KENTUCKY GOV CRIES: ‘THERE ARE NO DOORS’
‘Deadliest tornado event’ in state’s history, he says
The governor of Kentucky detailed Sunday the “deadliest tornado event” his state has ever experienced, two days after twisters killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of structures, including a candle factory where dozens of workers were on the job.
Gov. Andy Beshear revised earlier estimates of how many people died in the state on Sunday afternoon, saying the number may be 50; earlier he had estimated the state’s toll could be higher than 100.
“We are praying that maybe original estimates of those we have lost were wrong. If so, it’s going to be pretty wonderful,” the governor said.
The confusion over the death toll continued as rescue and recovery teams sorted through the rubble of several towns completely destroyed in the late Friday into early Saturday tornadoes.
The last “live rescue” made at the leveled candle factory in Mayfield, a 10,000-population city in western Kentucky, was at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Beshear said.
The company said eight workers were confirmed dead and eight remained missing.
More than 90 others had been located, leading to a sharp drop in the feared number of deaths.
Forty of those saved were pulled out immediately afterward, with rescuers crawling over the dead to get to the living amid the odor of scented candles.
In addition, there were “over a thousand homes that are just gone,” Beshear said, as he stood flanked by local and federal disaster relief officials, experts from the National Weather Service and representatives of myriad agencies responding to the disaster.
The Mayfield tornado was at least an EF3 — considered “strong,” with wind speeds of 111 to 165 mph. The next level up is “violent,” and there was the possibility the storm could carry that label once surveying was done, the National Weather Service said.
President Biden had already made an emergency declaration Saturday and had also been asked to grant the state’s request for a major disaster declaration, which would help individuals and allow for long-term repair, Beshear said.
Rebuilding was going to take months, he and others emphasized.
“This isn’t going to happen overnight,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), underscoring Beshear’s comments. “This is going to be a very long process.”
Beshear, along with local officials and others touring the damage, said it was hard to conceptualize the scale of decimation just from photos and footage, horrific as those images were.
“I’ve got towns that are gone. That are just, I mean, gone,”
Beshear told CNN’s “State of the Union” earlier Sunday. “My dad’s hometown, half of it isn’t standing. It is hard to describe.
“You think you’d go door to door-to-check on people and see if they’re OK. There are no doors. The question is: Is someone in the rubble of thousands upon thousands of structures?”
Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee also reported deaths from tornadoes.
Beshear expects this to be “the longest and deadliest tornado event” in United States history.
“The massive, widespread damage makes rescue efforts a challenge,” Beshear said. “If we haven’t found someone by now, it’s a really great concern.”
In southern Illinois, an Amazon facility was struck by a tornado late Friday. Officials confirmed at least six fatalities at the facility in Edwardsville.
The six workers who died were ages 26 to 62 and included a 29-year-old U.S. Navy veteran.
A company representative said Sunday that a tornado warning siren sounded 11 minutes before the deadly storm hit the warehouse Friday night.
“Managers were on the loudspeakers telling people to get to the shelter-in-place area. They were also being guided by other managers and other employees who were trying to get everybody to that safe location,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel told CNN affiliate KSDK.
The news of the six deaths came after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was criticized on social media for not mentioning the tornado earlier. Bezos finally posted on Saturday night and said he was “heartbroken.”
“The news from Edwardsville is tragic,” he said in a statement on Twitter. “We’re heartbroken over the loss of our teammates there, and our thoughts and prayers are with their families and loved ones.”
Bezos’ statement, which came some 24 hours after the tornado hit, followed a celebratory Instagram post he made on Saturday morning of his latest space launch, which included Michael Strahan.
The former football starturned-TV personality launched into space Saturday on Blue Origin, along with the daughter of one of NASA’s pioneers.
“Happy crew this morning in the training center,” Bezos wrote.