By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WARSAW, Ky. - When high winds knocked Jeff Brewer's mobile home off its foundation Sunday night, 14 members of the close-knit Gallatin County family found themselves tossed about the rubble like rag dolls. But they were grateful to be alive.

"We'd just finished dinner (about 6 p.m.) when it started lightning and thundering, and the lights went out,'' said Roger King, 55, of Somerset, Mr. Brewer's father-in-law. "The next thing we knew, the trailer started shaking, and it just blew apart. We ended up laying on the roof of the house right in front of my truck.''

One of Mr. King's daughters, 29-year-old Stacey Sizemore of Warsaw, had to get 42 stitches in her head after the Brewers' 35-inch television fell on top of her. Another daughter, Rhoda Brewer, 32, suffered a sprained wrist and a cut foot, while Mrs. Brewer's mother-in-law, Wilma Brewer, 55, hurt her shoulder and head when she was pinned in the debris.

But like the other dozen Gallatin County storm victims who were treated at area hospitals, they suffered only minor injuries.

"Not a room was left standing, but God had to be with us,'' Wilma Brewer said. "Nobody was seriously hurt. You look at all that damage and think, `How did we ever get out of it alive?' ''

Jeff and Rhoda Brewer's new mobile home was one of seven Gallatin County trailers or houses ripped from their foundations on Sunday, when a line of storms raced through much of the South and Midwest, said Chris Curtis, a 911 supervisor for Gallatin County.

Much of the damage was confined to the Walnut Valley area of Gallatin County, six miles west of Warsaw, off US 42, and 40 miles southwest of Cincinnati.

Elsewhere, the band of storms killed at least 35 people and injured more than 200 in five states, including Ohio. Although the storm spawned multiple tornadoes in northern Ohio, Gallatin County's damage was caused by high winds.

"At this time, we've determined that straight line winds in excess of 60 mph caused that damage,'' John Center, a National Weather Service forecaster, said Monday evening.

Jeff and Rhoda Brewer and their two children were among six people in two families who received sweat suits, socks, toiletries and cards to purchase food at participating restaurants, said Vesta Moore, an American Red Cross volunteer. All of the families displaced by the storm found shelter with friends or relatives.

The storm took a diagonal path across Ky. 184, a winding two-lane route also known as Walnut Valley Road. It destroyed a double-wide trailer and a frame home on that road, ripped apart the Brewers' mobile home on nearby Country View Lane, and blew over a barn on a nearby hilltop.

At least three homes on Walnut Valley Road had siding peeled away or satellite dishes tossed aside. High winds also hurtled tree limbs through the walls of a third home on the state route, said Bill Lay, chief deputy with the Gallatin County sheriff's department.

"See that car setting over there?'' Deputy Lay asked, pointing to a beige Toyota Camry parked next to the empty foundation where Frank and Beulah Helton's frame home once stood. "That used to be the garage. The car and the lawn mower are still there, but the garage was blown way back in the woods.''

On Monday afternoon, Mr. Helton gingerly picked his way through the debris that had been his home, as family members retrieved clothing and other personal items.

Bits of 2-by-4s were scattered through the Heltons' back yard like matchsticks, and the house itself was dumped about 50 feet from its foundation. Most of the roof was peeled away, and the walls were slanted as if the house had been slammed down accordion-style.

"I was standing at the countertop, getting a candle to light, when all of a sudden, the room started trembling,'' Mr. Helton recalled. "There was a sound like a freight train and the whole house raised up just like you were going up in an elevator. The next thing I knew, I was knocked out for five or 10 minutes.''

When Mr. Helton came to, he heard his wife calling for help, and he found her trapped under a wall that had collapsed in the master bathroom. The couple "half crawled and half walked" through pieces of ceiling, crumbled insulation, and broken furniture to the front door, which they forced open, Mr. Helton said.

A neighbor called 911 emergency medical services. The Heltons were transported to Carroll County Hospital, where they were treated and released.

"We're lucky we made it out alive,'' Mr. Helton said. "You can replace things, but you can't replace people's lives.''

E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com