[KYHAM] Irvington F2 Spotty F3 Tornado

[John Betner]

At 03:00 AM Louisville Time on 146.625 Breckinridge County Meade County Ham
Radio Repeater Myself KG4LHQ started the wide area repeaters net. At that
time the worst of the storms was in the Owensboro area and I continued to
track the storms.....When the storms reached the Tobinsport, Cloverport area
of Perry and Breckinridge Counties a Tornado Warning was issued I continued
with the net with my partner KA4MAP Ron Meade County EM. After the storm
moved out of Cloverport into the Clifton Mills, Irvington area. All Fire
Departments got paged out that a Tornado was on the ground in Irvington and
needs to respond...... All fire departments worked together and also so did
the Ham Radio Operators..........Irvington got hit very hard for what it
is....I am 16 yrs old and I responded with our Volunteer Fire Department
that I am a member of and once we got into the Clifton Mills area there were
trees down and trees that were twisted like rolling up a piece of paper very
good signs of tornado..... I was up all night tracking the storm and plus
responded with the fire department at 04:43 is when we was initially paged
before our central dispatch lost power and went to Emergency Power.........
I finally got back home at 11 AM and the first thing i done was I got on the
ham radio and thanked everyone that was around this morning of all their
hard work and couragous and dedicated persons they are.....Without the help
of the people that checked in I couldn't have done it my self...When our
fire department finally got to Irvington it looked very hard to believe for
a 16 yr old.......I walked around and assessed the damage and families were
hugging and crying and there was nothing I could do about it except to go up
to them and comfort them that everything will be ok and we will make it thru
it..........The community of Irvington really came together. Churches,
Businesses and the community citizens itself that didn't have any damage
left their families to help their fellow neighbors....... All county fire
departments was in Irvington brought their resources and done everything
they could to help everyone......It was really a good feeling to be able to
help people that needed it...... First of all i would like to thank all ham
radio operators that are on doing nets every time there are severe weather
and tries to do what they can with what they have........Second, I would
like to rethank the operators that live in this area that I was working with
before I had to leave with Custer Fire Department........ Finally, I would
like to thank and commend EVERYONE that gets this msg that no matter how bad
or how tramatic the operators even if they aren't ham are always here to
serve anyone that needs it and I commend you......I will definately remember
this day for as long as I live and being 16 yrs old doing an emergency net
all night plus going with the fire department to give just 2 more hands to
help with the clean up efforts I think that shows dedication that we all can
have and if it happened tonight I would definately be out there again
helping in anyway I can......... While talking to someone about ham radio I
actually had one person that listens to .625 on their scanner all the time
and he asked me if I was the net control and I stated to him "Yes" he said
well I listened to u all while I was in bed before the machine went down and
then he got up to put in 146.900 on his scanner and he wouldn't have known
about it if it wasn't for the Ham Radio Operators that was there stressing
the importance of this storm...He said he took shelter with is wife and
their home was destoryed........That was such a good feeling for
me....Becuase I stayed up and tracked these storms that maybe he would have
made it without me but I believe that I and the others on the repeater that
was advising everything saved that families life.......... Once again I
commend everyone that was in the efforts here in Meade, Breckinridge and
Hardin Co. for their hard work and dedication.............


Thank You and 73,
John Betner
Custer Area Volunteer Fire Department
KG4LHQ