‘The trauma just seeps into your skin.’ Kentucky governor visits devastated Bremen

Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday visited families in the small Kentucky city of Bremen after a historically-long tornado tore through the town and killed 11 people.

Bremen was in the path of the reported 227-mile tornado which stretched at least three-quarters of a mile wide and produced maximum wind speeds ranging anywhere from 158 to 206 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service. The tornado hit the city around 11 p.m. A local judge and a five-month-old child were among the 11 killed.

Beshear, while in Bremen Tuesday, said he “can’t imagine” dealing with 11 deaths in a city that small.

“The trauma just seeps into your skin,” he said.

He said his uncle, Ed Miller, had family members in Bremen who died. Beshear said he’s “never seen a state more united” and pledged the state government’s support as Bremen begins to rebuild.

“Our commitment is to help in every single way that we can find,” he said. “To help those that lost, to help those rebuild. And I know we’ve got a lot of groups that are in town helping out that’ll be here for months. Your state’s going to be here for years to make sure we get every single person, every single family back up on their feet.”

Before rebuilding, many still had cleaning up to do. Many homes had lost walls or roofs, and others had been completely wiped out.

Beshear walked and rode along a Bremen road lined with destroyed homes. Some of the homes Beshear passed had been completely blown off their foundation, leaving just a concrete slab and rubble. Local officials said many of the old homes in the town didn’t have basements.

People along the road used chainsaws and bobcats in efforts to clear out the debris. Bremen Mayor Allen Miller said he didn’t “have a good count yet” on how many homes had been destroyed.

Beshear also visited Church Street Church, which had holes blown into the roof. He met with the pastor and families while there.

“I look forward to coming back,” Beshear told residents.

Beshear said the state was still working to identify what problems residents were facing. The damage across Kentucky was in the “hundreds of millions of dollars, at least,” Beshear said.

“We want to hear about every single challenge you’re facing,” he said. “If there is anything we can do, we’ll do it, and if not we’ll find somebody who’ll get it done.”

Officials in multiple counties, including Muhlenberg County, said the damage done by the weekend’s tornadoes was worse than any other natural disaster they’d seen before.

“I wish I could tell you why in two years we’ve had a pandemic, we’ve had historic flooding, we’ve had an ice storm, second worst in our history, and now we have this, which is going to be the worst tornado disaster we’ve ever seen,” Beshear said.

Tornado changed landscape of tiny Bremen, KY. It will take ‘months, maybe years’ to recover.