Recovering what was lost: Grayson County residents reliving the moments the tornado touched down in their neighborhood
GRAYSON COUNTY, Ky.- Residents in the Wax Community are cleaning up their neighborhoods after the tornado that touched down Tuesday.
“I needed getting down on the ground or the floor and I held on to the footrest of the recliner that he was sitting in,” said Sharon Palmer.
Frightened and afraid, Sharon Palmer and her husband were holding each other tight as an EF-2 tornado going 115 miles per hour destroyed their home.
She said she took a quick trip to the kitchen to make her husband a night snack when the walls of her home began to cave in.
“We kind of grabbed each other’s hand, and he held onto Angel. Then I held onto his hand, and just things kept blowing and everything, and something hit me on the head and gave me a couple of knots on my head,” she said.
Shattered glass, insulation, shards of wood and memories of what used to be scattered across her yard and what remains of her home.
“I’ve got some of the keepsakes, but all of our clothes in the bedroom and my jewelry and stuff, so far we haven’t been able to get a hold of them,” Palmer said.
The Palmers were not the only ones who took a hard hit in the Wax Community. Next door, Chuck Dever was also home when the tornado struck. He was preparing for a trip to Ohio with his friend Tony when he noticed there was a shift in the weather.
“I said, ‘Tony it’s getting bad out there,’ and by that time it sucked that door shut out of my hand. I turned around, and the big garage door had come, and it blew in. Then blew me about 25 feet up there,” Dever said.
While Dever escaped with only minor injuries, he said his friend Tony suffered serious injuries. “He got a brain bleed and a concussion, but something is wrong with his eye, so they’re going to be operating on him this morning,” he said.
The two neighbors may have endured the worst night of their lives but they both say the takeaways are to value every breath that you take.
“We’re still here and I’d say property can be replaced but humans can’t,” Palmer said. “I’ve told everybody I’ve never seen anything like that before and I hope I never see it again,” Dever said.
Residents in the Wax Community are waiting for their insurance companies to process this damage. We will keep following this story for you.
