BENTON, KY — A home rebuilt after a storm, now reduced to ashes.
That's the situation for local woman Janssen Lindsey and her family in Benton, Kentucky.
After her home was destroyed in the Dec. 10 tornado, Janssen got to work on the house herself with demolition and rebuilding.
Now, seven months later, the nearly move-in ready home is just ashes.
Thankfully, no one was there when the fire broke out.
But Lindsey, her son and her contractors had been working at the home just hours before.
Putting in flooring and installing air conditioning units, Lindsey says they were planning to move in next month.
She was visiting her parents when she got the call that changed that.
“We're just 10 miles down the road, and we can see huge black smoke, just rolling. Just, Lord get me there. Please let this not be real. Let it be... I mean, it just felt like we were in a nightmare,” Lindsey says.
Lindsey knows this feeling all too well.
She says it was like a flashback to the night of the Dec. 10 storm.
“Out here just looked like a war zone. There was propane tanks hissing and power lines popping. It was devastating,” Lindsey says.
Lindsey and her family have put countless hours getting their new home ready.
Losing it for the second time is difficult for them to process.
“My insides feel like they've been ripped apart. My one daughter, she still doesn't know. She's at church camp this week. My other two children, they're... you know, this was our home. I don't know if we can do it again,” says Lindsey.
She was building her dream house by hand.
Now that it's gone, Lindsey isn't sure what's next.
“I have a house plan that I've wanted since the tornado, but other than that, I don't know. It may just be easier to go buy something,” Lindsey says.
With all she's been through, she hopeful for the future.
“It's hard to hold your head up, for sure, but you gotta put one foot in front of the other and move forward,” Lindsey says,
Lindsey is leaning on her family for support right now.
She says it's them and her faith that is keeping her afloat.
The investigation into the cause of the fire is still ongoing.
Lindsey asks the community to give them space to process and asks for their prayers.
