London is three-fourths finished with cleanup efforts after deadly tornado: Mayor

LONDON, Ky. (FOX 56) — It’s been 25 days since London was hit with the unimaginable.

In the late evening hours of May 16, a deadly and violent EF4 tornado touched down in the place that thousands call home.

“I’d imagine it’s going to take us years,” said City of London Mayor Randall Weddle. “And I don’t know that the scars will ever be healed.”

More than 800 homes were impacted, and 19 people lost their lives.

“It’s going to take some time. We lost some amazing people. Every individual we lost in this community hurts,” Weddle added. “It’s been a burden on this community that lost one so.”

In those 25 days, it’s been nonstop work, rebuilding the community one day at a time.

“We’re over ¾ with cleanup, so if you go back out into the areas, we’ve done a tremendous amount of work out there, and it goes to the volunteers,” said Weddle. “We’ve had over 2,000 volunteers and over 11,000 hours of manpower that’s been out there the last several weeks.”

The city has also established temporary storm shelters that will be activated in the event of inclement weather at the South Laurel High School gymnasium, the North Laurel High School gymnasium, the London Community Center, and London Elementary School (during town center events).

“It’s really important because when this stuff happens, you know there’s going to be trauma from the memories of this happening, and we want to give them a safe place where they can come and be taken care of,” said Hobie Daugherty, public affairs officer with the London Police Department.

Although the timeline for a full recovery looks like years, city leaders are reminding their community that they’re not doing it alone.

“With this recent disaster, that seems to be the goal of the community itself—we take care of one another, and the love that’s come out from everybody is just amazing,” Daugherty added.

Weddle is also asking people to sign up with FEMA. They are set up at the Laurel County library.