GAMALIEL – Gamaliel junior Treg Turner walked through the roofless halls of his house, stepping over pieces of the rain-soaked ceiling. He looked into the ruined bedroom where his mother and stepfather were sleeping Feb. 5 when he called to warn them of the tornado tearing through Monroe County.

Turner’s family’s house is one of 99 destroyed and 494 damaged in Kentucky by the tornados of Feb. 5 and 6. Like others throughout Kentucky and Tennessee, the Turner family is waiting for insurance companies to assess their property so they can claim the damages and move on.

Connie Lynn, her husband, Clarence “Bunk” Lynn, and her daughter, Emily Turner, are living with Connie Lynn’s sister. They won’t know if they can rebuild on their land, or if they will need to move, until the assessments.

“We just want what’s right,” Turner said. “We want what we’re supposed to get.”

Meanwhile, the family tries to rebuild the rest of their lives.

Turner and his sister, a student at Monroe County High School, returned to their classes.

Turner’s roommate, Gamaliel junior Chase Collins, drove from Bowling Green to see the damage to his friend’s house on Saturday.

Outside, sheets of the brick walls that lined the outside of the house lay half embedded in the ground. The woods where Turner and his friends played paintball during high school, lie flattened behind the house.

“It ain’t no paintball woods no more,” Collins said.

Bunk Lynn organized some workers to log the woods around the house and the neighbor’s houses so the family and neighbors can make some money from the downed trees.

Connie Lynn has gone back to her job at a garment factory, and Bunk Lynn suffered back injuries while logging and isn’t working.

In Gamaliel, Tompkinsville Jaycees, a city organization, collected donations at intersections. Neighbors dropped by to offer the family food, clothes and even a tractor to borrow.

“It’s been really overwhelming the amount of support people have been giving,” Turner said. “Some are people we don’t even know.”

Turner said Gov. Steve Beshear flew over Gamaliel in a helicopter the day after the storm to view the damage.

Beshear decided federal assistance was needed in Kentucky.

The American Red Cross, the National Guard, the Salvation Army and FEMA have all been to Monroe County supplying food, cleaning up debris and controlling traffic.

Although his house is destroyed, Turner is just relieved that his family wasn’t hurt.

“This stuff right here, we’ll replace it,” Turner said. “We’ll buy something else, rebuild or something. You can’t replace a life. To see that they’re OK after something like this, that’s the only thing I care about.”

The night the storm hit, Turner might have saved them.

Turner saw the tornado warning for his hometown while he was watching WBKO in his Bowling Green apartment that night.

“It just dawned on me that they might be in bed and I needed to call,” Turner said.

Turner said the tornado hit the house three minutes later.

Winds tore off the roof above his parents’ room.

His family had gone into the basement only minutes before.

Connie Lynn had lived in the house for 19 years.

“That’s the toughest thing,” Turner said. “My mom’s worked for this house her whole life, and within 10 to 20 seconds it’s all gone.”

Reach Eileen Ryan at news@chherald.com.