Six Months After Huge Tornado, Mayfield, KY A Blank Slate. Where Will It Go?

Screen grab from video showing Mayfield, Kentucky
six months after a tornado decimated the city. Lots of 
depressing empty lots in the community's downtown now.

 It has already been about six months since one of the nation's most destructive tornadoes in over a decade decimated the small city of Mayfield, Kentucky.     

The December 10 storm wiped out much of the city, including virtually all of its historic downtown. 

As you can see by the video below, most of the debris has been hauled away since December.  

Now is the most depressing part of Mayfield's saga. There's just blank concrete slabs where buildings once stood. Empty lot after empty lot is all that's left of where homes, businesses and other enterprises once hummed along nicely.

We still don't know what the fate of this city will be. There are certainly signs of life.  As governing.com points out, a barbecue restaurant called The Barn is about to reopen in a new building on the main drag through town. That's a nice early sign of a rebirth. 

A few houses are being rebuilt, too, but they are still few and far between. The future is, of course, uncertain. Other towns famously destroyed by tornadoes have bounced back, which is a hopeful sign. 

The small city of Greensburg, Kansas has half the population it had before a 2007 tornado completely leveled the community. But most of the people who stayed or moved back to Greensburg are younger. The town has also become a showcase for renewable building and energy use from renewables. There's still some sense of vibrancy there.

The city of Joplin, Missouri is thriving 11 years after an immense tornado destroyed much of the community.  Joplin's population is now actually larger than it was before the tornado, with more businesses and educational opportunities than pre-tornado times. And the rebuilt houses are designed to be more storm resistant. 

So. there's still hope for Mayfield. To residents there, the road back is still an unknown quantity.  The emptiness is no doubt haunting. But we can hope that Mayfield can be a solid city again. 

Here's the video of the city, six months after. Click on this link if you don't see the image of the video on your device.

Update To December Tornadoes: Mayfield Candle Factory Won't Reopen; Lawsuit Against Amazon

Destroyed candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky after the 
huge December tornado. Company officials announced they
won't rebuild in Mayfield, causing a loss of about
 250 jobs. 

 The tornado-devastated city of Mayfield, Kentucky too another blow recently when the people that run the candle factory destroyed by the December 10 twister won't rebuild or reopen.

That means 250 or so people have lost their jobs.  

Mayfield was probably the hardest hit community in an unprecedented December tornado outbreak that killed 76 people in Kentucky and surrounding states.Mayfield's downtown was destroyed, as was the candle factory where dozens of people were working when the tornado struck. 

The candle factory has about 500 employees. About 250 employees will be transferred to a new candle plant in nearby Hickory, Kentucky.  Company officials told the Louisville Courier Journal that they would like to hire everybody back eventually, but didn't know when that might happen, NBC News reports.

Nine of the 100 or so people working at the candle factory died when the tornado leveled the manufacturing plant. Managers of the plant came under fire after employees said they were not allowed to leave and find better shelter in the hours leading up to the tornado. 

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has said the state has launched an investigation into the reports that employees were threatened with being fired if they left in advance of the tornado. 

Workers who made these claims have sued the factory operators, saying keeping the workers at the doomed factory failed to "provide a workplace free from serious recognized hazards," as required by Kentucky law, reports Kentucky.com.

AMAZON TORNADO LAWSUIT

Amazon warehouse destroyed by a tornado on December 10,
2021 killing six people. The estate of one of those killed is
suing Amazon citing unsafe working conditions during
the tornado emergency. 

Meanwhile, the family of one of six people who died on December 10 at an Illinois Amazon warehouse when another tornado struck has filed suit against the online giant. 

According to Reuters, the family of driver Austin McEwen, 26, filed the lawsuit, alleging that Amazon knew conditions were "highly unsafe as tornado warnings had been issued' but company officials "rolled the dice with peoples' lives to put profit over safety," said the family's attorney, Jack J. Casciato.    

The lawsuit is for multi millions of dollars, Casciato said.

Amazon officials deny the allegations, saying their building was built to code and employees were moved to safer areas when tornado warnings were issued.

Other Amazon employees dispute Amazon's attention to safety.  In December one driver told news media she was out making deliveries when tornado sirens began to wail. She asked to return to the warehouse but the manager told her to keep delivering or lose her job. This, despite the obvious danger of driving in an area under an active tornado warning. 

These two updates show that the immediate aftermath of a tornado, or any other big disaster is not the end of the story. It's just the beginning of it. For tornado victims, there will be plenty of twists and turns down the road. Many of these twists and turns will probably be painful. 

 

Tornadoes Highlight Workplace Safety, Or Lack Thereof, In Weather Emergencies

Remains of the candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky 
after this month's tornado.  Was worker safety compromised
by managers not allowing employees to leave to 
find safer shelter?

Deaths at a candle factory in Mayfield Kentucky and at an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois during the big tornado outbreak earlier this month has put a spotlight on how workplaces deal with weather crises like tornadoes.  

Or not deal with them.  Worker safety during severe weather events seems not to be a priority. 

