MAYFIELD, Ky. — A week and a day after a tornado ripped through Mayfield, more work than officials thought possible has already been done.
Getting here wasn't an easy process, though.
"It's been a pretty tough seven days, but it's been a surprisingly productive and energetic seven days for us," David Elliott, Kentucky Emergency Management Area 1 Commander, said.
It hasn't been easy for Elliott – a resident of Mayfield – or the rest of the city. The tornado may have ripped through their homes, but it hasn't broken them.
"Places all my life I've known, I look and I gotta ask myself where exactly am I at," he said.
The storm did damage Mayfield's infrastructure, though. Basic things like utilities were down for much of the past week.
"You've got blocks and blocks where not only has all of the electrical infrastructure been taken out, but all of the businesses and homes have been taken out," Keith Todd, Public Information Officer for the Emergency Operations Center, said.
Thankfully, the majority is back on. As of Sunday afternoon, the Mayfield Electric System is reporting 3,385 who have had power restored, and 1,675 who still have no power.
250 homes have been damaged so bad that power can't be ran to them.
"In some cases, even if they rebuild the system back to those places, there will be no customers there for a very long time," Todd said. "So that is going to be a long term project for the electrical system."
It's a long road to recovery in Mayfield, but this helps. Now they can focus on clearing the damage.
Elliott knows his hometown will rebuild, no matter how long it takes.
"We're where we have a lot of confidence in the future, we have confidence in the resources we have, we're gonna get through this thing," he said. "We just gotta work hard, and that's what we're gonna do. We're getting a lot of help and we're happy and grateful for that."
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