‘We could feel the wind … and then boom’
A string of devastating tornadoes rip through six US states, leaving a trail of death and damage
‘The city took the heart, the hardest hit. There is massive devastation’
SCORES of people were feared dead yesterday as a devastating outbreak of tornadoes ripped through half a dozen US states, leaving a 200-mile trail of destruction.
The storms trapped Amazon workers in Illinois as a roof collapsed, and laid waste to houses, factories, nursing homes and churches, throwing cars in the air and derailing a train.
President Joe Biden said: “To lose a loved one in a storm like this is an unimaginable tragedy. We’re working with governors to ensure they have what they need as the search for survivors and damage assessments continue.”
The worst-hit state was Kentucky, where the governor Andy Beshear said: “This will be I believe the deadliest tornado system to ever run through Kentucky... I’m now certain that the number [of Kentuckians lost] is north of 70, it may in fact end up exceeding 100 before the day is done. The damage is even worse now that we have first light.
More than 56,000 Kentuckians are now without power. “You see... buildings that are no longer there, huge trucks that have been picked up and thrown, and sadly far too many homes that people were likely in, entirely devastated,” he added.
Mr Beshear requested an “immediate federal emergency declaration”.
In neighbouring Illinois, 110 employees were working a night shift at a massive Amazon warehouse when a wall the length of a football field collapsed, along with the roof above it. Scores of emergency vehicles descended on the warehouse in the early morning and rescuers combed through debris.
Emergency services said it was a “mass casualty incident” with “multiple subjects trapped at Amazon Warehouse”. There were at least two “confirmed fatalities”, they said.
Police chief Mike Fillback said: “It’s devastating to see the amount of damage there and to know there were people inside when that happened.”
Sarah Bierman rushed to the collapsed warehouse where her husband was working. She said: “I talked to him about 8pm and he was returning to the warehouse to drop off his van. And I haven’t heard from him since. I had no idea the building looked that bad. I’m worried sick.”
A tornado warning had reportedly been in effect in the area at the time.
Amazon spokesman Richard Rocha said: “The safety and wellbeing of our employees and partners is our top priority right now.”
In Mayfield, Kentucky, another group of night-shift workers were trapped inside a badly damaged candle factory. Police said the entire structure had been “essentially levelled” and they “expected loss of life”.
Kyanna Parsons-Perez, who was working inside the factory, said: “We could feel the wind … and then boom everything came down on us.”
She was trapped under 5ft of debris for at least two hours until rescuers freed her. “I did not think I was going to make it at all,” she said.
Among those who helped rescue the trapped candle factory workers were inmates from the nearby Graves County Jail. Ms Parsons-Perez said: “They could have used that moment to try to run away or anything, but they did not. They were there helping us.”
Michael Dossett, Kentucky’s emergency management director, said Mayfield, a small city of about 10,000 people, was “ground zero”. He said: “The city took the heart, the hardest hit. There is massive devastation in that city.”
Images posted on social media showed brick buildings in central Mayfield reduced to rubble, with parked cars buried under bricks and debris.
Elsewhere, a nursing home in Monette, Arkansas, took a direct hit, killing one person.
Bob Blankenship, mayor of Monette, said the town was in a “daze,” adding: “We practised and practised, but it’s different when the reality is here.”
An interstate highway in Arkansas was closed because of overturned cars, and a freight train derailed in western Kentucky.
Officials in Samburg, Tennessee, said their town was “pretty well flattened”.
On Saturday morning at last 340,000 homes and businesses had lost power across seven states.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, who represents Kentucky, said: “I am praying for the lives lost and communities impacted.”
The National Weather Service issued more than 100 tornado warnings on Friday night, the highest ever for a day in December.