Pastor, wife were inside 100-year-old Kentucky church as it was destroyed by a tornado

THE CROW FLIES FROM WHERE THAT TORNADO HIT THE CANDLE FACTORY AND TAKE AOO LK BEHDIN ME AT THIS BUILDING. IT'’ BEEN FLATTENED JUST LIKE THAT CANDLE FACTORY BECAUSE IT WAS IN THE PATH. OF THAT TORNADO, BUT EVEN FOR FOLKS WHO STILL HAVE THEIR HOME STANDING MANY OF TMHE HAVE TO LEAVE BECAUSE THERE’S NO WATER. THERE’S NO POWER AND MANY OF THEM ARE MOURNING THE LOSS OF A LOVED ONE. I’VEAD H A LOT OF PEOPLE TELL ME TODAY THAT THIS HAS BEEN ONE OF THE TOUGHEST DAYS OF THEIR LIVES. WE HAD THE AT TIMES CRAWL OVER CASUALTIES TO GET TO LIVE CTVIIMS TO GET THEM OUT OFFICIALS SAY THERE WERE 110 PEOPLE WORKING INSIDE THE MAYFIELD CONSUMER PRODUCTS CANDLE FACTORY WHEN THE TNADOOR STRUCK LATE FRIDAY NIGHT 40 HAD BEEN RESCUED BY SATURDAY MORNING. THEER WAS A STEADY FWLO OF WALKING WOUNDED RESCUES WE HAVE BEEN WORKING. TIRELESSLY THROUGH THE NIGHT FIRST RESPONDERS AND OTHERS FROM ACROSSHE T STATE POURED INTO HELP BY THE TIME GOVERNOR ANDY BASHIR VISITED THE SITE HEAVY EQUIPMENT WAS BEING USED TO PULL AWAY DEBRIS INCLUDING ENTIRE CARS DEPOSITED ON TOP OF THE WRECKAGE. WE’RE GONNA LOSE A LOT OF LIVES. AND THAT FACILITY AND I PRAY THAT THERE WILL BE ATHERNO RESCUE. I PRAY THEY’LL BE ANOTHER ONER O TWO,UT B IT’S A VERY DIRE SITUATION AT THIS POINT. THE DAMEAG WAS ALSOEV SERE ELSEWHERE IN TOWN WHERE THE TORNADO TRAVELED AFTER HITTING. THE FACTORY VOLUNTEERS WENT DOOR-TO-DOOR TO CHECK ON RESIDENTS. VERNON EVANS LIVES IN THIS APARTMENT COMPLEX. IT WAS LIKE A TRAIN WAS COMING THROUGH YOUR LIVING ROOM AFTERWARD. HE CHECKED ON HIS NEIGHBORS AND FOUND A WOMAN SITTING IN TSHI CHAIR CRYING HER ROOF. NO LONGER ABOVE HER HEAD. ME SHEAI SD VARNISH. HE SDAI PLEASE DON’T DROP ME. I PICKED HER UP AND TOLD HER OUT OFER H HOUSE, ROBERT MILLER AND HIS ROOMMATES HID IN A CLOSET THE WHOLE CLOSETTA SRTED SHAKING MY HOUSE WAS SHAKING I COULDN’T STOP PRAYING MAN. I WAS JUST PRAYING THE ENTIRE TIME THI PIECES OF WOOD PIERCED THE CLOSET, BUT THEY WERE PROTECTED BY MATTRESSES. THEY PULLED INSIDE OF IT MILLER’S ROOMMATE ERECTED THIS AMERICAN FLAG ON TOP OF THEIR ROOFLESS BUILDING. IT’S BECSEAU PEOPLE HOPE LIKE EVERY MAJOR DISASTER, PEOPLE SEE THAT IS SIGNED UP OKAY DN OWAND ESPECIALLY, KENTUCKY. DUCKY AIN’T GONNA FLAL BECAUSE OF A TORNADO HIDDEN. NOW THERE’S NOT NEARLY AS MUCH ACVITITY HERE IN THE CENTRAL PART OF MAYFIELD AS THERE WAS EARLIER TODAY. OF COURSE,HERE T IS A SEVEN PM CURFEW HERE IN CENTRAL TIME AND EARLRIE TODAY YOU HAD ONLOOKERS DRIVING AROUND CLOGGING THE STREETS Y HADOU VOLUNTEERS WHO WERE COMING OUT TO HELP CLEAN UP OR HAND OUT FOOD AND WERAT. AND OF COURSE YOU HAD RESIDENTS WHO WERE DOWN HERE TRYING TO SALVE AGWHAT WAS LEFT OF THE WRECKAGE OF THEIR BUSINESS. IS IN HOME

