Alan Miller, the mayor of Bremen, Ky., sat exhausted in his city’s disaster command center. A tornado had killed as many as 12 people in his small town of 365 residents on Friday night, according to the Kentucky State Police. The storm damaged or demolished almost half the homes in the community.
Brian Crick, a District Court judge for two Kentucky counties, was among the dead, according to a statement from the Kentucky Supreme Court. Officials were not yet releasing the names or ages of others killed by the tornado, but the state police said the dead ranged in age from 4 months to 75 years old.
Bremen (pronounced BREE-mun), about 60 miles west of Bowling Green, is known chiefly for its cattle farms. Every person who died was someone Mr. Miller knew. A friend. A neighbor. Family members.
“Last night and this morning, were the absolute hardest and worst days of my life,” Mr. Miller said on Saturday, his eyes welling up. In addition to the loss of life, the landscape of the community is forever changed. The tornado traveled more than 200 miles on Friday night — cutting a path three-quarters of a mile wide and 17 miles long through Muhlenberg County.
Where there were once woods, there are now fields. Where there were homes, there are piles of debris. In some places, slabs of concrete are all that remain where the house was lifted off the foundation.
Mr. Miller and crews of volunteer firefighters, emergency management personnel and community volunteers worked tirelessly over 36 hours to clear debris and search for survivors and casualties. On Saturday night, all the residents were accounted for, Mr. Miller said.
The same closeness that has made the losses hard to take has also given the residents of Bremen a source of strength. Immediately after the tornado on Friday night, more than 200 people, including many from surrounding communities, gathered at the volunteer fire department to offer their services — before anyone had even asked for help.
“They all wanted to know, where can we go, and what can we do,” said Lexie Miller, a volunteer firefighter who is Mr. Miller’s daughter.
A search and rescue team from Sturgis, Ky., also arrived within the hour. Volunteers worked Saturday to clear roads so emergency personnel could access every address and check on its residents. Donations of clothing and food rolled in from across Kentucky and from as far away as South Carolina. Emergency crews said they now needed items to help with cleanup: tarps, trash bags, gloves, oil and gas for chain saws, and empty boxes for residents collect salvaged belongings.
Rebuilding is expected to take months, but residents like Lindsay Phelps, know that some things can’t be rebuilt.
“I would have looked at everything more closely on Friday if I’d known it would be the last time I’d see those houses and trees and buildings,” Mrs. Phelps said. “Our town will never be the same.”
Comments