Tornado cleanup, repair continue

Storm clouds hovered over Corydon, Ky., Thursday afternoon, but men like Paul Shoff and Jeremy Romain continued their work, handling chain saws and boosting limbs into the back of a recently emptied truck. They were just two of many who had descended on the Western Kentucky community to continue repair and cleanup from the EF3 tornado that swept through the city on Saturday.



Thursday's line of storms, in advance of an approaching cold front that will drop temperatures into the mid-30s tonight, triggered tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings throughout the Tri-State. Rain drenched the region, but the National Weather Service had no reports of tornadoes reaching the ground. In Illinois, golf-ball-sized hail was reported in Saline County.

In Corydon, Shoff, a city employee and community native, said as he worked outside a house on Third Street where a tree had fallen on its back porch that the volunteers were "helping people out who don't have insurance." Romain, a Henderson resident, added that he and Shoff had worked all over the city on Wednesday, along with volunteers from churches and Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.



Poole resident James Shelton returned to his hometown of Corydon to help with the recovery. Since Monday, we've had probably 40 volunteers help us from Habitat, he said. Mayor Larry Thurby said everybody was "falling in" and doing what they could to help out. Lowe's Home Improvement store provided a pickup truck full of water to workers last Sunday, and Wal-Mart donated water, gloves, paper towels and trash bags, Thurby said.

Thurby estimated that at least 75-80 homes have been damaged in some way by the tornado and that it would be about six to nine months before those structures are repaired or rebuilt. Thurby noted that despite the failure of storm warning sirens to go off Saturday, the sirens were working on Thursday afternoon when another tornado watch was issued for Henderson and Union counties.

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