The faint meow of a kitten cut through the predawn darkness early Wednesday as storm chaser Ashton Lemley searched the wreckage of a Mississippi trailer park, its homes flattened only hours earlier by tornadoes that swept across the southern half of the state.
Lemley had been picking through the debris of the mobile home community in Bogue Chitto, about 60 miles southwest of Jackson, when he heard the sound. The storms that spawned at least three twisters had already injured a dozen residents of the park, and Lemley had no idea where the kitten was. He kept searching.
After a few minutes the meowing stopped, and Lemley feared the animal had died. Then, five minutes later, he heard it again.
“I said, ‘Oh, he’s still alive!’” Lemley told The Associated Press on Thursday.
He dug under insulation from a flattened wall until his flashlight beam found the kitten — wet, scared, and huddled between two wooden posts. The moment was captured on video.
“Oh my goodness, I found him!” Lemley says to the camera in the footage. “Are you OK? Come here – it’s OK. … We’ll get you cleaned up, baby. Don’t you worry.”
Lemley held the kitten in his arms for a few minutes, then handed it to the commander of the United Cajun Navy, a volunteer disaster-response group that was on the scene. The commander dried the kitten and transported it to safety. Lemley said the kitten did not appear to be injured.
“I’ve been in these situations so many times,” said Lemley, who has chased storms since 2010. “I don’t try to get overly emotional. But it is very heartbreaking to see any type of animal or human go through something like that.”
Lemley said there is already a great deal of interest from people wanting to adopt the kitten if its owners are not located. Some, he said, have suggested naming it Tornado.
The kitten will not be coming home with him. Lemley is allergic to cats.