2025-05-19- KSR - Hour 1

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Speaker 1: Comedy Up Broadway in Lexington welcomes Ginger Billy May ninth through the eleventh, then from White Famous, catch Jay Farrow ME sixteenth and seventeenth, and don't miss Rocky Dan Davis ME twenty third and twenty fourth. Comedy Off Broadway opened in downtown Lexington in nineteen eighty seven and they're still bringing the best and stand up comedy to the area thirty eight years later. Call eight five nine two seven to one joke or visit Comedy Up Broadway dot com off Bay.

00:00:30
Speaker 2: This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones.

00:00:36
Speaker 3: Welcome everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio, Monday, May the nineteenth. I'm Matt Jones and we are here in London, Kentucky, at this one of the sites of the tornado damage that hit the state on Friday night. We're gonna open up the phones in a little bit on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line eighty five to nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. Avison Auto Glass text machine is seven seven two seven seven four five two five four. You can give us a text there. This audition sponsor about a T J. Smith Low, as you called TJ. He'll make them pay. We are right off the interstate here in London. I'm not sure what the name of this road is, but we are at a parking lot in the family Dollar which is right off the road and two straight ahead from us is the site of what was the worst of the tornadoes that hit Kentucky on Friday. A for lack of a better term, you would call it a subdivision, but I don't know that that's exactly an accurate term. But I would say at least a couple hundred houses in this area, the vast majority of which no longer exist, and the ones that do heavily heavily damaged. Across the state on Friday, tornadoes hit part of the mid to the western part. There was, and there were at this point, nine teen fatalities, although that number could still increase, seventeen of which were in Laurel County, and I believe sixteen of which were in this subdivision that we overlook. I came down here on Saturday, the day after, and I will be honest with you, was not prepared for what I saw. I felt, like, you know, being from the region, I wanted to come down and you know, get a sense of what was going on. Also, if there was any way to be helpful be here. And you know, you see pictures and you see videos of tornado damage and it looks awful, but there's really nothing that can prepare you for driving up close. And the scene on Saturday was one of the more powerful things I'll ever see in my life. I mean not just devastation, and when I say devastation, this is devastation. But also at that point, still people kind of wandering around try to get their bearings. There were folks everywhere. Clean up really had not begun. There were still there were still i think relief efforts happening, and it was awful and it kind of stayed with me all weekend. So I decided we should come down here Monday. I want to think a lot of folks who helped us make this happen today, including members of the Kentucky State Police and the people here at the Family Dollar who allowed us to use their facilities. And then this morning you start to see a different phase of sort of cleanup, and it just looks like a task that is overwhelming to think about people doing. As I said, nineteen people passed away. There are some harrowing stories. We'll talk about some of them today. The senator from state Senator from this region, Brandon Storm, is going to come on with us at ten thirty to answer a question I know a lot of people have, which is kind of what can I do and how can I help? Especially in the immediate term. There'll be you know, relief funds, I think for longer term needs, and there's going to be a lot, you know, over the course of doing this. In the last five years, it's unbelievable what Kentucky has had to go through. I said on social media, way more than our fair share, and that's definitely true. And we've been tall of them. We've been to Mayfield, We've been to Dawson Springs, we went to the floods in eastern Kentucky. And you know, I heard someone say, I think the Director of State Emergency Management, you don't like to compare them because for the people in each one, it was the worst one for them, And I think that's true. Mayfield had a ton of destruction, maybe more destruction even than here. A lot of it was centralized in the business community, although it hit other places, but it was a wider array of parts. The devastation in Dawson Springs was awful, with a lot of fatalities. Eastern Kentucky floods were spread out over all kinds of area, but this is the one I think that has the most concentrated population in one place in terms of just I mean, it's just awful. It's absolutely awful. Think about how bad you can imagine it, and I would say in some ways it's worse driving through it. I'm kind of amazed there were only sixteen fatalities in this In this area, there are plots of land where there was a house and there's not only not damage, there's nothing because the entire house got blown up in the air and taken away. That's hard to imagine, but it exists. And there are two things that really struck me beyond just damage and devastation everywhere. Number one and I saw this. We saw this this morning, but it really hit me on Saturday. They clearly went through here late Friday night into early Saturday morning to try to see who is alive, and a lot of folks in this area apparently were elderly, and as they would check a house, they would just write and paint on the house clear and those paint, you know, the word clear on these houses is still written. There's something very haunting about that to me. And then there's a different symbol which I think meant someone needed assistance, which is also obviously very haunting. And you know, the second thing is just the randomness of this. Now, there are not a lot of houses that did not suffer damage in this community. As a matter of fact, there may be none that didn't suffer any damage, but you do have situations where one house is gone and then the house next door survives, and you think, how does that happen? Like the randomness of how that can occur. We're looking out over the area. There's three or four houses here right next to us that are damaged but still standing. But right across the street there houses that have absolutely nothing. And the randomness of that that's I think very hard for me to process. It is a terribly sad scene. There are a lot of people here who have come to volunteer. We we're sitting in this parking lot, which seems to be where a lot of people are sort of basing themselves, and then they're walking across to help. I think that's going to probably continue all day. There is a storm series coming tomorrow, So I think for a lot of this folks, if you are things they want a salvage, today is kind of the day to do it. And when State Center Brandon storm comes, he can tell us more about those needs. But I've now been here twice and it doesn't. You turn a little corner coming off the road and then it's there. And this morning, as I was driving these guys, I could hear all three of you almost take a gasp as we turn the corner. You know it is. I just want the rest of the state to know. I know you see the drone footage. You see that, but it is more powerful than you can imagine what these folks are going to have to deal with. Ryan, you're seeing it for the first time this morning. What was your thought?

