Cambridge Shores, Kentucky – The night when the EF4 tornado destroyed their lakeside house on Kentucky Avenue, Ken and Betty Layman crawled through the debris to get outside and sat in their truck in their driveway as the rain fell and cooler air rushed in behind the storm.
Next door, Trent and Jackie Campbell and Jamie and Marsha Holder huddled in the Campbell’s basement as they watched the live coverage of the weather warnings on WPSD. Jackie Campbell held onto her two grandchildren, ages six and four months. After the tornado ripped apart their home, they crawled out through what had been a window. Jackie had not even thought to put on shoes, and glass cut her feet.
They couldn’t see. The tornado took out the power lines. Debris – trees, bricks, glass, belongings – littered the ground.
Only two houses remained standing that night. The one directly across from the Campbells and another one on the other side of the Holders. Judging from the destruction, it’s hard to believe that anything remained standing that night.
Yet, Mike Paley’s cream-colored two-story house suffered window, gutter, and roof damage while his garage, workshop, and two cars were demolished. Paley took shelter in the corner of his downstairs bedroom and admits now that he probably should have sheltered in a bathroom instead.
“I never did hear the train that day, that freight train that they talk about,” Paley said. “To me, it sounded like rolling thunder. We get that sometimes here in the summertime, it just kind of rolls and rolls and doesn’t stop.”
He heard a tree hitting the house and debris raining down. Glass broke when pictures fell off his walls. It only lasted 20 seconds.
As people emerged from the remains of their homes, they realized the destruction, even in the darkness and even as they struggled to comprehend what had just happened. Then they realized that they had to turn off their gas and dug through the debris and muck to do so.
Trent Campbell knocked on Paley’s door to check on his neighbor. Paley did what anyone would do. He told them to come inside, stay with him since his house had minor damage and get out of the elements that night.
The Campbells and Holders went inside. The Laymans stayed in their truck the first night, and by the second night, their neighbors had convinced them to go to Paley’s house. Paley had a generator, which he used for 31 days until the power was restored. It took weeks for the water, internet and cable to be restored, but Paley stayed. The Campbells, Holders, and Laymans all went on to stay either at family’s houses or in temporary housing as they decided what to do.
Paley thanked the utility crews who worked in horrible conditions to restore services. “They were my heroes,” he said.
In the days and weeks after the tornado, the neighbors leaned on each other for shelter, safety, and support. Volunteers poured into the subdivision to help with debris removal and meal preparation.
“These people really helped relieve the shock of the moment,” Paley said.
Paley recalled how a crew from the Harrisburg, Illinois fire department teamed up with Team Rubicon to pry his cars out of the garage’s rubble and to remove two trees that had fallen on his house. A group from Iowa called Go Serve climbed on his roof and placed a tarp to cover damage and removed debris from his yard. Eight Days of Hope also helped to sift through the remains of the garage to pull out Paley’s hand tools.
All of these groups refused payment.
Rebuilding the Neighborhood
Cambridge Shores has 240 property owners, with 90 of those living in the subdivision full time while the other 150 are weekend or seasonal residents. Throughout the neighborhood on an early spring morning, the sounds of rebuilding resonated as the sounds of a trackhoe taking down a house reverberated from across the peninsula. A crew put up a new outdoor tornado warning siren, and trucks cruised through the subdivision as workers started to rebuild.
Workers had poured concrete for a new basement for the Holders. The Campbells worked in their yard to put in a new mailbox, and they have plans to build a detached garage first while they wait for a builder to work on their house. The Laymans, though, decided that as they approached 80 that it was time to find a new house and are planning to buy in Marshall County. For now, as they sift through the rubble, they are living in a camper on their property.
And like that second night after the tornado, where their neighbors asked them to shelter with Paley, the neighbors check on them frequently. Some have brought food or offered to help as they can. They check on the Laymans like they were their grandparents.
That’s the type of tight-knit community that they’ve built on Kentucky Avenue.
Paley, who retired from the Kentucky State Parks in central Kentucky, moved to Cambridge Shores to be closer to family and has no plans of leaving. He has rigged up a few temporary fixes to keep water out of his house until his contractor can complete repairs. He said his contractor, who built an addition on the home when Paley moved in, already had six jobs pending before the tornado repairs.
Holder, who moved to Cambridge Shores in 2009 after living in Colliersville, outside of Memphis, explained that he didn’t want to start over in a new subdivision. He wanted to rebuild where his neighbors, who have become almost like a family, were.
Holder and Trent Campbell compared notes after the storm and agreed to rebuild only if the other one rebuilt.
“We like the area,” Holder said. “It’s the lake, and we want to stay in the area, but with all the trees gone, it was pretty gloomy looking. It had a lot to do with knowing that I was still going to have the same neighbors. Mike’s house was still there. Larry’s house (up the road, and another neighbor) was still there. And Trent said he was going to rebuild, so you don’t want to lose that – that feeling of family.”
Holder recalled when he had to have knee replacement surgery how his neighbors pitched in to mow his yard or when neighbors questioned his nephew who had come over to work in his garage because they didn’t recognize the nephew. Those little moments that people often take for granted when they’ve lived somewhere for a long time.
That sense of community and family.
On the recent spring morning as Trent Campbell and another relative worked to rebuild their mailbox, Paley came out to help and brought a tool. Neighbors watching out for each other and helping without being asked.
That’s why the Holders and Campbells didn’t hesitate to return.
Rebuilding won’t be easy. The families have had to jump through insurance hoops and try to maneuver through paperwork. Jackie Campbell said she has discovered that the earliest she might get appliances would be November, so she’s planning to order soon even though their contractor hasn’t started their project. Rebuilding costs have skyrocketed, too, but they know Kentucky Avenue is meant to be their home.
Holder said his builder estimates that their home should be complete by September at the latest.
Both the Campbells and Holders are taking the extra step to ensure safety should another tornado ever strike. The Holders are building a basement, while the Campbells have included a storm shelter in their new basement.
Although the landscape has changed dramatically with the lush mature trees now reduced to piles of flattened wood, the view isn’t what attracted the residents to Kentucky Avenue. It’s their sense of family. Mother Nature simply couldn’t tear that apart.
