Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear remembered 19 people killed by a tornado that ripped through the state Friday as children of God and asked for prayers for others injured or displaced by the event.
“We have lost 19 people to this weather event, each one a child of God who will be missed by their families. Please keep praying for them, the 10 individuals being treated at U.K. Hospital and for everyone affected by these storms,” Beshear said in a statement Sunday.
Personnel from Kentucky Emergency Management are assessing the extent of the damage. The tornado was part of a storm system that also struck Missouri, leaving a total of at least 28 people dead in its wake, The New York Times reported.
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Of the 19 people who died in Kentucky, all but two of them lived in Laurel County in a community known as Sunshine Hills. Many of the dead were also between the ages of 50 to 70.
Beshear urged members of the public to send donations to help the tornado victims through the Kentucky Storm Relief Fund, even as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem pledged to offer “resources and support” as needed on X.
“A lot of Kentuckians are hurting right now. From paying for funerals to helping rebuild, every dollar donated to the teamkystormrelieffund.ky.gov goes directly to survivors. If you’re able to help, please do,” Beshear urged.
Lexington Herald-Leader Opinion Columnist Linda Blackford, who visited the Sunshine Hills community after the tornado, said it was like “a bomb just exploded” there.
“Sheared-off roofs and collapsed walls were spotted on the road that winds through the neighborhood. It’s a quiet scene of absolute destruction,” she wrote.
“Brick homes were open to the sky; cabinets and kitchenware spilled out to the ground. A dining area that was once the likely center of a family’s home is now smashed and scattered on the front lawn. It looks like there’s a path of damage at least a mile deep through the subdivision. Homes on both sides of the road are in ruins.”
Laurel County Fire Department Maj. Leslie “Les” Roger Leatherman, 57, was among those killed in Sunshine Hills. He died while on his way home from responding to an emergency call for a residential fire.
“His house is nothing but blocks now; his house doesn’t exist,” Laurel County Fire Department Deputy Chief Terry Wattenbarger said, according to Fox Weather.
Leatherman and his wife, Michelle, were found in a field about 150 to 300 feet away from their home. Michelle survived but remains in critical but stable condition.
“It actually appears that he gave his life to save her life,” Wattenbarger said. “He was just truly a public servant at heart.”
On Sunday, Sean Ryan, a local pastor in London, Kentucky, who survived the tornado, said in his sermon at First United Method Church of London that he questioned why God would allow the destruction suffered by the community.
“I was sitting there thinking, ‘What can we say?'” he told his congregation, according to The Lexington Herald Leader. “My question was, ‘Where are you, God?'”
At the nearby Slate Hill Baptist Church in Laurel, which lost its roof in the tornado, Pastor Robert Williams told the publication that he questioned if he should preach a message he had planned before the tornado hit he had titled, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”
“When I came up here yesterday, I was wrestling with [whether] I need to do another sermon for the disaster,” Williams told his church, which gathered in a different place Sunday afternoon. “And I felt the Holy Spirit say, ‘No, I gave you that sermon for a reason.’ He knew this was going to happen.
“God knows everything.”
Preaching from Matthew 6:25-27, Williams delivered a message from God to his congregants.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. … But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you, as well,” he declared. “We never know why things happened, but we just know God is in control no matter what.”
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