SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Powerful storms swept through several states last night, with much of the worst damage concentrated in Missouri and Kentucky. Five people died in Missouri. St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer called the devastation, quote, "truly tremendous" and said an estimated 5,000 buildings were impacted. And in Kentucky, the numbers are even worse. Governor Andy Beshear confirmed at least 18 people are dead but has warned that number may grow. Many people are still unaccounted for as relief efforts continue. Laurel County, south of Lexington, was one of the hardest hit areas. Reporter John McGary from member station WEKU is there and joins us. Hi, John.

JOHN MCGARY, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.

DETROW: Where are you, and what have you seen so far?

MCGARY: I'm in London, Kentucky, and that is a city with a population of maybe 7,500 in the county of Laurel. It's the county seat of Laurel. And what happened here last night is, you know, cliche perhaps, but devastation. And it's sort of chaotic. In some areas that are torn apart, you know, a block away, everything is fine. And today is a nice sunny day, and it's surreal. That'd be another way to describe it.

DETROW: Yeah.

MCGARY: Well, I talked to the Laurel County sheriff, a gentleman named John Root, and he's been in law enforcement, he says, for 40 years. He's 59 years old. He's lived in this area his entire life, and this is how he described what he saw.

JOHN ROOT: We've been throughout the county at these sites, and it's a lot of damage, a lot of heartbreak. I mean, houses completely gone, vehicles upside down, pets running here and there and just chaos, just to be honest with you, sir.

DETROW: And this is the latest and just a really bad stretch of weather in Kentucky. You've had historic flooding in February and April, now these storms. What is the National Weather Service saying about what has caused this?

MCGARY: You know, I spoke with a meteorologist in the Jackson office in eastern Kentucky a few minutes ago. And he said, we haven't officially declared it a tornado, but it was a tornado. He says, damage scars from satellite images taken by the NASA Terra satellite show this tornado went at least 50 miles, probably further. And you're right, Kentucky has had a terrible amount of bad luck with weather 'cause you go back to 2021 and the western Kentucky tornado that devastated several communities and killed 57 people.

DETROW: You know, one of the questions here was whether the local forecast office in Jackson, Kentucky, was fully staffed, whether that played a role in the warnings that went out. What is the National Weather Service said about that?

MCGARY: Well, meteorologist Christian Cassell, with the National Weather Service Office in Jackson, says they were fully staffed overnight. As you mentioned, that office does serve Somerset and London, much of eastern Kentucky. Of course, the cuts to the National Weather Service by the Trump administration have resulted in overnight staffing shortages at some National Weather Service offices. And The New York Times reported earlier this week that Federal Cuts, resulted in staffing cutbacks at the Jackson office.

Now, I've reached out to NOAA on this, and they wouldn't answer the question of, how many people have you let go. But Cassell told us that normally on quiet weather nights, they're closed because of staffing issues from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. But he says they bring in additional staff anytime they're expecting extreme weather. So probably some more questions to be answered on that front.

DETROW: Yeah.

MCGARY: And the office's website does list the meteorologist-in-charge position as vacant.

DETROW: Meanwhile, the day after a storm, people are just trying to assess how bad things are. They're looking for survivors, trying to clean up. How are relief efforts going from what you can see?

MCGARY: Yeah, the relief efforts are going on in at least two sites here in London. And at the second I visited, South Laurel High School, Heather Lynn, who helped organize massive donations, spoke about the community pulling together.

HEATHER LYNN: We are a very tight-knit community, and when something goes wrong, we all pull together as one, and we always build back.

MCGARY: So they're going to be set up for several days, no doubt, as people come to get food and perhaps a place to sleep. It's a mess.

DETROW: That is John McGary from WEKU covering the deadly storms in Kentucky. Thank you so much.

MCGARY: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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