Kentucky officials were relieved by the dozens of candle factory workers who appear to have survived tornadoes that killed at least 88 people and left a trail of devastation in six US states.
Gov. Andy Beshear said 74 deaths were confirmed in the southeastern state and with a choking voice confirmed to reporters that the dead were between five months and 86 years old.
“Like the people of western Kentucky, I’m not having a good time,” said Beshear.
The governor said 109 people in Kentucky are still missing and “it may be weeks before we have final counts of both deaths and destruction levels.”
“Without a doubt there will be more (dead),” he added.
However, the governor clarified that fears of an overwhelming death toll from the collapse of the candle factory in the devastated town of Mayfield were apparently unfounded.
About 110 employees were working Friday night at the Mayfield Consumer Products plant when a tornado ripped the building apart.
Jemaryon Hart, 21, said “I’m happy to be alive” after surviving seven grueling hours trapped under the rubble of the factory.
“It was really scary, really painful, the walls, the cinder blocks, the metal, the wood, everything just crushed you,” he recalled.
The factory owners reported eight dead and eight missing from the collapse, and confirmed that “94 are alive and were accounted for,” Beshear reported.
“We are working to verify the information from the candle factory that at this moment would only have eight confirmed deaths, a Christmas miracle that we expected, but we have to make sure it is accurate,” Beshear warned. “We were afraid it would be much, much worse.”
Thousands of people have been made homeless, which is why the governor described the storm as the worst on record in the state.
14 deaths have been reported in four other states affected by the tornadoes: Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois. There was also damage, though no deaths, in Mississippi.
Six people were killed at an Amazon warehouse in the southern Illinois town of Edwardsville, where workers were on the night shift processing Christmas season orders.
Government to the rescue
The office of the president of the United States announced Monday that Biden will visit the area on Wednesday to assess the emergency situation.
Biden declared Kentucky a “major catastrophe” area Sunday night, allowing additional federal aid to be funneled into recovery efforts.
“We will be present to allow the population to recover and rebuild,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas promised Monday morning on CNN television.
Kentucky was hit Friday night by one of the longest and most powerful series of tornadoes ever recorded in the United States.
The director of the United States Agency for Disaster Management (FEMA), Deanne Criswell, warned Sunday that those states face a “new norm” of multiplying devastating weather events.
Criswell also highlighted the “incredibly unusual” and “historic” dimension of these tornadoes for this season.
With the immense recovery effort looming, immediate concerns for the safety and well-being of residents are a priority as cold weather began to affect devastated towns.
About 26,500 people were without power in Kentucky on Monday, according to authorities.
Churches turned into shelters
In Mayfield, a small town of 10,000 in southern Kentucky – part of the so-called “Bible Belt,” where there is strong Church influence – groups of locals tried to clean up debris, search for supplies, and attend events. more victims, while several churches began to function as shelters for many evacuees.
Fallen trees and broken facades of houses mix with buildings washed away by the force of the storm in Mayfield.
“We’ve worked so many years for all of this, and it went up in smoke,” said Randy Guennel, a 79-year-old retiree, who said he “had no more houses, no more cars, nothing else.”
Vanessa Cooper, 40, an employee at the local technical high school, was trying to salvage what she could from her mother’s apartment, of which only two walls remained. Three friends helped her clear twisted debris as she rummaged through damaged furniture.
“I don’t know what the future holds, but God helped me overcome many things in life,” he said.
Sitting in a chair across from what was left of his home, 59-year-old Marty Janes stared blankly as volunteers worked around him.
“I am devastated, it is incredible … I have nothing,” Janes told AFP. This man says that he could barely rescue a photo of his old university graduation and two American flags that he placed in front of the remains of the house.
Marty had been trapped in the back of their house, while his wife, Theresa, was in the bedroom when the roof collapsed. They were rescued by firefighters and the woman had to be hospitalized.
On CNN, Michael Dossett, Kentucky’s aid coordinator, had likened the situation to “the vision of a war zone.”
In the southern Illinois city of Edwardsville, six people died at a giant Amazon plant where they were on the night shift processing orders before Christmas.