MAYFIELD KENTUCKY - TORNADO DAMAGE 2 MONTHS LATER - 2-18-2022 (2).jpeg

MAYFIELD, Ky. (WDRB) -- Two months after tornadoes tore through western Kentucky, killing 77 people, Mayfield is still recovering.

Rock Baptist Church was turned to rubble in an instant.

"We lost it all. It was sad," said Sheila Black, who runs the church. "My husband and me started the church, and now it's all gone."

On Dec. 10, the tornado changed everything. There is so much heartbreak, and Black said she's now dealing with this alone. Previous churches had been built at the location before, but she and her husband started Rock Baptist Church a couple of years ago.

"At least I can remember us being here together." she said. "It's just really bad to lose it all, and I know it's just a building. But it was an important building because it was his. It wasn't ours. We just we came to worship here."

At her home nearby, which wasn't damaged in the tornado, Black looks through pictures of her husband Don, who was the pastor. He died of COVID-19 a year ago. She said she finds strength in her faith.

"I think reading that Bible and talking to the Lord ... he didn't tell me to shut the door, so I didn't," she said. "So I keep reading trying to find the answer going forward."

Even after her husband died, the doors stayed open in their small church.

"We didn't have very many, maybe just eight or 10. That was it." Black said. "I wanted the Lord to be the one to send the ones he wanted to go here."

She said the doors are closed now, but she's hoping they won't be for long.

And Jeremy Harrell with the Veteran's Club Inc, based out of Louisville, said his team is there to help. Harrell leads the group and said they are seeing a difference in Mayfield two months later.

"There's a lot more piles of rubble, looks a lot more organized, still very destructive, still tough to look at," he said.

The veterans are clearing all of the debris, cinder blocks and wood.

"Baghdad and places in Baghdad that I was were not even as bad as what Mayfield looked like," Harrell said. "We knew we needed to come back and do more."

About 20 veterans volunteered to help.

"This is a small church and probably a small budget, and that's why we wanted to focus on this today," Harrell said.

Every brick and block lifted sometimes uncovers treasures underneath. Harrell said they found toys, furniture and even a vacuum. 

Veterans helping clean-up tornado debris

Mayfield, KY 

This church is one of many in the area turned to rubble. In the downtown area by the courthouse, one of the banks is being demolished as the community continues to rebuild.

There is still so much work to be done in Mayfield and Graves County. At least five churches in the area had copper roofs that are now crumbled and in piles. Crews said they are sifting through the debris to find the copper from church roofs to be scrapped.

"We just wanted to do what we can to bring some respite and relief to these people," Harrell said. "The pastor we met today where we got our work orders, you can just tell they are so overwhelmed. We wanted to take the load off, to give him a day to focus on his flock."

Harrell reminds people that those in Mayfield are still our Kentucky neighbors.

"Hey, we're here," he said. "We're only three-and-a-half hours away."

And while many volunteer groups have come and gone, the Louisville veterans promise to come back to not only help churches like this but other veterans who lost everything.

"There are 1,858 veterans in this county," Harrell said. "I don't want them to think because we're based in Louisville, that they don't have access to us."

Like others, Black is now waiting on insurance.

"Even after this is settled, it's going to be a long road," she said. "Because if we would have had to rebuild, and Don was here, he could have taken care of all of that. And I'm lost and I don't know nothing about building."

IMAGES | Mayfield, Kentucky faces a long recovery after December tornado

She's taking it day by day, finding strength in the the Bible. Through the strength of volunteers, they'll plan to make sure this church will rise again.

"The church was just a building," Black said. "Nobody got hurt, but I miss that church."

On Tuesday, WDRB News will offer an exclusive look inside the candle factory that continues operations in a nearby Mayfield community after the tornado. Company leaders will explain what happened the night the tornadoes hit and how they are rebuilding.

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