Kentuckians share many common traits. It's likely, for instance, over half of us are living with PTSD.
Kentucky has more stream miles than any state not named Alaska. Since 2021, they've all flooded. In that time, over 130 property damaging tornadoes have touched including one that holds the record for longest tracking December tornado--over 160 miles.
Governor Beshear has declared 18 weather related emergencies in his tenure, we've had 13 FEMA natural disasters. Over 150 Kentuckians have perished, 47 this year.
In 2023-2024, Kentucky had 14 separate billion dollar weather disasters. We've had 4 so far in '25.
Do you know someone who hasn't been touched by weather disasters in Kentucky? I struggle to think of anyone. Thousands have lost everything while many thousands more have been left with something to clean up. Hundreds have had to clean up multiple times.
Even if the weather didn't hit us directly, each disaster left thousands without water, without electricity, without communications for weeks and months. Education was interrupted, commerce was interrupted. Many lost jobs outright.
It happened to me. I had a great job as morning programmer on a little radio station in Whitesburg. The gig essentially ended when the station took six feet of water in the great flood of 2022.
That left its mark. I remember the day vividly but anything in the following month is hazy at best. I went places and did things I do not remember. I went looking for a check I thought I never received and found out not only had I received it, I'd deposited it. The receipt was in my wallet.
So I'm not pointing fingers when I say over half of Kentuckians probably suffer from PTSD. I"m saying it hit me and I understand where you're coming from. We've been through a lot.
Which brings me to last Friday. I was spooked. No matter how terrible, I'm a water dog and I expect flooding. It's logical. It's going to rain too much and streams are going to escape their banks. It did before global warming and it will after global warming. For the most part, it's predictable and escapable for all but the most extreme flash events.
I'm not ready for tornado alley to come to Pike county. I watched WYMT's commendable live coverage as tornadoes were spinning out of one particular cell, first at Somerset, then at London.
Once it passed London, I realized the cell's path led to Elkhorn City. I watched the radar for two hours while the killer cell held together as it passed between Hyden and Hazard, across southern Perry into Letcher county with a watch still active. The watch dropped just before the storm passed Whitesburg, but the cell was still intact. It barrelled over Jenkins running straight down Elkhorn Creek.
The cell hit Elkhorn after two in the morning. The spin was long gone, but it still had plenty of fireworks. If that thing could get all the way here, intact, then another tornado producing storm cell can. What if it hasn't spun itself out?
The thought of an F3 tornado bouncing between the hills surrounding Elkhorn should be enough to induce PTSD in anyone.