Courtesy Photo | Pfc. Cody Warmath's family's home suffered severe damage during the storm but he still...... read more read more
By Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Crane, Public Affairs Office
FRANKFORT, Ky. – As the tornadoes that hit western Kentucky bore down on the small farms and towns, residents ducked into their bathrooms, closets or any other place they could find to ride out the massive storm. For many, their hiding spots were ripped from their foundations and left some bruised and battered.
One of those residents hiding from the storm was a young Kentucky National Guardsman with the 2113th Transportation Company. He survived the storm, only to be called on a few hours later join his unit to help the many others in need.
Pfc. Cody Warmath, 19, was home with his father, his twelve-year-old sister and family dogs the night of Dec 10, 2021 watching weather reports showing the path of the large tornado heading for their home in Benton, Ky.
“It was pretty calm for a while leading up to 9:30 p.m.,” said Warmath. “We could see on the radar the tornado was coming for our house, and we had to choose to either to leave our stuff there or stay with it.”
So they decided to stay with the house and head to shelter in the bathroom.
“At about 9:50 p.m. the house just started shaking really violently; then it got really quiet for a second before glass just started exploding all over the house. Everything was just falling over, stuff in the bathroom started falling over. It lasted maybe five seconds and then it was done. You don’t realize how bad the damage is until you walk outside and everything's just gone.”
Though the house still stood, half of the roof was blown off and was leaning to one side. The room that was added on where Warmath slept, was blown off the foundation and his bed’s mattress gone, taken by the storm.
“I live in the detached garage building. It was made to be an apartment for me and that was completely blown over,” he said. “Every bit of that was just scattered everywhere. We had a barn and a camper. Camper’s wrapped around a tree in the backyard somewhere. The barn’s gone. We had this little farm area in the back and all the animals got blown away except for like couple pigs. We had goats, chickens and ducks but they were all gone. The main house, you couldn't tell it at first, but when you walked like to the other side of the house, it was leaning at an angle and there's a big hole in the upstairs portion. It’s not livable anymore. You just can't repair that kind of damage and they declared it to be a total loss when insurance representatives finally came around and got up there. But it’s just amazing how fast it all happens.”
The family’s five cars were all damaged to some extent, with one having a two by four impaled in its engine block and was sticking out the passenger side.
“Dad's truck had all the windows blown out and my truck just had the back windshield blown out. There was a power line that had blown down that went all the way across the front yard laying on top and was laying on one of the cars, blocking our driveway.”
Despite the damage to property, no one in the house was injured. Warmath said that his sister has spina bifida and any hit to her head could have proven to be fatal.
“She has a shunt that runs from her top of her head all the way down to her lower back that drains spinal fluid, and if she gets hit it's fatal if it breaks,” said Warmath. “So we had to make sure that nothing can hit her head hard. I took all the stuff off the shelves so she wouldn't get hit by anything and my dad was holding the door and I was holding anything that could fall over.”
After surviving the storm, he then had to make sure that his mother, a traveling nurse working in Glasgow that night, and his young son who lives with his mother in Murray, were ok. Not long after realizing their home was damaged and his room destroyed, his phone rang from his first line leader asking if he would be able to join his unit who was being called into duty to aid the rest of those in need.
“I got a call like 3:30 in the morning from my readiness NCO, Staff Sgt. Martin Athenas, saying Governor Beshear was deploying the Guard and he asked If I wanted to volunteer. I thought to myself, ‘Well, I guess there's no better time than now to volunteer’, so then I left at about 7:30 that morning.”
After his mother returned to the area, he told his mom about his decision.
“I had to volunteer,” he told his mother. “I was like, ‘Mom, I have to go. I have to help. There are people out there that are in worse condition than we are and it was better than me sitting at home just being sad because my stuff is gone. I can go help other people.”
His decision to help others was one of the main reasons he even joined the Guard. He says that for as long as he could remember, he would thank Soldiers in uniform for their service any chance he got.
“They were really inspiring to me to see them helping people out,” he said. “I feel like I was born to be someone that could actually help the community. When I turned 17 I said, ‘you know what, this is my chance’.”
His chance to help his community showed up in a big way and he was prepared to answer that call. Knowing that there would be a possibility of being needed by the National Guard, he made sure he knew where his uniforms were and that he could access them. He says that he lost a lot of clothes from his closet but he has his uniforms and that was important to him at that time.
When he met up with his unit at the armory in Paducah, he was sent out to Cayce, Ky., where they performed area cleanup, road clearing, helping sort supplies and anything they could do.
While he was out working with his unit, Kentucky Guard leadership stopped in to visit to see if they needed to reallocate resources and give out some coins. He met with Brig. Gen. Brian Wertzler, Deputy Adjutant General-Kentucky and Col. Tim Starke, director of operations for the Kentucky National Guard.
“His battalion commander, Lt. Col. LaShana Waller had told me that he was down there. So I kind of tracked him down out there while we were in Fulton County and I just asked him how he was doing,” said Starke.
“Man, you lost your house, but here you are. I told him, ‘you know you don't have to be out here right?’
He continued with his praise of the young man.
“He is everything the National Guard is all about. If ever there is an example of selflessness, it’s him. He first and foremost made sure his family was okay and was going to be safe and taken care of, but then he thought the best thing he could be doing was being back out there, helping the community. I was absolutely blown away by it and I know Brig. Gen. Wertzler was as well.”
During the visit, the leaders gave Warmath a coin as a token of their appreciation.
After he completed his mission on ground in Fulton County, he returned to his civilian job as a certified nursing assistant at Shiftkey, which contracts out nurses to work different nursing homes. He was attending Murray State for a nursing degree but has since put that on pause during this time to regroup.
His family has been staying in a local hotel for the last month while they find a new place to live and clean up the mess that the tornado has left of their current property.
Everything in the house was destroyed by either the tornado or the elements afterwards. Their clothes that could be salvaged and dried out were, but mostly everything in the house, especially if they were electrical are destroyed.
“A lot of it got water damage just from being in the storm and getting knocked over,” he added. “Anything that was electronic in that house is destroyed, all the appliances, the computers, the Xbox and whatever else was in there.”
Their cars though are currently being repaired by a contact he found through an auto body place in Murray who was dropping off some gas to them.
“We had a generator running to keep food cold so when they came to bring the gas they actually ended up offering to take our cars and repair them for us”, said Warmath.
With the outpouring of support his family has received, plus the way his insurance provider has stepped up, he says that they have everything they need to get by for now. There has been plenty of food donations, clothes donations and money for gas so they can get around.
“I'm just amazed how helpful the community has been like just seeing everybody come together and help each other like, we were working at the Cayce Baptist Church to get donations. And it got to the point where we couldn't take any more because we had an influx of so many donations. People are coming down as far as from Texas to come help out, and I am truly thankful.”
| Date Taken: | 01.18.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 01.18.2022 14:48 |
| Story ID: | 413026 |
| Location: | KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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