Tornadoes Hit Our Home State

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Sarah [00:00:00] I don't think I even watching all the drone footage and all the photos, I just don't think I'm prepared for what it's going to be like. Because it is, it's so close. But then so far an experience. Because to be here and be fine and know that just 30 minutes away, everything is gone for so many people. 

Sarah [00:00:30] This is Sarah Stewart Holland. 

Beth [00:00:31] And this is Beth Silvers. 

Sarah [00:00:33] Thank you for joining us for Pantsuit Politics. 

Sarah [00:00:49] Thank you for joining us here for another episode. We are going to dedicate today's entire show to the massive tornadoes that hit my area of Kentucky over the weekend. We wanted to establish from the get go that we are both safe. Beth lives in northern Kentucky, but her family lives in western Kentucky. I live in Paducah, which is about 30 minutes from the town you probably saw covered up in news coverage, Mayfield, Kentucky over the weekend. So we are both safe and our homes were unaffected by the weather, but we wanted to thank all of you who reached out and were so concerned for our safety and for our homes, and, you know, just sent all the messages like, we know you live in western Kentucky, we don't know the geography, so we just want to make sure that you're safe, so wanted to establish that from the get go. We're going to talk about my personal experience over the weekend with the weather and the impact of the storm, the size of the storm, what's going on and my region of the country. And then we'll wrap up, as always with what's on our mind Outside Politics, but still related to the real tragedy that hit southwestern Kentucky on Friday. 

Sarah [00:02:18] I thought I would just share what it was like in Paducah over the weekend with the extreme weather. For those of you who live in another part of the country now Beth did you get any, any storms at all? 

Beth [00:02:31] We did. I woke up about two o'clock in the morning, very concerned because my sister and brother in law and niece were driving to our house from Chicago. And so I had to kind of let myself know that they had already made it because maybe they came in after we went to bed. So I heard them enough to realize that they had made it there. They weren't driving in that, but it was loud. The wind was really loud at my house. I said a little prayer to just try to like, comfort myself and center myself and go back to sleep. I was shocked that my kids didn't wake up and we looked around quite a bit the next morning. The wind had ripped through a little tent that's on top of our kids play set. And there were branches and stuff down, but nothing severe. 

Sarah [00:03:11] We started to get the warnings in the afternoon. I was at the post office and it was all the chatter in the the line, which was, of course, long because it's the holiday season and everybody's sending packages. There was a police officer in the line sending something and he was telling everybody like, this is going to be legit, do not mess around with this storm. We're already getting so many warnings through the emergency management system. And so there was that sort of energy in the air all across my town because at that point, we obviously we had no idea what path the storm would take. We knew we were going to be in the path of the extreme weather, but we didn't know how extreme the weather would be or what, what specific path it would take. 

Beth [00:03:50] And hey Sarah, just to give people like a sense of geography, how frequently do you get tornado watches warnings in Paducah? 

Sarah [00:03:58] I mean, pretty frequently in the spring, we don't get them a lot in December. 

Beth [00:04:02] Yeah, that's how it is here, too. I mean, we're kind of used to, OK, everybody go to the basement for a little bit, but this time of year, it’s really bizarre.

