Colorado Springs transplant from Kentucky desperate to help family after tornado disaster
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A Colorado Springs woman from a small Kentucky town devastated by recent tornadoes is now desperate to help her family who lost it all in the path of the twisters.
Cassandra Penney moved to Colorado Springs from Benton, Kentucky, four months ago with her boyfriend who is stationed at Fort Carson. When she realized the deadly tornadoes in Kentucky were getting closer to her hometown, she panicked because her family lives there.
"I realized 'Oh no ... this is going to hit my hometown,'" Penney said.
She was watching news coverage of the tornadoes rolling through Kentucky on Friday night. Penney was worried about her family who lives in the small town of Benton.
"The meteorologist said a couple of roads over from my dad's house, my grandparents' house, and my uncle and aunt's house. They are all right there together," Penney explained.
After getting word the tornado had officially touched down in Benton, she called her dad.
"And his first words to me were, 'Cassandra, the house is gone. It's gone.' And he was buried under all the walls and he told me he had to find a way out to crawl out," Penney said.
Her grandparents were also hit and lost everything just months after paying off their mortgage. The couple had also recently let their insurance lapse to cover her grandmother's medical bills.
"During that time, obviously, neither of them could work because they were taking care of her and in that time frame they decided to let that bill go," Penney said. "The timing of it is just so insane to me that they had just let this bill go to take care of their immediate needs and then all the sudden you get by a tornado."
It's unclear how her grandparents will be able to recover or rebuild there home that the entire family gathers at for Christmas each year.
"My whole family is struggling and this is a time when you would really lean on your family to help you through. But how do you do that when your whole family is affected? How do you do that? You have to lean on the community," Penney said.
Penney's aunt and uncle also lost their home.
Her family has created several online fundraisers to help the five family members rebuild.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/kentucky-tornado-home-destroyed
https://www.gofundme.com/f/home-flattened-in-historic-ky-tornado
