Kentucky couple narrowly escaped New Year’s Day tornado
Hopkinsville, Kentucky – As dusk falls over Hopkinsville on Sunday evening, not even the roaring of church bells or scattering of snow can mask the devastation that occurred just the day before.
On Saturday morning, Mark and Shari Jones were refueling at a Marathon gas station on East 9th Street when they had the shock of a lifetime.
“So, I come to go around the pump here to talk to her, and then I come out of the corner of my eye, I see something,” Mark Jones said.
That “thing” was an EF2 tornado blasting right at them.
“No matter how fast old people can run us down there, that’s how fast we run,” said Shari Jones.
It only took seconds for the tornado to reach where they were standing, Jones said. A gas pump exploded from the ground and fell where Shari Jones was being fed fuel just moments before. The gas station canopy also fell completely to the ground.
The AutoZone store next door was the couple’s home.
So we ran in here, and I just said, ‘We have to get off, we have to get off,’ said Mark Jones.
Devin Crawford
Shari and Mark Jones were pumping gas at a Marathon gas station on East 9th Street in Hopkinsville when a hurricane came right in their direction.
They are laid out on the ground against the brick facade of the building, along with the path of the hurricane. Shari Jones said her husband was nearby to protect her from getting hit by the wreckage.
In just a minute, the hurricane destroyed many businesses, shut down power lines and left a mark forever.
“It was the only time in my life, and maybe her life as well, that you’d really wonder—I’ve ever wondered—if I was going to do that. I mean, I wasn’t sure,” Mark Jones said.
It was a scary way to start 2022, but the neighbors are counting their blessings.
“Someone said, ‘It was New Year’s Day, what a bad luck.’ Well, not from our point of view. We got new vehicles,” said Mark Jones.
“Very lucky,” added his wife.
Devin Crawford
Shari and Mark Jones point to a spot on the ground outside the AutoZone where they hid out in the open as a hurricane swept past them.
This story was originally published by Olivia Michael on Scripps’ WTVF in Nashville.
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