Woman’s video showed harrowing Mayfield factory destruction. A year later, she’s ‘grateful’
.jpg "“These factories care about getting your volume out. They don’t care about us,” said worker Kyanna Parsons-Perez.")
One year ago, Kyanna Parsons-Perez was everywhere.
The Today Show, The New York Times, Canadian public broadcasting, local news — basically, everywhere. That’s because, from underneath piles of rubble at the ruins of the tornado-raved Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory, she filmed a Facebook video that went around the world.
“We are trapped. The wall is stuck on me,” Parsons-Perez calmly recounted in the video while screams from other workers at the factory rang out — some in English, some in Spanish. The video has been shared nearly a thousand times, and audio from it has been played on news networks across the world.
Now, Parsons-Perez’s life has somewhat moved on from Mayfield. She works as an early intervention outreach coordinator in Paducah for people with HIV or addictions, traveling across Western Kentucky in that role. She said she loves the work, which gives her a sense of purpose and a flexibility that allows her to remain a deeply committed single mother.
“I go out and I test people for HIV. If they test positive, then we get them into care,” Parsons-Perez said. “I have a lot of freedom, and I like the variety and the fact that I get to interact with people a lot.”
Parsons-Perez added that she plans to pursue a masters in public administration or public health.
But even though she’s not in Mayfield, the devastating Dec. 10, 2021, event that took nearly 100 lives and caused roughly $4 billion in property damage, continues to play somewhat of a role in her life. Parsons-Perez says that she’s thankful that she does not have any lasting mental health issues from the storm, but added that windy weather can make her anxious.
It’s also hard, if not impossible, to forget the event when you became something of a brief national celebrity and a lasting local figure because of your social media post. And while she isn’t exactly keen on getting recognized too often for being a victim of the tornado, she did recently get interviewed for a Netflix series on natural disasters, “Earthstorm.”
“I was at Dollar Tree on Thanksgiving Day and the cashier was like, ‘Oh, didn’t I just see you on Netflix?’ I said ‘yeah, but, my hair’s changed.’ I think that’s part of why people don’t recognize me as much, which is good,” she said.
What Parsons-Perez remembers most from that evening and early morning: walking out.
“When I first got up and out and I was walking across the factory remains, I look back over my shoulder and it’s just the total devastation of the building. I remember looking back and saying ‘who built this place’ but there were a few cuss words in there. It was like the three little pigs’ house that was built with straw or something like that. It just completely came apart,” she said.
But more than any traumatic memories, Parsons-Perez’s feelings about the tornado center around a sense of accomplishment for having documented the event on Facebook Live, putting a uniquely human focus and perspective on the unimaginable damage. She’s also thankful that she isn’t dealing with lasting physical or mental pain.
“I am very, very blessed,” Parsons-Perez said. “There are people that are still having all types of complications from being in that building. I am very, very blessed and grateful.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2022 at 10:00 AM.
