BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) – I’ve driven home to western Kentucky for the holidays more times than I can count. No matter the direction I’m coming from, it’s always the same: long stretches of highway that lead to a place I’ve known since I was a little girl.
But not this year. Everything is different after a tornado ripped open a hometown full of happy memories of friends and family gatherings. The twister was part of an unusual mid-December swarm of deadly storms that leveled entire communities in the South and Midwest, claiming 90 lives in five states, including 16 in Bowling Green.
My aunt and cousin, instead of exuding their usual holiday excitement, relate the fear they felt as tornado sirens wailed and they watched a huge black cloud approach.
The devastation is visible everywhere: Church sanctuaries where worshippers would have gathered for Christmas Eve services are split apart. Piles of splintered pines and shattered lumber hide holiday decorations, yet somehow a decorated Christmas tree still stands inside a brick house that’s missing its roof.
About 130 miles (209 kilometers) away in hard-hit Mayfield, a plastic statue of the Virgin Mary, hands clasped in peaceful joy, stands over another yard littered with mangled plywood. Nearby, an empty hole in a wall marks the spot where a theater’s movie screen used to be.