and competition with invasive species.

Macey Coffey carries salvageable items from what isleft of Edwina Wilson’s destroyed home, Sunday, May 18, 2025, in London, Ky., after a severe storm passed through the area. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)Macey Coffey carries salvageable items from what isleft of Edwina Wilson’s destroyed home, Sunday, May 18, 2025, in London, Ky., after a severe storm passed through the area. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

He said he felt the house shake as he got into a closet. Then, a door from another house crashed through a window. All the windows blew out of the house and his car was destroyed. Chunks of wood had punched through several parts of the roof but the house avoided catastrophic damage. When he stepped outside, he heard screaming.“I guess in the moment, I kind of realized there was nothing I could do. I’d never really felt that kind of power from just nature,” he said.Damage assessments were underway Sunday as the state readied its request for federal disaster assistance, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said.

The governor announced a 19th storm victim, a woman from Russell County. Of 10 people hospitalized for weather-related injuries, three remained in critical condition.“A lot of Kentuckians are hurting right now,” Beshear said on X, touting fundraising efforts to help with funerals and rebuilding. “If you’re able to help, please do.”

He said parts of two dozen state roads were closed, and some could take days to reopen.

About 1,200 tornadoes“The Sphenacodontid Kind,” Dimetrodon, is displayed at the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Ky., Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Madeleine Hordinski)

“The Sphenacodontid Kind,” Dimetrodon, is displayed at the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Ky., Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Madeleine Hordinski)The issue has been repeatedly legislated and litigated since the Scopes trial. Tennessee repealed its anti-evolution law in 1967. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion, and in 1987 it overturned a Louisiana law requiring that creationism be taught alongside evolution. A 2005 federal court similarly forbade a Pennsylvania school district from presenting “intelligent design,” a different approach to creationism that argues life is too complex to have evolved by chance.

Some lawmakers have recently revived the issue. North Dakota’s Senate this year defeated a bill that would have allowed public school teaching on intelligent design. A newvaguely allows teachers to answer student questions about “scientific theories of how the universe and/or life came to exist.”