00:08:11
Speaker 4: You know, I kind of agree with you. It's worse than I even imagined it was going to be. I mean, you mentioned there's maybe one hundred homes in this neighborhood. Eighty of them are gone.

00:08:21
Speaker 3: I'd say there's more than one hundred gone.

00:08:23
Speaker 4: It's amazing the force of that tornado, just because a lot of houses like there may be still partial structure standing. No, they're gone. This whole neighborhood is almost completely wiped out. It's just I'm with you. I'm actually it's a blessing there weren't more death.

00:08:39
Speaker 3: I'm kind of amazed looking at it. Amazed. I mean, I really am, Mike, when you consider just how bad this damage is. If you had told me now, apparently there's like ten to fifteen people in critical condition, and so I mean that number can rise, but it is amazing there aren't more.

00:08:57
Speaker 5: And Drew, yeah, I mean, like many people, you've seen the videos and photos on social media, even the aerial view, and you think you have a grasp of what it was, but then just being here, it is so much worse. And when you're up close, like these big piles of rubble at these houses that people are going through, you know, when you're going by, you can see like their personal items, like I saw a baby stroller and like a kid, probably middle school age, going through a pile. You can only assume he's just looking for anything he can salvage. So, you know, the photos and the videos just don't even paint the picture really at all. You have to be here to just understand just how bad this is. I mean, it just we would pass this row of houses and you think, well, that might be it, and then you come over the hill and it just keeps going, and then it keeps going and going, just unbuild.

00:09:39
Speaker 3: The houses closest to the road, closest to the highway are the ones that as you'll drive up, you'd see and it looks bad bad. But if that's all you saw, you'd say, man, that was bad. But where it really gets bad is when you go back there, when you go back kind of deeper into the subdivision. And I would say to people, I mean, there's an natural tendency for people to want to see for themselves, and I understand that. I mean I can't criticize it. I sort of have the same one and I came here. I would just say, today, if you're gonna come or to help or just come to see, don't pull your cars back there. It's becoming I think difficult for crews that need to get back there to navigate it. You know, there is there are a couple of businesses right here where conceivably you could park your car and walk if But I do think no one's told me this but I think they need to be careful with cars back there because I walked back there before the show started and it was already there were these trucks that are trying to do stuff to having a hard time because it's a one lane road and they don't it's not easy to get back to. You know, as in all tragedies, you see positives right next to us as a group of people from Louisville, Kentucky. I think it's called three sixteen ministries who've come to give food, water for the Really that's I think a lot of this for the relief workers who are here to get let them to have something to eat. I talked to the governor on Saturday, and again we'll ask sender Storm more about this. What he said was to tell people there are a couple things that are needed immediately, like today, tarps for these people's roofs, especially before the rain comes tomorrow. Work gloves because that you can't really go back there and work unless you have gloves. And I think they've kind of are starting to run out of those, uh. And then that you wouldn't think of this, but boxes literally boxes to put the stuff in to get rid of, right like something to put the containers to put the stuff in. They asked, you know, when it comes to clothes, I think, at least for now, I think they said, they feel pretty good about the needs. If you're going to send clothes, they would They just asked, please don't send us clothes because used clothes can actually become almost more of a hassle because they have to wash them and there are times they need access to water. That may be less true here than it was in the flooding, but they didn't feel like clothes were the immediate needs. It was more supplies in the moment Ryan to be able to do some of this immediate cleanup work that's needed. And then I think they're gonna probably need hands. I want to wait before I send people here, so just hold off the ten thirty. But I'm gonna guess that having hands would help over the course of the next day or so.

00:12:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, you mentioned the powerful signing we saw where it said clear on the side of the house is another powerful signing. We were driving around. There's like six high school girls probably helping out one of their classmates, just digging their hands down in gunk, just you know, insulation in drywall, just trying to find anything that they can maybe salvage, because there's that house that was behind the gunk was gone.

