Six months since those demoralizing and destructive December tornadoes, the wildflowers have started to bloom in Dawson Springs.
Vacant lots, many now cleared and ready for anew, have thistles, violets and sunflowers prospering.
Its people are once again ready for prosperity, too.
Friday afternoon at the Dawson Springs Municipal Center, and exactly six months since that harrowing night, Governor Andy Beshear presented $1.2 million in SAFE funds to Dawson Springs alongside Mayor Chris Smiley, Senator Robby Mills and Judge-Executive Jack Whitfield — in what’s been a bi-partisan backbone to help repair west Kentucky’s stripped skeleton.
This wave of SAFE funds generously provided by the Kentucky General Assembly is specifically earmarked for land surveys in the city, as boundaries and landmarks were wiped clean by an EF-4 tornado on the night of December 10.
Beshear lauded Mills, Whitfield and Smiley as critical pillars for helping get the act passed.
For some reason, the bill stalled in assembly, and Beshear said this trio did its part in assuring its movement through the House and Senate — with SAFE monies able to assist up to 16 disaster counties and three others dealing with damages and debris.
For most awards received in the last six months, Dawson Springs and Hopkins County leaders have put in applications seeking approval, and this $1.2 million from SAFE is no exception.
Beshear assured the state and its legislature would not let cries for help go unheard.
Mills said Friday’s celebration was exactly what Senate Bill 150 was “all about,” and that gaps in thought had to be bridged before the bill was passed on the floor.
On the night of the tornado, Whitfield said he was on the phone with Beshear no later than 1:30 in the morning — updating him on the devastation wrought by the storms.
By daybreak, things looked worse than feared. Within two weeks of those storms hitting, former governor and Beshear’s father, Steve, visited his hometown, and Whitfield vividly remembers the conversation the two shared.
Beshear took that “challenge coin,” and placed it in his left pocket.
What’s next for Dawson Springs? The rebuild and rebirth continues. Several millions of dollars remain to be distributed from the Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, the SAFE funds and other avenues, while new houses will continue to get erected through various needs organizations.
Whitfield noted several steps remain before normalcy returns to southern Hopkins County.
And that’s the key. Dawson Springs will build again.