'We will come back': Pastor, wife were inside 100-year-old Kentucky church as it was destroyed by a tornado

The pastor, who had taken shelter in a closet, said when the storm had passed he looked up and saw the sky.

Updated: 10:19 AM EST Dec 14, 2021

Video above: Tornado damage in Mayfield, KentuckyNestled in the heart of downtown, the Mayfield First United Methodist Church in Graves County, Kentucky, was in the direct path of Friday night's tornado. The sanctuary is now a jumbled mess of bricks, pews and organ pipes.As significant as the damage is, Pastor Joey Reed told sister station WLKY he knew it could have been worse."I can tell you where everyone sat, Sunday to Sunday and looking from here, imagining their faces in those pews that’s exactly what I think,” he said, saying he was grateful the disaster struck at a time when there were no services and no church members inside.The only ones at the church, in fact, were the pastor and his wife, who thought the 100-year-old building would be a good place to wait out the storm. The pair rushed into a closet when they realized the storm was directly over them. "We heard furniture in the foyer bouncing around and then we felt fresh air under the closet doors and we realized it was open to the elements somehow," Reed said.Help victims of the tornado by making a donation here.Once the storm passed, his phone rang. A friend in the ministry had called to check in on him. "I put it on speaker, so my wife could hear, and he said a prayer of thanksgiving that we were OK. And after he finished praying I said 'Rob I got to go, I don't know how bad the damage is' and I looked up and realized I was looking at the sky," Reed said.The church had barely survived, but it was still standing. On Monday, for the first time, church members returned to salvage what they could. That act, according to the pastor, was a start. "We will come back from this, I don't know how we will rebuild but that doesn't matter as much as the mission and ministry of the church rebuilding and that's what we're aiming for," he said.Mayfield First United Methodist Church did meet Sunday, thanks to another local congregation welcoming them in and allowing Reed to join in their services. Multiple churches in Mayfield and throughout the area have offered the same in the weeks and months ahead.

GRAVES COUNTY, Ky. —

Video above: Tornado damage in Mayfield, Kentucky

Nestled in the heart of downtown, the Mayfield First United Methodist Church in Graves County, Kentucky, was in the direct path of Friday night's tornado. The sanctuary is now a jumbled mess of bricks, pews and organ pipes.

As significant as the damage is, Pastor Joey Reed told sister station WLKY he knew it could have been worse.

"I can tell you where everyone sat, Sunday to Sunday and looking from here, imagining their faces in those pews that’s exactly what I think,” he said, saying he was grateful the disaster struck at a time when there were no services and no church members inside.

The only ones at the church, in fact, were the pastor and his wife, who thought the 100-year-old building would be a good place to wait out the storm. The pair rushed into a closet when they realized the storm was directly over them.

"We heard furniture in the foyer bouncing around and then we felt fresh air under the closet doors and we realized it was open to the elements somehow," Reed said.

Help victims of the tornado by making a donation here.

Once the storm passed, his phone rang. A friend in the ministry had called to check in on him.

"I put it on speaker, so my wife could hear, and he said a prayer of thanksgiving that we were OK. And after he finished praying I said 'Rob I got to go, I don't know how bad the damage is' and I looked up and realized I was looking at the sky," Reed said.

The church had barely survived, but it was still standing. On Monday, for the first time, church members returned to salvage what they could.

That act, according to the pastor, was a start.

"We will come back from this, I don't know how we will rebuild but that doesn't matter as much as the mission and ministry of the church rebuilding and that's what we're aiming for," he said.

Mayfield First United Methodist Church did meet Sunday, thanks to another local congregation welcoming them in and allowing Reed to join in their services.

Multiple churches in Mayfield and throughout the area have offered the same in the weeks and months ahead.