Major Leslie Leatherman, a 39-year veteran of the Laurel County Fire Department, was tragically killed while responding to a fire alarm when the tornado touched down.

Two days after deadly tornadoes tore through southern Kentucky, devastated communities are beginning the painful process of picking up the pieces.

As recovery efforts continue, emergency management teams are conducting damage assessments to help Kentucky qualify for federal disaster assistance.

The community of Laurel County, Kentucky, is grieving the loss of more than a dozen people, including a firefighter who spent nearly four decades helping others, after a tornado destroyed his neighborhood while he was on duty.

The EF-3 tornado touched down in Somerset, Pulaski County, before wreaking havoc across the region, including London.

The severity of the damage in the county depends on the specific location, but preliminary assessments show that some areas sustained damage from a high-end EF-3 tornado, according to the NWS. An EF-3 tornado has at least three-second wind gusts of between 136-165 miles per hour.

After a deadly weekend in Laurel County, boots are on the ground everywhere to help communities rebuild what they can.

Entire neighborhoods were razed, leaving residents combing through debris, desperate to recover fragments of their lives.