LAKEVIEW – “I’ll never forget hearing her cry for help,” said Kentucky tornado victim Alisha Bishop. Bishop and her children had just watched their house collapse in Dawson Springs, Ky., But it was the aftermath that she said weighed on her mind the most. Dawson Springs had twin tornadoes that swept through their town of nearly 2,800 residents on Friday night, December 10. The tornadoes were part of an extremely destructive storm front that swept through the Midwest from Friday night to Saturday morning, killing an estimated 88 in Kentucky with more than 100 still missing.
“One of the rescuers put an injured woman in my car to shelter her from the rain,†Bishop said. “She kept screaming for help.” But the police didn’t come for two or three hours, and she died before she was hit. As for other injuries and deaths, “I still think there are more people than they admit.”
Bishop said she and her children Kaylee Sharpe, 15, Owen Wirgau, 17, and Hailey Wirgau, 19, had not sought refuge because repeated tornado warnings throughout the evening had them lulled by a false sense of security. So at 10pm she only had a few moments before “the electricity sort of worked and then it went black.” Then her daughter Kaylee said, “I heard a train… I realized we didn’t have a train here and I knew we were in trouble.” Within moments, the front and back doors were sucked into the house and glass was flying through the air.
Further destruction rained in about 2 minutes. The chimney fell into the house, missing two girls per inch. Son Owen said he and a friend clung to each other as they felt the wind trying to pull them out of the house. Mom Alisha watched their roof disappear. After the tornado passed, they took shelter under mattresses for three hours, as they were unsure if it was over as the power was cut and cell phones were not working.
At dawn, Bishop and his family saw the full extent of the destruction and the curious things that remained, the last of which included their companion turkey Tommy-Girl. “I kept telling Owen to let it go, Tommy Girl is gone,” she said, “But then Owen stood on top of his bus and he spotted her.”
Other quirks appeared. Owen said his bedroom television sat in the backyard, along with the piece of wall it was attached to. “He was always connected.
Bishop said that although they lost most of their possessions in the storm, “We are so much luckier than most of the people over there because they had absolutely nothing left.” She added, “This is one of the reasons I wanted to do this interview; because I wanted everyone to know how much help they need there.
While spending two nights at a nearby motel, her father Richard Bishop made two trips in two days with a 14ft trailer to pick up what they could save and return his daughter and family to his Lakeview home, with their three dogs and the injured pet turkey.
The turkey was taken to a local vet, the Northside Animal Clinic in Bellefontaine, which Bishop said he treated for free.
Bishop said she is not currently planning when she could return to Dawson Springs to take up her job as a meat cutter at a local supermarket. With tears in her eyes, she said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do. My job is there, but I have no place to stay.
Ironically, the last time she visited her Lakeview family was in May 2018, when a series of tornadoes forced them to take cover.
Bishop family’s pet turkey Tommy-Girl was found in rubble after Kentucky tornado
The Tommy-Girl Pet Turkey is reviewed by Kaylee Wirgau and Alisha Bishop.
Richard Bishop drove to Kentucky to bring his daughter, Alisha Bishop, and children, Owen Wirgau and Kaylee Wirgau, back to Ohio after their home was destroyed by a tornado.
Alisha Bishop’s home in Dawson Springs, Ky., Was destroyed by Friday’s tornado.
The writer is a regular contributor to the Sidney Daily News.
