The Cambridge Dictionary describes a storm chaser as a person who follows extreme weather events to experience, photograph, or study them.
In recent years, they have saved countless lives when severe weather hits, and Sunday was no different.
Dozens of chasers flocked to western Kentucky after analyzing weather models and predicting severe storms. Among them was Chris Evans, a special needs teacher and football coach at John Hardin High School in Elizabethtown.
Evans spent the days leading up to the event combing through all of the data available and started the afternoon 125 miles from his Vine Grove home – in Gallatin, Tennessee.
Evans started his Kentucky journey near Calvert City, where he met up with Lebanon, Tennessee-based chaser Heather Carter.
Both ventured onto Interstate 69 to get behind the storm after it passed over Calvert City.
The storm would drop a tornado northeast of Eddyville at 8:01 PM, with a Tornado Emergency issued for Crider in Caldwell County at 8:12 PM.
The EF-3 tornado eventually tracked into Caldwell and Hopkins counties, lifting near Morton’s Gap in Hopkins County. The funnel was on the ground for nearly an hour and fifteen minutes.
Once the weather calmed down, Evans and Carter sprung into action helping with search and rescue efforts in Hopkins County.
That resident then informed him they were in the same area where the December 10, 2021, EF-4 tornado had struck. Because of that experience two and a half years ago, Evans said everyone in the neighborhood was safe because of a storm shelter.
Unfortunately, the tornado injured more than 20 people and claimed the life of 48-year-old Sandra Eckard, of Carbondale Road in Hopkins County. She died as a result of multiple blunt-force trauma.