00:12:49
Speaker 3: There was nothing there. I mean on Saturday, as you went back there, you also just saw like literally shock on people's face. I mean, you know you're still at that point probably and some people, you know, I talked to one group of people that were just coming back to see they had. As soon as it happened their house was gone, they left, and then they came back at night, and then they came back in the daylight to see. You know, it's got to be unbelievable. And Drew, you and I talked about I don't even know how you start. Like, honestly, I don't even know how you start. When you come to your home and it's completely gone and all your stuff is everywhere, it is hard to imagine, Drew, how you would even start the process of trying to rebuild or figure out what's next.

00:13:35
Speaker 5: There's so many big piles of debris and rubble out here that it feels like you could do it forever and may not get done. So I guess you just got to show up and just say, well, I'm starting out here. And let's just get to it and get as far as we can. And as you said, the more hands the better. We'll learn more on those details later, but it just seems like you could clean forever and not get this done.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: I think there's two major spots here in Laurel County the guy hit. One is here and then one is over next to the airport. It looks like I mean, if you saw the geography, you look on a Google map, look where the London airport is, and then basically it's so about half of the airport is detroited, including planes flipped over. That's where the press conference was. Half the airport's gone, half of its standing again, kind of random, right, and then it seems to have come over and it actually I think went over the interstate, which is amazing that there weren't more tragedies from that. Think about. I mean, that's the interstate right there. I think it went over the interstate and then came into this subdivision, highly dense population right here. So in Somerset where it hit, I think they were very lucky that it hit in some areas that weren't as highly populated, because that may have been when the storm was the most powerful against Somerset, but it hit kind of in the mountains. You can actually see a video of where it went here. Unfortunately for these folks that hit an area that is densely populated. I mean if it had been right over there, there's not really many people that live here. So just just an awful misfortune.

00:15:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, we all can this a typical Kentucky neighborhood. Whether these houses like a thousand square feet fifty hundred square feet little older houses, yeah, and built like a tank, just bricked, you know, built like a tank, and have just been wiped clean. This whole neighborhood has almost been completely wiped clean.

00:15:16
Speaker 5: It's sad and like cars on top of the piles of the house. It just shows how powerful it was to lift up some of these heaviest things and throw them around like they have.

00:15:25
Speaker 3: And we are across the street and there's debris everywhere over here, and this building is still like standing the fan right across the street, but there is you know, wood, there's just random people's stuff. It's just unbelievable. It's an unbelievable site. And we're gonna try over these couple hours, we'll talk about some other stuff to try to also entertain, but to let people know what is going on and how how they can help. So what I want to talk more about what I what we saw on Saturday and just in general the situation. But yeah, you know, one of the things about the show that I think is important is to kind of bring the state to kind of know the rest of it. Whether you're in Owensboro, Paduca, in Northern Kentucky, Lexington, Louisville, you know, this is part of your state too, And for me personally, this is very close to where I grew up, and so it's tough to see. Well, will take a break, be right back. It's Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back Tucky Sports Radio here live in London. People are writing me asking you know where could you send the various stuff I said is needed to just hold on and let's ask somebody who knows who will be on who will be here in just a few minutes, which leads me to say something I wouldn't say positive. So you know, I got down here, I came to the area where it happened, and then I went Originally the press conference was supposed to be at this school right over here. Then they moved it to the airport to try to keep this from being clogged up this road, and this road here I think is already it looks like getting clogged and maybe even closed on one end. So you know, if you you just got to be careful coming through. It's kiv road, I think. But so I went over to the press conference Ryan and and you know, it's it's really easy in the last few years to get very cynical about government and its leaders. It just is I mean, I you know, I don't care who what side of politics you're on. It's very easy to gough right. I just want to say how proud I was of this state in that moment. Standing up there at the press conference was the governor who's had to deal with more of this than anybody should have had to. You had State Senator Robert Stivers, who's the Republican leader. He's from Clay County, which is right here, next to Senator James Storm who's going to join us, who is from here. You had the state Police. You had a guy from from Ram Paul's office, a woman from Mitch McConnell's office, a woman from how Rogers' office. You had the local county judge executive, you had the mayor, you had all these people. And I sit there and looked at at all these folks, and I thought to myself, you know, two days ago, I'm not sure all these people would even love being in the same room with each other. Yet the way that they handled that situation. I have a friend who doesn't even like politics at all, kind of dislikes all of them, who watched it and said it made me feel like we have adults running our state. And I thought the same thing. I was proud of those people. I know a lot of them, and the way they were talking about working with each other. I mean, it's exactly what we want it to be. And so I would say to all of them, but also to all of you listening, you should be proud of those folks in that instance. This state has risen over the last five years, and its leaders on all sides to really step up in these moments. I really there were two moments I preferred. While you can see the pain it has on Andy Basher's face when it happens, you just can't, like you can see it, and he's had to see a lot of this stuff. And then I like somebody asked a question about, well, will there be enough money to take care of this stuff? And Senator Stuivers, who's actually in charge along with the House Leader of appropriating money, he stepped in interrupted and said, they'll be whatever money is needed. I love that because I can just tell you there's gonna be a lot needed. I mean, this is gonna be My guess is when all is said and done, this will be right there with Mayfield as one of the worst disasters of the.

