MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) – Autumn Kirks said she and her boyfriend, Lannis Ward, had been dating for about a year and were saving money to buy a house. They were both working the night shift at the candle factory for extra money when the tornado struck.
Now Ward, described by Kirks as “a big teddy bear,” is missing – and all she can do is wait.
“Not knowing is worse than knowing right now,” she said Sunday as she stood outside His House Ministries, a nondescript prefabricated building on the edge of Mayfield where people have been told to go to wait for word about the missing. In the aftermath of the massive tornado that roared through the western Kentucky darkness early Saturday morning, the chances for good news seem to diminish by the hour.
“I’m trying to stay strong,” Kirks said. “It’s very hard right now.”
An unusual mid-December swarm of twisters across the Midwest and the South leveled entire communities and left dozens dead in five states. The death toll is expected to go higher in Kentucky.