Legal aid for 2021 tornado survivors
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Kentucky Legal Aid is launching a series of free consumer law clinics aimed at helping survivors of the December 2021 Western Kentucky tornadoes address financial and legal challenges that continue years after the disaster.
The program, called “Your Money, Your Rights,” will take place throughout 2026 and is designed to assist people still dealing with the long-term effects of the storms.
Attorneys say while many survivors were able to meet their immediate needs after the tornadoes, some are now facing delayed financial impacts. Those issues can include damaged credit, overwhelming debt, predatory loans, identity theft or ongoing disputes with contractors and insurance companies.
Kristy Vick-Stratton, lead disaster response attorney for Kentucky Legal Aid, says the organization is now focusing on long-term recovery for tornado survivors.
“When there’s a disaster, there are short-term, mid-term and long-term needs,” Vick-Stratton said. “For the 2021 survivors, we’re now seeing those long-term issues, including financial struggles, credit fraud and problems with contractors who didn’t complete work as promised.”
Vick-Stratton says some survivors may not realize they could be dealing with fraud or identity theft after sharing personal information with multiple agencies during the disaster recovery process.
The clinics will provide legal education, brief advice and follow-up representation for eligible participants. Survivors may also receive help with documents such as living wills, powers of attorney and last wills and testaments, as well as assistance replacing important court records that may have been lost in the storms.
The clinics will serve survivors who lived in one of the tornado-impacted counties in December 2021, including Barren, Caldwell, Christian, Fulton, Graves, Hart, Hickman, Hopkins, Logan, Lyon, Marshall, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Taylor and Warren counties.
One of the upcoming clinics will be held at the Kentucky Legal Aid office at 1700 Destiny Lane in Bowling Green from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 17.
The clinics are free, but participants must meet Kentucky Legal Aid’s eligibility guidelines and must have lived in one of the tornado-impacted counties at the time of the 2021 storms.
For a full schedule of clinics and more information, survivors can visit https://www.klaid.org/disaster-clinics
