Richardson sees tornado damage firsthand

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

BOWLING GREEN (KY) — Speechless.

That was the term used by a college student from Convoy after seeing firsthand the massive amount of damage caused by a historic weekend tornado that hit parts of four states.

Photographer Wyatt Richardson, a 2020 graduate of Crestview High School, is a sophomore at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, one of the towns that was directly hit by the powerful tornado.

Richardson, who has provided pictures of local sporting events to The VW independent, wasn’t on campus when the twister hit the town. The semester had ended earlier in the day and he had returned to Ohio, but he returned to campus on Monday. While the tornado didn’t directly hit the campus itself, it was very close, and damage was especially evident on a road going to and from the campus.

“I knew it hit one of the main roads and it got closer to the campus than I thought – it was as close to campus without hitting it,” Richardson said after surveying the damage in person. “Seeing everything firsthand is a whole different ballgame than just seeing it in photos. Everything is gone. There’s an endless amount of businesses that were on that road that I use.”

The National Weather Service continues to survey the damage and for now, has classified the Bowling Green tornado as at least an EF-3 twister, with wind speeds up to 155 miles per hour. Clean up efforts will take many months, if not longer, to complete.

Even though Richardson was back in Ohio when the tornado hit, he received alerts and quickly became glued to the coverage.

“I received a tornado warning on my phone from WKU at 1 o’clock or so Saturday morning and I stayed up because I couldn’t fall asleep then,” Richardson said. “From the charts and everything The Weather Channel had the storm was supposed to go northeast and miss Bowling Green but it went straight east and hit Bowling Green. I was up until 4 a.m. checking Twitter just to see if the campus got hit.”

Richardson added that while safe at home, he felt a sense of helplessness.

“You can’t do anything and you just hope it doesn’t do that much damage, which unfortunately it did,” Richardson said.

The university was scheduled to hold graduation on Saturday but that was canceled. It’s not yet known when the commencement ceremony will be held.

There were no deaths or injuries reported on the campus, but at least 15 people died in Bowling Green as a result of the tornado.

Richardson’s stay in the storm ravaged area was a short one. He had returned to campus to fly out with the football team Tuesday to take pictures at its bowl game – the Boca Raton Bowl, which will pit Western Kentucky University against Appalachian State on Saturday.