Photo from tornado-hit US home lands almost 200km away, in another state
- Monstrous winds carry family photo from Kentucky to Indiana after tornadoes struck
- Tornadoes tore through US Midwest and South on Friday, killing people in five states
When Katie Posten walked outside Saturday morning to her car parked in her driveway, she saw something that looked like a note or receipt stuck to the windscreen.
She grabbed it and saw it was a black and white photo of a woman in a striped sundress and headscarf holding a little boy in her lap. On the back, written in cursive, it said, “Gertie Swatzell & J.D. Swatzell 1942”. A few hours later, Posten would discover that the photo had made quite a journey – almost 209km (130 miles) on the back of monstrous winds.
Posten had been tracking the tornadoes that hit the middle of the US Friday night, killing dozens of people. They came close to where she lives in New Albany, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. So she figured it must be debris from someone’s damaged home.
“Seeing the date, I realised that was likely from a home hit by a tornado. How else is it going to be there?” Posten said on Sunday. “It’s not a receipt. It’s well-kept photo.”
So, doing what any 21st century person would do, she posted an image of the photo on Facebook and Twitter and asked for help in finding its owners. She said she was hoping someone on social media would have a connection to the photo or share it with someone who had a connection.
Sure enough, that’s what happened.
03:00
‘Hell on Earth’: Shock and survival after deadly tornadoes tear through six US states
“A lot of people shared it on Facebook. Someone came across it who is friends with a man with the same last name, and they tagged him,” said Posten, 30, who works for a tech company.