Kentucky tornado: At least 70 people killed in Kentucky alone, governor says, after tornadoes hit central and southern US
Among the most significant damage: Tornadoes or strong winds brought down an occupied candle factory in Kentucky, an Amazon warehouse in western Illinois and a nursing home in Arkansas, killing people within each community and cause responders to scramble to rescue others.
CNN meteorologists say a stretch of more than 200 miles from Arkansas to Kentucky may have been affected by a long, violent stretch.
The extent of the devastation won’t be fully known for hours, but emerging video clips – buildings flattened, cars overturned and workers clearing debris for those trapped – speak to the damage. amazing damage in some areas.
“I’m pretty sure that number up north is 70 … in fact, it could exceed 100 before the day is over,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said morning. end of Saturday.
“This is the deadliest tornado in the history of our state.… The level of devastation is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Beshear said.
One of the worst-hit locations was Mayfield, southwestern Kentucky, where a tornado hit the candle factory Friday night while people were at work. About 110 people were inside, Beshear said.
“We believe we will lose at least dozens of such individuals,” the governor said at an earlier news conference.
Video from Mayfield shows what’s left of the factory: a huge field, mostly of twisted metal, several feet high, with rescuers using hands and machines to dig.
Among the survivors was Kyanna Parsons-Perez, who said workers rushed to the safe area before the storm made landfall. During roll call, she saw “a little wind.”
Kyanna Parsons-Perez told CNN’s Boris Sanchez: “My ears started ringing.
Pinned by debris to others, she used her phone to broadcast on Facebook Live and called 911, her mother, and a relative of a colleague. She knew rescuers were only around when she could feel the pressure from above – people walking on debris.
“I was screaming like, ‘Sir, can you take this so I can move my legs? He said, “Ma’am, there’s about five feet worth of debris on you.”
Rescuers were eventually able to pull her and the others out, she said.
The official death toll in Kentucky has yet to be announced; Deaths have been reported in Arkansas (three), Tennessee (three), Illinois (two) and Missouri (one).
In a message on Twitter, President Joe Biden called the loss of a loved one in storms like these an “unthinkable tragedy”.
‘Many, many’ people pulled from Kentucky factory
Ivy Williams was at the Mayfield site Saturday, looking for his wife of more than 30 years, who he said was at the factory.
“I hope she’s somewhere safe,” Williams said tearfully. “Please call me… I’m looking for you, baby.”
First responders pulled “many, many” people out of the wreckage, some alive and some apparently dead, hurricane hunter Michael Gordon told CNN Saturday morning from the scene.
“It’s hard to say,” said Gordon.
People are working there, because the factory is “open 24/7” in part to meet demand for Christmas candles, US Representative James Comer, who represents the area, told CNN.
“It changed the landscape … here in Mayfield,” said Kentucky State Police Chief Dean Patterson. “We are seeing (annihilation) that none of us have ever seen before.”
Officials say death toll in Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee
Deaths have also been reported in Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee.
Sheriff Mike Fillback said at the Amazon warehouse that collapsed in Edwardsville, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, at least two people were killed and rescue efforts were underway Saturday.
Rescue work was slow because hanging debris endangers first responders, Fillback said.
Fillback said dozens of people were able to get out without serious injuries.
“It was horrible to see the extent of the damage there and to know someone was inside when it happened,” Fillback told KMOV on Saturday morning. Police don’t know how many people were in the building at the time of the collapse, Fillback said, nor how many are still trapped inside.
In Monette, northeastern Arkansas, at least one person died after a tornado damaged a nursing home Friday, trapping others inside before being rescued. At least 20 people were also injured at the facility, Mayor Bob Blankenship told CNN.
Another person was killed in nearby Leachville, when a woman was “in the Dollar General store when the storm hit and they couldn’t get out,” Mississippi County Sheriff Dale Cook told CNN.
Also in Arkansas, Interstate 555 near the town of Trumann was closed because the vehicle overturned, said LaTresha Woodruff, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. Woodruff said state officials have been notified to the town’s fire department, the EMS facility and a nursing home have been damaged.
Areas of Arkansas — as well as Mayfield, Kentucky — lie on a path more than 200 miles long, including parts of Missouri and Tennessee, that could be created by a long-distance tornado, meteorologists say. CNN said.
If it were a tornado, that 200-mile distance would be the longest distance since 1925.
About 70 miles northeast of Mayfield, Lori Wooten took shelter in her daughter’s basement in the tiny Kentucky community of Dawson Springs when the storm passed Friday night. She emerged and saw a 2-foot-long piece of wood that served as the spearhead of a master bedroom, and debris scattered outside.
Wooten, the aunt of CNN political analyst Scott Jennings, told CNN Saturday.
A train derailed near Madisonville, Kentucky early Saturday morning as the weather moved through the area, according to a CSX spokesman. There were no reports of injuries to the crew.
In northwest Tennessee, north of Memphis, one person was killed in Obion County and two people died in Lake County during the storm, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said.
In Obion County, many structures were damaged in the Samburg community, according to officials. The town “was pretty much flattened,” Judy Faulkner, the Obion County sheriff, told CNN.
Along with multiple tornadoes, the storms had generated dozens of reports of wind and hail as of early Saturday.
Placing a weather warning for Friday from Arkansas to Indiana, the severity of the storms is expected to subside as Saturday continues, with the threat greatest in the early morning hours.
Much of the eastern US will be affected by rain Saturday night. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, strong to severe thunderstorms are possible isolated from the Ohio Valley and Tennessee into the northern Gulf States. Wind gusts, hail and tornadoes are still possible.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Kentucky Emergency Management Director, Michael Dossett.
CNN’s Paul P. Murphy, Claudia Dominguez, Nadia Romero, Derek Van Dam, Taylor Ward, Joe Sutton, Keith Allen, Dave Hennen, Haley Brink, Dave Alsup contributed to this report.
