MAYFIELD, Ky. (NewsNation Now) — A Kentucky woman whose home was left uninhabitable after a tornado tore through Mayfield said she is going to have to start all over.
Stephanie Matheny said hers was the only house on a trailer park property that included four trailers — they were all destroyed and hers is the only one left standing.
“Everybody else is gone,” she said. “Mine was a house but it was built kind of like a trailer and it is completely off the foundation. The roof was thrown a couple hundred feet from my house and it’s pretty bad.”
Matheny said a neighbor helped her move walls while they were searching for her dog. The canine was eventually found underneath a stove, “without a scratch on her,” according to Matheny. She was also able to find two of her cats, but one is still missing. She plans to continue the search on Sunday.
Matheny was at her work Christmas party in another town when the tornado hit. She was warned the tornado was about 25 minutes away from Mayfield when she decided to leave the party. Just minutes later, she received a call telling her not to come to Mayfield because she would drive directly into the tornado.
Even after losing both her home and her car, Matheny is grateful she didn’t lose as much as others, but she’s still devastated. She said this was the first home she and her husband had where they didn’t have to scrape to get by.
“I paid really decent money for my house and I had a home with a yard. … My dog could run free. I didn’t have to worry,” she said. “And that’s what I’m going to miss the most is I had a home. I’m older and to pick back up again and start over — it’s very heartening and very disheartening.”