Sarah [00:04:11] We had had hail earlier in the week that had woken me up in the middle of a night pounding on the windows. The last really bad tornado warning we had was at the beginning of COVID in March 2020, and we spent an hour or so in our half bathroom and it actually triggered a panic attack, and me, I think it's the first one I've ever had in my life because between the pandemic and the tornado warning. My system just got a little overloaded. And so we're used to in the spring, not this time of year, but we had this crazy influx of weather where it had been cold. And then on Friday, it was like warm, hot, 70 degrees, like a really weird weather moment. I mean, less weird recently, but still weird. So there was a lot of energy. My friends were already like texting. Everybody be careful, Amos decided to spend the night at a friend's house, which I was fine with because they have a basement, I texted her and I was like, I guess at one point, maybe we'll just all sleep over in your basement. She's a really big basement. And so he went over there. We decided, you know, the warning started at four and almost immediately just the weather guys were like, listen to us. This is not anything we've ever seen before, like we, my friends were like sharing videos of the newscast in a group text because in particular our WPC weatherman Trent Rogerson was like 14 years never seen any like thing like this. And we also have sort of a like freelance meteorologist in our area named Beau Dodson, who everybody follows, like he has his own sort of subscription membership you can go that I joined in the spring, usually because that's the only time I really need the the hardcore storm warnings. And so everybody was following him. We I always follow very closely the National Weather Service in Paducah's Twitter feeds. So we have a National Weather Service sort of near our airport. And so I follow them. They as soon as the chatter started, I went there and they were like, OK, again, this is legitimate. Please take this all very seriously. And so, you know, we had dinner. We decided that. So that we wouldn't have to be because we weren't really sure how late at night it was going to go, we knew that the main warning was going to be like 10 or 11 p.m., but we weren't sure for how long. And so we decided to let the boys, Griffin and Felix, who were still here, sleep. Felix slept in my closet over the night because it's a, you know, there's no windows in there and he could sleep and we thought, Well, if we need to move him, at least we don't have to go all the way upstairs, he won't be on the second floor. Griffin slept in the chair in our room, and so like we were, we were like ready to go all night long. But then it became apparent pretty quickly that this, like around 9, 10 o'clock time line is when it was going to be really bad. So we started to watch the path of the storm, and at that sort of evening hour Felix was already asleep, we realized, OK, it's not going to hit Paducah, it's going to go south of us, and it's going to definitely hit Mayfield. Well, I have. As most of you know, I'm a COSA and I have a sibling set that are spread across a town called Wingo, Benton and Mayfield. At one point there was a storm warning that was like literally those were the three towns in the storm warning, and I was like, Oh my God. So I started to really panic about my COSA kids, and so I'm texting with all their placements like constantly. One had left their trailer and gone to a friend's basement. Which brought me enormous comfort. But, you know, three of them are in Mayfield. So I'm just constantly texting with them. I will never forget as long as I live. Beau Dodson sent out a warning that was like If you live in Mayfield, put on a helmet and your running shoes and get under a mattress. And I thought, What is happening? A helmet like I've never seen, you know, I grew up with tornado warnings and storm warnings. I've never seen language like that. I've never seen that level of like be concerned, and I think we already knew like it was this long tailed storm at that point and the tornado was just going for miles and miles and miles. I mean, you think like an average three miles? This one was like two hundred and seventy miles it went for. And so the warnings just kept coming. We knew that it was going to hit Mayfield and then so texting. It goes through Mayfield. So I take I'm texting with my COSA kids placement and they're both, they're like, OK, we're safe. It's over. And so I thought, OK. They are safe, I know, like I know enough about my Mayfield's geography to know where they were located, and I think I just took their like, they're safe is like Mayfield is safe. And you know, we went to bed and we woke up the next morning and realized like Mayfield was not safe. Mayfield was decimated. And then you just get the flow of more and more information and then you realize like, Oh, it wasn't just Mayfield, it was Dawson Springs. It's Marshall County. Marshall County is the main location for the Kentucky Lake. A lot of like where Paducah goes to enjoy Kentucky Lake. So my grandmother owned a house on the lake. That neighborhood is gone. The neighborhood where her Lake House exhibit used to be in Cambridge shores is just gone. And you know the nature. I'm sure you understand this from where you grew up. Like, the nature of this region is it's like very regional. I mean, nowhere here is so big enough. You're not sort of in it all the time with all the surrounding areas like, yeah, I live in Paducah. But like so many of my friends, grew up in Mayfield, so many of their like kids run businesses in Princeton or which also got hit. You know, so many people either have retired to the lake or live at the lake, you know? So the next morning I went to my mom was having a brunch for her former coworkers and somebody they already knew their uncle had passed away in the tornado. And it's just like it was like one thing after the other until it just piled up. And you realize like, Oh my, like, this is not. This is and it's it's the closest I've been to this sensation since the shooting, obviously, because, you know, we had another school shooting at Marshall County, but it didn't consume the news coverage because school shootings don't consume the news coverage like they used to because they're becoming more and more commonplace. But like. Just to see this place that's like your place, like just everywhere to see Mayfield, Mayfield, Mayfield, this town that's like, I don't know, it might as well just be like not necessarily a neighborhood of Paducah, but you know what I mean? Like, it's just this region of the country where I live. Western Kentucky Region, it's just it feels all very like connected and interrelated. And it was so bizarre to hear Mayfield. Even a couple of news broadcasts I was listening to this morning mentioned Paducah and that we weren't in the path and blah blah blah like, it just never becomes less surreal to hear your town and your people and your places just caught up in the news coverage in the way that Mayfield deservedly is. 

