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A Afghan family who fled Kabul when the capital was taken by the Taliban in August and he found refuge in the United States, he lost everything again when a tornado destroyed his house in Bowling Green, in the state of Kentucky.
The story of the Rahmaty is told today by the newspaper New York Timeswhich interviews Sodaba, a young woman who explains that the family, who had come to Bowling Green after a eventful journey between Kabul, Doha, Germany and finally a temporary camp in Virginia (United States) where they stayed for three months until they were assigned permanent housing.
The Rahmatys are part of a group of 200 Afghans established in Bowling Green within a refugee reception program applied in several states, but they had only been living in that locality for three weeks, which was among the most affected by the December 11 tornado. .
Sodaba Rahmaty first recalls her happy days in Kabul, where she worked in an office, and the panic of leaving, but also the relief of having arrived in a place like Bowling Green, “nice, organized and calm, where we were going to have a good future ahead” and where security was guaranteed.
The day the tornado arrived, he received an alarm message on his cell phone and had to rush out of his house in time to avoid being hit by the gale, which killed 16 people there.
Just four months after fleeing Kabul, the Rahmaty family finds themselves with nothing, temporarily residing in a hostel: “Again we are displaced, things are not clear to us”, they lament, but still find the strength to declare: “I am happy to be alive and hoping for a better future.”
tornadoes, which are among the deadliest ever recorded in these areas of the central United Statesleft a balance of 74 dead in the state of Kentucky alone and 14 more in other neighboring states.