JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Cleanup is underway after deadly storms swept through Missouri and Kentucky Friday night. Karyn Czar with member station WUKY reports from the small town of London in southern Kentucky, where one massive tornado left a path of death and destruction.
UNIDENTIFIED CONGREGATION MEMBERS: (Singing) Oh, God, my God, I need you now.
KARYN CZAR, BYLINE: The shaken congregation of First Baptist Church of London cried together during Sunday service. They prayed for church members who lost everything. Pastor Jesse Armstrong told them their faith and community would get them through. He says relief came quickly.
JESSE ARMSTRONG: There were so many people that came up here to help, and I didn't call a single one of them.
CZAR: Supplies started showing up at the church just hours after the disaster. And volunteers came from the town, other parts of the state and from across the country to help. D'Shawn Henderson and Timmi Mills drove up from Whitley County about 30 minutes away.
D'SHAWN HENDERSON: We're helping load this truck, and then we're going to load our car and go out and deliver some things.
TIMMI MILLS: We're willing to put our hands in and help wherever we're needed.
CZAR: In less than an hour, a caravan headed to Sunshine Hills, the hardest-hit neighborhood. Hundreds of people had already arrived with chainsaws, Bobcats, tractors and other heavy equipment to move rubble. Amanda Radford (ph) dug through piles by hand, trying to find any mementos of her parents.
AMANDA RADFORD: Their house was - as you can see, there was nothing standing. Their SUV was here in their garage. And it landed on their bedroom. They were in the bed.
CZAR: They both died. The house is completely gone, a piece of chain-link fence wrapped around a tree. Their lawnmower was found in a neighbor's yard.
RADFORD: Very little left, and very little salvageable.
CZAR: A few streets over, the supplies from the church are unloaded into Sherry Shepard's (ph) garage.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: We're getting nothing but the big ones now (ph).
CZAR: Her home was miraculously spared. But when you walk into her backyard, you can see a path of destruction, with trees snapped in half and neighbors' homes broken apart or completely gone.
SHERRY SHEPARD: Kind of feel guilty that we have, but, I mean, we're just trying to help as much as we can.
CZAR: State officials are still assessing the overall damage from the tornadoes, but they say it is massive.
For NPR News, I'm Karyn Czar in London, Kentucky.
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