This weekend marks one year since a deadly tornado outbreak ripped across the Midwest and Southeast regions of the U.S.. Kentucky was one of the states in its path.

Our Toby Gibbs is back with a look back on the devastation it caused.

On May 16th, 2025, a deadly nighttime tornado tore across three counties in Kentucky, hitting Russell County first before moving into Pulaski County.

I have not seen anything like this in Somerset.

Things going up, people screaming, stuff shattered and Transformers blowing.

And it was the scariest thing in my life.

The tornado ripped right through our primary commercial corridor, and then some damage on the east as it was going to London.

In Laurel County.

The tornado struck Laurel County at EF4 strength with estimated winds of 170mph.

We could hear it, and it was like nothing we had heard ever before.

I just remember texting my kids, you know, in a group text saying it's going to be a direct hit.

You know, I could hear it coming.

And I love you, mom.

You know, thinking that might be the last communication I had with them.

The National Weather Service reports the tornado stayed on the ground for almost an hour and a half, leaving a path of destruction nearly a mile wide that was visible from space.

It was one of the strongest tornadoes ever recorded in the area.

It was also the deadliest of the 19 deaths.

17 were in Laurel County, the largest number of fatalities occurring in the Sunshine Hill community near London City limits.

There's a lot of devastation.

You know, some people, lost a little.

Some people lost everything.

And unfortunately, a lot of people lost their lives.

The tornado caused catastrophic damage, destroying or damaging more than 1500 homes and hundreds of businesses and causing almost $6 billion in damage.

I've never seen any damage like this before.

This is beyond belief.

It's shocking.

You don't know what to do.

You don't know when to do it.

Catastrophic.

It's been an all hands on deck.

Operation from from that point forward.

The state making a federal disaster declaration as help poured into the affected communities.

People just start showing up at trailers.

We had a line of people of probably 15 to 20 people helping us.

We didn't really have to ask for anything.

People just showed up.

As we recover and people rebuild.

You know, there are those who who've lost their lives and families who definitely need prayer.

And, you know, they need healing.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Toby Gibbs.

Thank you again, Toby.

Slate Hill Baptist Church in London, Kentucky, was one of the buildings severely damaged by the tornado.

A staple of the church was actually blown back into the roof and then it pierced through the sanctuary.

One year later, church leaders say the building and its congregation wouldn't have recovered without the help from the community.

And when I pop the little healed arm of the park while it was this disaster, God.

For I can see where the steeple should be.

And there's no steeple, there's no roof, there's nothing.

And it was just absolutely amazing how much damage was done.

I mean, it was trees in the road, trees in the parking lot.

A front door was blown open.

I didn't think we'd ever get it back.

I thought I would say it's been here a long time, but it's gone now.

But but amazingly, it's it's back.

We're up and still got work to do, but it's it looks a whole lot better than it did.

Fortunately, nobody in the church was was greatly impacted.

You know, the loss of life or anything.

There's a little damage to some property, but not much.

But we had one member.

His mom lived in Sunshine Hills and she got killed in a tornado.

But it's people were down.

You needed encouragement.

And so we need get together and just feel like there was still a community, was still, uplift each other.

And that day, actually, there was people stopping by, just individuals volunteering to help.

But we told them to go on sunshine.

He'll see if you can help them in the house.

What we need is going to take a long time and those people need help right now.

Trace Creek Construction is ones that did.

They're out of Lansberg.

I think Northern Kentucky, they're the ones that actually, did the construction.

They were amazing.

They were absolutely amazing.

They got tons of donations and stuff to give to us where we come out.

You know, we didn't have to spend anything.

They took care of everything for us.

We had donations come from all over the place.

And and I actually where the pastor works now locals donate generators, wheelbarrows and shovels and stuff like that.

And so we've we've been blessed to have a lot of help.

A lot of help.

Yeah, I believe it was last like Sunday and ours was the first service we had.

And we we still got things we need to do a little bit.

But it's it's amazing how much work goes into actually getting it cleaned up.

And I know there's a lot of areas.

It's still well, you can see in the park there's still cleaning, but we'll we'll get there.

Although the building was damaged heavily during the storm, the church says none of the cemetery was affected.

Besides, some fallen headstones and families were able to visit their loved ones the following Memorial Day without incident.