(WLEX) — It has been almost eight months because the December twister outbreak that killed 80 folks in Kentucky. 

Graves County was hit onerous, with an EF4 twister carving a big path of destruction. 

Whereas that catastrophe is completely different from the flooding in jap Kentucky, Graves County’s emergency administration director says the sensation of loss is way the identical.

WLEX-TV’s Leigh Searcy talked with Emergency Administration Director Tracey Warner about her expertise responding to a pure catastrophe. 

“Issues can be coming, it’s going to be overwhelming for them, nevertheless it simply takes time,” Warner says.

She understands that it’s human nature to right away wish to step in and donate objects, however says to let native authorities give you a plan first. That evening in Mayfield, she did not but know the tornado had been on the bottom by means of her complete county.

“We had hundreds of individuals present up, and it was so overwhelming. We could not even take care of the catastrophe, as a result of they created a catastrophe in itself,” Warner says. “Any recommendation that I might have for folks is do not self-deploy. It’s worthwhile to allow them to work out what they want, you already know, and be able to go.”

She says Graves County nonetheless has many leftover donations they plan to take to jap Kentucky when it is time.

“We’re holding off. We’re not going to ship something proper now, as a result of we all know they’re nonetheless getting flooding,” she says.

Warner is aware of that when the preliminary shock of the catastrophe calms down in jap Kentucky, there can be new challenges, like making use of for help when vital paperwork was destroyed with your property.

“We had driver’s license setup. We needed to have like renter, like landlords write a letter saying, ‘Sure, they had been renting from me at this tackle,’ and step exterior the field a bit bit,” she says.

Months later, Graves County remains to be rebuilding.

“I might say we’re not even — we is perhaps at possibly 30%,” she says.

Warner says after a catastrophe the hope is to depart folks and buildings higher than they had been earlier than it.

“Proper now they’re of their emergency response mode of, let’s attempt to save as many lives as we are able to, and that is so vital, you already know, to attempt to do this, after which finally they’re going to get to the stage the place ‘how can we forestall this from ever taking place once more?'” Warner says.

Folks throughout the state are stepping up and serving to out in jap Kentucky. Six Mayfield hearth division personnel headed there this morning.

The state has created a donation fund for restoration efforts.

GoFundMe has additionally created a hub the place people can discover verified fundraising campaigns for the area.