TORNADO

Just wanted to let everyone know that me and my family are safe. I have a lot of family in Powderly and they are all okay. They do have damage to their propertys but that can be repaired. Please remember all the victims and the rescue workers. We were up that way last night and saw some of the damage, it is horrible. We are very blessed that none of our family was hurt in this terrible storm. My future Brother-In-Law's (Grant, Britt's fiance)house was hit in the CC area. He too was uninjured.

This was the story in the Messenger-Inquirer this morning.

Storm kills at least 3
2/6/2008
Power outages hamper recovery efforts in Muhlenberg
By David Blackburn and Joanie Baker
Messenger-Inquirer

GREENVILLE -- At least three people were killed Tuesday evening in a mobile home park near Greenville when a tornado ripped through Muhlenberg County.

Firefighters and emergency workers set up a command post Tuesday night at the entrance to Nolen’s Trailer Park off U.S. 62 in Muhlenberg County after an apparent tornado ravaged the park, killing at least three people. Photos by Gary Emord-Netzley, M-I

Tree limbs and a broken utility pole block the driveway to a home Tuesday night along U.S. 62 in Powderly. Power was knocked out across much of Muhlenberg County during severe storms.
Officials were continuing to search deep into the night at Nolen's Country Manor Trailer Court on Nolen Lane near U.S. 62 West, where at least 10 mobile homes were destroyed.
Other injuries were reported throughout the county.

Robin Smith, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Paducah, confirmed that the first report of a tornado touchdown was at 7:44 p.m., one mile west of Greenville.
Torrential rains, continued high winds and a power outage through Powderly and parts of Greenville and Central City hampered rescue efforts, and rain was expected to continue until 2 a.m.

Smith said there was no estimate of the strength of the tornado.

The dead were a husband and wife, Bobby J. and Diane Crick, and their daughter, Sissy, all of whom were in the same mobile home, according to Muhlenberg County Coroner Tony Armour.
Ambulance and emergency management services, some from Ohio, Daviess, McLean and Hopkins counties, set up a staging area at a truck stop near the mobile home park. Kentucky Utilities set up a staging area at the Muhlenberg County Agriculture and Convention Center in Powderly.

Director Jeff Greenwood said a local KU representative told him to expect about 100 trucks from Louisville, Elizabethtown and other cities to arrive at some point.
"We've got major electrical damage here," he said.

Richard Moser and his wife, Karen, live next to the mobile home park, which was devastated by the storm.
"It ripped siding off the house, blew a front window out and knocked a tree limb down," Moser said. "It kept getting louder and louder. You could just really feel the pressure of it inside the house."

Central City Fire Chief Ricky King told News 25 in Evansville that the east end of the city suffered extensive damage, including 150 to 200 houses that were destroyed.
King said his own home was destroyed and that in some areas it looked like no one had lived there.

While rescue workers used church vans to transport victims to shelters, such as the one set up at the gymnasium at the former Central City High School, King encouraged people to stay out of the area to avoid getting hurt by downed power lines.

Greenville Fire Chief Jerry Aders said the city received extensive damage.
"The damage is widespread from Greenville to Central City," he said. "We won't know the extent until in the morning, but there's been a lot of major damage."

The storm closed the Western Kentucky Parkway near Central City for some time as downed trees blocked the road, said Keith Todd, spokesman for the state Transportation Cabinet. Just before 11 p.m., U.S. 62 west through Greenville was closed so that power crews could clear downed trees and power lines, and Todd expected that work to take most of the night.
Officials confirmed that a utility pole fell on a woman in her vehicle on Kentucky 601 just off the Kentucky 189 bypass.

Muhlenberg County was placed under a state of emergency, which is expected to remain in effect until sometime today when electricity can be restored and power lines and trees can be moved from roadways, said Keith Putnam, Muhlenberg County director of emergency services.
Schools in the entire county will be closed today, and no vehicles other than emergency vehicles should be on the road unless it's an emergency.