Historic planes torn to shreds by EF3 tornado in Kentucky

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Ali Reid is in London, Kentucky, where recovery is underway after an EF3 tornado tore through the region. Many historic planes at the city's airport were destroyed by the tornado.

Transcript

00:00The outbreak has already caused between nine to 11 billion dollars in damage at staggering price

00:06for a disaster that's claimed at least 28 lives. And with saturated ground and weakened trees,

00:12even more damage will unfold as storms move east today. Our live coverage continues right now

00:18with Allie Reed. She joins us live from London, Kentucky. Allie, you shared so much information

00:23earlier on the show and we know there's so much more to share.

00:25Right. And this morning, we're live from the London Corbyn Airport, where this area looks more

00:33like a demolition site than an actual airfield. And we're getting you an up close and personal

00:38perspective of what some of these planes look like this morning. Single engine planes, Cessna planes,

00:44you name it, they are torn up just like this one. And this really gives you a very good visual

00:51representation of how fast and destructive this EF3 tornado was, uplifting planes just like this

01:00one. And again, all across this area, if you take a look around us here, you'll see twisted metal

01:05and then those airplane wreckage all around us here. And not only was the airport severely damaged

01:12because of Friday's tornado, but if you look in the distance, you'll also notice that neighboring

01:16neighborhoods also severely impacted here. It is clear, and you're going to see from this drone

01:22footage now, the airport took a direct hit here. A number of major hangars were destroyed in the

01:28process and single engine planes, again, now sit scattered and mangled across the tarmac here.

01:34One of the hardest losses came from a group that was in town flying T-34 aircraft.

01:39They had traveled here for formation training. Seven of their vintage planes were destroyed,

01:46many of them historic and one of a kind. On top of all of that, the storm knocked out runway

01:51lighting, making night operations impossible for right now. But the damage here is more than just

01:56physical. It's personal, too. Those who built this place up over decades watched it disappear in

02:02seconds.

02:04I mean, you just sit there and you think, well, it took us 30 years to get

02:07this many buildings gathered up and everything working, and it was all wiped out in about 30

02:12seconds. The subdivision just on the other side over here, they had a bunch of fatalities

02:19in that subdivision, and a lot of the stuff that we've been cleaning up over here came from the

02:25subdivision. Well, it's pretty heartbreaking, really, because we just, we were pretty proud of what we

02:30had, and we spent a lot of time trying to make it that way, and so we'll just have to start fighting

02:36our way back. It's all I know.

02:41Despite the setbacks, there are early signs of progress. The runway has somewhat reopened,

02:46but only for VFR daylight traffic. The airport has also become a central hub for recovery.

02:51The London Police Department is using it as a staging area for emergency crews and a temporary

02:55medical clinic that has been set off offering tetanus shots and basic care to those injured

03:01or helping in the cleanup effort. Again, we bring you back live. We were talking about some of those

03:06T-34 aircraft. Here they are right here in the airfield to give you a good perspective. Again,

03:12some of them just showing you the sheer magnitude of this EF-3 tornado ripping through this town here.

03:19Really, really incredible stuff to see. So devastating for the people in this community. Again,

03:25many people using this airport. I mentioned it earlier just to give you a perspective on location here.

03:30For those of you who don't know where London, Kentucky is, we are halfway in between Knoxville,

03:35Tennessee, and Lexington, Kentucky. It's a big area for what it's worth here in the Kentucky area,

03:41but certainly not a major city by any means. So getting in and out of this area is very difficult.

03:45Losing this airport here and as much damage as we've seen is a hard hit for this community.

03:51And in the next time that I check in with you guys in about an hour from now,

03:55we're going to bring you to some of those neighborhoods on the outskirts of the airport

03:58here where that damage, again, so significant, people losing everything. And the cleanup efforts

04:05continue into today. That is going to continue for weeks, months, and years on end, guys.

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