LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Mayor of Mayfield spoke at the Women’s Summit in Lexington about being a female and leading her community through a crisis. 

December 10, 2021, a date Kathy Stewart O’Nan, the mayor of Mayfield, says there was no way to prepare for the devastation that came after the storm.

“I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget it because I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to tell them. And I went to a former firefighter. Everybody just showed up, everybody who used to work for the city that just came because that’s their home to be there and to serve,” O’Nan said.

Surviving the first few hours. That was the plan O’Nan shared with over 500 women at the Women’s Summit in Lexington as she discussed her position as mayor and leading through a crisis. 

“I didn’t have one and at that moment I don’t know if anybody could have had a plan,” O’Nan said.

A tornado that came through and destroyed most of her community, O’Nan says being a woman encourages her to be a role model to others during times like these. 

“For having been a teacher, it is so important to me that we set good examples for young girls, teenage girls, young women, young mothers, anybody that you know we can do anything we set our minds to,” O’Nan said.

And through it all, O’Nan says she learned an important lesson along the way. No matter how strong of a female leader you think you are, you will be more successful when you allow others to help. 

“And that wasn’t hard for me to learn. But I’ve always been one of those. I’ll just take care of it myself. And this is not something that can be done like that,” O’Nan said.

Sunday marked seven months since the tornado, and the O’Nan says although they have made tremendous progress, they still have a long way to go. Mayfield has started their second round of debris removal, after the first one completed around April.