20-05-2025
Kentucky communities begin disaster relief, emotional support after tornado
LONDON, Ky. (WATE) — Disaster relief and clean up continued Monday in Laurel County, Kentucky after a tornado touched down in the area late Friday night.
At one of the distribution centers for disaster relief in London, residents volunteered to help sort and hand out supplies to those in need. Among them was Angela Sergent, who said they had felt an overwhelming amount of support.
'The whole town honestly, not just churches, but people just everywhere really showed up and it's been humbling,' she said.
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Being from the area, Sergent said while she was one of the lucky ones, her community has been devastated by this tornado.
'Our neighbors are just, they're suffering,' she said. 'You go by and you see people picking up their life in a garbage bag. You know that this is really just unbelievable. I mean I really don't even have the words.'
At the Calvary London Baptist Church, senior pastor Jamie Maxey said they have deployed over 100 volunteers.
'We've had just here alone calls from probably 6 or 8 different states of people that want to come in looking for places to park campers and things like that,' he said.
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Maxey said members of his church have died and been displaced. They are working to help people with both their physical and spiritual needs, partnering with the international relief team Samaritan's Purse.
'The devastation from just the mental part of that has been very difficult and hard,' said Maxey. 'So what we're trying to do is just minister to them and get them the immediate needs that they have, we're just trying to help them get their footing underneath them right now and kind of get them started on the next step of their life.'
While they are trying to help people into that next step, Sergent said the community will continue to need support.
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'We're trying to focus on the needs as of right now and then the needs as it goes on, because this is going to be an ongoing deal,' she said. 'It's not just meeting the need today. They're going to have needs continually throughout this whole process.'
Currently, she said they are in need of tarps as they expect to get more rain this week. However, she also added they are still assessing the needs in the community.
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