Business and home owners have begun cleaning up after severe storms spawned a tornado in western Kentucky and left at least 10 people with minor injuries.
Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon said a campus with a local elementary, middle and high school was full with about 2,400 students on Tuesday when a tornado passed nearby.
“We knew that it was going to get hit,” he said as he described local emergency officials watching the path of the twister near an elementary school. “But there’s only one reason why we didn’t lose a bunch of kids’ lives yesterday … and that was because of God. He shifted that tornado right before it got to that school, I seen it.”
No one was hurt at the schools.
Redmon and other officials speaking at a news conference Wednesday said they were relieved there weren’t any serious injuries.
“There’s been a lot of homes that have been completely destroyed,” Redmon said. “We’re so lucky that we didn’t lose any lives.”
Redmon said damage estimates have not been completed but are expected to be in the millions of dollars. He said law enforcement will be patrolling damaged areas to prevent looting.
Rick Shanklin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Paducah, said the tornado reached wind speeds of 140 miles per hour.
Evie Elder told WPSD-TV her nephew’s business, Elder’s Cycle, was destroyed. She said he and three others were trapped in rubble before passers-by helped them out.
Car salesman Ray Ralph told the West Kentucky Star that workers at Bennett Motors were lucky to be alive. He says three buildings on the lot were leveled, but the business office remains standing.
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