2021 Tornado Western Kentucky

This month marks the two-year anniversary of the tornadoes that struck and devastated parts of Western Kentucky. On the evening of December 10th and into the next morning, a high EF-4 tornado directly hit the historic downtown center of Mayfield, KY. Of the 74 people who lost their lives in Kentucky that evening, 24 resided in Graves County, where Mayfield is located. In this edition of Saving Stories, center director Dr. Doug Boyd highlights two people who were interviewed in the follow-up round of the Mayfield, Kentucky 2021 Tornado Oral History Project; a partnership with Dr. Rebecca Freihaut. Tanna Thompson and Casey Jones talk about their ongoing struggles and hopes on their long journey of restoration.

This month marks the two-year anniversary of the tornadoes that struck and devastated parts of Western Kentucky. On the evening of December 10th and into the next morning, a high EF-4 tornado directly hit the historic downtown center of Mayfield, KY. Of the 74 people who lost their lives in Kentucky that evening, 24 resided in Graves County, where Mayfield is located. In this edition of Saving Stories, center director Dr. Doug Boyd highlights two people who were interviewed in the follow-up round of the Mayfield, Kentucky 2021 Tornado Oral History Project; a partnership with Dr. Rebecca Freihaut. Tanna Thompson and Casey Jones talk about their ongoing struggles and hopes on their long journey of restoration.

December 10 & 11 marked the two year anniversary of the tornadoes that struck and devastated parts of Western Kentucky. On that evening, into the next morning, a high EF-4 tornado directly hit the historic downtown center of Mayfield, KY. Of the 74 people who lost their lives in Kentucky that evening, 24 resided in Graves County, where Mayfield is located. In this edition of Saving Stories, center director Dr. Doug Boyd highlights one of the 22 interviews from the Mayfield, Kentucky 2021 Tornado Oral History Project; a partnership with Dr. Rebecca Freihaut.

December 10 & 11 marked the two year anniversary of the tornadoes that struck and devastated parts of Western Kentucky. On that evening, into the next morning, a high EF-4 tornado directly hit the historic downtown center of Mayfield, KY. Of the 74 people who lost their lives in Kentucky that evening, 24 resided in Graves County, where Mayfield is located. In this edition of Saving Stories, center director Dr. Doug Boyd highlights one of the 22 interviews conducted from the Mayfield, Kentucky 2021 Tornado Oral History Project; a partnership with Dr. Rebecca Freihaut.

Millions of dollars of funding will be available to Kentuckians still recovering from natural disasters in 2021. WUKY’s Karyn Czar reports.

The Kentucky Senate has voted to create a layer of legislative oversight for relief funds, like the ones created by Gov. Andy Beshear to help people recover from tornadoes and flooding.

A significant milestone will be observed this weekend in western Kentucky. It was a year ago that more than a dozen tornadoes ripped through the region leaving a giant trail of death and destruction. In this edition of WUKY's award winning history series Saving Stories, Doug Boyd with UK's Nunn Center shares interviews from a project featuring emergency management personnel and first responders on the front lines during and after the December 2021 tornado outbreak in Western Kentucky. They talk about the opportunity to learn about the long-track tornadic system and how Western Kentuckians successfully overcame adversity from such devastation.

Music filled the air in Western Kentucky over the weekend where nearly a thousand instruments were handed out to people whose lives were turned upside down by December’s deadly tornadoes. Karyn Czar was there for the distribution and filed this report.

With many Western Kentuckians still struggling to put their lives back together in the wake of December's deadly tornadoes, a project to replace their lost musical instruments has seen a surge of written requests in the last 24 hours.

Kentucky’s death toll from devastating tornadoes in December has risen. Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday announced the deaths of a woman and her infant.