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A devastating wave of tornados it swept through areas of Kentucky and five other US states, killing dozens of people and leaving a trail of destroyed homes, factories and warehouses along a path of more than 300 kilometers, authorities said Saturday.
At least four tornadoes made landfall overnight in Kentucky, causing significant damage in more than a dozen counties. The main tornado traveled more than 365 km through the state, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said.
The death toll could exceed 50 people and reach 100, he said at an early morning news conference.
“The reports are really heartbreaking,” he said. “This has been one of the hardest nights in Kentucky history and some areas have been hit in a way that is difficult to put into words.”
Some of the worst damage occurred in Mayfield, a small city of about 10,000 on the western tip of Kentucky, where the state meets Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas.
About 110 people were inside a candle factory in the area when the tornado broke through, knocking down the roof and causing many casualties, Beshear said.
Kyanna Parsons-Perez, who was inside the factory, said the roof collapsed shortly after workers could hear and feel the cutting winds and lights began to flicker.
Videos and photos posted on social media, but not yet verified as authentic by Reuters, showed brick buildings in downtown Mayfield reduced to rubble, with parked cars nearly buried under bricks and rubble. The steeple of the Graves County Courthouse in Mayfield appeared to have been torn down, photos showed on Twitter.
In the early hours, more than 56,000 people in Kentucky were without power, Beshear said. It declared a state of emergency and was deploying dozens of national guards.
The genesis of the tornado outbreak was a series of nighttime thunderstorms, including a supercell that formed in northeast Arkansas. That storm moved from Arkansas and Missouri to Tennessee and Kentucky.
“Unfortunately, it produced a couple of deadly tornadoes along the way. One of them may have been a long-haul tornado,” said Storm Prediction Center meteorologist Roger Edward. “The deadly tornado was part of that.”
In Illinois, police said there were “confirmed fatalities” after a roof partially collapsed at an Amazon.com Inc warehouse in the city of Edwardsville late Friday. Rescue teams were looking for people trapped in the rubble.
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