By Gabriella Borter

MAYFIELD. KY. (Reuters). Rick Foley closely tracked the storm system until Friday night’s power outage. He used radar and television news to keep track of it. His house in Mayfield (Kentucky) went completely dark. He could only wait and watch. He finally heard the sound of thunder.

“My ears popped, and debris started coming through the doorway and I just dropped down on my knees, covered my head, and it was gone in 30 seconds,” the 70-year-old retired boat carpenter said of the moment one of the most powerful tornados in Kentucky history slammed into his home.

It took less than one minute for the façade of the house to be completely removed, leaving only his fireplace and surrounding rubble.

Foley was stunned and had no other choice but to walk to his bedroom. He was shocked to discover a framing oil painting of Mary Ellen Foley’s late wife on the ground. It showed the randomness of destruction. Foley stated, “She died at 38 years old in childbirth.” He began to tear up.

The wall of his bedroom was blown to pieces, exposing the entire room to the street. He slept in bed for the remainder of the night. The roof above was there to protect him from the rain.

“I kept hearing noises in the debris, hoping it was my cats,” he said. However, the cats never returned to their home.

Andy Beshear of Kentucky said that tornadoes on Friday night in the U.S. Midwest killed dozens and injured people.

Like Foley, Mayfield residents received television news alerts about the approaching storm. Many of the survivors said that they could not defend their homes against the sheer power it exerted on Friday night.

WPSD-TV, an NBC affiliate in Paducah (Ky.), preempted normal programming at 7:30 p.m. Meteorologists were on-air live for five hours, issuing highly targeted alerts during the storm’s closing in. Also, the warnings went out on social media and to mobile phone users of the station’s apps.

Bill Evans, station manager at Reuters told Reuters via telephone that he couldn’t count the number of emails and people he received in which he said: “You saved lives tonight.”

A series of increasing social media alerts was also issued by the Paducah National Weather Service office. A Twitter post at 9:03 PM (NYSE: ) warns of possible tornadoes affecting Mayfield around 9:30. The tweet stated at 9:27: “TORNADO EMERGENCY IN MAYFIELD.” A VIOLENT TORNADO IS MOVING INTO MAYFIELD. Get Shelter Now!

PANIC ATTACK

Even though warnings were made, residents found no place to flee the twister’s deadly forces.

Laurie Lopez (53), received an alert from her cell phone that advised to get cover in the event of an incoming tornado at 9:06 pm. Her daughter, 19, and the two huskies she shared with her took shelter in the corridor between her kitchen and bedroom.

“We got down in the hallway and it wasn’t 20 minutes before our whole house started shaking. She was screaming, she went into a panic attack,” Lopez said of her daughter.

“We heard the rumbling and the whole house started shaking,” she said.

Lopez’s front two-story home appeared to have collapsed on Sunday. Part of its roof fell onto Lopez’s front yard. Lopez’s car had been buried under the debris pile in front of the old house.

Timothy McDill fled the basement to escape the approaching storm with his family when he heard about it. He tethered his family, including himself and his two children, to the drainpipe with a flagpole rope. After that, they just sat and waited.

“They were troopers. McDill spoke highly of his grandchildren 12 and 14. McDill said that McDill’s grandchildren, 12 and 14, didn’t cry as much. “Me (and my mistress) were the ones crying all the time. “We were afraid we would lose our children, but they didn’t see that.

Marty Janes (59) and Theresa Janes (69), were about to go to bed Friday night when Marty went to the toilet.

“I just stepped out of the bathroom to go back to the bedroom and the roof came in, walls came in, there was glass flying everywhere.”

Janes ducked under his dining room table and was “bleeding all over,” he said. His wife and he were shouting at each other across the room, but could not get to one another.

Janes was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He was not injured.

Janes sat next to the dilapidated home as volunteers took his possessions out to make it ready for demolition. The walls and roof were gone.

In the entrance to the former dining room, there were bloody handprints from Janes who had attempted to go back into the bedroom and reach his wife the night before.

“I don’t even want to stand out there and watch it,” he said. “I don’t wish this on anyone.”