“We will stay in the region, it is at home”

Tina Thompson holds a blue and white porcelain in front of what remains of her house after the terrible tornado that swept through Mayfield on the night of Saturday December 11 through Sunday December 12, killing at least 80 people in Kentucky alone on the 94 identified in the United States. She still can’t believe it. “It’s a teapot. It belonged to my grandmother and I found it in the back of my husband’s pickup. How did a teapot survive?”, she asks flabbergasted before concluding: “It gives hope”.

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Tena and her family survived by staying in the basement: “It’s a mess. But we’re fine, it could have been a lot worse. Everyone is alive”, she continues in a strangled voice.

“My family is alive, my daughters are alive, my husband is alive, I am alive. Everything is fine and everything is going to be fine.”

Tina Thompson, a resident of Mayfield

to franceinfo

The first floor was washed away. Only the walls on the ground floor are still standing. “If you walk into my house, it’s like every room has a sunroof, describes Tina. But our bananas remained on the kitchen cabinet. There was our dining room. The table and chairs are in pieces everywhere. And you can see the bananas! “

Two bananas are still posed, in fact. Like the miraculous teapot, she sees in it signs that she must not leave. “We’re going to take day after day and it’s going to be fine. We’ll see if we try to rebuild here or elsewhere, explains Tina. We will stay in the region. It’s home. This is where our family is. “ Tina doesn’t know yet if she will rebuild her house, but she is keen to stay and live where she was born.