Video of St. Luke's Church in Salyerville, Kentucky

Small Town Devastation - West Virginia's Eyewitness News

Click on the above link to see a news report and video on the March 2, 2012 tornado that destroyed St. Luke's Catholic Church in Salyersville, Kentucky. The interview features Helen Pennington, a St. Luke's parishioner who survived the tornado in the church basement.

St. Luke's Church in Magoffin County, Kentucky Destroyed by Tornado

Ever since my daughters were little girls we visited the Sanders family in Blue River, Kentucky, for Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. For years we would stay at the Dwelling Place Monastery in Floyd County, atop a mountain about ten miles from Prestonsburg. On Easter Sunday morning we would usually go to mass (followed by an Easter egg hunt and potluck brunch) at St. Luke's Catholic Church in Salyersville, Kentucky.

I got word today that this beautiful simple church was destroyed in an instant by a tornado that whipped though the Mountain Parkway area of Magoffin County this past Friday, March 2nd, destroying or seriously damaging almost every structure in its path.

Here is a photo of the church (from a blog by Adam Z. Winer: http://azwiner.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/churches-play-key-role-in-magoffin-county-kentucky-clean-up/).