DAWSON SPRINGS, Ky. (WDRB) -- After a tornado reduced the city of Dawson Springs to rubble, 95 people are still missing.
The city's central command center was a 24/7 operation for the first 48 hours after the storm, but moved to a recovery mission on Monday with crews working from sunrise to sunset. So far, 13 people have been found dead.
Melissa Lamb's home that was struck during the tornado is especially meaningful — it was her great-grandmother's home.
"My great-grandmother lived in here during the depression," she said.
Lamb took WDRB News inside the third-generation home, through a tattered and town kitchen, where you hear the crunching of broken glass from the windows that were blown out during the storm.
Lamb, her husband, and two sons took cover in a closet, where the family's Christmas presents remain.
When she came out, she saw that her roof had fallen in. At the same time, her husband, George Lamb, went outside after hearing a woman screaming for help down the road.
"When I did come out, it was unbelievable," Lamb said. "Everything you've worked so hard for is gone in five minutes."
But Hopkins County and the surrounding community have stepped up in a big way with donations.
"We don't have anywhere to put what we're getting right now, so I'm going to that people pause on bringing things into our donation centers — not stop, just pause," Hopkins County Judge-Executive Jack Whitfield said.
"We've got a community that cares," he said. "I always knew we did, but I never knew how much until these last three days."
As the days go by for so many, a new space will have to fill the void that was once their home.
"Last night, I just kept telling my husband, 'I want to go home,' and he said, 'We can't. We can't go home no more,'" Lamb said. "That's a horrible feeling."
Copyright 2021 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
