May 19, 2025 • 42 mins
KSR is Live from London, Kentucky talking storm damage and all of the latest news.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:30):
This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now
here's Matt Jones.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
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
(00:59):
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
(01:20):
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
(01:43):
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
(02:04):
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
(02:24):
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
(02:46):
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,
(03:11):
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
(03:34):
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
(03:54):
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
(04:17):
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
(04:41):
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
(05:03):
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
(05:26):
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
(05:48):
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,
(06:09):
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
(06:33):
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
(06:54):
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
(07:15):
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.
(07:38):
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.
(07:59):
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?
Speaker 4 (08:11):
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.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
I'd say there's more than one hundred gone.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
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.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
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.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
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,
(09:17):
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.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
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
(10:01):
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
(10:22):
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
(10:42):
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
(11:04):
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
(11:25):
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,
(11:46):
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
(12:08):
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.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
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.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
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
(13:09):
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,
(13:29):
how you would even start the process of trying to
rebuild or figure out what's next.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
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
(14:14):
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
(14:36):
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
(15:00):
an awful misfortune.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
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.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
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.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
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,
(15:47):
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
(16:10):
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
(16:31):
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
(16:54):
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
(17:16):
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
(17:38):
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
(18:00):
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
(18:22):
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
(18:44):
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
(19:06):
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
(19:27):
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.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
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.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I mean, in terms of tornadoes, We've had other stuff, but.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
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.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
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.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
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.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Immediately.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
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.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
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?
Speaker 4 (20:51):
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
(21:13):
one so devastating.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
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.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
I would think so.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Like I said, you just picture yourself a typical Kentucky neighborhood,
of an older neighborhood.
Speaker 6 (21:28):
This is it, man, this is it well man.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
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.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
I can see why because those houses are not there.
It's just this foundation because there was nothing else there.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Yeah, and that's you know, how do you come back?
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Like?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
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.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
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.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
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,
(22:52):
personal injury attorney, called TJ.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
He'll make them pay Now more Kentucky Sports Radio presented
by Stockton Mortgage.
Speaker 6 (22:59):
Here's my Joe.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
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?
Speaker 6 (23:18):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (23:18):
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
(23:39):
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.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
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?
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Well?
Speaker 7 (24:11):
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
(24:31):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
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?
Speaker 7 (24:50):
Or no, Well, you know, I'm going to leave that
to the coordinators of this. What we've been trying to
do is.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Courtate who is that? Yeah, I don't even know who
that is.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
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
(25:19):
my Facebook page, they're welcome to private message.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Is the Calvary Baptist Church the place that's if someone
would contact or to do something.
Speaker 7 (25:28):
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
(25:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Because we've also had a problem with that.
Speaker 7 (26:03):
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.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
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.
Speaker 7 (26:29):
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.
(26:51):
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.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
You know.
Speaker 7 (27:02):
So again it's just it's unbelievable that people would do
that kind of thing to their neighbors.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
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?
Speaker 7 (27:23):
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,
(27:44):
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.
Speaker 6 (27:52):
To help those individuals.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
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.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Is that this is the worst area, right?
Speaker 6 (28:07):
I would I would say that your back there?
Speaker 3 (28:09):
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.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
Yes it is and it and it kind of came.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
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.
Speaker 7 (28:28):
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
(28:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
So tell the story you talked.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
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.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
It's it went. It went from here to hazard. Yes,
that's what forty five mile or forty five minutes or something.
Speaker 7 (29:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Do you have any are there stories? I mean I
saw there was a twenty five year old firefighter, is
that right, passed away?
Speaker 7 (29:47):
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.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
And so he was actually trying to to rescue someone.
Speaker 6 (30:01):
That's my understanding.
Speaker 7 (30:02):
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.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
It's it's devastating.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
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
(30:37):
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.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
So that's the kind of disabled.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
This disabled veteran, Yes, went across the street.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
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
(31:10):
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?
Speaker 6 (31:29):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
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.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
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?
Speaker 7 (31:57):
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
(32:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
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.
Speaker 7 (32:40):
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
(33:02):
lot of water, and so.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
You know, yeah, they don't don't necessarily need that right.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
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
(33:27):
displaced right now.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
So where are people gonna stay? Right?
Speaker 7 (33:30):
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,
(33:54):
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
(34:16):
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.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
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.
Speaker 7 (34:32):
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.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
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,
(35:03):
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
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That's KRT dot com over seventy locations statewide. It's Court
(35:25):
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
(35:49):
there's something about that that I found really touching.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
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.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
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.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
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.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
We see the good and bad and people in this situation.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Yeah, there's a special place in hell for those kind
of people.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
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?
Speaker 4 (37:04):
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.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
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.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
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.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
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?
Speaker 6 (37:49):
I was.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
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
(38:11):
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.
Speaker 5 (38:24):
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.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Some big boys right there. I don't know if I
would want them.
Speaker 5 (38:43):
His shirt says big, bold and nasty.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
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.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
For nobody's coming to clean up in kaki shorts.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
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?
Speaker 4 (39:23):
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.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
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?
Speaker 5 (39:53):
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.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
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.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
I wondered if his daughter that was with him did
it first, and he's like, well, my daughter did it.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
I got to get up there. Now was she up there?
Speaker 5 (40:14):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (40:14):
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.
Speaker 8 (40:24):
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
(40:47):
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.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
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
(41:19):
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
(41:40):
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.
