A New Era of Kentucky TORNADOES

Janie Crow was sheltering in her neighbor’s basement when they heard the roof coming off. 

“[My neighbor] has a metal roof, and you could hear all the hail first. And then when it tore off, oh my god. It sounded awful,” she said.

The 170-mile-per-hour winds that ripped through Somerset, Kentucky, on May 16 left a trail of destruction still evident a week later: half a house’s worth of metal siding sat stuck at the top of a tall tree near her home. Twisted hunks of shrapnel dot the hayfields that surround Janie’s property. She showed me a shred of white roofing found stabbed into the exterior of her own house, blown from half a mile away—the closest building of that color. 

“Their house just exploded,” Janie said. “It’s wiped off.” The siding in the tree may be from that house, too, but nobody’s sure yet. 

The neighbors Janie was sheltering with have yet to find their roof. “It could be somewhere back in the woods there,” Janie said, pointing in the distance, but just as easily, “it could be in London,” nearly 40 miles away. Debris from the tornado has already been found as far as Hazard, 60 miles away. 

Janie and her neighbors emerged from the basement only briefly before the high winds forced them back down—long enough for Janie to see that two trees had fallen on her roof, but not long enough to assess the extent of the damage. “I didn’t sleep at all,” she said. 

Ultimately, Janie’s home was salvageable. By the time All Hands and Hearts (AHAH) arrived to clear away debris, the damaged part of her roof had been fixed with help from neighborhood hands. Next door, her neighbors were working to tarp over their now-exposed home before the next round of storms rolled in over the weekend. 

Tornadoes are not the norm in this part of the country. Until last week, there hadn’t been one in the area since 1974. But as weather patterns shift, Kentucky is increasingly considered part of Tornado Alley, a distinction previously reserved for states further to the northwest. 

“Usually tornadoes are north of us,” Janie said. “But now everybody’s scared to death.” 

AHAH IS ON THE GROUND

May 27, 2025

AHAH is on the ground to support communities like Janie’s as they face this changing reality in Kentucky and other states, where powerful storms are no longer rare in places once considered safe. 

Our response to the Kentucky tornadoes began at the London-Corbin Airport, a zone heavily impacted by the tornadoes, where we met with the governor and community leaders to identify the areas of greatest need. From the start, we’ve helped coordinate volunteers and distribute critical emergency supplies including food, hygiene kits, clothing, clean water, shovels, generators and other essential tools.

As of May 27, our teams remain on the ground, continuing vital debris and tree removal operations to help families begin the long process of recovery.

May 19, 2025

Over in Laurel County, a drive down Keavy Road toward Sunshine Hills reveals the destruction from the May 16 tornado: houses go from stately—brick, with immaculate, manicured lawns—to flattened. Excavators shovel enormous mounds of debris, which rise in piles as large as the houses they used to be. 

Yet amid chaos, there are moments of eerie preservation. A kitchen corner left standing, a coffee maker still plugged in. A bookshelf, its titles still neatly aligned, surrounded by wreckage. A glass carafe sat unbroken on an intact counter, along with a coffee maker, still plugged into a wall that now stood alone. 

You might say that those whose homes were destroyed were unlucky. The tornado that ripped through 16 miles of Laurel County was ruthless, and it would be understandable to despair. 

But overwhelmingly, the people AHAH spoke with are grateful to have escaped with what they still had. 

Thomas Addington lost TV and internet service on Friday afternoon, so he couldn’t track the storm’s whereabouts as it rolled in from the west. At 11:30 p.m., he decided to go to sleep, figuring it was still closer to Somerset. 

The next thing he knew, the bathroom window blew out, sending shards through five rooms. He got up and rushed to dress, but by the time he got outside, the tornado had already passed. It took the carport, the shed, smashed Thomas’s car and destroyed parts of his home. The riding lawn mower was found later, up the street. 

Thomas’s wife, Tammy, out of town for the night, was stunned to come home to the wreckage the next day. 

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said. “It looks like a warzone.” 

Even so, the Addingtons consider themselves fortunate. Of the homes on their block, theirs suffered among the least damage. 

“I still have my life, and my husband is still alive. Where there is life, there is hope. You can replace things,” Tammy said. “If you have your life, you have everything.“

As Kentucky continues to grapple with the aftermath of increasingly severe storms and tornadoes, All Hands and Hearts remains committed to supporting survivors through every stage of recovery. In Somerset, Laurel County, and beyond, we’re helping families clear debris, access resources and begin to rebuild.

To those affected, like Janie and the Addingtons, the road ahead is long. But thanks to community resilience and rapid response, it’s no longer one they have to walk alone.