LOGAN COUNTY, Ky. – A tornado warning was issued 12 minutes after a tornado hit Logan County. An elderly lady died when her home collapsed during the tornado outbreak.
The EF-2 tornado touched down near the Kentucky/Tennessee border at 3:54 p.m. Saturday leaving behind a trail of destruction.
“That pick up truck went 250 yards,” said John Gordon said. “In the air, flying, gone.”
The tornado continued to Dot Road in Logan County where 79-year-old Jane Combs was killed when her home collapsed.
Her husband John was outside preparing the basement for rain. He found her in the debris.
“All he can tell me is, ‘The love of my life is gone’ and ‘I can’t live by myself because I’ve never been by myself,'” Tammy Brown said.
Brown said her parents had no warning.
“My phone went off after she was dead,” Brown said.
The tornado warning was issued at 4:06 p.m. which was 12 minutes after it hit.
“We are looking at why it went out later than it should have,” John Gordon said. “We are going to do an investigative study on this entire event. We are trying to get this right, and I feel terrible about this family.”
The National Weather Service said the storm transitioned to a tornado in three to four minutes.
“I would equate it almost to the Joplin tornado,” Gordon said. “How quick it went from just a benign storm, and how quick it spun up into a tornado.”
Now they are doing what they can to prevent a late warning from being issued again.
“I want these alerts out faster,” Gordon said. “We’re going to do an investigative review of this entire event, and by God do the better job for the folks in Logan County who deserve a better job.”
Right now, family members are raising money to pay for Jane Combs’ funeral. For anyone who would like to help Combs’ surviving husband during this difficult time, they have set up a gofundme page.
The funeral for Jane Combs will be on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Lexington, Kentucky at Kerr Brothers Funeral Home. Her visitation will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. beforehand.
by Alexandra Koehn, NewsChannel 5
February 28, 2018
