Deadly tornado named top story of 2009

By Brian Smith

(Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-day series.)

Mother Nature’s wrath and its consequences topped the list of the top stories of 2009, as voted on by the staff of the Richmond Register.

Other top stories included an assault at a local high school that sent one student to the hospital and the city of Richmond’s ongoing budget crisis.

The top 10 stories and an honorable mention were selected through a vote by the members of the Register’s news staff and publisher Nick Lewis.

No. 1 — Tornado kills two, levels homes

A typical Friday afternoon turned tragic May 8 when an EF3 tornado ripped across the county, flattening houses in Kirksville and Waco and killing two people.

Glenda Charbonnel, 42, and Shawn Michael Yarber, 35, were killed when the trailer they were in was thrown into a pond by the storm as it passed through Kirksville.

The storm devastated a subdivision near Kirksville Elementary School, caused substantial damage to Richmond Fire Station No. 5, knocked down electrical lines to the city of Berea and destroyed homes in the Waco area as it crossed the county.

The tornado entered Madison County shortly after 5 p.m., and by 8 p.m., both the city of Richmond and the county government had declared states of emergency.

Madison County sheriff’s deputies were deployed alongside the National Guard to set up checkpoints around the Kirksville area to cut down on looting and vandalism in the days after the storm.

The devastation caused by the storm led to President Barack Obama including Madison County in a disaster declaration that covered 22 counties affected by the same storm, which caused an estimated $52 million in damage statewide.

No. 2 — Ice storm blankets county, causes outages

A late January ice storm darkened large portions of Madison County as trees and power lines collapsed.

The Jan. 27 storm was expected to bring snow, but instead coated the area with a thick sheet of ice that wreaked havoc on electrical service, plunging thousands into darkness.

Most of the city of Berea lost power for more than a day following the storm, as Kentucky Utilities worked to restore transmission lines to Berea Municipal Utilities as well as the city of Richmond.

The outage forced hospitals and other emergency services to operate on generator power, and police officers in Richmond and Berea were forced to direct traffic on the slick roads because traffic lights were out of service.

Despite the outages, the All “A” Classic continued at Eastern Kentucky University’s Alumni Coliseum through the storm, and Madison District Court went ahead as scheduled Jan. 28 despite the Madison Hall of Justice not having electricity.

The damage caused by the storm and the cost of cleaning up the tons of debris left by fallen trees exceeded $1 million county-wide, and the city of Richmond took out a $600,000 loan in March to pay for the cleanup, despite commissioners not voting to approve the loan until October.

No. 3 — ‘A City in Crisis’

The city of Richmond’s struggle to cope with budget shortfalls began over the summer when commissioners Rita Smart and Mike Brewer began asking questions about the city’s financial health.

An in-depth analysis of the city’s budget showed Richmond had been operating on a deficit for the past three years, and income projections for items like the city’s 8 percent insurance tax, the Paradise Cove aquatic center and the Adventure Falls miniature golf course were far out of line with actual collections.

Commissioners have spent the past three months considering ways to cut expenses and raise additional income to deal with the shortfall, including changes to the city’s overtime and vacation policies, increasing fees for recreational facilities and changing work schedules for city employees.

State Auditor Crit Luallen said in October that her office is looking closely at the city’s audit as a result of the shortfall, particularly in light of the city being forced to spend almost $9 million from its investment accounts to pay for deficits in recent years.

“Whenever you have to spend down those investments, it points to a longer-term problem,” Luallen told the Register.

No. 4 — Student stabbed in MCHS fight

An early October fight in a culinary laboratory at Madison Central High School sent one student to the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington with a collapsed lung after he was stabbed in the chest with a knife.

Stevie Christopher Caldwell, 17, was hospitalized for a week after the Oct. 8 stabbing, which forced administrators and Richmond police to lock the building down for several hours while investigators examined the scene.

Caldwell’s assailant, identified only as a 17-year-old male student, was charged as a juvenile with first-degree assault following the altercation.

The knife came within millimeters of puncturing Caldwell’s heart, according to his mother, Jaime. “If it had hit his heart, we wouldn’t have him right now,” she said in October.

Jaime Caldwell filed a lawsuit Dec. 10 against Central principal Gina Lakes, teacher Patti Etherington and teacher’s aide Rose Mansfield, alleging that the three were deficient in their responsibility to enforce school policies regarding students possessing knives and negligent in supervising the students when the stabbing occurred.

No. 5 — Richmond police officers accused in sexual assault

A group of three Richmond Police Department officers are suspended and facing administrative charges in connection with an Oct. 27 incident in which a woman initially reported the men had sexually assaulted her.

The non-criminal charges were filed after an internal investigation by Detective Brian Lafferty into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The incident was first reported to the Madison County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 27 when the alleged victim’s neighbor contacted authorities out of concern for her neighbor’s safety, said Sheriff Nelson O’Donnell. The woman appeared to have a bruised neck and a split lip, he said.

Investigators spoke to the woman on multiple occasions about the incident, including at Pattie A. Clay Regional Medical Center, where she refused a rape examination kit.

The woman later recanted the assault claim, and no criminal charges have been filed.

An attorney for the officers, Scott Crosbie of Lexington, issued a statement Dec. 28 that maintained their innocence and expressed concern that O’Donnell’s statements about the case may have violated his clients’ constitutional rights.

O’Donnell responded to Crosbie’s concerns by stating that his office acted appropriately in investigating the case.

Brian Smith may be reached at bsmith@richmondregister.com or at 624-6694.