00:19:37
Speaker 4: State's Well, you're right. You could see it in Andy's face. You could hear in his voice the pain, because that is.

00:19:42
Speaker 3: I mean, in terms of tornadoes, We've had other stuff, but.

00:19:44
Speaker 4: In terms of tornado, the best thing about this state is the people. And we've said a million times when one of us needs a helping hand with the first one to be there, there'll be a community from all around London come here the next week's trying to help clean up and get things back, and then they'll rebuild it and be better than every but it's gonna take a long long time.

00:20:02
Speaker 3: They've been blessed to not have rain here in the last and I hope it holds out. I mean today it's starting to get cloudy. But today they didn't expect rain. I know they're expecting it tomorrow. So I do think these next twenty four hours, Drew, were going to be pretty important to try to salvage what you can before.

00:20:19
Speaker 5: It absolutely kind of got to be in a hurry. It would be so unfair for this particular spot to get hit again. But mentioned the state coming together. You know, we don't know where all these people come from to come help out, but they do it.

00:20:28
Speaker 3: Immediately.

00:20:29
Speaker 5: A truck just pulled up here off the road, dropped off a bunch of stuff and then took off to help these guys. It's just NonStop, and I assume they're coming from all over just too. Yeah, I mean just these power trucks are from everywhere.

00:20:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I've seen surpro It's one of our sponsors is all up in the area cleaning stuff up. You know, you ever been to a situation like this before?

00:20:51
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I was living in Masterson Station when the Master and Station tornado hit devastating but they had no deaths. You know, it was the construction. We all went to the West Liberty Tornado years ago. I remember that the construct the destruction was there, but not near as many deaths Madisonville when it got hit years ago. It's that Kentucky gets hit all throughout the state. But the death total that this one is what makes this one so devastating.

00:21:14
Speaker 3: I think it's because everything was so concentrated right here. Yeah, I mean, this is this is Why wouldn't you say this is the highest populated area that's probably been hit.

00:21:22
Speaker 6: I would think so.

00:21:24
Speaker 4: Like I said, you just picture yourself a typical Kentucky neighborhood, of an older neighborhood.

00:21:28
Speaker 6: This is it, man, this is it well man.

00:21:30
Speaker 3: But Sheer said at the press conference, he said, there's a block and it's going to be up there somewhere. Yeah, there's a block that had five houses and everyone died.

00:21:41
Speaker 4: I can see why because those houses are not there. It's just this foundation because there was nothing else there.

00:21:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's you know, how do you come back?

00:21:51
Speaker 6: Like?

00:21:51
Speaker 3: What how do you come back? You know what I mean? What what do you? I don't know, just trying to wrap my mind around trying to who come to this and go what what's the first thing we do? Drew is hard for me. It's hard for me to process.

00:22:06
Speaker 5: And I think about just these houses around us, to just have some root to damage the guilt. I would feel that my whole neighborhood has disappeared and I'm still with just a few minimal problems. I mean, obviously this won't ever be the same. I remember West Liberty very well seeing that path for the first time, because I'd never seen that was what over fifteen years ago, but that seemed to mostly just be through a wooded area. I mean, this is a very concentrated residential spot.

00:22:28
Speaker 3: Well, when we come back, Senator Brandon I said, James Storm Shannon, that's the wrestler. I don't think we didna do anything that was in the Netflix show. Remember I said draw five hundred dollars. I felt really bad about that. This is Brandon's Storm. Different Storm will join us right when we return. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. TJ Smith, personal injury attorney, called TJ.

00:22:54
Speaker 2: He'll make them pay Now more Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage.

00:22:59
Speaker 6: Here's my Joe.

00:23:00
Speaker 3: Welcome back Tucky Sports Radio. State Senator Brandon Storm, who is the Senator for Laurel County, is here with us. I just started. I mean, you said you grew up. Did you grow up in London? Yes, grew up in London, live in London. What was it like for you? What's it like for you to see all that?

00:23:18
Speaker 6: Oh?

