20-05-2025
London family survives tornado, leans on support to rebuild: ‘Another chance at life'
LONDON, Ky. (FOX 56)— During Friday's deadly tornadoes, a quiet evening for a London family turned into a fight for survival.
On a typical Friday night, Vanessa Mullins and her family had just finished playing Scattergories when she and her boyfriend decided to go outside and watch the storm roll through.
'I remember I was looking up at the sky, and it was super quiet and calm,' Mullins said. 'Then all of a sudden, it was like a train was coming.'
London family survives tornado, leans on support to rebuild: 'Another chance at life'
Laurel County community comes together to gather supplies for those impacted by tornado
Kentucky city among the most popular for Gen Z home shoppers, according to mortgage data
She said that within five seconds, their power went out, and they took cover in their bathroom.
'I look up and stuff started falling in my eyes, and then I looked down again and it was over,' Mullins said. 'When I opened the door, there was a door sideways. I looked up, and you could see the sky. My roof was gone, my ceiling's gone.'
And just as things seemed to be over, as soon as she and her family stepped outside, people were yelling that they needed to find somewhere safe.
'We're like running down the street to try to get to the school, and it starts raining hard on us again, and we're thinking, 'Oh my God, we just survived this tornado, and now we might get hit by another one.'
But night came and went, and Mullins, like many of her other neighbors, had no choice but to put their boots on, pick up the shovels, and start rebuilding, but not without help.
Drug overdoses see major decline: How Kentucky measures up
UFO sightings in Kentucky: A look back on past 30 years
List: 5 Big Lots stores in Kentucky reopening this week
'We just mobilized a group of employees and team members that were able to come out and help today, so we're helping in both neighborhoods,' said Nick Bejarano, president and CEO of AdventHealth. 'We've got two different teams deployed in this neighborhood, and we have several other teams in the neighborhood behind us; we have about 60 team members in total.'
Mullins said she wouldn't be able to get through each day without the help of others.
'I just feel like I was given another chance because we shouldn't have—I don't know if we should have made it out of that,' Mullins said. 'So I just feel like I have another chance at life, and I'm not ready to go anyway, either, so I'm not giving up.'
Mullins and her family are staying in a hotel for now before staying with family as they work to rebuild.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
