n
roulette
The first thing I noticed was pine trees scattered in front yards of homes on the outskirts of the small community of 400. Next, and quite suddenly, I found houses scattered in the front yards of homes  across the street, two doors down  it really didn't matter. This type of thing only happens on TV or in the movies. Be reminded, it happened in Kentucky.
Debris littered each yard and field as I made my way to the heart of town. Two women and a child watched a dozer continue the demolition of the Christian Church, begun some fifteen hours earlier by two eerie funnels.
One of these women, curlers in her graying hair, walked with me for several hundred yards.
"It's not so bad that it couldn't have been worse. One hour earlier and the kids would have still been
in school." She pointed her quivering right hand at the elementary school which had few windows remaining and the roof was on the first floor of the two-story structure.
"One hour later and we'd have all been in church." She turned once again to watch the progress of the dozer.
"Have you seen the trailer park? Why you haven't seen anything until you see it. It's a wonder no one was killed, but they say one's missing (rumor, not fact, and not substantiated by town officials). I wish they'd lift that big blue trailer."
She hurried on while I turned around to see the trailer park. No, I was told to register with the people at the Forestry Department building in the center of town, I'd return to the park.
Inside the Forestry Building, Owen Robinson, district forester, was briefing a newsman from WKYT-TV. I was still uneasy about interrupting the clean-up operations. Rather than ask my own questions I settled for his.
"I could see it comin' over their heads," Robinson said of the first funnel as it sneaked up on the family across the street from his office.
"They was just standin' on the porch watchin' the sky. I yelled get in, and they just barely did."
"We don't know of any fatalities," Robinson continued. "If it had been dark we sure might have had one."
Robinson said the first funnel hit the town about 6:10 pm. "One hit and we went through the center
of it and then the other hit. We got 99 to 100 percent damage on some of these homes." Personal injury was limited though, mainly superficial cuts and scrapes, he said.
What did he think of the cleanup operation?
"The main thing we're trying to do now is get our people in here to help people get working. We're also kinda' waitin' for their insu-ance people to get a look at all damage before we start clean'n up so we can get good estimates."
Robinson's time was up, his workers needed him.
I continued my journey, careful to step high over downed wires. They had no juice, but just the same I was careful.
As I entered the business district, the echoing of chain saws and the squeaking of the tin from barn roofs wrapped around trees, wires and utility poles were the only sounds I heard.
The wreckage from the barn roofs looked like far out sculpting.
But it was the noise that distracted me. As the wind continued to blow, the tin squeaked louder, like an iron gate which needs oiling. Occasionally a piece would free itself and drop to the ground. Even in broad daylight I felt uneasy.
In the center of the business district my nose picked up the odor of pesticides. It was coming from the ruins of Murphy's Farm and Feed Store, said Scott County Judge Charlie Sutton.
(continued pg. 93)
78