Speaker 5 (41:48):
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.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
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
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Speaker 2 (00:30):
This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now
here's Matt Jones.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
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
(00:59):
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
(01:20):
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
(01:43):
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
(02:04):
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
(02:24):
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
(02:46):
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,
(03:11):
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
(03:34):
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
(03:54):
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
(04:17):
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
(04:41):
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
(05:03):
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
(05:26):
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
(05:48):
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,
(06:09):
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
(06:33):
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
(06:54):
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
(07:15):
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.
(07:38):
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.
(07:59):
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?
Speaker 4 (08:11):
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.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
I'd say there's more than one hundred gone.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
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.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
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.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
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,
(09:17):
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.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
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
(10:01):
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
(10:22):
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
(10:42):
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
(11:04):
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
(11:25):
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,
(11:46):
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
(12:08):
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.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
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.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
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
(13:09):
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,
(13:29):
how you would even start the process of trying to
rebuild or figure out what's next.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
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
(14:14):
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
(14:36):
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
(15:00):
an awful misfortune.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
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.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
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.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
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,
(15:47):
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
(16:10):
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
(16:31):
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
(16:54):
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
(17:16):
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
(17:38):
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
(18:00):
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
(18:22):
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
(18:44):
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
(19:06):
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
(19:27):
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.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
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.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I mean, in terms of tornadoes, We've had other stuff, but.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
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.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
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.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
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.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Immediately.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
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.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
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?
Speaker 4 (20:51):
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
(21:13):
one so devastating.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
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.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
I would think so.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Like I said, you just picture yourself a typical Kentucky neighborhood,
of an older neighborhood.
Speaker 6 (21:28):
This is it, man, this is it well man.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
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.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
I can see why because those houses are not there.
It's just this foundation because there was nothing else there.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Yeah, and that's you know, how do you come back?
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Like?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
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.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
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.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
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,
(22:52):
personal injury attorney, called TJ.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
He'll make them pay Now more Kentucky Sports Radio presented
by Stockton Mortgage.
Speaker 6 (22:59):
Here's my Joe.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
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?
Speaker 6 (23:18):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (23:18):
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
(23:39):
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.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
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?
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Well?
Speaker 7 (24:11):
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
(24:31):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
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?
Speaker 7 (24:50):
Or no, Well, you know, I'm going to leave that
to the coordinators of this. What we've been trying to
do is.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Courtate who is that? Yeah, I don't even know who
that is.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
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
(25:19):
my Facebook page, they're welcome to private message.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Is the Calvary Baptist Church the place that's if someone
would contact or to do something.
Speaker 7 (25:28):
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
(25:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Because we've also had a problem with that.
Speaker 7 (26:03):
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.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
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.
Speaker 7 (26:29):
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.
(26:51):
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.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
You know.
Speaker 7 (27:02):
So again it's just it's unbelievable that people would do
that kind of thing to their neighbors.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
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?
Speaker 7 (27:23):
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,
(27:44):
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.
Speaker 6 (27:52):
To help those individuals.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
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.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Is that this is the worst area, right?
Speaker 6 (28:07):
I would I would say that your back there?
Speaker 3 (28:09):
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.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
Yes it is and it and it kind of came.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
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.
Speaker 7 (28:28):
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
(28:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
So tell the story you talked.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
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.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
It's it went. It went from here to hazard. Yes,
that's what forty five mile or forty five minutes or something.
Speaker 7 (29:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Do you have any are there stories? I mean I
saw there was a twenty five year old firefighter, is
that right, passed away?
Speaker 7 (29:47):
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.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
And so he was actually trying to to rescue someone.
Speaker 6 (30:01):
That's my understanding.
Speaker 7 (30:02):
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.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
It's it's devastating.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
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
(30:37):
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.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
So that's the kind of disabled.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
This disabled veteran, Yes, went across the street.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
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
(31:10):
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?
Speaker 6 (31:29):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
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.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
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?
Speaker 7 (31:57):
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
(32:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
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.
Speaker 7 (32:40):
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
(33:02):
lot of water, and so.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
You know, yeah, they don't don't necessarily need that right.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
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
(33:27):
displaced right now.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
So where are people gonna stay? Right?
Speaker 7 (33:30):
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,
(33:54):
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
(34:16):
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.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
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.
Speaker 7 (34:32):
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.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
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,
(35:03):
you know, dealt with it on Friday night you we'd
love to chat A five nine two twenty two eighty seven.
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That's KRT dot com over seventy locations statewide. It's Court
(35:25):
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
(35:49):
there's something about that that I found really touching.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
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.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
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.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
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.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
We see the good and bad and people in this situation.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Yeah, there's a special place in hell for those kind
of people.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
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?
Speaker 4 (37:04):
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.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
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.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
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.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
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?
Speaker 6 (37:49):
I was.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
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
(38:11):
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.
Speaker 5 (38:24):
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.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Some big boys right there. I don't know if I
would want them.
Speaker 5 (38:43):
His shirt says big, bold and nasty.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
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.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
For nobody's coming to clean up in kaki shorts.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
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?
Speaker 4 (39:23):
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.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
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?
Speaker 5 (39:53):
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.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
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.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
I wondered if his daughter that was with him did
it first, and he's like, well, my daughter did it.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
I got to get up there. Now was she up there?
Speaker 5 (40:14):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (40:14):
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.
Speaker 8 (40:24):
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
(40:47):
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.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
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
(41:19):
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
(41:40):
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.
Speaker 5 (41:48):
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.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
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
Host
Matt Jones
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