00:23:18
Speaker 7: Man, I mean you can just look out over this. It's a disaster. It looks like a bomb went off, it really does. You know, it's unimaginable. Pictures don't do it justice. When you see a photograph on Facebook or social media, you know, you just you know, you can kind of see it. But when you come out here, you can actually feel it. I think that's what someone said at the press conference the other day. You can actually feel the destruction and the sadness. You know, we've lost so many lives here that do we know? Officially in the mount I've heard between seventeen and nineteen. I also heard another report that it could be as much as twenty or more. I haven't heard an official account this morning.

00:23:58
Speaker 3: Okay, So now you know, I'm looking around and like there's a sense of what is next for people? You know, what what does this community do next?

00:24:11
Speaker 6: Well?

00:24:11
Speaker 7: I think right now we hope to have ten FEMA teams on the ground today to assess the damage. All kinds of volunteers have just poured in from all across the county, other regions, and right now we're just trying to clean up and get the roads assessible, get valuables out of homes that you know, you can look over here. The roofs are destroyed and we're going to have rain in tomorrow. So we've had church members, volunteer members just get together and try to get the belongings out of homes, try to salvage those.

00:24:39
Speaker 3: Let me ask you. I've had people write me and say, Okay, I want to do something today. Would it be beneficial to have people to come help with that process before the rain comes tomorrow?

00:24:50
Speaker 7: Or no, Well, you know, I'm going to leave that to the coordinators of this. What we've been trying to do is.

00:24:55
Speaker 3: Courtate who is that? Yeah, I don't even know who that is.

00:24:59
Speaker 7: So we have an e building downtown. It's it's in behind Calvary Baptist Church and they're directing all the operations. And so I do know that there's some people here in town. There's two crews that have been trying to tarp homes and try to you know, if anybody's out there listening, and they know of a home that needs to be tarped. We're trying to get those tart before the rain moves in. So if they can come to my Facebook page, they're welcome to private message.

00:25:21
Speaker 3: Is the Calvary Baptist Church the place that's if someone would contact or to do something.

00:25:28
Speaker 7: Well, No, it's in behind Calvary Baptist Church. The EEO building is the Emergency Operations. Yes, yeah, so, but yeah, if they want to send that message to me on my private or on a private message on Facebook, I can try to put them in contact with them if they need their their homes tarped. Some homes you can look and it's just a total loss. There's nothing that can be done. And so if they also see it's a need where they just need to get belongings out and it's safe to go into the home, let us know that. And there's there's people that are volunteering to go in there. Now, what we want to make sure we're avoiding matt and folks looters.

00:26:00
Speaker 3: Because we've also had a problem with that.

00:26:03
Speaker 7: We've had some issues with looters that people have come in and you know, they may appear to be volunteers maybe and we want to make sure that the people going into these neighborhoods.

00:26:11
Speaker 3: I just don't understand how a human being could do that. Yeah, I mean I know that people can be When I was at the press conference Saturday, there was a lot of talk about looting, and I thought, but you'd have to be a despicable person to look at this and to sit there and think I'm going to go take stuff from these people. But you all have had some problem with.

00:26:29
Speaker 7: That, yes, And actually last night up here in the Southern Subdivision Sunshine Hills, I believe they had had to install a mobile unit with cameras on it that are motion sensitive so that they can detect when people are going into homes after hours, you know, when it's dark and no one's there working to try to secure the scene. You don't need to be going in and out of that house, and so it could be something nefarious, and so what they've had to do is actually start monitoring that. We had another situation I heard about where one of the victims who passed away in this her family went the next day to kind of give her belongings and her home had already been ransacked.

00:27:02
Speaker 6: You know.

00:27:02
Speaker 7: So again it's just it's unbelievable that people would do that kind of thing to their neighbors.

00:27:07
Speaker 3: That's that's awful. I mean, that is that's awful. And also during this period, that's the last thing we people need to have to sit and worry about, is is that how's this going to like? You know, what's this due to the community?

00:27:23
Speaker 7: Well, I thought, I think it's brought us all together. You know, I came home from church yesterday and when I went to my neighborhood, it looked like a war zone had went off, trees everywhere. But you would not believe that people from other parts of the county that I recognized that we're there who were just out there with chainsaws, out there with their their crew of men, their crew of women who are volunteering just you know, helping their neighbors. And so there's people in this neighborhood we're looking at right now that I guarantee you two thirds of those people don't live there, but they're here.

00:27:52
Speaker 6: To help those individuals.

00:27:53
Speaker 7: And then my neighborhood were I left this morning, you know, we got hit by the tornado. And as I came through to meet with you all, there was other individuals there volunteering. So it's just it's really awesome to see people come together.

00:28:05
Speaker 3: Is that this is the worst area, right?

00:28:07
Speaker 6: I would I would say that your back there?

