First responders surround the damaged Amazon Distribution Center on December 10, 2021 in Edwardsville, Illinois.
Michael Thomas | Getty Images News | beautiful pictures
A deadly series of tornadoes ripped through six US states on Saturday, killing more than 70 people in Kentucky and leaving a trail of destroyed homes and businesses along the way, officials said. along a path that spans more than 200 miles, officials said Saturday.
Dozens of frightened people died at a candle factory in western Kentucky where about 110 people were working when a powerful tornado tore through the facility late Friday, causing the roof to collapse.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said 40 of 110 workers have been rescued from the factory so far.
“The level of devastation was unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” said Beshear of the damage caused by the set of spirals, with the main tornado moving more than 227 miles (365 km) through his state. .
“Early this morning at around 5 a.m., we were pretty sure we were going to lose more than 50 Kentuckians. Now I’m sure that number up north is 70. In fact, it will probably exceed 100 before the day ends.”
Beshear said 189 National Guard personnel were deployed to assist with the aftermath, centered on Mayfield, a small city of about 10,000 people in the southwestern corner of the state where it converges with Illinois, Missouri. and Arkansas.
Fire and police stations in Mayfield were destroyed, hampering emergency response. Mayfield is also home to a candle factory, which collapsed shortly after employees heard the wind howl and lights started flashing, according to Kyanna Parsons-Perez, a worker at the factory.
“We could feel the wind … then we played a little wobble,” she told NBC. “And then boom everything fell on us.”
Emergency crews at the Amazon.com, Inc warehouse are damaged after a tornado passes through Edwardsville, Illinois, U.S., December 10, 2021 in this still image taken from aerial video rider obtained on December 11, 2021.
CHRIS PHILLIPS / MAVERICK MEDIA GROUP | CHRIS PHILLIPS via REUTERS
Videos and photos posted on social media showed brick buildings in downtown Mayfield reduced to rubble, with parked cars almost buried under bricks and debris. Photos on Twitter show the bell tower on the Graves County courthouse in Mayfield appearing to have been toppled.
The source of the tornado outbreak was a series of overnight thunderstorms, including a supercell storm that formed in northeast Arkansas. That storm moved from Arkansas and Missouri to Tennessee and Kentucky.
“Unfortunately, it has produced a few deadly tornadoes along the way. One of them could have been a long-distance tornado,” said meteorologist Roger Edward of the Storm Prediction Center. “The murderous tornado was part of that.”
President Joe Biden on Saturday directed that federal resources be directed to locations of greatest need.
‘Like a train roaring through town’
One person was killed and five seriously injured when a tornado tore through a 90-bed nursing home in Monette, Arkansas, a small community near the border with Missouri, Craighead County Judge Marvin Day said.
“It’s just been directly impacted by the tornado,” Day told Reuters. “We’re very fortunate that so many more people weren’t killed or injured in that incident. It could have been a lot worse.”
A few miles away in Leachville, Arkansas, a tornado destroyed a Dollar General Store, killed one person and dumped much of the downtown area, according to Lt. Chuck Brown of the Sheriff’s Office Mississippi County governor in Arkansas.
“It really sounded like a train going through town.”
In Illinois, at least two workers were confirmed dead when an Amazon.com Inc warehouse collapsed in the town of Edwardsville late Friday. Rescue workers are searching for people trapped in the rubble.
Drone footage of the warehouse shows a chaotic scene in the early morning, with ambulances around the area and rescuers with flashlights combing through debris.
The roof appears to have been removed from the metal frame of the building.
In Tennessee, inclement weather has killed at least three people, said Dean Flener, a spokesman for the state’s Emergency Management Agency. Flener said two people died in Lake County and one in Obion County, but did not have any information on the circumstances of the dead.
Shortly after midnight, weather caused a CSX freight train to derail in western Kentucky, although no crew were injured, a company spokesman said.
The National Weather Service’s Hurricane Center said it received 36 reports of tornadoes hitting Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas, and Mississippi.
