Tripp Gibson was on the treadmill at his house near Seattle, a solid workout before heading to a holiday party with his wife.
To pass the time Friday afternoon, the Major League Baseball umpire was chatting on the phone with dad, just catching up on things back in his hometown.
His hometown of Mayfield, Kentucky.
Suddenly, as his father spoke, Gibson heard a tornado warning siren go off in the background. It was a familiar sound from his childhood days — as a kid, he once saw a small twister skip over his yard.
“It’s probably nothing, right?” father and son figured.
Three hours later, Gibson got an urgent message from his sister: Tornado’s hitting, Dad’s taking cover in the bathroom.
Fortunately for Gibson, no one in his immediate family was hurt in the storms that devastated the city of about 10,000 in the southwest corner of the state and surrounding area.
By Saturday, after a flight from Seattle to Atlanta to Nashville and a two-hour drive, Gibson was back in the town where he spent most of his life.
“It’s indescribable,” he told The Associated Press on Monday from Mayfield. “You think of the movie ‘Twister’ and that’s nothing compared to what we have here.”
“All the people injured, displaced, maybe dead,” he said. “There are no words.”
At least eight people working at a Mayfield candle factory were killed, and not every local resident has been accounted for yet. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that at least 74 had died statewide.
