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Strong winds rip through southern Kentucky, crews keeping distance during cleanup

Powerful straight line winds caused damage throughout McCreary County Kentucky. Volunteers stepped in to help their neighbors on Monday.

MCCREARY COUNTY, Ky. — In McCreary County, Kentucky, crews spent most of Monday cleaning up debris from the Sunday night storms.

Strong winds tore the roof off of an apartment building near the public library and left thousands of people without power.

Powerful straight line winds caused the majority of storm damage in McCreary County on Sunday night. Trees were forced to bend and break, radio towers bent in half and roofs were ripped off.

This metal and wood in the middle of downtown Whitley City used to be the roof of an apartment building next to the public library.

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Emergency Management Director Stephen McKinney said it could have been a lot worse.

"It looks worse than it was," McKinney nodded. "I mean you know, nobody got hurt."

Around 9 p.m. Sunday, 30 to 40 mile per hour winds tore off the roof, but wasn't the only damage to the southern Kentucky county.

"We had several power lines that were damaged by limbs, fallen trees, we had about 3600 people without power last night," McKinney explained.

The storms even bent the fire station's radio tower in half.

"Severe weather has been a real game changer here in the county the last few months," McKinney admitted.

On top of February flooding, in March, an EF-1 tornado touched down and damaged several homes and buildings.

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"It jumped across 27 and went down Stevens Farm Road,"McKinney recalled. "Damaged about 17 homes down there, another apartment complex, and a business."

While the community continues to get hit with relentless severe weather, they know the volunteers will always step in to help clean up.

"Everybody pitches in to help, you know," McKinney said. "You don't have to ask. They're right there to help you."

Even while the world is aiming to stay at least six feet apart, these Kentuckians make sure to still take care of their neighbors.

"We're trying to keep our distance as best we can, but still making sure everybody is taken care of," McKinney assured.

Emergency Management Services said it expects all of the debris throughout the county to be cleaned up by the end of the day on Monday.

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