MAYFIELD, Kentucky: Kentucky residents, many without power, water or even a roof over their heads, worked yesterday to salvage what they could in towns scarred by a string of powerful tornadoes that officials fear killed more than 100 people while obliterating homes, businesses and anything else in their way.
Authorities said they had little hope of finding survivors beneath the rubble, but rescue workers continued to scour fields of debris.
More than 100 people were believed to have been killed in Kentucky alone after the tornadoes tore through the U.S. Midwest and South on Friday night. Six workers were killed at an Amazon.com warehouse in Illinois. A nursing home was struck in Missouri.
But nowhere suffered as much as the small town of Mayfield, Kentucky, where the large twisters, which weather forecasters say are unusual in winter, destroyed a candle factory and the fire and police stations. Across the community of 10,000 people in the state’s southwestern corner, homes were flattened or missing roofs, giant trees had been uprooted and street signs were mangled.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the tornadoes were the most destructive in the state’s history. He said about 40 workers had been rescued at the candle factory in Mayfield where it is believed about 110 people were inside when it was hit.
The genesis of the tornado outbreak was a series of overnight thunderstorms, including a super cell storm that formed in northeast Arkansas and moved into Arkansas and Missouri and then into Tennessee and Kentucky.
President Joe Biden told reporters he would ask the Environmental Protection Agency to examine the role of climate change in fuelling the storms.
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