Beth [00:11:09] Yeah, Western Kentucky, just to orient everybody. When we talk about counties in Kentucky, it's deceptive. We have so many counties that encompass so few people and places, and so something can sound really distinct in a way that it's not. As Sarah was saying, a lot of people in Kentucky think that Louisville is Western Kentucky, and then not much west of Louisville exists. And there's a there's a huge amount of Kentucky west of Louisville and where I grew up, you know, we drove 30 minutes to get to a grocery store, to get to the church that we attended. I mean, you are really connected to the surrounding regions because we're not talking about major metropolitan centers. You know, we're talking about really small communities that are pretty rural where everybody's fairly spread out. If you have a child who participates in any kind of extracurricular activity, you're going to know everybody and at least four counties surrounding where you live because you're so regularly interacting with them. So it is a pretty small place. My parents live right outside of Owensboro, Kentucky. They were five miles out of the path of the tornado and the impact of the tornado, just five miles out of its path. You know, you'd think about what five miles looks like. You have these places in the path that were decimated and mom and dad lost power several times. They have found lots of debris in their backyard and on the farm around it, you know, just shingles and pieces of metal and stuff like that. But it's this really sort of eerie reminder of how close you were to something absolutely catastrophic, but that that difference of five miles is it's life and death. It's huge. 

Sarah [00:12:57] Yeah. Nicholas had a friend who lives in Princeton. His home was largely spared, but like a picture of his child. I think that was at another home that was decimated was found in, like mid Indiana because the debris was going up like 30,000 feet into the air. And I mean that interconnectedness in many ways is a blessing because what you have is like Paducah is filled now with people, right, people staying with family because a lot of people have family in Paducah in the same way a lot of people in Paducah have family, Mayfield, right? I mean, you have people that are like just connected to that place, either they grew up in Mayfield or, you know, they have they're married into a family or whatever the case may be. And so there's lots of people's homes are filled with people. Our hotels are filled with people. You know, my friend Sarah is from Mayfield, and she spent, you know, days going up there to feed people and bring sort of like mobile food unit so that they, the first responders, have meals. And we had a team from Paducah do the same thing, a local guy named Brian Holman. He's sort of like our local Jose Andre, although I believe Jose Andre is here right now, which is also weird. A blessing, amazing. But just, you know, weird. And so it's just, you know, that interconnectedness in some ways is such a blessing because like. There were areas that were spared like it could have been Paducah, like it just could have been the way that storm was rolling, like we went to an event Saturday night downtown and I told my friends I was like, I just it's like, I almost want to hug the buildings, just be like, I feel like such gratitude for them. It's like, so weird to just look around your downtown and be like, what if it was gone. Because Mayfield's downtown is gone. And so that just, you know that. But I've seen how people from the area can, like, come in, come in and go out and help and offer shelter. And but it's you know. It's just. It's so hard, I have to go up there to to visit my kids this week, and I just I don't think I even watching all the drone footage and all the photos, I just don't think I'm prepared for what it's going to be like. Because it is it's so close. But then so far an experience because to be here and be fine and know that just 30 minutes away everything is gone for so many people. 

