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MYSTERY FIND
Tornado chaser finds mysterious 1942 photo of a woman and child that had been blown 130 miles away from home in storm
A TORNADO chaser discovered a mysterious 1942 photo of a woman and a child that had been blown 130 miles away from a home during a storm.
Katie Posten took to to share her harrowing find after a deadly storm swept through on Friday night and other states, killing dozens of people across the .
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In a Saturday morning tweet, Posten shared one photograph and explained how she found it while walking to her car in New Albany, Indiana.
She : "Found this picture stuck to the window.
"Undoubtedly from a home that was struck by the tornado that ripped through Kentucky last night.
"Hoping to find its owners. It looks like it reads - Gertie Swatzell and JD Swatzell 1942 - pls RT."
The news comes as:
- Two-month-old girl becomes latest victim in Kentucky tornado tragedy
- Tornado survivor says ‘all you could hear were screams’
- Earthquake and tornado hit Kentucky within the same hour
- Veteran, 94, who survived Covid killed when nursing home roof collapsed
- Jeff Bezos slammed over ‘late’ tornado response
The photo, found on Posten's car windshield in her driveway, showed a woman dressed in a striped sundress with what appears to be a young boy sitting on her lap.
In a follow-up tweet approximately two hours later, Posten revealed she learned where the photo came from.
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Posten learned the photo belongs to the Swatzell family from Dawson Springs, Kentucky.
"I’ve been connected with a family member," she explained. "Making a plan for later this week to return it."
Read our tornado tracker live blog for the very latest news and updates...
According to , the town where the photo was derived from — Dawson Springs — has a death toll of 13 with more than 100 people unaccounted for after the storm.
Kentucky Gov Andy Beshear revealed tornados ripped through western Kentucky, towns were "gone" and half of his dad's hometown "isn’t standing."
ABC's reported that Posten felt "really emotional and overwhelmed" when she first found the photo "because it was like knowing almost instantly this had to have come from someone's home that had been destroyed."
Prior to learning who the photo belonged to, she explained: "This is a treasure.
"This is a piece of treasure that needs to be returned and regardless of what the outcome was for that family overnight, someone needs this back, and the internet loves to solve mysteries."
Thanks to the help of Facebook and Twitter, Posten learned the woman in the photo was Cole Swatzell's great-grandmother Gertie Swatzell.
Posten said: "It's like small potatoes given just the logistics of what they're having to deal with.
"He [Cole] was grateful that we found them and pretty amazed that it traveled that far and stayed intact."
STORM DEVASTATION
Posten, who later shared photos of Dawson Spring's devastating damage, urged her followers to donate to tornado victims in Western Kentucky and shared a link to the .
The fundraiser reads: "Governor Beshear has established the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund to assist those impacted by the tornados and the severe weather system on December 11, 2021."
People can donate via the website or by mailing in a check to Public Protection Cabinet, 500 Mero Street, 218 NC, Frankfort, KY 40601.
Meanwhile, John Snow, a University of Oklahoma meteorology professor, told , that the distance traveled by the photo is "unusual but not that unusual."
This is a piece of treasure that needs to be returned.
Katie Posten
He told the news outlet that back in the 1920s, paper debris traveled a distance of 230 miles from Missouri Bootheel.
The debris ended up in southern Illinois, Snow said, noting that the paper gets picked up by winds that can reach heights of up to 40,000 feet above the ground.
MORE LOST ITEMS
Lost items are being sought by many victims of the storm and a public Facebook page dubbed has been created in the aftermath of the destructive tornadoes.
The Facebook page, which has more than 53,000 members, was "created to help those impacted by the devastating tornadoes of Dec. 10."
"If you have found items please post a picture so hopefully the owner may reconnect with it," the page explains.
Among the lost items posted by people of the Midwest were a quilt, velveteen rabbit stuffed animal, Christmas ornaments, Bibles, and more photos.
According to , one Kentucky native found a pillow with a photo of someone's grandfather.
After a photo of the pillow was shared to the Found Items Facebook page, someone recognized who the item belonged to.
Frank Brown, who survived the storm alongside his wife in a crawl space in their home, said: "My father-in-law passed away in 2019 and a dear friend here in town took some of his shirts and sweaters and made pillows out of them, and this one had a picture of him on it."
Brown said it "means a lot" to have the pillow returned to him.
A battered Bible was located in Dawson Springs, by Savannah Kessinger, who shared photos of the book on social media.
The book had pages of the hereditary history of the owner's family and birth dates ranging from 1914 to 2021.
It was later revealed the book belonged to the grandmother of Rihana McKnight.
TORNADO DAMAGE
Kentucky officials claimed the destruction from the repeated weather events is "some of the worst tornado damage that we've seen in a long time."
Beshear said, "This is likely to be the most severe tornado outbreak in our state's history."
"We believe our death toll from this event will exceed 50 Kentuckians and probably end up 70 to 100," Beshear continued.
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The surge of twisters that struck Kentucky left 74 people dead across the state as of Monday, and 60,000 without power or electricity.
Across the six US states that were struck by tornadoes and storms, the death toll increased to 88 on December 13.
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