Keepsakes lost and found in KY tornadoes find their way home over hundreds of miles

On Saturday, Katie Posten walked out to her car in New Albany, Ind., and found a photo of a couple from 1942 stuck to the window.

Within hours after posting the photo on Facebook, she had located the Kentucky family who lost it in a tornado that cut a swath of destruction across four states.

In addition to Posten’s experience, photos of tattered birthday cards, dozens of personal papers such as birth certificates, a quilt square and even missing people are being posted on a Facebook page called Quad State Tornado Found Items and other similar pages on social media.

It’s a Facebook group created to help people who lost items and keepsakes in the weekend tornadoes.

Laura Beth Wynn posted a photo of a pillow with a photo of a grandfather and child sewn on it saying it was found in Princeton, Ky. and “looks like an important keepsake. “

Before long, Shelly Groves posted that the pillow was made from her grandpa’s shirt and it was missing from her mom’s house in Easton in a nearby county.

Also posted on the Facebook page as being found in the storm were campaign materials from Brian Crick, a district judge representing McClean and Muhlenberg counties, who died in the tornado.

Posten, meanwhile, shared the photo she found in Indiana on her own Facebook page saying, “the tornado that ripped through Kentucky last night seems to have dissipated just a bit southwest of us, and it’s said to have carried debris up into the sky up to 7 miles or more, so no doubt that it came from a home in the path of destruction.”

“Sharing in hopes of finding its owners. It looks like it reads ‘Gertie Swatzell and JD Swatzell, 1942’.”

Cole Swatzell of Dawson Springs, Kentucky, responded on Facebook that the photo belonged to his family.

”Wow. To think this traveled so far, this is my dads grand parents. That came out of Dawson Springs, Ky.,” Swatzell said.

Later, Posten shared on Facebook, “the photo belongs to the Swatzell family in Dawson Springs, KY, which was hit by the tornado last night. I’ve been in touch with a family member and we are making a plan to get the photo back to them.”

Dawson Springs is more than 150 miles from New Albany

Posten’s story has been shared widely since including on websites for CNN and The Weather Channel.

This story was originally published December 12, 2021 at 3:02 PM with the headline "Keepsakes lost and found in KY tornadoes find their way home over hundreds of miles."