WEST LIBERTY, W.Va..—Now, more than seven months after a devastating tornado ripped apart a small Kentucky town, a local group is once again setting out to support a place they call their twin city.

On March 2, 2012, a strong tornado all but destroyed the town of West Liberty, Ky., killing 5.

Calling it their “twin city”, students and staff from the university in West Liberty, W.Va., are returning to help their brothers and sisters.

“It was this calm area, we went through a big turn and it just showed the whole town of West Liberty devastated. And it was crazy to think that a tornado could hit such an area that reminds me of the Ohio Valley,” said Luke Tacosik, who made the initial trip to Kentucky and will return soon.

The photos take one’s breath away-- homes shredded, churches opened to the heavens, trees blown clear out of the ground, the ground cleared of any greens to mow. The scene all too often after a destructive storm, but never ceases to amaze.

Tacosik said that while a picture is worth a thousand words,  when you've seen this first hand, the pictures just don't serve the scene any  justice.

"You watch it on the news, you sit at your house, you watch pictures on the Internet, Facebook, and then when you get there, it hits you hard-- it's real," said Tacosik.

"You realize that bad things can happen to anybody at any time and they really related to these people in West Liberty, Ky.,” said Debra Dague, Protestant pastor for West Liberty University.

Dague helps to organize mission trips like the one just after the tornado hit early in 2012.

Then, students and volunteers cleared out the debris of ravaged homes, and fallen trees.

Now, West Liberty, W.Va., makes a second trip for the same cause in the same place -- their twin city in Kentucky. But it's a new effort now, to rebuild, re-paint and reinforce West Liberty's future.

"It's changed their life, they've talked about it many, many months after and can't wait to go back and see how we can be a part of the rebuilding phase now," said Dague.

As fall break hits at the university, funded by the West Liberty University Foundation, those students and staff will be leaving Thursday afternoon and returning home over the weekend.