A retired Deputy Commander and member of the Air Force Reserve Command, Jay Flournoy was sitting in his Peachtree, Georgia, home on December 13 — watching television with his wife.
His neighbor needed help putting up a mailbox, and that was at the top of his to-do list.
Fox News broke to Andy Beshear’s conference, where the governor started talking about Kentucky’s need for volunteers at seven state parks — which were beginning to take in those displaced by the devastating tornadoes in Mayfield, Dawson Springs, Princeton, Bowling Green and everything in the middle.
Beshear started spouting phone numbers. Flournoy grabbed a pen.
With so much going on, phone calls weren’t returned quickly. He reached out to Kenlake State Park Director Mike Duffy, left a message, and bounded for west Kentucky.
Around 3 p.m. December 14, Flournoy arrived with a fully-packed RV and mini-Cooper, plugged into an electrical outlet near the tennis courts, and headed up to the Kenlake Lodge to offer assistance — any way he could.
Other volunteers poured in: from Murray, from North Carolina, from Minnesota, from Colorado, from Oregon.
Flournoy immediately began volunteering in Kenlake’s dining room, where breakfast was being served to the displaced daily.
Serving food has been a top priority, but Flournoy said volunteering has included everything anyone could need: from transportation back to devastated home cities, to delivering meals to people’s cabins, to lending an ear for those who need to talk about the tragic events.
These state parks are becoming bastions and sanctuaries for those lost and confused, as people in the path of these tornadoes need four walls, hot showers, hot meals, money — and ways to pass the time. Because state parks limit staff during slower winter months, Flournoy said it’s been amazing to see just how much volunteer work is changing lives.
This isn’t his first experience with a devastating storm, either. Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Homestead, Florida, on August 24, 1992, as a monster Category 5. He was flying helicopters there, and he notes what he’s seen in west Kentucky so far feels worse.
Paid staff are working longer hours, too, but Flournoy said you wouldn’t be able to tell it.
The Peachtree retiree left on Tuesday afternoon, noting he’d get on the road whenever he got on the road, but that he might be returning to assist again after New Year’s Day.