Sarah [00:15:34] I wanted to share my personal experience to put some specificity, but let's talk about just the the specifics of the impact on the numbers of this storm. At least 78 people across five states have been confirmed dead. Kentucky took the brunt of this swarm of tornadoes, but they hit many, many other states, including Arkansas, Indiana. There were at least 40 tornadoes reported across nine states between Friday night and early Saturday morning, which of course, is very unusual for December. Kentucky was the worst hit right now. We have 64 confirmed fatalities. We're going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute, but I just think the size of these tornadoes and especially coming at night, which is a particularly dangerous time, is just so hard to take in. 

Beth [00:16:26] The maximum width of the tornado was at least three fourths of a mile, according to the National Weather Service. The National Weather Service in Paducah said that the historically long tornado tracked from K.C. to at least Beaver Dam. The Kentucky Division of Emergency Management indicated that the tornado originated in Arkansas and traveled 220 miles on the ground in Kentucky before ending. 

Sarah [00:16:50] That's what we kept telling. You know, Felix was developing some real storm anxiety and like in an effort to calm him, Nicholas kept saying, Listen, they only they're not on the ground for that long. That's what you have to understand for tornadoes is not they're not on the ground that long and by God, if we didn't just see this tornado, I mean, think about how long it takes to drive two hundred and twenty miles. I just it's so hard to comprehend. 

Beth [00:17:16] So if that information gets confirmed, this will be the longest continuous distance ever traveled by a tornado, an EF3 tornado is one that produces winds of 136 to 165 miles per hour, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. So this was a really unusual storm. I was thinking, Sarah, as all this has been unfolding, you know, a tornado in western Kentucky is a huge part of my family's history. When I was five years old, a tornado ripped through our family farm pretty well, destroyed our barns. I don't know how our house survived. I look back and think, how are we safe in our house when this is what happened to the barns? My grandfather was killed in it. He had been working on a grain bin and literally was blown off the grain bin and died, and I was five years old. I'm sure that I have some memories of this that are, you know, altered by time and my perspective. I can remember the feeling of my dad telling me that my grandfather, who had been fine that morning was just gone. I remember I remember what that felt like when he when he shared that with me and I can remember the feeling of these giant sturdy buildings just being taken down and how how much that alters your perspective. It's just like you were saying about wanting to hug the buildings like it just changes the way you see things when you have witnessed any kind of disaster like this. And I have no idea the strength of the tornado that that is such a big, you know, imprint on my family and what our story is. But I know that it pales in comparison to this. And I can't imagine that life changing impact being spread so wide for a whole community to be gone, you know, when this happened, like you said, it's a it's a tight knit area. And I also remember coming out of my bedroom and our house being filled with people who were there to help. There was a local electrician who spent what I'm sure we're just weeks, maybe months with my dad rebuilding the farm. My parents still talk about him like he is a saint, you know, because of all that time, he dedicated. To think about that having to happen across entire cities, towns in this extremely long path. It's just it's hard to take in. 

