London, KY, family hunkered in a gas station fridge while a deadly tornado leveled their home
When the skies darkened over Laurel County on May 16, the Wilson family didn’t run home. They ran cold. Literally. With a deadly tornado bearing down, Charlotte Wilson and her partner, Dustin, gathered with their family and about two dozen others in the nearby Shell store’s walk-in cooler. She was familiar with the fridge, anyway, since she works at the gas station herself.
The tornado that tore through London, Kentucky, that Friday night wasn’t just any storm
It was a monster. The National Weather Service said the EF-3 tornado packed winds strong enough to level homes and toss vehicles like Matchbox cars. It cut a vicious path through town, leaving behind a trail of twisted metal, shattered lives, and heartbreak.
Inside that cooler, Wilson said, the walls shook. But she clung to hope that their home would be standing when they came out.
It wasn’t.
What was once the Wilsons’ house was flattened, reduced to just a slab of foundation, LEX 18 shared.
For Charlotte and her family, the aftermath has been a surreal, exhausting loop: dig through debris, cry in the car, sleep at the hotel, repeat
They’ve been doing this day after day since the storm hit.
This wasn’t just a weather event—it was a full-blown community crisis. Laurel County officials confirmed at least one fatality, with dozens of homes damaged or destroyed. The tornado was part of a broader outbreak across the Midwest and South that claimed over 20 lives and disrupted thousands more.
The Wilsons now have a GoFundMe as they try to rebuild from scratch. They’re asking for basic essentials: clothes, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and furniture.