00:28:09
Speaker 3: Yeah there, Yes, yes, I mean I we were I was back there. That that back there? What's that? Sunshine Shine Hills? Sunshine Hills. That's that's hard to look at.

00:28:20
Speaker 6: Yes it is and it and it kind of came.

00:28:22
Speaker 3: Who are the people that lived here? Like, who like or live here? Like? What's is there? Are they older folks? A lot of them.

00:28:28
Speaker 7: There were some that were were I think unfortunately killed in this incident. But you know, I've got cousins that live back here, children will live back here, nurses that live back here. You know, there's first responders that live back here. So it's just a whole squat. There's you know, I've got friends that are US attorneys that live back in the subdivision who were out with the ATF agents yesterday, who were actually volunteering to solid debris and things. So this is just a it's a conglomerate of just good people. And you know, there's a church back here. I was telling you a moment ago that my fathers went to for probably close to fifty years and it was destroyed.

00:29:00
Speaker 3: So tell the story you talked.

00:29:01
Speaker 7: Yeah, So Sunshine Hill Baptist Church, which is right up here, was destroyed in the tornado. And there was a flyer that was actually on social media that was recovered in Hazzard, Kentucky. And when you look at the flyer, it's it's barely damaged.

00:29:15
Speaker 3: It's it went. It went from here to hazard. Yes, that's what forty five mile or forty five minutes or something.

00:29:20
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, at least an hour, I would say, yeah, from this location. Yeah, and so it's not torn it's not dirty, it's you know, it's it's amazing that it went that far. We've had, you know, a young man one of my cousins, he had a letterman jacket that was found I think five or six miles away from his home. So, you know, which, it's amazing the devastation that this toot.

00:29:40
Speaker 3: Do you have any are there stories? I mean I saw there was a twenty five year old firefighter, is that right, passed away?

00:29:47
Speaker 7: I'm not sure if he was twenty five, but yes, there was a firefighter first responder that was trying to understanding he was trying to help another person the tornado just picked him up and threw him maybe into a house or a structure, and it killed him.

00:29:58
Speaker 3: And so he was actually trying to to rescue someone.

00:30:01
Speaker 6: That's my understanding.

00:30:02
Speaker 7: Yes, Yeah, and I you know, I talked with some folks last night in my neighborhood where the tornado came over a ridge and you can just see in the tree line. You see woods on both sides and you can just see where the tree line it came over.

00:30:13
Speaker 6: It's it's devastating.

00:30:14
Speaker 7: Hits a house, uh, takes another house and the roof just totally blows off and goes about three houses down and across the street. All their windows busted out. And this gentleman was a veteran and disabled veteran, and he ran out like after the tornado hood passed to go see what the damage was and he heard somebody yelling or screaming across the road. He goes over there, goes into the home and he finds a couple who are crushed. Now they're alive, but they're crushed and they're begging for help. So he actually rescued them.

00:30:45
Speaker 3: So that's the kind of disabled.

00:30:47
Speaker 7: This disabled veteran, Yes, went across the street.

00:30:49
Speaker 3: See now, I mean that's a that's an amazing story. Yeah, I mean I bet there we I mean, those things may take a while to come out, but there's probably a lot of stories of people being rescued in those moments, right, I mean you had emergency services out here all night, right, yes, yes, yeah, the uh. I was talking about how impressed I was with the way the everyone has worked together. I mean, you guys, you know, the governor, we talked about it as a Democrat, a lot of these local officials, Republican, the police. Like I just watching everybody Saturday. You know, it's easy to get so cynical about things. It actually sort of encouraged me to see all that. Does it you feel like that as well? Oh?

00:31:29
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely.

00:31:29
Speaker 7: I mean right now, it's time to come together and it's time to help one another. You know, we're all brothers and sisters in Christ. We're all here to you know, help our community, our neighbors, and so it's not about politics about helping people.

00:31:42
Speaker 3: So what is as I said a second ago, and maybe you can find out before the show ends, what is the thing you would like? I mean, people all over the state to kind of hear and when they say how can I help? What would you what would you suggest?

00:31:57
Speaker 7: Well, I would suggest you know, right now, if you look at these these locations, they're trying to bring in excavators and dump trucks, and it's it's very dangerous for pedestrians to be out here trying to just walk around. It's not very secure if they're doing that, and these folks that are the experts trying to move this debris. So I would say, don't send a lot of volunteers into these locations. There's an operations center set up at the airport that people can go to and drop off supplies if they want to drop off supplies, or they can gather supplies and drop.

00:32:26
Speaker 3: Off what is in terms of supplies, what would be something you know that is needed in the I think the governor had told me tarps, gloves and like boxes things to help with anything else that you know of.

