Dozens of devastating tornadoes ripped through five US states overnight, leaving more than 70 people dead Saturday in Kentucky — many of them workers at a candle factory — and inflicting deadly damage at a sprawling Amazon warehouse in Illinois.
The western Kentucky town of Mayfield was “ground zero” of the storm — a scene of “massive devastation,” one official said early Saturday.
Entire city blocks there were flattened, with historic houses and buildings ripped apart, and twisted metal, shattered tree limbs and chunks of brick strewn across streets.
“It is indescribable — the level of devastation is unlike anything I have ever seen,” Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said after rushing to Mayfield. “This will be, I believe, the deadliest tornado system to ever run through Kentucky.”
Beshear said it was clear that the death toll in his state was already “north of 70” and could end up “exceeding 100 before the day is done.”
Referring to the candle factory, where a roof collapsed, he said: “We’re going to lose a lot of lives in that facility. It’s a very dire situation.”
Reports put the total number of tornadoes across the region at around 30, and at least eight people were killed in other storm-hit states, including two at the Amazon facility in Illinois.
In Arkansas, at least one person died when a tornado “pretty much destroyed” a nursing home in Monette, a county official said. Another person died elsewhere in the state.
Three people died in Tennessee, according to local authorities quoted by the news media, while one died in Missouri, as the region was hammered by some of the most powerful tornadoes to hit the area in years.
