12th December, 2021
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said some towns in his state have been destroyed by tornadoes that stormed through overnight on Saturday, killing scores of people.
Beshear also confirmed 80 dead as of now, but said the toll will rise, after rescue workers must have sifted through the wreckage.
“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 CNN.
“I’ve got towns that are gone — that are just, I mean, gone,” he continued.
“My dad’s hometown, half of it isn’t standing. It is hard to describe. I know people can see the visuals, but that goes on for 12 blocks or more in some of these places.
“And it’s going to take us time. I mean, you think you go door-to-door to check on people and see if they’re OK? There are no doors. The question is if somebody is in the rubble of thousands upon thousands of structures. I mean, it is devastating.”
Violent twisters tore tracts of destructions across the Upper South and lower Midwest, on Friday night.
Six people died in a collapsed Amazon.com warehouse, four in Illinois and two each in Missouri and Arkansas, according to the Associated Press on Sunday.
The damage was especially bad in Mayfield, Ky., where a tornado tore a candle factory into pieces.
According to CNN, more than 100 people were working in the candle factory when the storm hit — a reflection of increased demand during the holidays.
“Boom. Everything came down on us. And all you heard was screams,” Kyanna Parsons-Perez, who was trapped in the factory and recorded part of the experience on Facebook Live, told NBC’s “Today” on Saturday.
“You can hear people screaming and praying in Spanish,” she added, after explaining that many Latinos were employed there.