’ deaths,” Turner said. “We're thankful. We're all good.”
Officials at the Barkley Regional Airport nearby confirmed the property sustained “minor damage” during Wednesday’s storms, but that most of the damage had been repaired as of Thursday morning. Flights in and out of the small airport have not been impacted.
The National Weather Service office in Paducah is sending survey teams to Ballard, McCracken, Calloway and Hopkins counties in the coming days to assess storm damage in those areas.
