Kentucky, tornado and severe weather
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One week after a deadly EF-4 tornado hit Russell, Pulaski, and Laurel counties, the National Weather Service has updated the storm’s path.
The Jackson, Kentucky, weather service office recently cut overnight staff but meteorologists were called in to handle the deadly tornado outbreak.
Additionally, there was no evidence that tornado sirens in the area had been deactivated by the Trump administration's budget cuts — if there was, the people affected by the storm certainly would have noted that fact in interviews.
The National Weather Service has finished its survey of the deadly tornado that ripped through southeastern Kentucky last week.
A deadly severe weather outbreak spawned at least one tornado in 22 states from May 15-21. Among the hardest-hit states were Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
Gov. Andy Beshear praised the Trump administration’s response to a deadly tornado in his state, even as he worried about cuts at NWS.
5don MSN
The Jackson, Kentucky, office is one of at least four such facilities across the country that is so short-staffed that it is no longer routinely operating 24/7.
A National Weather Service official said it was the deadliest tornado to ever come through the Jackson office's warning area.
Did alerts go out? What type of alerts did people receive? National Weather Service and others have said the Jackson office was staffed Friday night despite staffing shortages.
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MotorBiscuit on MSNLondon, KY, family hunkered in a gas station fridge while a deadly tornado leveled their homeWhen the skies darkened over Laurel County on May 16, the Wilson family didn’t run home. They ran cold. Literally. With a deadly tornado bearing down, Charlotte Wilson and her partner, Dustin, gathered with their family and about two dozen others in the Shell store’s walk-in cooler.