Refuge Bowling Green shares tornado experience of refugee community

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – When the tornadoes struck Bowling Green in 2021, the storm hit the immigrant and refugee communities hard, especially the neighborhoods around Moss Creek Avenue.

A family that had escaped the war in Bosnia and had made Kentucky their home for about 20 years lost a mother and four children that night.

Refuge Bowling Green was originally tasked to check in on families right after the storm.

The stories they heard from that night exemplified both the tragedy and the resilience seen in our community.

Alice Tarnagda, COO of Refuge Bowling Green, says, “Many of the people that we assisted with the tornado, that was the immediate story that they recounted, those who were directly impacted. Just the darkness and hearing the cries for help and then the immediate assistance that was provided, they were not thinking about what your nationality, what your language, what you know, what is your socioeconomic status. When they heard cries for help, they went to help their neighbor.”

United Way assigned over a hundred individuals and families to Refuge Bowling Green for long term case management.

They helped those affected by the tornados navigate federal aid and insurance claims in order to rebuild, a process that is complicated even for those who were born here.