PROSPECT, Ky. — On the eve of one of the worst tornado outbreaks in American history, severe storms hit communities on both sides of the Ohio River in Kentucky and Indiana.
"When it was all over, it was cozy and okay in the basement. Then we went upstairs and it wasn't okay anymore," Robert Bert said. After a possible tornado blew off his roof, rain kept falling into his home on Charlock Court in the Estates of Hunting Creek.
An air duct hung in the tree above his insulation-covered yard. He and his wife finished remodeling their home about a year ago.
"Just the way we liked it," Bert said. "And then we were just cleaning up the yard and getting rid of brush and started doing the outside landscaping. Right before this storm I looked over the back and went 'oh it looks so nice and clean now,' well, that's gone."
Gone like the top of his house. The storm was so powerful it took parts of this roof all the way across the street and into their neighbor's front yard.
However, the North Oldham Fire Chief Hewett Brown let WHAS11 know the people living on Charlock Court were safe.
"They're real lucky to be okay," Brown said. "So there were no injuries involved in this. But we have four houses with pretty significant structural damage."
Damage neighbors rolled by to see as they gathered in the street and checked on one another, as LG&E crews worked to restore power. The devastation carried its usual tune, bringing back difficult memories.
"Sounded like a freight train," Carl Matter recalled, thinking back to many more years ago. "I lived on Alta Avenue. My parents house got hit by the '74 tornado. It's pretty messy."
Shattered glass and mangled wood show there's still plenty in the way.
"Got a lot of work to do to get it all cleaned up," Matter said.
Across town, on Foxcroft Road in the Hunting Creek neighborhood, a house is left without a roof and the lawn is littered in debris and insulation.
"Never in my life have I seen something like this," Tom, one of the homeowners in the area, said. "I couldn't even see out my back porch the rain was so hard, I heard sounds like trees falling down."
Tom has been living in the neighborhood for 16 years. Thankfully, his house down the street is unscathed. But, he knew he needed to survey the neighborhood to make sure everyone was okay.
"My next door neighbor checked on me, the fire department checked on me," he said. "Now that I've seen it...I got lucky."
Trees were ripped apart, debris littered the ground, and the roof of a house that was ripped off flew across the street and into another home.
"The roof the came off her house came over his house and broke off windows and stuff and ended on the golf course," said neighbor Rob Bowling. "I live just a few streets this way and a buddy called me from Punta Cana, he's on spring break, I had to stay home, he said a tornado just hit my house do you mind boarding up a few windows...so that's what I'm doing."
Neighbors and dozens of first responders covered the streets, not resting until everyone was proven safe and accounted for.
For Greg Franklin, who works at the Hunting Creek Country Club, these storms also reminded him of a day almost exactly 50 years ago: the Tornado Outbreak of '74.
"I've heard it before but you don't see it you take cover," he said. "You just see it get real black and start raining, we saw trees coming up with the roots, we just jumped up on the tables and stuff. So it made us think about that."
PHOTOS: Storm damage reported across Kentucky, Indiana on April 2, 2024
Phyllis McDonald and her husband immediately took shelter in the basement with their radios, phones and flashlight nearby.
When the area was given the all clear, they took a look at the damage for themselves.
"My husband came in and he said, 'well we lost a branch out of the tree,' so I expected to see a branch in the yard," McDonald said. "I walk out and I see [storm debris] and I think, 'this is more than a branch.'"
Next door, a massive, uprooted tree has blocked the entire road. Another tree is blocking a homeowner's driver down the street.
"I hate that it happened, because the trees are what makes this area so pretty," McDonald said. "But it can happen to anybody."
Thankfully this time, everyone is safe and accounted for. Following what could have been a tragic day, neighbors are left leaning on one another and starting to rebuild.
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