Sarah [00:19:57] I was thinking about this a lot. It feels like every specific type of natural disaster has its own, very precise like fear profile, right? You know, I was texting with my friend in California, and she was like, I don't have tornado. We don't have tornadoes. And I'm like, Yeah, we have wildfires. Like, it's a totally different thing. And I think that's what's so hard about this. You know, if you our area obviously has experience with tornadoes, our mascot for our local high school is literally the tornadoes. And our main football rivalry is Mayfield, so I don't know if we're going to talk about that or we're just going to move on, but it feels really weird right now. I'm glad the football season is over. But you know, it's just it's like the other big thing that happened in our community was a flood in the 1930s, and that's so different from a tornado, right? Like, it's just this like, is it slow moving? Is it fast moving? Can you gather the information with your eyes or do you have to trust the experts? Can you survive a flood? Are you underestimating the power of the water? Can you survive a tornado? Are you underestimating the power of the wind and just the the the velocity of this storm? It's just, you know, and it, you know, in the middle of a pandemic, we've spent so much time talking about humans and how we're not great at risk assessment. And I think that's what's so hard about this. Like every area of the country, I think gets it gets its own narrative about the particular threats it faces. Earlier this year, I was reading The Fifth Risk and they were talking. They spent a lot of time on the National Weather Service, which is truly like we don't spend enough time talking about what an amazing service our federal government provides through the National Weather Service. That is our government at work. It's saved lives during this storm. I think that we call it the National Weather Service and it kind of gets lost that like, that's our tax dollars doing that amazing work, gathering all this data that nobody else gathers, and it's free and available to everyone that is so important and powerful. And I'm so grateful for the National Weather Service. And in this book, they were, you know, they spent a lot of time. Talking about that and like how the National Weather Service gets people to take the warnings seriously, they were specifically talking about tornadoes and they said, like all these communities have like stories they tell themselves, like the river slows it down, which is something I've heard my whole life like. We don't often get hit because the weather slows the winter, the the river slows it down. And I thought, Oh my God, like, we have those stories here too. And we tell ourselves, like, you know, we hear tornado warnings not infrequently. I have deliberately slipped through some on more than one occasion. I'm not. I'm just going to be honest about that right now because you lived through enough. It's like, what happens with hurricanes? You're a person who stays and you survive enough and you forget that like, this one could be the one that's different like everybody gets it's a risk, but they talk about in this book, but not everybody understands that it's a risk to them. And so, I mean, I think that's been a constant sort of conversation since specifically with the candle factory in Mayfield that was just wiped out, like why were people still there, why we're not people, why aren't people taking the warning seriously? And I read one of the spokesmen for the factory and he was like, They tell you not to leave. They tell you, don't get in your car, which is true. You're not supposed to get in your car and try to leave. And he was like, When you saw this building, there's nothing in our, you know, experience to think that this building wouldn't still be standing. And so I think that that's what's hard is like we build these narratives over time based on our experience because that's what humans do and the nature of our current climate and sort of the nature of natural disaster sweeping across the country is that we're having a lot of conversations about like, well, this is something we've never seen before. And so when we're building narratives on what's happened before and then we encounter weather events that have never happened. In history like this is where we get these really deadly situations. 

Beth [00:23:54] And it's hard because everybody who's not immediately impacted wants to find a way to make meaning around something that could have been them and wasn't. 

Sarah [00:24:04] Mm-Hmm. 

Beth [00:24:05] There was a tweet that got a lot of traction among people that I care about in Kentucky who were safe, but also had that sense of like it stormed here. Like what? Not safe by much. Truly, all of my people in western Kentucky. Every friend, every family member I reach out to had a near miss situation. They are safe. The people around them or not. I mean, and that's to a person, everyone I've been in touch with. And so this this tweet that got a lot of traction was kind of a I mean, it was not a unique thought, but someone saying like, you know, I would feel sorry for Western Kentucky, except that they keep electing people who don't care about climate change. And I spent a lot of time that Tweet worked on me all weekend at first, like wrote some really righteous sermons about it in my head. But then I thought about how many times over the past week I have had this thought about good friends of mine who have COVID. They did everything right. Like, I've been so angry for my friends who have COVID because I felt like they did everything right. And that's me in that tweet, pretending that there is some way to control a lot of what happens to us as humans. I mean, it's just a version of bad things can happen to good people, right? And I make myself feel better by saying, Well, I'm a good person, so bad things can happen to me as though how you vote on anything is going to affect whether a tornado rips through your town. And I just been trying to, like, sit with the fact that that the message, whether you're in an area that has wildfires or earthquakes or tornadoes or hurricanes or whatever kind of threat you're dealing with. And for all of us around the pandemic is like we can do a lot of things to mitigate harm. We can do a lot of things to prevent certain kinds of harm, but we cannot prevent all harm. And some things that happen like this are just random. It hurts to use that word. But I mean, as somebody who's had my life impacted by a car accident, like some things are just random and they're devastating and you just can't make meaning from it as much as you wish you could. 

