Mark Pope inspired by community spirit during tornado cleanup: "It's Kentucky, man"

By now, you’ve seen the picture of Mark Pope standing on top of a roof helping clean up damage from Friday’s deadly tornado in southern Kentucky; today, we got the story behind it.

During his interview with Matt Jones on Kentucky Sports Radio, Pope said he was on the road recruiting when he heard about the storms. He immediately called his former Kentucky teammate and roommate, Jeff Sheppard, who lives in London, which was in the path of the EF-4 tornado that traveled through Laurel and Pulaski Counties late Friday night.

“I called Shep, and I was just like, ‘You know, what [happened]?’ Everything’s happening in real time on the ground. So Shep was like, ‘I don’t know, man. We’re still racing around trying to find out what’s what and who’s who, and how we can help, and who needs help.’ I got back late that night, he texted me, he said, ‘Hey, there’s a place where I’m going to go tomorrow with a few people. We’re just going to try and actually just try and help one house.’ Right? Just to help one family, and so he gave me an address.”

Pope, two of his daughters, and their friends arrived in London early Sunday morning. There was so much damage that they had to park a few houses away from the address Sheppard gave him.

“We actually never made it to the house we were supposed to go to, because we got out of the car, and a senior couple, maybe late 70s, early 80s, Catherine and Jerry, were outside their house. There were a bunch of trees that had fallen on their roof, a huge trailer that I think had blown from the airport and flipped over, and was pushed against the side of their house. Just absolute chaos. And they were outside, kind of like trying to pick up stuff. And so we just stopped right there, and we just started helping them. And then he grabbed a little chainsaw, and he started cutting off little branches of these trees, and we started taking it down.”

While the scope of the damage was devastating, Pope’s spirits were lifted by how many people joined them to help over the next six hours.

“What was really miraculous, just to give you — I’ll emphasize the hopeful side of this, was it seemed like every half an hour, a new group, a couple of people showed up, and by the time we finished six hours later, we removed all these trees from off their house. We had probably four chainsaws working. The big guns came in, and we had a big forklift that came in that was helping to lift trees.”

Among the volunteers was a family from Paducah, who drove there to help simply because others had done the same for them when a tornado struck their side of the state in December 2021. Pope said it was one of many heartwarming scenes from a tough day.

“When we left, we were trying to drive out, and I kid you not, it was a parking lot for like a mile with people coming into town. We drove by a gas station, there were two people out there with signs that were just scribbled with magic marker, ‘Free food.’ So, you know, just inviting people to come stop by, and if they need some food.”

For Pope, it served as yet another example of how the state bands together, whether it be for basketball or in the wake of a tragedy.

“The point is, there’s so much work to be done. And all of us who go in, like we went in on the first day. And so that’s all great, but they’re going to be fighting this for the next years, right? And so the continuity of help and care for this community really, is really important.

“But it was, I’m telling you, it’s Kentucky. It’s Kentucky, man. It’s the same vibe that we have in BBN, where there’s this connection point. Like people in the state, from my vantage point, we are great at loving our neighbor, like people love their neighbors, and to me, that’s a gospel principle that’s so important, but it’s something that we see lived out in the lives of people here. And Kentucky’s had way more than its fair share of natural disasters over the last couple of years, but it was inspiring to see.”

As Pope said, it will take years to recover and rebuild from the storms. There are several ways for you to help. Today (4-8 p.m.) and tomorrow (11 a.m. – 1 p.m.), UK is accepting donations in the Blue Lot outside Kroger Field. Needed items include rakes and shovels, trash bags, cleaning supplies, paper goods (toilet paper, paper towels), flashlights and lanterns, and non-perishable foods. The relief drive was spearheaded by one of Pope’s players, Harlan native Trent Noah, and Kentucky Football center Jager Burton.

If you’re interested in making a monetary donation, consider giving to the Team Kentucky Storm Relief Fund at TeamKYStormReliefFund.ky.gov. Additional resources can be found here: Laurel County Resources, Pulaski County Resources, and Animal Shelter Supplies.

Mark Pope’s interview on KSR

We’ll be rolling out highlights from Pope’s interview all day (week?) long, but you can listen to or watch it in its entirety below.

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