Tornado launches family photo 130 miles away
By
Zachary Rosenthal, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Dec 13, 2021 1:25 PM EDT
|
Updated Dec 14, 2021 6:24 AM EDT
Katie Posten says strangers on social media helped her find the family linked to a photo that traveled 130 miles after a tornado hit Dawson Springs, Kentucky.
As a devastating and deadly long-track tornado tore through Kentucky on Dec. 10, the record-breaking storm picked up debris large and small and tossed it into the atmosphere like toys.
The debris included a treasured family photo, which was sucked up into the storm before fluttering down nearly 130 miles away from the now-destroyed city of Dawson Springs, Kentucky, and onto the car of Katie Posten.
"It almost looked like someone left a note on my car, and then I peeled it off and realized, 'Oh, this is a picture from a family," Posten, a resident of New Albany, Indiana, told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell. "I mean instantly, it was like this has to be from a home that was hit last night."
The photo, a black-and-white picture of a woman in a striped dress sitting with a little boy in her lap, came with two clues: a note scrawled on the back with two names and a date saying 1942.
Posten immediately took a picture of the photo and shared it on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Amazingly, social media sleuths tracked down the family that the photograph belonged to in less than three hours.
Someone online with the profile name Cole Swatzell commented below Posten's post that the photograph belonged to members of his family in Dawson Springs.
The remains of a house after a tornado in Dawson Springs, Ky., Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Clubb)
(AccuWeather/Bill Wadell)
Posten plans to deliver the photograph personally and encourages others in the area to scour their yards for family heirlooms that could have been lifted by the monster tornado's ferocious winds.
"If you find something, post it and try and get it back to the family. You never know what is going to happen," she said.
It is not unusual for debris to get sucked up by strong tornadoes and then deposited far away as the storm dissipates. According to The Associated Press, in one impressive and somewhat similar case from the 1920s, paper debris traveled 230 miles from the Missouri Bootheel into southern Illinois.
Reporting from AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell
More on historic tornado outbreak:
For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
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News / Severe Weather
Tornado launches family photo 130 miles away
By Zachary Rosenthal, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Dec 13, 2021 1:25 PM EDT | Updated Dec 14, 2021 6:24 AM EDT
Katie Posten says strangers on social media helped her find the family linked to a photo that traveled 130 miles after a tornado hit Dawson Springs, Kentucky.
As a devastating and deadly long-track tornado tore through Kentucky on Dec. 10, the record-breaking storm picked up debris large and small and tossed it into the atmosphere like toys.
The debris included a treasured family photo, which was sucked up into the storm before fluttering down nearly 130 miles away from the now-destroyed city of Dawson Springs, Kentucky, and onto the car of Katie Posten.
"It almost looked like someone left a note on my car, and then I peeled it off and realized, 'Oh, this is a picture from a family," Posten, a resident of New Albany, Indiana, told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell. "I mean instantly, it was like this has to be from a home that was hit last night."
The photo, a black-and-white picture of a woman in a striped dress sitting with a little boy in her lap, came with two clues: a note scrawled on the back with two names and a date saying 1942.
Posten immediately took a picture of the photo and shared it on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Amazingly, social media sleuths tracked down the family that the photograph belonged to in less than three hours.
Someone online with the profile name Cole Swatzell commented below Posten's post that the photograph belonged to members of his family in Dawson Springs.
The remains of a house after a tornado in Dawson Springs, Ky., Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Clubb)
Posten plans to deliver the photograph personally and encourages others in the area to scour their yards for family heirlooms that could have been lifted by the monster tornado's ferocious winds.
"If you find something, post it and try and get it back to the family. You never know what is going to happen," she said.
It is not unusual for debris to get sucked up by strong tornadoes and then deposited far away as the storm dissipates. According to The Associated Press, in one impressive and somewhat similar case from the 1920s, paper debris traveled 230 miles from the Missouri Bootheel into southern Illinois.
Reporting from AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell
More on historic tornado outbreak:
For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
Report a Typo