President Biden will travel to Dawson Springs, Kentucky, as part of his state visit today.
About 75% of towns wiped out by the tornado, Mayor Chris Smiley said.
“Our morale is down right now, but we’ll be back,” said Hopkins County journalist Dennis Mayfield, who reported a death toll of 13 in Dawson Springs alone.
About a third of the town’s 2,500 population lives below the poverty line and many are uninsured.
Nick Bailey, the county’s director of emergency management, said people whose homes are still in could be without power for up to a month.
Overall, at least 88 people were killed in the intense storms that swept through parts of the Midwest and South late Friday through Saturday, including at least 74 in Kentucky, according to Governor Andy Beshear . An estimated 50 tornado reports were made across eight states.
“When this tornado hit, it didn’t just take off a roof, that’s what we’ve seen in the past,” Beshear said. “It blew up the whole house. People, animals, the rest – just disappeared.”
Of the 74 people killed in Kentucky, 12 were children, Beshear said. More than 100 people were still unaccounted for as of Tuesday morning, he said.
Damage is not limited to life and buildings. Several major transmission towers have been destroyed and it will take weeks to months to replace them, Kentucky Emergency Management Director Michael Dossett told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
The destruction was very indiscriminate. The long-term impact is difficult to measure.
Senator Whitney Westerfield said: “For some people, I don’t know that they will fully recover from this, certainly not emotionally or psychologically.
“Houses and buildings can be rebuilt in time, but this is the kind of thing that lasts with the community and with the family,” he told CNN on Monday.
