Kentucky tornado: Facebook groups race to reunite people with belongings including boats, bills and photos found strewn more than 100 miles away

Items were found 130 miles away as recovery from destruction continues

An aluminium fishing boat, an energy bill and a family photo are among the dozens of items that were strewn across the Midwest and found by Facebook users after last week’s devastating tornadoes.

A Facebook group, Quad State Tornado Found Items, has been flooded with posts detailing items that people have found amid the wreckage, or are missing.

It includes an aluminium fishing boat that was reported missing from Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, on Sunday night, which a Facebook user said was his deceased father’s.

The boat was allegedly found nearly 130 miles away in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, after an appeal on Facebook by a man, Cliff Carter.

“The damage is unexplainable, but for every sad story I was seeing and hearing, I was also seeing and hearing a story of ‘Hope’ God doesn’t waste our pain and Reelfoot Lake is proof of that,” he wrote.

“I see a community doing what the definition of community is.”

More than 130 miles away from Dawson Springs in Fern Creek, Kentucky, a Facebook user said she found an energy bill and that she was praying the family were alive.

“I hope this family made it out alive,” a woman wrote. “If anyone knows anyone in Dawson Springs, ask them if this family is okay. I am praying for them.”

A relative replied saying that the energy bill belonged to their 85- and 88-year-old grandparents who survived the tornado, and that he was “thankful we have them a little longer”.

At least 88 people in five states – 74 in Kentucky alone – were killed as tornadoes tore through the Midwestern US on Friday, with Kentucky the worst affected.

Dozens of family photos were also posted on Quad State Tornado Found Items, with one woman replying to an image of herself by writing: “This is me....from 1998. Do you have this?”

The photo was expected to be returned.