Trailing in the Wake of the Storm
THE DUCK HUNTERS were prolific that day. Their shots echoed around the hills of Kentucky Lake as flocks of waterfowl filled the skies. There were more than usual, even for northwestern Kentucky in December. Mark Menendez knows because he was on the water boating a healthy limit of smallmouth. The day was Dec. 10, 2021.
About a week later, Menendez would be back on the water, idling through an apocalyptic scene at nearby Lake Barkley. “It looked like Night of the Living Dead,” he describes. “There were wood boards, trusses and joists sticking out of the ground. Many were standing vertical in the water, embedded in 2 feet of mud.”
The wreckage came from
