BENTON, Ky. — A National Guard member has been volunteering during tornado recovery, and he started mere hours after his home was destroyed by an EF-4 tornado in December 2021.

PFC Cody Warmath is helping his community recover. (Spectrum News 1/Jonathon Gregg)

If it weren’t for the pictures on his phone, you may have never thought Cody Warmath's apartment used to be where a bare concrete slab now sits.

His apartment was a converted garage, standing a few feet from his childhood home where his parents lived.

"It was a living room with a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom," Warmath explained. 

On the night of Dec. 10, 2021, shortly before 10 p.m., his apartment was swept away by the same tornado that struck Mayfield 30 minutes earlier.

"The apartment is made of metal. Like the walls were made of metal so you could here it shaking it really bad. I grabbed my dogs and whatever else I needed, went inside and we sat inside to watch it," Warmath said. 

With his parents, Warmath went into a first floor bathroom to brace for the worst.

"That's when everything went down. Everything burst. All the glass explodes," he recalled. He said the family farm was merely sideswiped by the powerful tornado.

"You know when the wind force hit it may have been a miles away but the wind force ripped it all away," Warmath said.

His family was OK, but a few hours later he received a text – Gov. Andy Beshear declared a State of Emergency and Warmath, a member of the Army National Guard, was asked to help.

"And I said, well, I guess it's better than me sitting at home not doing anything, I can go out and help other people," he recounted.

Private First Class Warmath said he and fellow Guard members cleared impassable roads covered in storm debris in the immediate aftermath.

Destroyed homes in Mayfield (Spectrum News 1/Jonathon Gregg)

"We were doing road cleanup, traffic control to help put the power lines up," Warmath said. But above all else, he said the Guard offered a needed presence in the community.

"Us being there deters a lot of looters from coming and stealing stuff from homes that are destroyed," Warmath said.

"It's amazing to see them pull that together that quick, to get that many people out there in just a day."

For nearly two weeks Warmath went above and beyond and has since returned to Benton. He says his parents are closing on a new home near Fancy Farm, but he will stay in Benton and tend to the farm animals and what’s left of the farm.

"At least I know what I'm in for for the rest of my career and I can be ready for it the next time around it happens," he said.