There' is admittedly s a lot of conflicting information and questions about how managers at the two devastated workplaces dealt with the oncoming disaster they faced on December 10.  It does seem like more could have been done to protect workers.  

At least eight people, possibly more, died during the tornado in the Mayfield Consumer Products factory. Six died when a tornado ripped apart the Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville.  There's also disturbing news of an Amazon delivery driver being ordered to continue her route despite tornado sirens going off around her, or she'd lose her job.

It became apparent at least a couple hours beforehand that Mayfield might be on trouble, given the path of a dangerous supercell and tornado originating in Arkansas. 

According to NBC News, workers were told they'd be fired if they left.

'"For hours, as word of the coming storm spread, as many as 15 workers beseeched managers to let them take shelter at their own homes, only to have their requests rebuffed, the worker said. Fearing for their safety, some left during their shifts regardless of the repercussions."

Around 5:30 p.m. that day, tornado warnings went off around Mayfield. That warning turned out to be a false alarm. But it prompted employees to request going home because of the growing threat of a large, new tornado later that night that would devastate the town and level the factory. 

You don't want to be out driving when a large tornado is nearby, of course. But had people left the factory an hour, two or even three hours before the tornado, they would have had time to access tornado shelters or basements, which are safer than large buildings with free standing roofs, like the candle factory. 

A spokesman for Mayfield Consumer Products has denied the employees' accusations, calling them "absolutely untrue."   Workers there are suing, so I'm sure more information will come out on this. 

In Edwardsville, the Amazon worker in a warehouse near the one that was hit by the tornado said a colleague in the hit warehouse had her phone with her.  That enabled the worker to receive the tornado warning. She said that allowed her to run for shelter. She would not have known the tornado was coming if not for the cell phone warning. 

Amazon, however, takes a dim view of employees having their cell phones with them. 

As NBC News reports: 

"Workers at two neighboring Amazon facilities in Edwardsville, just outside St. Louis, who were also in the path of the tornadoes overnight Friday, said they had little training in preparing for tornadoes and bristled at a company policy that multiple sources have said the company is trying to bring back Jan. 1, which would ban workers from having cellphones at work."

Many if not most people nowadays receive weather warnings via their smart phones. Banning cell phones would leave Amazon workers at the mercy of managers who might or might not hear tornado warnings, or not care enough if a tornado materializes.

NBC also said Amazon workers told them they are expected to work while there are tornado warnings, which is a big no-no. Especially in a building like a huge Amazon warehouse. 

These warehouses are huge and flimsy, without a lot of support beams to support the structures in the extreme winds associated with a tornado. The entire south half of the Edwardsville Amazon warehouse was shredded.

Tornado warnings for Edwardsville were issued at least 20 minutes before the tornado hit. However, Amazon managers either didn't take the warnings seriously, didn't know what to do with them, or more depressingly if true, prioritized production over worker safety.  

As The Intercept reports:

"....messages revealed a communication breakdown in which corporate failed to notify employees about the tornado even as it happened.  The Intercept quoted one employee who said, 'Corporate and IT were troubleshooting network outages and found out the building was hit by a tornado from the media.'"

In other words, if this report is true, the mucky mucks were much more concerned about production problems than dealing with the real danger - the tornado. 

The same day Mayfield was hit, this Edwardsville, Illinois
Amazon distribution center was hit by a tornado, 
killing six workers. Critics are saying that Amazon's
tornado and weather safety protocols are
severely lacking. 

This reading of Amazon managements' dismissive attitude toward employees in danger is also reflected in the tale of an Amazon delivery driver caught out in her truck in worsening weather as tornado sirens blared around her.

Bloomberg offered screen shots of text messages between the driver and managers. I know this is going to help make this post long, but you really need to read the exchanges to see how cavalier Amazon can be with worker safety.

Driver: "Tornado alarms are going off over here."

Dispatch: "Just keep delivering for now. We have to wait for word from Amazon. If we need to bring people back, the decision will ultimately be up to them. I will let you know if the situation changes at all. I'm talking with them now about it."

Driver: "How about for my own personal safety? I'm going to head back. Having alarms going off next to me and nothing but locked buildings around me isn't sheltering in place. That's wanting to turn this van into a casket. Hour left of delivery time. And if you look at the radar, the worst of the storm is going to be right on top of me in 30 minutes."

Dispatch: "If you decided to come back, that choice is yours. But I can tell you it won't be viewed as for your own safety.The safest practice is to stay exactly where you are. If you decide to return with your packages, it will be viewed as you refusing your route, which will ultimately end with you not having a job tomorrow. The sirens are just a warning."

The things the dispatcher said are absolutely astounding. "Sheltering" in a delivery van on a street during a tornado is pretty much the most dangerous thing a person could do.  Flying debris would be a mortal danger to anyone in a van. 

"The sirens are just a warning." ' Well, duh!!!! The sirens are a warning that a tornado is approaching. So they should be disregarded?  And saying that taking basic tornado safety will cost the driver her jo is absolutely beyond the pale. 

