LONDON, Ky. — Recovery efforts continue in southeast Kentucky after an EF4 tornado touched down in Laurel and Pulaski counties. Seventeen people died in Laurel County; Kentucky lost 19 people in total.

What You Need To Know

  • A London family is seeking support after an EF4 tornado hit in Laurel County

  • Heather McClarrie is collecting resources and donations to help her mother and uncle

  • McClarrie's uncle was paralyzed after the tornado hit their home

  • 19 Kentuckians were killed in the tornadoes, 17 in Laurel County

Heather McClarrie said her city experienced its first real-life nightmare on Friday, May 16.

“But before that, I’d worked all day, and everybody was talking that some storms were coming in. Never had anybody suspected that something like this was going to hit one,” McClarrie said. 

McClarrie said her family was alerted to a tornado warning in their area at 11 p.m. Her mother, Shawn Cupp, was getting off work at the time and on her way back home to her brother David, who has a disability. However, the tornado had already touched down. 

“My uncle just recently moved here three years ago when my grandma passed away. She was his full-time caregiver in Florida. They went through her horrible hurricanes,” McClarrie said. “They went through all the big ones that just happened a few years ago and survived, and he came here three years ago to be with my mom for us to take care of him, and he gets hit by a tornado that almost killed him.” 

Once the family reached her mother’s home, they found her house almost 200 feet away in a field and her uncle outside his bedroom nearly 80 feet away, crying out for help. 

“Right beside him was his mother’s urn, fully intact, where he was found, and it was like he had a guardian angel. And that just means that meant so much to them,” she said. 

McClarrie’s uncle is currently at the University of Kentucky hospital, paralyzed from the waist down, suffering from a broken spine and neck. 

Once David goes home, he will need 24/7 care, new equipment and more hands to support him than before. The family started a GoFundMe page to help start the process. 

“We just need any kind of assistance she can get to just make it to where he can come home and have what he needs,” she said.

 McClarrie said she and her mom love this community, a community that loves them back even more. 

She said that prayers, calls and support have comforted them during this time.

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