Extreme weather conditions overnight December 10-11 spawned over 30 tornados in the “quad-state” area of Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri, including one powerful tornado that remained on the ground for over 240 miles. That twister, dubbed the “quad-state tornado,” formed over northeast Arkansas and struck numerous towns in Kentucky. Although rescue operations are currently ongoing, the death toll from the storm is at least fifty in Kentucky alone. Nearly 90,000 homes and businesses remained without power across western Kentucky and northwestern Tennessee on the morning of December 13.
The “quad-state” tornado is likely to be the deadliest tornado in the history of Kentucky, with the towns of Princeton, Dawson Springs, Mayfield, and parts of Bowling Green suffering extreme damage to residential homes and businesses. In Mayfield, an economically distressed town in western Kentucky, the tornado destroyed a candle factory and killed some workers inside – many of whom were incarcerated individuals contracted out by the state to work there. That same tornado destroyed an Amazon distribution center elsewhere in the region. As search and rescue operations continue, anxiety about the prospects of disaster recovery are already starting: “You have a lot of elderly here, and you have a lot of government housing, and there is just not a lot of people with money here,” Tammy Coble, a resident of Dawson Springs, told the Washington Post. “These people don’t have money to just go hire somebody to come do repairing to all of their homes. They are going to have to wait for government or insurance companies, and that is going to take a long time.”
The NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition – a group of over 850 local, state, and national organizations working to ensure that all disaster survivors receive the assistance they need to fully recovery – will push for assistance to victims of these storms and continue its advocacy for much-needed reforms to ensure that disaster recovery assistance reaches all disaster survivors, including those with low incomes, those experiencing homelessness, and those living with disabilities.
Sign up to join the Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition here: https://bit.ly/3dOr0ic
View the Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition’s priorities for HUD, FEMA, and Congress here: https://bit.ly/3oOj5b2