Contemplating The Deep Sadness Of Mayfield, Kentucky, A Nice Town Decimated By Horrific Tornado

The sad remains of the historic downtown of Mayfield,
Kentucky, devastated by an extreme tornado Friday night. 

For many of us watching the news about those horrific tornadoes in the South, the focus has been on what is probably the hardest hit community: Mayfield, Kentucky. 

It's painful to think about how brutal the massive tornado was to that small city, the sense of dread in the hours and minutes before it struck, the terrifying onslaught of the tornado, and the horrible sense of loss now sinking with Mayfield residents. Who lost everything, sometimes including cherished family members and friends. 

Put yourself in the shoes of the people of Mayfield to get a sense of how big this was. Or any other of the devastated towns devastated by tornadoes Friday in or near Kentucky 

I live in a lovely old town in northwestern Vermont. 

St. Albans has roughly the same population as Mayfield. My little Vermont city has a historic downtown with gorgeous 19th century architecture,  inviting and charming little shops and restaurants, some stately old homes, and a pretty lively manufacturing sector for such a small town. 

 Sure, like everywhere, St. Albans has its problems, but it really is a close knit, lovely community. I really like living here, and plan to stay here way into old age.  In other words St. Albans is a lot like Mayfield is, or was.  I don't know how I'd deal with a calamity similar to Mayfield's here in northwestern Vermont. 

Mayfield had a gorgeous historic downtown. It was an epicenter for antique shopping in Kentucky.  There was a thriving candle factory and other industry in town. 

It might have been one long-lasting, immense tornado that roared through Mayfield. Or part of a serioes of tornadoes. It doesn't really matter.  The storm had its start way down in central Arkansas.  The tornado or tornadoes first touched down near Jonesboro, Arkansas, 130 miles away from Mayfield.

At first, the tornado probably seemed like no real threat to people in Mayfield, it was so far away. But the tornado kept growing and roaring forward. The sense of dread in Mayfield must have grown exponentially as the tornado raced northeastward, ripping through quiet little towns like  Monette and Leachville, Arkansas,  Hayti, Missouri, Samburg, Tennessee and on into Cayce, Kentucky.

By the time the tornado got to Cayce, about 30 miles southwest of Mayfield, there must have been a growing knot of fear in everyone,  The tornado on the weather radar being displayed on TVs all over Mayfield, showed a huge tornado lofting debris 37,000 feet into the air. Heading. Right. Toward. Them. 

You can pretty much hear the panic in meteorologists' voice as, shortly before 9:30 p.m. local time, someone at the National Weather Service office in Paducah, Kentucky tweeted the following:  "ALERT***If you live in or near MAYFIELD, you need to be underground if at all possible. Get to shelter NOW!"

I don't even want to get into what it was like while the tornado was in Mayfield. Imagining the immediate aftermath might be even worse.  It's pitch black except for the lightning flashing all around. In those flashes you see glimpses, of just....you don't know what.  Nothing is where it should be, nothing is familiar. 

People surely didn't know where to begin, where to find loved ones, neighbors who might be trapped.  Emergency crews headed toward Mayfield right after the tornado passed, but were surely stymied by roads blocked with debris.

More than 110 people were in the candle factory in Mayfield, which entirely collapsed. We still don't yet know the death toll there.

At some houses in and near Mayfield, you pray nobody was home.  Here's why: Some houses with no basements were stripped entirely away, leaving a concrete slab and nothing else. 

 Dawn finally came, revealing a downtown Mayfield that was just..... gone.  Matchsticks, is how the city's mayor described it. 

See for yourself in the incredibly sad drone video in this hyperlink.

I can't imagine the disorientation I'd feel if a tornado destroyed downtown St. Albans. Even if this imaginary tornado missed my house on the eastern outskirts of town would I have any hope for my town? 

In the immediate aftermath of the tornado in Mayfield, everybody pitched in to help as best they could. They all came together, as people usually do in big disasters to do something to alleviate the pain.

Long term, though, will Mayfield rise from the "matchsticks?"  How do you recreate an historic downtown?  

Mayfield will forever more always be associated with an extreme tornado, like Greensburg, Kansas or Joplin, Missouri, or Moore, Oklahoma. 

Those three communities managed to recover, even thrive after their tornado calamities. I guess all we can hope for is the same in Mayfield, and all the other towns trashed by Friday's pre-Christmas tornado horrors