Sarah [00:26:16] Yeah, the randomness will take your breath away, especially in a tornado. You know, a flood. An earthquake. A tsunami. So many even wildfires like you see broad areas, take it out, but not Tornado Man. It is like across the street, some people are fine and the next house is gone. It is so random and I think there is this desire, you know, to take meaning or to exhibit some righteousness, to make yourself feel better. I am always struck in these moments, which, you know, I feel like I've lived through at least two directly in my community in my lifetime. Three. If you know, we're not judging it based solely on the size of the media coverage, and it's just, you know. I can't do anything that happened up into the moment the tornado hit, but what I can do is watch how my community responds. And. You know, everywhere I've been, every text message everywhere. People are just like, what can I do? What can I do? What can I do? And it's hard because there's these like phases, I mean, right now, not much, because unless you're a lineman and you want to get a car and drive, then I'm sure they could use you because it's like the downed power lines, the gas. There's just so much like acute triage that has to happen in the area like you couldn't even get into the area, there are people like that were trying to check on houses and stuff and you just couldn't get there because there are so many downed power lines and there's a transmission site that's down. And so there's still so many without power. And so, you know, we're dealing with just like the acute getting people fed, keeping people warm, getting them out of the elements and search and rescue. It's so hard like just this because I think the the way the media coverage works is so in particularly difficult because you have the nation's attention when it's like, we really need your attention and like two months, it's going to be really hard, you know? I think that's what's so heartbreaking. But like just the the level of organization in care and people are like, Just tell me what you need, we'll get it. Like, I had people over to my house for a open house yesterday. I was like, OK, what we're hearing is that the people feel on the ground and hamburgers and buns. And so we filled the back of a car with hamburger and buns and took it, you know, to the people that were feeding the first responders and the victims. And you know, there's just this outpouring of concern. That, like is it doesn't have a lot of places to go yet like, you know, we're we're all donating and buying. But they're just going to need so much physical capacity to clean up the like, the debris and what's left behind. And so I think that's going to be, you know, the work and it's hard to but I'm still so you know. I'm so proud of how the community has responded and the level of organization and the level of concern and just everywhere I went all the time. It's all we could talk about. It's all we could think about. But it's just it's hard because it feels like. You want to do everything you want. You definitely want the help and the attention of people across the country. And you're still a little sort of your hands are tied right now. And I think that sort of makes this even harder. 

Beth [00:29:48] Yeah. Chad, my husband said yesterday, you know, I would get in my truck with a chainsaw and a sleeping bag and go down and help clean up if I thought I wouldn't be in the way right now. But I think right now it's just too early. And I was texting with a friend this morning who's also in Paducah, and he was saying, We're just going to need people after the holiday. We're going to need people after the media has turned its attention away because this is a long project. 

Sarah [00:30:17] Yeah. 

Beth [00:30:18] And the the instant hit is not going to do it here.

Sarah [00:30:23] No. I mean, even, you know, all the donated water bottles and clothing in the world, like we could physically get that stuff out, like just mountains and mountains of former homes and former buildings that it took out the water tower, the giant white water tower is gone. Like, it's just going to be. And that's what they mean. Immediately, the like Mayfield police are like, Please don't come like we cannot. It's a risk right now, and we don't need more like people like we don't need safety risk right now. Like we have to get that. We have to establish like just some baseline safety right now as far as the power lines and the gas lines before we can do stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, we're just we're all already thinking about like, well, what what are these people going to do for Christmas? Like, we can't fill them with toys. Where are they going to take them? And so we're just trying to think about like, well, what can we do? And and it's just it's hard. It's because the level of need is so high. And, you know, in particular, because at least in the spring, you know, the weather is getting warmer, but right now the weather is getting colder and we're going to need to be out there, probably in some unfortunate weather, clearing debris and clearing the town. So it's just it's just it's a particularly heartbreaking time of year to have this happen. 

