In year after tornadoes, Mayfield mayor got by with help from friends all over Kentucky

When I first met Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan, she was in tears and in shock, standing amid the ruins of a town blasted and destroyed by tornadoes.

A week off the year anniversary, O’Nan had to hold back tears again as she contemplated 52 weeks of struggle, mayhem and the incredible outpouring of support from around the state and the country. Last Friday, she was at Kroger Field to cheer on the Mayfield Cardinals in the state high school football championships. They were warming up against their biggest rivals — the Beechwood Tigers — who turned out to be one of Mayfield’s biggest boosters.

“The Beechwood football team and folks from Beechwood and Fort Mitchell drove trucks of supplies down to us,” O’Nan recounted. Just before the game, she presented Fort Mitchell Mayor Jude Hehman and the school district with a plaque that said: “Honorable Rivals, Forever Friends.”

The fairy tale ending was stomped by a one-point loss to Beechwood last Friday.

But “we’ve built a relationship bigger than football,” Hehman said.

In the midst of so much loss, so much death, so much destruction, O’Nan relied on help like this, and it has slowly, very slowly, pulled Mayfield through. New houses built by nonprofit organizations are starting to pop up. Homes and Hope for Kentucky, for example, just built its 19th home, said Steve Elder, director of the Mayfield Community Foundation. The houses are for former homeowners who couldn’t afford to rebuild. They get it with no strings attached except they can’t sell it for five years.

“Rebuilding a city from scratch is an opportunity to redefine ourselves,” Elder said. “And we’re committed to rebuilding. We just don’t want our young people to leave and not come back.”

The seven mainline churches that were shredded by wind now have plans to rebuild downtown. City officials are trying to figure out how much room they really need in all new buildings, and hope to have plans by July.

All the momentum going forward may mean that folks can rest over the holidays. O’Nan says her brain is tired.

“We have this resilience, but after one year we need a little breather,” she said. “After Dec. 10, we’re going to take a deep breath. No one in Mayfield had a normal Christmas last year. I hope this year we can do what’s most important to us at Christmas.”

But first they have to get through this weekend. On Saturday morning, the community planned to hold a walk of remembrance from the Mayfield candle factory to the court square sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Police. O’Nan said 300 people had signed up by midweek. At 2:30 central time, Gov. Andy Beshear was scheduled to show up for A Celebration of Hope commemorative service at Graves County High School. “We’re going to end this year looking at the future with hope,” O’Nan said.

Judge Executive Jesse Perry said plans are well along for rebuilding on the site of the iconic Graves County Courthouse, which took a direct hit and had to be torn down. That’s where county offices will go, with a county courthouse and jail somewhere else in town.

Perry said he took office focused on economic development, but has spent the past year realizing that it needs to be about humanitarian efforts instead.

“The storm changed our community and will forever going forward,” he said. “But our community has come together more than ever and we are one.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2022 at 10:00 AM.

Linda Blackford

Opinion Contributor,

Lexington Herald-Leader

Linda Blackford is a former journalist for the Herald-Leader Support my work with a digital subscription