FAIRMONT– Sophie Dojacques has had several amazing experiences in her life; however, going through a tornado was not an item on her bucket list.

The Fairmont woman recently found herself in Mayfield, Kentucky, just one day before deadly tornadoes ripped through and devastated the area.

Dojacques is a physician who has worked all over the country. She started at Mayo in Fairmont in 2011 and bought a farm here in 2012. While she doesn’t work here anymore, Fairmont has remained “home base” for Dojacques.

Because she’s a traveling physician, she goes where she’s needed. Lately, the need for OB-GYNs has been high. Dojacques said she’s booked back-to-back wherever she’s needed and she’s currently credentialed at eight different hospitals.

Most recently, Dojacques was in Winona. She calls her latest assignment at Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield, Kentucky as “random.”

“I had never worked at this particular location before. Honestly I didn’t think about weather issues. It’s December,” she said.

She left Winona and drove to Mayfield, a town about the size of Fairmont. She arrived with her two dogs in tow at midnight on Thursday, Dec. 9.

“The next day I showed up at the hospital at 7 a.m. when they wanted me to for orientation. I went back home and took a nap. When I woke up was when things got started,” Dojacques said.

She explained that she doesn’t listen to the radio and was without a television. She had just arrived and without knowing anyone, was unaware of any approaching severe weather.

A journal entry Dojacques wrote that she shared with the Sentinel reads:

“It was a little after 9 p.m. All I could hear were outside sirens and phone weather alerts going off. Then the wind died down almost completely for a few minutes. I stepped onto the back porch, surprised by the fury replaced so quickly by calm. But rather, it was absence of wind accompanied by intense barometric pressure. I felt it in my ears, on my chest. It made the air heavy to breathe. It was black outside and I knew then that it was out there. And I had a funny thought: does it count as a bucket list item if I can’t actually see it?”

When severe weather was upon her, Dojacques realized the house she was staying in didn’t have a basement and nearly all of the rooms had windows. She and her two large dogs ended up taking cover in a hallway closet.

When she felt it was safe, Dojacques left the closet and found she was without power. A neighbor came over and brought her a flashlight and informed her the local high school had been hit by a tornado and there was “devastation.”

The next morning, the whole magnitude of what she had endured struck her.

“It was an F4 tornado. Winds were up to 190 mph. It was one mile wide. That’s why it was able to take out almost everything,” Dojacques said.

What’s maybe most shocking of all is that Dojacques was first asked by the locum housing personnel to stay in a house that other doctors typically stay in, but Dojacques refused, opting to rent a house in the countryside.

Following the tornado, she discovered the house she was originally asked to stay in no longer existed.

“It was unusual. There is never an argument about housing. That’s what bothers me the most. The house is gone. I don’t think I would have survived it,” Dojacques said.

Since the tornado, Dojacques has continued to work, doing labor and delivery at the small hospital she was assigned to. She said the brick hospital remained standing but there was no water or electricity aside from what was provided from the generator.

She said most patients have been sent to other hospitals in Murray or Paducah, Kentucky.

“Now we have a second bad situation. We started getting thunderstorms (Thursday) and some flooding. The rain is still coming down and now it’s 30 or 40 degree at night,” Dojacques said.

Because so many people are without homes, Dojacques said many are in tents. She said recovery efforts have nearly stopped due to the heavy rain.

“This is a small, poor county. They barely had enough as it was,” Dojacques said.

She said people have seemed happy receiving blankets and one clean change of clothing. In addition to that, she said there are long-term needs, including money for housing.

Dojacques was supposed to leave this week to go to another assignment but her replacement decided not to come to Kentucky at this time so she’s staying a little longer. She’s staying in the same house but is without water or electricity. She has a gas fireplace and gas grill.

“Even though I wasn’t hurt by it, I think I definitely have a little PTSD,” Dojacques said.