Families gather in Mayfield to clean up the football pitch, giving children a place to play

MAYFIELD, Ky. (WKYT) – It looks like a war zone in the town of Mayfield. Very little is standing, and what remains is destroyed.

Amid all the chaos, children were playing on Tuesday afternoon while adults helped clean up. And for some who don’t even live there, they said cleaning up areas where kids used to play is something they can do for younger storm victims.

It’s a scene that’s almost unbelievable to the eye as you climb the hill to Mayfield, a town torn apart by a huge tornado, nothing was spared in its path.

“I took photos and videos and when I try to show people it doesn’t even do the utter devastation justice at all, it just went away,” Brian Flowers said.

Flowers grew up in Mayfield and her son once played on a now debris-strewn football pitch. They came to try to give back to a community that gave him so much.

“Show her some work ethic and how to think of others and not yourself and do whatever we can to help,” Flowers said.

In the midst of all this destruction, that’s what many are trying to do: find a way to help put the pieces back together. For a grandfather, with a grandson who loves to play football on this ground, that’s why he was called to Mayfield.

He said all around him the scene is like a war zone. Something he saw once in Joplin, Missouri.

“I was there right after they had their tornado there. All the trees stripped of all their branches, it’s just very sad, a lot of deaths here today or this week,” said a man cleaning up.

It’s just one area, but many that people hope will one day be filled with playing children, not storm debris.

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