Beth [00:31:42] And we've talked before about how disasters can have this second wave of people trying to help in ways that that actually strain the resources of the community even further. I'm really grateful that we have in our state leadership someone who's from Western Kentucky, I mean, Governor Bashir, and you can hear it in his voice and his words. This is his home, too. And I think that he will do a very good job to the extent of the power his office has. Trying to help coordinate with local personnel to effectively organize the assistance it's going to be needed in this area. But Sarah, I know you've been thinking a lot about how to give people who want to help some direction about what's actually helpful. And we'll put links in our in our show notes today. But does anything come to mind for you as like if you have a call to action today in your heart to help this area here's what you should do with that. 

Sarah [00:32:32] Well, I think the state has organized a relief fund. They're going to in the beginning cover funerals and then we'll cover the cost of cleanup and recovery. And so, you know, I think they did a good job with those funds during COVID. I trust the administration so that we'll put a link to a WKMS article that gives some other directions. You know, obviously the Kentucky Red Cross, the Kentucky United Way that have been verified. And so we'll give you a list of a bunch of different options. But if you're looking for a relief fund that's definitely verified and trusted, I think that the state run one will be a great place to start. 

Beth [00:33:11] This has also been a tough reminder for me that wherever you are, donating blood makes a huge difference. Just having an adequate supply of blood in any community is really, really important. And if you are in a position where you very much want to help and do something that that is actually helpful, that there is never a blood donation, that that was not a good use of of what you have to offer. 

Sarah [00:33:37] Yeah. 

Sarah [00:33:49] Beth, we wanted to wrap up with talking about how difficult it was to sort of hold all this and move through our normal schedule of weekend activity because life does go on. Life goes on in Mayfield, life goes on in Paducah. Life goes on and Dawson springs. But it was a very weird sensation. 

Beth [00:34:12] It was a weird sensation. You know, so my mom and dad were not in the path, but close to it. My sister, brother in law and niece came to spend the weekend with us. So we were all here together, kind of like, has anybody talked to mom and dad yet? When we woke up Saturday morning and it took a while to get in touch with them because cell service was really bad. Their internet was down. Their power was out for a while. We finally touched base with them. We found out they were totally OK, but that Communication was difficult. And then we had, like this weekend of fun planned. Jane had a violin concert. My sister and brother in law were here to play in the pep band at an alumni game at Xavier University. Chad and I had tickets to a football game. I mean, it was just it was really weird to know this place that I'm from, you know, close by and have lots of friends and family members was hurting in this way, and I'm sure it was even harder for you being right there in it and still being OK and having plans and a schedule. And it's still the holiday season. I mean, it's just it's a lot. 

Sarah [00:35:22] Yeah, it was really weird. We had our like traditional Christmas Symphony concert on Saturday night and we all stood around in our fancy clothes be like, What are we doing here? This is weird so like, you know, and they they talked about it during the concert and we they collected money because again, we're all sort of like, Well, it's not like we can go get our get our chainsaws and go down there right now. They've told us to stay away. It's not helpful. And so, you know, we had our holiday party on Sunday. We collected food, the symphony collected money. That's what we all just donating, donating, donating, organizing, loading, donating, connecting people. OK, well, do you know somebody who knows somebody here just like putting people in touch with this. But I was like at one point I was like, you know, serving eggnog and then getting on my phone to figure out if there's a place in Mayfield where we can serve food to closer to the emergency responders like it just it was weird. It was weird, just constantly being like kind of living in both worlds where, you know, you're like moving through your schedule because you don't really want to cancel and just sit around. But you're like donating, you're buying hamburger buns, you're buying like all this stuff. It's just it was it was weird. It was definitely weird. And it will continue to be weird again. I'm going to have to go out there this week and just to continue to be thinking about like, how do we make the best impact, how do we, you know, I spent a lot of time like washing, packaging blankets to take over there. I'm trying to think like, what furniture can we get to people so that when it's time for them to start like rebuilding? But you don't want to bombard like the services like I spent a lot of time in Venmo, just like, yeah, sure have some money. Look, here you go. But it was, you know, at one point, Nicholas was like, Well, should we cancel our party? Am I to do what? Like, again, get in our  and take our chainsaws like, we're not linemen. I can't do anything right now, like, I don't have those skills. I desperately wish I did. And I am in such admiration for the long hours. The people that like work in the road crews and work for the electric companies are putting in. But it just you feel so powerless if you're not in that particular group. 