00:32:40
Speaker 7: I think plastic toats are critical right now because a lot of the you know, rains coming in on Tuesday, and so we need to get these things that are perishable, their belongings, their photographs and stuff put those in waterproof toats. That's probably the biggest things I've got a list here of different locations and things, but where they can drive things off. But most of the places are getting a lot of water, and so.

00:33:04
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, they don't don't necessarily need that right.

00:33:07
Speaker 7: No, they don't need that water right right now. It may happen in another week or so, but but right now they need you know, critical some medical uh things, you know, band aids, medical kids, things of that nature, tarps, gloves, work gloves, things of that nature. And then I know they're also trying to make sure that people have homes. You know, a lot of these these people don't. They're displaced right now.

00:33:28
Speaker 3: So where are people gonna stay? Right?

00:33:30
Speaker 7: Yeah, So we've got a couple really awesome people in our community, Practical being one of those. They've come up and they've said that there's somebody that needs a place to stay, that they're gonna pay the cost of their hotel room if they can't find a place. We also have different places that have shelters. I've got First Baptist Church, The Logic, Cumbland Falls, Pine Grove, Holiness, Wildcat, Harley Davidson, Dodge City Campground, Victory Life Church, Bethel London Multicultural Church, Pine Grove Church, just various churches. We're hosting I think at our church Kentucky to the disaster relief group and they're accepting water and gatorade type products right now. But again, if anybody needs a place to stay, if you want to communicate with me, I'd be happy to try to put them in contact with somebody. Also, have some other friends of mine that are they don't necessarily want their names to be mentioned, but if there are people that need resources for homes or something like that, they're willing to step up and try to help them.

00:34:22
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, well listen, thank you very much for coming out and for keeping us informed, and if you need anything, you you let us know.

00:34:32
Speaker 7: Yeah, thank you all. Thank you all for coming down here and supporting our community. I mean everybody in this city, this country, this state. Late we all love you guys, and so you all being down here to support us really means a lot.

00:34:41
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate it. Brandon Storm, State Senator. We will thank you very much. We'll take a break and be right back. It's KSR. Welcome back, it is Kentucky Sports ready, all right, Channon will open up the phones. Eight five nine twenty two eighty seven. Especially, we'd like to hear from you if you're or from the area or had something, you know, dealt with it on Friday night you we'd love to chat A five nine two twenty two eighty seven. This segment is sponsored by Court Physical Therapy. If you're doing yard work or staying active by biking or running, increase physical activity when the weather gets more warmer can lead to aches, pains, and injuries. It's Court Physical Therapy. That's KRT dot com over seventy locations statewide. It's Court dot Com. That's KRT dot com. Looks like drew a lot of a lot of you know, power company, et cetera, and volunteers coming in. I thought it was really touching. We were driving this morning, the Amish people, m hm that we saw with the hats and everything walking over there, just helping people go through their belongings. You know that there's something about that that I found really touching.

00:35:52
Speaker 5: That and of all the things, Brandon said, the disabled veteran, who well, that helps save two of his neighbors. I mean, that's that's a touching story. But at the same time, the looter thing is infuriating. When we were driving around, I saw the camera thing he's talking about, and I even thought, I hope that's not there for looting. And to hear that people would do that, I mean, that is just absolutely despicable.

00:36:14
Speaker 3: I mean, can you imagine, Shannon, how awful you would have to be to look at this situation and say I'm gonna go loot. Yeah.

00:36:20
Speaker 2: I mean that's the worst of the worst. We talked about, you know how great Kentuckians aren't helping out. But then there's also on the flip side, a few, you know, people that are that are doing this, and that always happens with disasters like this. It's just unfortunate.

00:36:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you know, the state police officer that's our friend, PJ. Burnett got up and said that during the conference, and I remember thinking, I guess Pj's just hardened by law enforcement, like thinking people will do that. I was like, Oh, people wouldn't do well, I guess they would.

00:36:46
Speaker 5: We see the good and bad and people in this situation.

00:36:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a special place in hell for those kind of people.

00:36:51
Speaker 3: I was about to say, Ryan's gonna have a very strong comment. I just knew I could like to say more too. I could tell on your face. Ryan, I could tell something was coming that was not gonna be h. That makes you really angry, doesn't it?

00:37:04
Speaker 4: To try to take advantage of somebody in their worst moment, their lowest point in their life. They just lost everything. You're gonna go in look around for some medication or something you can steal from him.

00:37:14
Speaker 3: It's just bet it's more than medication. Yeah, I mean, that's that's a sad story about going to your mother's house and seeing all that that gone. You're wearing the Laurel County State Champs shirt.

00:37:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, they just had the documentary came out in March. These were the original shirts were made in nineteen eighty two, so they had made some replicas and I got one. You know that shows this county when they were probably had the most pride. So proud of that team that won the state title.

