Dozens of devastating tornadoes tore through five US states, killing more than 80 people in what President Joe Biden said was “one of the largest storm outbreaks” in history.
“It’s a tragedy,” Biden lamented in shock in televised comments. “And we still don’t know how many lives were lost or the full extent of the damage.”
Dozens of search and rescue officials were helping citizens to remove debris from their homes and businesses tonight in search of more survivors.
The situation in Kentucky
In Kentucky alone, 70 deaths were reported, many of them workers in a candle factory, and at least six died in Illinois when an Amazon warehouse that processed Christmas orders was razed, according to the AFP agency.
The western Kentucky city of Mayfield was “ground zero” for the storm, a scene of “massive devastation,” a senior local official said early Saturday.
The small city of 10,000 inhabitants seemed apocalyptic: entire blocks razed; houses and historic buildings demolished and reduced to rubble; tree trunks stripped of their branches; overturned cars.
“It’s indescribable, the level of devastation is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said from Mayfield.
“This will be, I think, the deadliest tornado system Kentucky has ever seen.”
Beshear said it was clear that the death toll in his state was already “above 70” and could end “exceeding 100 before the day is out.”
About the candle factory whose roof collapsed, he said: “We are going to lose many lives in that building. It is a terrible situation.”
Forty people have been rescued from the factory, but it would be “a miracle if someone else was found alive,” Beshear said.
The CNN news network issued a moving plea posted on Facebook by one of the factory employees.
“We’re stuck, please everyone, get us some help,” asks a woman with a shaking voice when one of her co-workers can be heard complaining in the background.
The tornado that struck Mayfield swept overland for more than 200 miles (321 km) in Kentucky and 227 miles (365 km) in total, Beshear reported.
Other regions affected by the storm
Previously, the longest US ground tornado ever recorded occurred with a 219-mile (352 km) storm over Missouri in 1925. At the time, it claimed 695 lives.
A demonstration of the incredible power of the storms came Saturday, when winds derailed a train near Earlington, Kentucky, and one of the vehicle’s 27 carriages rose nearly 70 meters and landed on a house. No one was hurt.
If you add the number of affected states, the total number of tornadoes in the region was about 30.
At least 13 people died in other states hit by the storm, bringing the total to 83.
In Arkansas, at least one person was killed when a tornado “practically destroyed” a Monette nursing home, a county official said. Another person died elsewhere in the state.
Biden said that while the impact of these particular storms was not yet clear, he cautioned that “we all know that everything is most intense when the weather is warming, everything.”
The American Red Cross reported that it was working to provide aid in all five states.
Beshear declared a state of emergency in Kentucky and anticipated that dozens of search and rescue officers were deployed along with the national guard.
More than half a million homes in various states were without power.
One of the storms affected an Amazon distribution center in the state of Illinois, according to local authorities. The media reported that a hundred workers were trapped in the place and it is not ruled out that there are victims.
On Saturday morning, emergency teams were working to rescue the employees of this warehouse of the distribution giant, a third of which was reduced to rubble.
Employees worked the night shift processing thousands of orders before the Christmas holidays.