Beth [00:37:33] We talk a lot in other contexts about how one of the problems in American civic life right now is that we mistake having an emotion for participation. You know, we think if I get real mad about something, then I am being a citizen engaged in democracy. And I think that these situations kind of remind me that like being really, really sad about this doesn't help anybody. If you're sad to the point that you're changing the course of your life to just be sad, that isn't actually benefiting the people who need good energy and who need help. My, one of my friends who I reached out to you said in response to one of my messages, Hey, let's not wait for another tornado to chat again. Because the last few messages I had had with him were all pretty disaster related. The school shooting in Marshall County, my mom being hospitalized with COVID, I mean, it was just kind of like we were pinging back and forth in emergencies. And it really struck me and makes me think like, no like you need to, you need to have your holiday open house like. I think part of what this calls us to do is go live life and be in the world with other people and nurture your relationships and be thrilled that this didn't happen to you and do what you can to be helpful. And don't try so hard to be helpful that you're actually not helpful. Like just be present with how being a person in the world is hard and has all these factors that you can't control. But it has all this beauty to you and you're meant to have that beauty while you can. And I don't know, is it really touched me when he said that. Because I thought, like, I think that is the lesson to to take right now. Just your heart is with these people because you care about these people, so care about them all the time as fully and as best as you can. 

Sarah [00:39:30] Yeah, I've gotten some feedback that I have a lot of melancholy music on my holiday playlist, but that's because that's like, this is the emotion I felt this time times 100. If the fates allow. That's it, right? If the fates allow, we'll be back here next year, but it'll be different no matter what. And so you just have to be in the moment, be because that's all we've got. That's all we have is the moment in front of us. And I think like in this time of year where we're sort of we're getting reminded all the time of like, this is precious. This is it's like the one time of year when capitalism sort of gives us sends us a decently positive message, which is just family and friends and loved ones and family and friends and loved ones like this is it. This is our precious time together. And so, you know, it makes a moment like this where, you know, like. And I was thinking back to the last sort of the Christmases since I've had children. And how they have been sort of rocked. I had a friend in a really tragic car accident several Christmases ago who ended up losing her life, you know, last year was so intense because of COVID in this feeling like the risk is everywhere. People were sick. People were hurting. And it's just that that reminder that it's fragile, it's so, so fragile, that is. It's hard to hold. But makes whatever you hold along with it that much more precious. Again, thank you so much to all of you for your concern and your donations and your support for my home. For our home state, we appreciate it so much. We will be back with you on Friday with another episode of Pantsuit Politics. Until then, keep it nuanced y'all. 

Beth [00:41:49] Pantsuit Politics is produced by Studio D Podcast Production. Alise Napp is our managing director.

Sarah Maggie Penton is our community engagement manager. Dante Lima is the composer and performer of our theme music. 

Beth Our show is listener-supported. Special thanks to our executive producers. 

Executive Producers (Read their own names)  Martha Bronitsky, Ali Edwards, Janice Elliot, Sarah Greenup, Julie Haller, Helen Handley, Tiffany Hassler, Emily Holladay, Katie Johnson, Katina Zuganelis Kasling, Barry Kaufman, Molly Kohrs.

The Kriebs, Laurie LaDow, Lilly McClure, Jared Minson, Emily Neesley, The Pentons, Tawni Peterson, Tracy Puthoff, Sarah Ralph, Jeremy Sequoia, Katy Stigers, Karin True, Onica Ulveling, Nick and Alysa Vilelli, Amy Whited.

Beth Melinda Johnston, Ashley Thompson, Michelle Wood, Joshua Allen, Morgan McHugh, Nichole Berklas, Paula Bremer, and Tim Miller.

[Outtake]

Sarah [00:42:49] Thank you for joining us. Hello. Thank you for joining. That's going to get my, clearing my throat. Hold on. 

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