Over ninety people have been killed in Kentucky after a swarm of tornadoes tore through the U.S. Midwest and South on Friday night, destroying homes and other businesses as search for survivors continue.
Gatekeepers News reports that the state, which has a confirmed death toll of 80, was the worst struck by tornadoes that ripped across the Midwest, killing another 14 people in Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri.
Officials have warned that the death toll could rise amid continued rescue efforts on Monday.
No fewer than eight people were reportedly killed and another eight workers are still missing in a candle factory when the tornado rampaged through the small town of Mayfield.
Kyanna Parsons-Perez who was among the 110 employees working the night shift, told NBC that: “They had us in the area where you go in case there’s a storm, and we were all there and then the lights got to flickering and all of a sudden we felt a gust of [wind], we could feel the wind and then my ears kind of started popping as they would as if you were on a plane.”
After they were hit by the winds, Parsons-Perez said “everything came down on us.” After that, she said, “all you heard was screams.”
Kentucky State Trooper Sarah Burgess said on Sunday rescue crews were using heavy equipment to remove rubble at the candle factory. Coroners were called to the scene and bodies were recovered, but she didn´t know how many.
Rescue efforts were complicated because Mayfield´s main fire station and emergency services hub were also hit by the tornado.
Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky, said: “(The death toll) is going to exceed more than 100. This is the deadliest tornado event we’ve ever had.
“I’ve got towns that are gone – that are just, I mean, gone,’ he said. “You go door-to-door to check on people and see if they’re okay. There are no doors. The question is, is there somebody in the rubble of thousands upon thousands of structures. I mean, it’s devastating.”
Beshear said that one tornado was on the ground for 227 miles, 200 of which were in Kentucky, which would break the prior global tornado-track record of 219 miles.
The death toll across five states also includes six people in Illinois, where an Amazon facility was hit; four in Tennessee; two in Arkansas, where a nursing home was destroyed; and two in Missouri.
