We donate cash to help Breeana and her family to settle and pay down payment for a house. With tornado sirens wailing, Breeana Glisson wrapped her daughter, 2, and son, 4, in her arms in her bed — the most interior part of her home — to ride out the storm. The roof collapsed, crushing her right arm.
“It’s insane. I can’t believe that me and my kids are OK,” Glisson said, standing amid the concrete and wood rubble that was her now completely devastated neighborhood. “I can’t believe that there’s no broken bones on my children. It’s crazy.”
Deadly tornadoes demolish more than 1,000 homes, claiming lives and livelihoods in several states.
Among the some 30 tornadoes reported in eight states Friday night, at least four tore through Kentucky, destroying whole towns. About 75% of Dawson Springs was wiped out, according to Mayor Chris Smiley. More than 100 people of the town’s some 2,500 have been reported missing, said Nick Bailey, director of emergency management in the county.
And “hundreds and hundreds” of those who survived no longer have a home, Bailey said.
Glisson is a stay-at-home mom, with two children who need her full-time attention. Her son is severely autistic and has a long list of other diagnoses, she said. Along with friends and volunteers, she was still searching the rubble Sunday for his medication, which he desperately needs to sleep.
“He takes it every single night to go to sleep. He has sleep disorders. And if he doesn’t have the medicine, he won’t sleep. It’s a nightmare,” Glisson said, her voice breaking. “I’m telling you it is a nightmare. Nobody can sleep if my son’s crying all night.”