Last week, a tornado hit Kentucky, USA, with wind speeds reaching 273 kilometers per hour. A local elderly couple embraced tightly in their bedroom to take shelter, yet during the storm, they were “ripped apart,” resulting in both of their arms being torn off.
According to a report by the New York Post, the elderly couple, Paul Kline and Gale Kline, aged in their 60s, lived in the city of London, Kentucky. The night of the storm, the couple tightly embraced in their bedroom, but the tornado directly hit, destroying the entire house. More distressingly, not only was their home demolished, but the couple's tightly clasped arms were also “torn off” by the fierce winds.
Their niece, Brandi, told local media that doctors informed her it was because Paul and Gale clenched each other's hands that they both ended up losing an arm.
After the storm passed, neighbors braved aftershocks and the risk of power outages to check on them and heard faint cries for help in the collapsed rubble. Although Gale was barely conscious, she still struggled to survive. She weakly told the rescuers, “Save me... I see an arm in the hallway...” However, what she didn’t know was that it was her own severed arm.
When rescuers arrived on the scene, they immediately extricated the couple from the debris and rushed them to a hospital. Paul’s condition is stable, though he still requires hospitalization; Gale has a punctured lung and is currently in intensive care, relying on life support to survive.
This disaster has thrust the entire family into hardship. Another niece, Taylor, has already started a fundraising campaign on the GoFundMe platform. Taylor revealed that their daughter is currently battling terminal cancer, and now their home is destroyed, leaving the family in dire straits, hoping for support and blessings from the outside world.
This tornado was not an isolated incident. The National Weather Service (NWS) pointed out that since the winter of 2024 to 2025, the frequency of extreme weather has continued to rise. In just one week, multiple severe convective weather events were recorded in Kentucky alone. The communities surrounding the City of London predominantly have wooden single-family homes, which are highly susceptible to structural destruction when encountering EF-2 or higher tornadoes.