During Tuesday’s Christian County Fiscal Court session, Emergency Management Director Randy Graham delivered a comprehensive report regarding storm damage suffered in the area during Friday’s bout with extremely severe weather.
Following a Monday preliminary assessment from a National Weather Service crew south of Nashville, Graham said the areas of Lafayette from Old Clarksville Pike through Pembroke and Bell Chapel Road into Todd County experienced an upper-tier EF2 tornado with 120 mile-an-hour winds.
Graham added Christian County experienced a “half dozen or so” injuries, but no fatalities — a positive outcome surrounding the complete destruction of 14 residences. He said 25 other residences experienced major damage, 15 suffered minor damage and nine were lightly affected.
One of the stronger agrarian sectors in the county, Graham said 31 farm locations suffered anything from minor damage to major destruction — from destroyed barns and equipment sheds, to grain systems damaged or rendered inoperable.
Five South Christian businesses suffered varying degrees of damage, and Graham noted crews are currently working on the vegetative stage of the county’s debris management plan — clearing brush, trees and limbs from roadways and depositing the loads at one of three approved burn sites declared by FEMA and the Kentucky Environmental Protection Agency.
One of those locations is Darnell Road.
Graham said his office, thankfully, has been overrun with calls from volunteers and those wishing to donate goods. The old county maintenance garage, at 100 Margaret Place, is serving as a collection point, where two semi-trailer loads have already arrived with water and mixed items.
Rather than donate cash, Graham said gift cards to specific locations or cash cards will serve families better, and keep monetary donations more secure.
Pembroke was the largest-hit populated area in Christian County, and its magistrate Phillip Peterson said he’s seen “a lot of good” come from the community in the last 72 hours of response.
Peterson noted Hwy. 155 to Oak Grove just reopened late Monday night, but that Hwy. 41 going toward Todd County is still shutdown with no time-table of reopening.
Pembroke Fire Department has been open every day since the storms hit and will be open the rest of the week, he added, and said it will continue to be a hub for donations, emergency service and information.
Peterson asked that while displaced families need to be remembered during these difficult times, the families of first responders and dedicated volunteers must also come into account.
*Magistrate Darrell Gustafson noted the county’s EMS team is currently helping work the Pennyrile Forest State Park area in south Hopkins County, which is housing more than 100 displaced people from Dawson Springs.
*Irene Grace, director of the Christian County Animal Shelter, said an all-call for dog food earlier this week led to enough for six weeks of feeding, and that some of those donations are now being shifted to Hopkins County. Volunteers are waiting in the animal shelter parking lot for those wishing to donate dog beds and cat litter, which will be shipped to Hopkins County for family pets now without homes.
*Christian County Jailer Brad Hewell said his facility took in more than 70 inmates from Graves County, which lost its jail entirely during Friday’s historic weather event. He said those inmates will be shifted to other jails in due time.
