Death toll to top 100 in Kentucky tornadoes, search for missing on
Rescuers in an increasingly bleak search picked through the tornado-splintered ruins of homes and businesses on Sunday, including a candle factory that was bustling with night-shift employees when it was flattened, as Kentucky’s governor warned the state’s death toll from the outbreak could top 100.
Factory workers sought refuge in what was supposed to be the safest part of the building, but it may not have mattered because the twister on Friday night was so monstrous, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Authorities on Saturday reported rescuing 40 of the 110 people who were in the building at the time, but by Sunday, hope of finding anyone else alive had all but evaporated.
“It’ll be a miracle if we pull anybody else out of that. It’s now 15 feet deep of steel and cars on top of where the roof was,” the governor said on CNN. “Just tough.”
Jeremy Creason, Mayfield’s fire chief and emergency services director, said rescuers had to crawl over the dead to get to the living. A nursing home and an Amazon distribution center also were smashed in other states in the unusual mid-December swarm of twisters.
“I can tell you from reports that I’ve received I know we’ve lost more than 80 Kentuckians. That number is going to exceed more than 100,” Beshear said on Sunday. He said that going door to door in search of victims is out of the question.
The tornado that carved the path of destruction in Kentucky touched down for more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) in the state. Eleven people were reported killed in and around the city of Bowling Green.
If early reports are confirmed, the twister “will likely go down perhaps as one of the longest track violent tornadoes in United States history,” said Victor Gensini, a researcher on extreme weather at Northern Illinois University.