FC donations now being collected to assist in Kentucky tornado aftermath

Donations of supplies in Franklin County are being sought now through Thursday, Jan. 13 at assist families in Kentucky working to recover from severe weather that struck their region last month.

“We are taking supplies from Franklin County in response to the recent tornadoes there,” Jacob Hawley noted in a Facebook post.

“You can bring the supplies we are seeking to my shop — Hawley’s Tire and Maintenance on Schmidt Road — or to Elmo Baptist Church in Roxie.”

Hawley listed some of the items there is presently a big demand for, including laundry detergent, indoor and outdoor trash cans and sealable storage totes and containers.

Other immediate needs for storm victims include household cleaning supplies, brooms, mops, toilet brushes, clothes baskets and trash bags.

The mid-December twisters rolled through eight Midwestern and Southern states, including Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee, with Kentucky particularly hard-hit by the severe weather as 75 people lost their lives and 126 were injured in that state alone.

The overall death toll throughout the region reportedly reached 90 — far surpassing the previous deadly record-holding Vicksburg tornado outbreak of Dec. 5, 1953, in which 38 deaths were recorded.