Rural towns were struggling before storms
MARSHALL COUNTY, Ky. — Zane Leith spotted his bathtub 150 feet from what used to be his house, nestled on a bed of pink fiberglass insulation and a jumble of clothes on hangars somehow still hooked to the rod.
He, his wife and their two kids — ages 8 and 3 — had huddled in the white rectangular tub Dec. 10 as a violent EF4 tornado tore through western Kentucky, leveling everything in its path, including his subdivision, the usually tranquil Cambridge Shores.
“All the way to here,” Leith, 36, said Wednesday, pointing to where the bathtub was flung by estimated 190 mph wind speeds, sending him and his family into the air. Leith and other residents in small, rural Kentucky towns devastated by the tornadoes now face the prospect of rebuilding their homes amid overlapping challenges of affordable housing, supply chain crunches and the region’s increasingly unpredictable extreme weather patterns.
Cambridge Shores residents worry communities like theirs could fall further behind. Even before the storm, there were glaring gaps in Marshall County’s infrastructure. As an unincorporated area, the subdivision relies on the county’s 38-person volunteer fire department. Firefighters and other first responders were still struggling with basic cellphone access days after the tornado struck. Emergency managers, meanwhile, lacked access to basic mapping tools.
Unlike like bigger cities like Mayfield, which President Joe Biden toured Wednesday, Cambridge Shores hasn’t made many headlines, despite the widespread destruction. Displaced neighbors have set up residence at a nearby campsite that could be home for months. The ordeal has put the plight of rural communities after severe storms — which climate change could make even more disastrous — back into sharp relief.
“Our little town will never be the same out here,” said Misty Grebner, who co-owns the Moors Marina and Resort, where Cambridge Shores families are now living in cabins. “People have said ‘I’m so glad I live here, our neighbors are taking care of us.’ ”