Family.
Friends.
Hopefully, we all have them.
And if there's much truth to the old adage that you can't choose your family, we can at least hope that when either or both of our family and friends are in need, we'll choose to help them.
And so it was that when Chattanooga native and longtime basketball officiating great Curtis Shaw woke up Saturday morning in his Jasper, Indiana, home, he quickly learned that his relatives and friends in Princeton, Kentucky, had been devastated by Friday night's terrifying tornadoes.
Dropping everything he had planned to do that day, Shaw completed the two-and-a-half-hour drive to the Western Kentucky town by early afternoon, ready to do anything he could to help.
"My mom (Sue Shaw) is from Princeton, the youngest of 11 kids," said Shaw, referring to the Chattanooga real estate broker on Sunday night. "I have cousins there, and one of my best friends, Jay Davis, who's been one of my officials for baseball and softball in the past. Jay lost everything. His home is completely gone.
"Nothing can prepare you for what's happened there, but it looks a lot like Grace Academy and so much else in East Brainerd looked after the Easter tornadoes in 2020, only this one was on the ground longer. Just total destruction for miles and miles."
Believed to have been as wide as three-quarters-of-a-mile at one point, the tornado that flattened Mayfield and Dawson Springs and destroyed much of Princeton was reportedly on the ground for 220 consecutive miles, which would set a record if verified over the next few days, as well as being the first to cross through four states.
"It was so bad at Dawson Springs that the state police wouldn't even let you off the interstate," said Shaw, who still supervises officials from the Big 12, Conference USA and three other Division I conferences. "The roads were covered with debris. Dawson Springs (a town of less than 3,000 people) is gone. There is no more Dawson Springs."
Knowing that whatever could be salvaged in Princeton would need safe storage for an extended period of time, Shaw drove a 20-foot storage trailer he owns for one of his businesses to Princeton for Davis and his cousins to use. Then he stayed several hours to assist them any way he could.
"The back bedroom wall at my cousin's was pulled away from the house," said Shaw. "I helped them brace it back until it can be re-attached. If it had pulled away completely, the roof could have collapsed and you might have a total loss."
Davis's house was a total loss.
"Jay and his dog huddled in a closet in the middle of the house around 10:20 (Central Standard Time)," said Shaw. "When he and Kip came out 15 minutes later, the house was all but gone. When a neighbor came to check on him later, Jay told him, 'I'm homeless.'"
Bowling Green, home to Western Kentucky University, was also hit hard. Shaw's daughter Ali graduated from WKU a year ago and though none of her friends still on campus were hurt Friday night, "The street where most of the bars and restaurants they hung out in was hit pretty hard," he said.
It wasn't just Kentucky that got hit, of course. Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and West Tennessee also suffered damage and loss of life. More than 90 people are now believed to have died and that doesn't include more than 100 who are still missing in the Bluegrass State.
Said 28-year-old Dawson Springs resident Bryan Williams, the father of three, in a Washington Post story on Monday, "We are all in it together ... Everybody knows everyone here, and everyone wants to help everyone, but you got to help yourself, too. And you can't give somebody something to lean on when there is nothing, and right now there is nothing."
Asked the most heartbreaking thing he saw in Princeton, Shaw said, "Just the blank look on people's faces. Just seeing them walk around looking like zombies."
And the most uplifting thing?
"Just all those who came to help," he said. "The outpouring of support was unbelievable. Fort Campbell was supposed to have sent 100 soldiers to help on Sunday. Everywhere you turned there were people doing whatever they could. You'd ask, 'Are you a relative?' and they'd say, 'No, I just wanted to help.'"
Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari and his Wildcats will host a four-hour telethon on Tuesday night to raise money for the relief effort. A similar such telethon conducted by Cal's Cats in 2010 to raise money for the Haiti earthquake victims raised over $1 million. The Red Cross is also always ready to acccept donations. As are other charities. Blood is also needed.
Said Calipari of this effort, "All hands on deck."
He also said, "This will take decades to recover from."
As Princeton resident Laura Croft - who lost her stepmother when the tornado roared through Dawson Springs - was sifting through the rubble over the weekend, she asked a Lexington Herald-Leader reporter, "How do you start all over from this?"
If you're lucky, you start one day at a time with the love and help of friends and family, all hands on deck, just as we've witnessed here in the days, weeks, months and years since the mammoth tornado outbreak of 2011, or since that horrifying Easter night of 2020.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.