00:37:39
Speaker 3: Now here talk about pride about something else. Reed Shepherd was out here Saturday. Reed Shepherd was out here Saturday, and nobody knew. If that dude doesn't post, that's true, right, yep?

00:37:49
Speaker 6: I was.

00:37:50
Speaker 3: I mean, I just another work here. I didn't see him, but I mean, like, but that's because he wasn't making a deal out of it, right, he was one of the many people out here working. I think that. I mean, he's a great kid and that was awesome to see. And then Mark Pope was on the roof yesterday. I have to tell you I wasn't ready Drew to see a seven footer on a roof like that's that's kind of uh. You don't see that a lot, but a seven footer on a roof is quite a sight. By the way, this is the North Laurel I think, uh football and baseball team I was told was coming out here. That all was right, that's that's awesome.

00:38:24
Speaker 5: But I like the photo of reading the caption the guy said Red just texting him, said, I don't know what you need me to do, but I'll be there in twenty minutes, like just no hesitation, not even know what he's getting into. I'm on my way to help out. I'm not surprised that he did that, but but seeing those photos was really great.

00:38:39
Speaker 3: Some big boys right there. I don't know if I would want them.

00:38:43
Speaker 5: His shirt says big, bold and nasty.

00:38:46
Speaker 3: His shirt does say big, bold and nasty. All I'm wearing jeans and boots. They know where they're coming right right, They're not. They're not looking like Ryan and us and me and these khaki shorts, and these dudes came understanding. Now feel very much not as mainly as I should be.

00:39:03
Speaker 2: For nobody's coming to clean up in kaki shorts.

00:39:07
Speaker 3: Well, I did because I forget, because I got up late. I forgot. But I'm but we will go over there and do the la. That's the group I would want the I would want them working at my house if I'm not twenty twenty said, how about Mark Pope on the roof? Though seven feet tall?

00:39:23
Speaker 4: It was a little comical despite the situation, to see a seven footer up on this roof walking around that. He shows you kind of person he is trying to do anything.

00:39:31
Speaker 3: How bout he comes here to about here and he takes the roof job. Yeah, and he doesn't take the ground job. I guess he didn't need a ladder. He could just step up on the room and listen. Let me say, all these other guys would have done something. One of the great things about Cow was his disaster relief. Rick would have done something, all of them, but he's the only coach we've had that would have gotten up on that roof. Did you agree with that?

00:39:53
Speaker 5: I need more details on how it happened, Like, I mean, there's obviously one hundred jobs you could do when you get here, but the seven footer said, I'll get up there and get that.

00:40:02
Speaker 3: We're interviewing him tomorrow after this show. You have to find out. So I got to ask him how I ended up on the roof right, because that is it was quite a visual.

00:40:09
Speaker 4: I wondered if his daughter that was with him did it first, and he's like, well, my daughter did it.

00:40:12
Speaker 3: I got to get up there. Now was she up there?

00:40:14
Speaker 5: Uh?

00:40:14
Speaker 3: Huh oh, I didn't see her. I didn't know that was his daughter was Well, that was quite a side ef. I'm nine to twenty two eighty seven. Who's up first, ship, Jacob, Jacob, go ahead.

00:40:24
Speaker 8: Jacob, Hi, good morning. I just wanted to start off by thinking you off for I really I think it's awesome that you guys decided to go to that area so you know, to visit and kind of tour the devastation, and thank you for drawing attention to all the tragedy over these past couple of days. And also I just wanted to kind of question I'm not and I know a lot of people probably are able to actually drop off directly. Why or is there somewhere where we can actually order like the tarts or gloves or flipm it and have that dropped off.

00:40:58
Speaker 3: I have not seen that, but I will. I will ask and maybe watch my social media. If that's something that that is doable, I will. I will let you know. I know they will have relief efforts from a fundraising standpoint that will kind of get going in the but as we've talked about, and I appreciate the call, unfortunately been through of these there's this period of five or six days that they are in the immediate need standpoint, and even money you donate will not have time to process. They kind of want to do the donations in sort of the intermediate phase, which is where we've tried to be of help. But right now this is still in the you know, this just happened phase, and I so so that will come. I think I heard Tuesday is when that will come. But for right now, I will ask because that's a good question. There might be a way to donate money for some of that stuff, you know, But I will let you know, And.

00:41:48
Speaker 5: Like you mentioned and we've seen in the past sometimes you're donating things that kind of get in the way and it just adds more work.

00:41:54
Speaker 3: Closely, I've been told that the clothes do kind of get I mean they still have clothes left over from some of these in the other ones, because like you know, people mean well, but like there's just it's a very that's a very hard thing to to. It's the other stuff that we talked about earlier that they could use. Right now, we will take a break, come back. Our number two is ksrry