Cajun Navy GF deploys members to Kentucky to assist with recovery efforts after deadly tornado

The Cajun Navy Ground Force has deployed members of the foundation to Mayfield, Ky. to assist with recovery efforts following a catastrophic tornado devastating the town Friday night.

The foundation deployed six of its members to Kentucky to establish a SAFE Camp (Swift Action Force Emergency Camp) a mobile unit that provides food, water, and medical care. The foundation set up its camp in a Walmart parking lot in Mayfield, located at 1225 Paris Rd.

“What inspired is the scale of this disaster. It’s unlike anything that happens in a typical tornado, this is much more like a hurricane just because of the number of people that were affected by it,” reads a statement from Rob Gaudet, Founder, and Director of Cajun Navy Ground Force.

Cajun Navy Ground Force is a non-profit organization that provides supplemental supply distribution and medical services for communities in crisis during natural disasters.

Gaudet says the foundation’s recovery assistance with Hurricane Ida and Hurricane Laura provided experience and preparation to assist other cities with high-caliber disasters. “We have expertise on all of the logistics, volunteer handling, and food distribution that goes with such a large-scale disaster, really because of efforts with Hurricane Ida, Laura, and other natural disasters we’ve worked on.”

“This isn’t an area that is affected by these types of large disasters, so we wanted to help them learn more quickly and be more effective with our expertise with natural disasters,” Gaudet added.

The Catastrophic tornado moved through Mayfield, Kentucky late Friday night with strong winds causing the collapse of an occupied candle factory in Kentucky, an Amazon warehouse in western Illinois, and a nursing home in Arkansas, killing people in each community and leaving responders scrambling to rescue survivors. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear reported the tornado has claimed the lives of 64 people ranging from 5 months old to 86 years old, with a remaining 105 victims unaccounted for.

“There’s still a large need for search and rescue because it’s such a large area, our team is going to all of the cities that were affected to get information about each of them so that we can decide where our services are best needed,” Gaudet added.

Cajun Navy Ground Force is seeking volunteers for cleanup/debris removal, and food supply distribution, to sign up as a volunteer contact Lauren@GoCajunNavy.org

 For more information and updates on the Cajun Navy Ground Force Kentucky Recovery Effort, visit their Facebook or Twitter.