在美国肯塔基州等多地遭遇“毁灭性”龙卷风灾害后，不少城镇被“夷为平地”，截至目前至少已造成数十人死亡。灾难之下，一张被狂风刮到200多公里外的老照片无意间扣动了不少美国民众的心弦。
 

 

When Katie Posten walked outside Saturday morning to her car parked in her driveway, she saw something that looked like a note or receipt stuck to the windshield.

12月11日早上，凯蒂·波斯顿走到她停在车道上的汽车旁时，看到挡风玻璃上贴着一张像是纸条或收据的东西。

 

She grabbed it and saw it was a black and white photo of a woman in a striped sundress and headscarf holding a little boy in her lap. On the back, written in cursive, it said, "Gertie Swatzell & J.D. Swatzell 1942." A few hours later, Posten would discover that the photo had made quite a journey - almost 130 miles (209 kilometers) on the back of monstrous¹ winds.

她拿起来才发现是一张黑白照，照片上一个女人穿着条纹背心裙，戴着头巾，腿上抱着一个小男孩。背面用连体字写着：“格蒂·斯瓦泽尔和J.D.斯瓦泽尔1942”。几个小时后，波斯顿发现这张照片经历了一段相当长的旅程，被龙卷风从大约209公里之外的地方刮过来的。

 

波斯顿住在印第安纳州新奥尔巴尼，那里与肯塔基州路易斯维尔隔着俄亥俄河相望。由于知道附近地区遭受了龙卷风袭击，因此她立即判断这张“从天而降”的老照片很可能是从受灾地刮来的。于是她便将照片发布在社交媒体上，希望能找到它的主人，随后许多网友也将这条推文转发扩散。

 

She posted an image of the photo on Facebook and Twitter and asked for help in finding its owners.

她在脸书和推特上发布了这张照片，求助网友寻找照片的主人。

 

"A lot of people shared it on Facebook. Someone came across it who is friends with a man with the same last name, and they tagged him," said Posten, 30, who works for a tech company.

今年30岁的波斯顿在一家科技公司工作，她说：“很多人在脸书上分享了这张照片，有人偶然发现照片上的人与一个男性好友同姓，于是添加了标签提醒他”。

 

That man was Cole Swatzell, who commented that the photo belonged to family members in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, almost 130 miles (209 kilometers) away from New Albany, as the crow flies, and 167 miles (269 kilometers) away by car.

这名男子叫科尔·斯瓦泽尔，他评论说，照片属于他在肯塔基州道森斯普林斯市的家人，直线距离新奥尔巴尼约209公里，开车距离约269公里。

 

In Dawson Springs -- a town of about 2,700 people 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Paducah -- homes were leveled, trees were splintered and search and rescue teams continued to scour² the community for any survivors³.

道森斯普林斯位于帕杜卡以东97公里处，镇上大约有2700人，这里房屋被夷为平地，树木被劈成碎片，搜救队仍在社区内搜寻幸存者。

 

The fact that the photo traveled almost 130 miles is "unusual but not that unusual," said John Snow, a meteorology professor at the University of Oklahoma.

俄克拉何马大学的气象学教授约翰·斯诺说，照片飞了近209公里，“这非常罕见，但也不是不可能”。

 

Posten wasn't alone in finding family photos and school pictures that had traveled dozens of kilometers in the tornadoes⁴' paths. A Facebook group was set up after the storms so people could post photos and other items like an ultrasound image they had found deposited in their yards.

波斯顿并不是唯一一个发现家庭照和校园照的人，这些照片在龙卷风刮过的路径上飞了数公里。暴风雨过后，人们在脸书上建立了一个小组，这样人们就可以发布照片和其他物品，比如他们在院子里发现的超声波图像。

 

斯瓦策尔说，他的家人计划在本周晚些时候与波斯顿会面，并取回照片；波斯顿也已表示要将老照片原样奉还。

 

“社交媒体是一种非常强大的信息工具。当遇到这类事时，它有能力将人与人连接起来，并完成几乎不可能做到的事情”，波斯顿说道。

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