'Blessed to be alive' | Taylor County begins cleanup after EF-3 tornado destroyed towns

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Residents in Taylor County, Kentucky continue to pick up the pieces after Saturday's tornado destroyed homes and lives.

The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-3 tornado hit the area with winds that reached 140 miles per hour. Two days later, there is still much to do.

In a small town that sits between Saloma and Pleasant Hill, walls were ripped from houses to expose furniture, beds and even a Christmas tree still standing in a living room. Toys and debris are everywhere in the house.

Nevin Price said the family who rented the house rushed out, when the roof tore off.

"We could absolutely see nothing it was so dark, you could see no where," he said.

Price said he and others started a burn pile and are trying to clean up and salvage what they can.

"I'm blessed to be alive, really. I'm fortunate," he said.

Price owns several homes in the area that he rents. He said the family that escaped the house have two small children, ages 1 and 3. Now, they are staying with relatives because there's no way to rebuild the house they were in.

Price said most injuries in his part of Taylor County were mainly scrapes, cuts and bruises. There were no fatalities, but other nearby neighborhoods weren't so fortunate. A woman who lived in a mobile home in Saloma lost her life, according to another landlord.

Taylor County remains under a state of emergency. Many homes are rubble and streets are closed. The county judge executive said a tornado touched down in the northwestern part of the county. At least 70 families were left without homes.

Price said he helped dig one family out of their basement then took them back to his home and gave them dry clothes.

His home was spared, and he said many in the community have come out to help.

"The good lord was looking over all of us. All I can say, what I told my wife this morning, he must have been holding his finger on our house with everything going on around it," Price said.

Cleanup in Taylor County will take days. Rebuilding will take much longer.

Copyright 2021 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.