The city of Somerset is one of many Kentucky communities working to recover following Saturday’s deadly tornadoes.
The storm carved a distinct path through the Pulaski County city, uprooting trees and leveling businesses and homes.
Saturday morning, pickup trucks and trailers lined the city’s streets with full loads of tree limbs and shattered remnants of buildings. Strangers, friends, and neighbors alike found where they could be of use, lending chainsaws and labor to begin the recovery process only hours after the storm had passed.
A community on Bourbon Road on the south end of the city mourned the loss of one of their own, and worked together to clear debris from homes that had been left empty shells.
“There’s a couple here that we know that she passed away. They were trying to get into the basement and the basement fell in, she passed away and he had a heart attack and now they’ve got him at the hospital. It’s sad, it’s just so quick,” said Nicole New, a Bourbon Road resident.
Late Saturday afternoon, Governor Andy Beshear said the official death toll in Pulaski County remained at one.
While many of their neighbors found shelter with friends and family away from the tornado’s path, New and her husband sheltered in their basement.
“I told my husband, he was in bed, I said, ‘We might need to go to the basement because a tornado’s coming through,’ and about that time we could hear stuff hitting the windows and we got to the basement and honestly it sounded like a train hitting our house,” New said.
Much of the damage to New’s home was limited to their garage, where the doors were ripped away. There are also holes in the roof, although their home is mostly untouched.
“We’re very fortunate, because our neighbors across from us lost all of their homes,” New said.
Just across the street, less than 100 feet away, her neighbors faced a different reality.
Several homes were reduced to their foundations, with personal belongings and splintered wood littering yards and streets.
A combination of friendly neighbors and professional crews worked in tandem, cutting downed trees, repairing a broken water line, and filling dumpsters and truck beds with storm debris.
Despite the damage, the street was a bustle of activity with resilience, mourning, and camaraderie on full display.
Five miles away, the storm’s path continued on Highway 27. The typically busy road was devoid of traffic. Downed power lines littered the roadway alongside the remnants of siding, splintered wood and the remains of nearby roofs.
The Redeemer Lutheran Church sanctuary was a hollowed shell, and next door, employees of Baxter’s Coffee were working to pick up the pieces of their family legacy.
“Our family owns Baxter’s, my Mom started the business and now my brother and sister and I work here. I’ve been here for 20 years with the family business,” said Ann Cook.
She was among roughly a dozen employees and friends who were salvaging anything they could from the shell of the drive-through coffee shop.
Despite the damages, Cook said she’s grateful that no employees were at the shop when the tornado hit late Friday night into Saturday morning.
“This can be rebuilt. The equipment can be replaced, we have places for our staff to go, and we can rebuild the building. It doesn’t matter, it’s all moot, because everybody’s safe,” Cook said.
Baxter’s has three other locations in Somerset, and while their drive-thru location will take some time to rebuild, Cook says she’s grateful to the community around them that makes recovery possible.
“I can’t tell you how many text messages and phone calls I’ve had today asking, ‘What can we do?’ and it’s just so humbling and you’re just so grateful that that’s the type of community that Somerset is,” Cook said.
Across the city, those stories were multiplied. In the tornado’s path of destruction, the Somerset community gathered, lending companionship, labor and time to those in need.