What should have happened is the managers should have directed the driver to at least return to the warehouse to go into hopefully a safe room. Even better, the driver should have been instructed to stop, seek a business or home in a well constructed building, and go into a tornado shelter, a basement, or a windowless, interior ground floor room.  I know the driver said there were a lot of locked buildings, but she could have found a safe refuge if she started looking at the moment the tornado sirens went off.

You can see this "profits before people" ethos in other weather safety incidents involving Amazon. Says The Intercept:

In one case earlier this year, an Amazon contractor in southern Illinois sent a letter to Amazon requesting several hours off his shift in preparation for Hurricane Ida. An Amazon seller support manager replied that the contractor's performance would suffer.

'It's important to confirm the shipment of orders by the expected date so that customers can see the status of their shipped orders online,' the manager told the contractor. 'Orders that are ship confirmed late may lead to increased negative claims, negative feedback and/or customer contacts and negatively impact customer."

Amazon's bungling or worse of tornado safety is just more evidence that the behemoth company's culture is to dismiss worker safety.  There's been scandals on high rates of worker injury, inadequate bathroom breaks and lame Covid protocols. 

And heat stroke, to get back to weather hazards. Like during the unprecedented heat wave last June in the Pacific Northwest. 

Gizmodo, quoting the Seattle Times, said "workers at the company's Kent, Washington facility endured near 90 degree heat while some stations pushed employees to work at maximum speed in the unprecedented weather for so-called 'power hours.'

There have been several other complaints of heat, causing worker illness and even deaths at Amazon facilities in Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. 

For all the above reasons, I don't do business with Amazon.  I buy my goods directly from retailers and suppliers.

Of course, just one person - me - doesn't make a huge difference and Amazon remains hugely popular with consumers. 

Amazon and other online retailers have "trained" consumers to expect their shipments to arrive at the drop of a hat. I work in customer service for an online retailer, and there is a thankfully small subset of "Karens" who don't give a whit if there's an excellent reason why their order is late, even if that reason is because of a collapsed warehouse or worker deaths. 

Most of us are quite willing to have our packages slightly delayed if it means the driver remains safe from harm. Unfortunately, a minority of consumers think it's worth it for people to die to ensure the tchotchkes they ordered arrive instantaneously.  (These are the same people who protest loudly when a TV station interrupts some dumb show like "The Bachelorette to broadcast tornado warnings).

Social media sites like Twitter and Reddit are rife with stories of bosses and corporations demanding employees show up to work in dangerous weather conditions. 

That has to change. I can see a boss being miffed if an employee won't drive to work in a light snowfall in a northern climate. But it's time to rain hell on employers who insist workers risk their lives in hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, ice storms and other hazardous weather just to raise the bottom line by a few pennies.

This shouldn't be a new Gilded Age. This shouldn't be dystopia. Any employer who risks workers' lives for any reason, including dangerous storms, need to suffer some gawd-awful consequences. 

Kentucky Bank Tornado Security Video Eerily Similar To Iowa Bank Video From 2008 Hit By Similar Intense Tornado

Screen shot of surveillance video in the front lobby of
FNB Bank in Mayfield, Kentucky a 9:29:05 p.m 
December 10.

As I have anticipated, security videos are surfacing of the terrible tornadoes that wrecked swaths of Kentucky and surrounding states earlier this month.  
 

Cameras were rolling at the FNB Bank in downtown Mayfield when the tornado arrived at 9:28 p.m. December 10. 

The surveillance videos show the interior of the bank, meticulously neat, clean and tidy before the storm arrives. Cheerful Christmas trees guard the front doors, which are adorned with well-crafted wreaths.   

As the power fails, posters in the bank lobby begin to sway in a breeze. Then, the front walls and doors implode violently into the bank, mowing everything inside down with debris.

The video is almost a carbon copy of surveillance videos taken at a bank in  Parkersburg Iowa on May 25, 2008 when an EF-5 tornado hit. Fortunately, both banks were closed at the time the tornadoes it. Unfortunately, the 2008 Iowa tornado killed 9 people and the Kentucky tornado killed at least 55 people. Other tornadoes in the outbreak earlier this month caused a total of at least 90 deaths.

Just five seconds after the above screen shot, the bank
is being blown apart by the EF-4 deadly tornado that
struck Mayfield, Kentucky. 

By the way, there are some updated, but still preliminary statistics about the Kentucky/Mayfield tornado that are jaw-dropping.   The tornado was on the ground for about three hours, traveling a distance of at least 165 miles. 

It wasn't the "Quad  State Tornado that early media reports suggested traveled 250 miles.   The supercell that produced the scary weather produced one EF-4 tornado earlier.  

 Then, as intense supercell storms normally do, the system cycled, leaving a 15-mile gap in tornado damage before the storm produced the new EF-4 tornado that hit devastated towns like Mayfield, Cayce and Dawson Springs, Kentucky.  

The Mayfield bank video is below. As usual, mobile users might need to click on this hyperlink to see it. Otherwise here it is. Click on the arrow and then the YouTube logo for best viewing. 

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