Thousands of families in tornado-ravaged Kentucky are in crisis days before Christmas, including that of 13-year-old Andrew Humphrey, who was just displaced by the deadliest storm in state history.
Andrew and his two older brothers join dozens of others in the painstaking and heart-wrenching chore of post-disaster cleanup Tuesday, tossing rubble from where their second-floor apartment used to be in the devastated tiny town of Dawson Springs.
For the time being, carolers, Santa, and Christmas tree ornaments are luxuries.
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“I am not worried about Christmas or presents,” the young adolescent, who was dressed in a grey trucker’s cap and neon-orange work gloves, said, adding that he and his family were lucky to have survived the tornado. “I am concerned about finding a place to live.”
Year-end anxiety has skyrocketed for families caught in the swathe of destruction from Friday’s devastating tornadoes that left at least 74 dead in Kentucky, made thousands homeless and plunged residents into deep limbo.
Desperate to ease some stress and put smiles on the faces of children left with little or nothing, Governor Andy Beshear’s wife Britainy on Tuesday announced a state-wide gift donation program to ensure young victims of the massive storm won’t be left behind for the holidays.
The donations are already pouring in. At the police station in Paducah, a nearby town spared from the twister’s wrath, hundreds of presents—bicycles, Barbie dolls, train sets, skateboards, books—are boxed or bagged awaiting a major distribution effort that begins next week in time for the holiday.
When pressed, Andrew, an avid online gamer, says he’d love to replace his console that was likely damaged by water in the storm. As his mom shoots him a grin, he admits, “It’d be nice to get something like a new Xbox and a TV.”
Celebrate ‘wherever we’re at’
Ginny Watts, whose daughter Cavvy turned four one day before the tornado, says her girl knows their house is “broken,” but cannot grasp the magnitude of such a disaster, or how it might impact their Christmas.
“I just hope in some way we can make it special,” Watts, 37, tells AFP outside her recently renovated but newly destroyed home. When Cavvy asks about getting visited by Santa, Watts says she reassures her: “Baby, we’re going to have Santa Claus wherever we’re at.”
“And at this point, you know, we all know what Christmas is about,” she says, noting the holiday’s spiritual importance. It’s not necessarily about the toys and whatever. Sixty-nine-year-old Debbie Cancler lives just across the street, and she combs through the wreckage of her home, securing mementos like old photographs.
While her house has been shredded, she miraculously finds intact several sets of pajamas she purchased as presents for her children and four grandchildren. By celebrating the normality of Christmas, Cancler says, her grandchildren will “have maybe 30 minutes of not worrying” about the trauma of the tornado and its aftermath.
“We will live on,” she adds. “We’ll be OK, in time.”
The miracle of ‘surviving’
US President Joe Biden, whose own share of personal tragedy has led some to call him the consoler-in-chief, is set to visit Dawson Springs Wednesday to soothe a traumatized community.
At the local high school, converted into an emergency shelter, families sift through donated clothing, food, and toys. A young boy grabs a plush stuffed animal and looks up at his father, hoping to add it to their cart. Jonathan Storms, the school’s family resource and youth services director, expresses amazement at the way Kentuckians have come together to help the tornado victims.
Storms says, “They’re not going to have a home for Christmas, so if we can distract them at all from the tragedy and the disaster, that’s beautiful,” he says. Andrew, the teenager, also praises how his neighbors and strangers were “working together” to help the less fortunate. As for what the upcoming holiday may bring, Andrew insists the greatest gift is being alive, despite the hellish wrath inflicted on his community.
“Surviving is a Christmas miracle,” he says.