Rescuers were desperately searching for survivors early yesterday after dozens of devastating tornadoes tore through six US states, leaving at least 83 people dead, dozens missing and towns in ruin.
US President Joe Biden called the wave of tornadoes, including one that traveled more than 320km, “one of the largest” storm outbreaks in US history.
“It’s a tragedy, and we still don’t know how many lives are lost and the full extent of the damage,” Biden said in televised comments, pledging support for the affected states.
Photo: AP
Scores of search and rescue officials were helping stunned citizens across the US heartland sift through the rubble of their homes and businesses overnight.
More than 70 people were believed to have been killed in Kentucky alone, many of them workers at a candle factory, while at least six died in an Amazon.com Inc warehouse in Illinois where they were on the night shift processing orders ahead of Christmas.
“This event is the worst, most devastating, most deadly tornado event in Kentucky’s history,” state Governor Andy Beshear said.
Photo: AFP
Beshear said he feared “we will have lost more than 100 people.”
“The devastation is unlike anything I have seen in my life, and I have trouble putting it into words,” he said.
Beshear has declared a state of emergency.
Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan told CNN that her western Kentucky town was reduced to “matchsticks.”
The small town of 10,000 people was described as “ground zero” by officials, and appeared post-apocalyptic. City blocks were leveled, historic homes and buildings were beaten down to their slabs, tree trunks were stripped of their branches and vehicles lay overturned in fields.
Beshear said there were 110 people working at the candle factory when the storm hit, causing the roof to collapse.
Forty people have been rescued, but it would be “a miracle if anybody else is found alive,” he said.
CNN played a heart-rending plea posted on Facebook by a factory employee.
“We are trapped, please, y’all, get us some help,” a woman says, her voice quavering as a coworker can be heard moaning in the background. “We are at the candle factory in Mayfield... Please, y’all. Pray for us.”
The woman, Kyanna Parsons-Perez, was rescued after being pinned under a water fountain.
In one demonstration of the storms’ power on Saturday, when winds derailed a 27-car train near Earlington, Kentucky, one car was blown 68.6m up a hill and another landed on a house. No one was hurt.
Reports put the total number of tornadoes across the region at about 30.
At least 13 people were killed in other storm-hit states, including at the Amazon warehouse.
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