Declarations

Watched It Coming

“We stood in the parking lot and watched it coming. By the time it hit, it was like a whiteout.”

—David Ison on the March tornadoes that left no building untouched in his small town of West Liberty, Kentucky.

Lost Home Alabama

“I kind of expected there to be more storms again this year, but you never expect it to hit the same place twice. I think I’m going to live in an apartment awhile. I’m not superstitious, but it just kind of seems there’s a path here and I don’t want to be in it again, and I hope other people make the same choice.”

—Cody Stewart who has lost his house to tornadoes twice in 10 months. This month, a killer twister wiped out his Harvest, Alabama, neighborhood.

Kentucky Flipping

“I grabbed my baby and I said, ‘Baby, lay down,’ and I got on top of him and my husband got on top of me and it was already happening, just flipping us over and over and over.”

—Tracy Pitman, after a 130 mph storm came through East Bernstadt, a small town 70 miles south of Lexington, Kentucky.

Volunteer Shortage

“A lot of departments are suffering from a lack of manpower. This is especially during the daytime when most people are working.”

—Pike County (Kentucky) Emergency Management Director Doug Tackett explaining that volunteer departments are finding different ways to compensate for the lack of firefighters, but the problem is shared by districts all over eastern Kentucky.

Alabama Adjusters

“If you are in the insurance business we want to know about you so that if you are not doing something proper we can do something about it.”

—Ragan Ingram, Alabama Department of Insurance chief of staff, on why he supports a law to have Alabama license public adjusters.