Redmon insisted that he wasn't an overly religious person that attended church regularly, but he said he witnessed the path of the tornado change direction as the twister was approaching multiple different county school buildings that were full of well over 2400 kids.
An emotional Redmon proceeded to tell parents during the Wednesday morning news conference that they should go to church on Sunday, get on their knees, and thank God for what He did to protect as many people as He did Tuesday.
Redmon went on to say that damage easily totaled in the millions across the county, and that crews were still assessing the extent of the damage.
The video below, shot by Brittany Glisson while at Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield, shows the tornado moving toward the Graves County High School campus.
It narrowly missed a direct hit to the campus.
You can see the debris from buildings the twister had already destroyed as it's moving toward campus in the still photo captured from the video in this story. There are also photos of the tornado approaching the elementary schools in the county, with empty school buses getting ready to load kids at the end of the day.
Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Paducah, Rick Shanklin, says preliminarily, the tornado reached an EF3 strength, indicating that this is the worst tornado across the area since the November, 2013 Brookport tornado. Shanklin says most of the path of the tornado was in the EF1 to EF2 range of damage, but he does believe it did cross the threshold of being an EF3 during an initial survey of the damage. He says crews will be making an official assessment throughout the day Wednesday, and coming days.
Red Cross Assessment teams have been in the Mayfield area since Tuesday.
Evelyn Miller with the America Red Cross says they are working with about a dozen individuals to get them immediate assistance with clean up kits, supplies, arranging places to stay, among other things.
Miller says anyone with damage who has not yet met with the Red Cross can call their Paducah office at 270-442-3575.
The Red Cross is not involved with coordinating volunteer efforts of debris cleanup, home repairs, etc.
His House Ministries, based in Mayfield, is working with oversight from the county government in collecting donations to help those who lost everything in Tuesday's storm. You can click on the link below to donate directly.
On the Net:
Click HERE to donate for Tuesday's Graves County storm victims
