Clara Lutz finds her goats alive and well as she searches for her dog Lil’ Bit the morning after the tornado in Earlington, Ky., Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021. Lutz and her two grandsons, three-month-old Dallas and 15-month old Kaden, braced for the tornado in the bathroom. As the boys lay in the bathtub, the force of the tornado ripped the bathtub from out of the floor and away from their grandmother’s grasp, sending them flying into the unknown. Sheriff’s deputies would later find the upside-down tub in the debris of her home with the two boys alive underneath, as reported in The New York Times.
The living room of William Creekmur the day after the tornado hit Dawson Springs, Ky., Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021. The sporadic nature of the tornado left some houses in the town seemingly untouched while others were completely decimated.
Tristen Tinsley of Princeton, Ky., searches a friend’s home for pets and personal effects after the tornado in Dawson Springs, Ky., Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021. The friend, Skyler Lohse (not pictured), was in the hospital for minor injuries while his grandmother had sustain broken bones after the car flipped on top of her. Tinsley would find Lohse’s deceased dog in the rubble.
Dawson Springs the day after a mile-wide tornado swept through the town, Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021. Dawson Springs mayor Chris Smiley said that about 75 percent of the town was wiped out by the tornado.
Mike Castle, left, hugs his daughter Nikki Castle, after locating the father-daughter necklace he meant to gift to Nikki for Christmas after the tornado in Dawson Springs, Ky., Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021. The tornado hit the town Friday evening.
Rick Fuller collects photos that belong to his girlfriend in the debris of where his home once stood the morning after the tornado in Dawson Springs, Ky., Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021. “It’s amazing. Your whole life, gone,” Fuller said.
Shiela Morris attempts to ride a lawnmower as her cousin-in-law Lee Adams looks through debris that once was his home after the tornado in Dawson Springs, Ky., Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021.
An exposed wall reveals a kitchen of a home after the tornado in Bremen, Ky., Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. The tornado hit the town Friday evening.
Charlene Stanley of Central City, Ky., and Gus offer comfort to each other as they search the debris that once was her sister-in-law’s home after the tornado in Bremen, Ky., Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. Gus lost his best canine friend from the tornado that Friday night.