Kentucky tornado wreaks havoc around Bowling Green, leaving 12 dead, wiping out buildings

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – An alarm rang out from what once was a massive building off Interstate 65 Saturday morning. A tornado had passed through hours before, and in its wake, it had left TMS Automotive – a 100,000-square-foot facility – leveled and nearly unrecognizable.

Warped roofing sat on pavement, concrete walls leaned at angles and muddied insulation was littered about. A semi-truck was on its side, and owner Fuji Avdic estimated it had been thrown about 100 yards.

Avdic, who owns the TMS Automotive facility, said he was in shock as he assessed the damage and began to take inventory. He woke up about 4:30 a.m. to texts and calls.

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“They’re like, ‘The building’s completely gone.’ And there’s no way I would’ve believed a building this size could’ve just been gone,” he said, as the alarm continued to sound.

Tornadoes swept through multiple U.S. states Friday night and Saturday morning, leaving devastation in communities like Bowling Green, which is located in Warren County and is the third-largest city in the state. According to the county coroner, there were 12 storm-related deaths reported by Sunday morning.

The National Weather Service in Louisville estimated the tornado's speed in Bowling Green at 150 mph., and Gov. Andy Beshear said the death toll from the storms, which hit Mayfield and other western Kentucky communities, would exceed 100 people.

A fire was reported at the Corvette plant in town and Western Kentucky University, located in Bowling Green, canceled its winter commencement; University President Timothy Caboni said a close relative of a student had been killed.

Warren County Public Schools canceled classes for Monday and Tuesday, district spokeswoman Lauren Thurmond told The Courier Journal.

Bowling Green resident Alison Taylor spent Friday evening watching the news and looking outside. She likened it to an ominous fantasy film: “The sky was a real eerie shade of green.”

By the early hours of the morning, towns on Interstate 65, like Smiths Grove and Park City had lost power, as had most of Bowling Green. Downed power lines on main roads interrupted travel patterns and stop lights weren’t working, creating traffic jams. Many businesses were out of power and closed, and the single Shell gas station that was open was packed with motorists.

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Jeff Grinstead, the division manager of a different Shell and a Which Which sandwich shop, got to his business at 3 a.m. to survey the damage and was there through the morning. The Which Which façade was damaged, the top of the Shell station was almost entirely wiped out and a storage shed had been turned upside-down.

Grinstead, a Bowling Green native, he said he’d never seen such damage.

“It’ll take several weeks to put it back together. We’ll have to redo the whole canopy,” he said over the noise of a backhoe dragging a high-rise sign off a main thoroughfare.

Parts of Bowling Green, including the US-31 bypass and some residential areas, were absolutely devastated. Other parts, including near Western Kentucky's campus and downtown were relatively unaffected, although there was still evidence of the damage – a trash can in a front yard, upturned from the wind, or discussion in a coffee shop of damaged apartment complexes.

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Kaci and Elliot Blanton and their 3-year-old twin boys lost power overnight, but were among those who weren’t affected too terribly. Branches were down outside their home, but the building had no structural damage.

Still, the storm's consequences were felt as they heard of deaths, destruction to residences, and to restaurants where they’d met and began dating 10 years prior.

“That’s where we started our relationship and, it’s not there anymore – and it was yesterday. That’s what’s so bizarre,” Kaci Blanton said.

Hayes Gardner can be reached at hgardner@gannett.com; Twitter: @HayesGardner.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky tornadoes: Parts of Bowling Green devastated by tornado