{"id":379948,"date":"2021-12-12T01:42:31","date_gmt":"2021-12-11T22:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/powerful-tornadoes-kill-at-least-78-in-five-us-states\/"},"modified":"2021-12-12T01:42:31","modified_gmt":"2021-12-11T22:42:31","slug":"powerful-tornadoes-kill-at-least-78-in-five-us-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/powerful-tornadoes-kill-at-least-78-in-five-us-states\/","title":{"rendered":"#Powerful tornadoes kill at least 78 in five US states"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Powerful tornadoes kill at least 78 in five US states<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n \"Mangled
\n Mangled building material is wrapp<\/a>ed around a tree on a hill overlooking search and rescue efforts at the Mayfield Consumer Products Candle Factory after it was destroyed by a tornado with workers inside, in Mayfield, Kentucky, on December 11, 2021.
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Dozens of devastating tornadoes ripped through five US states overnight, leaving more than 70 people dead Saturday in Kentucky\u2014many of them workers at a candle factory\u2014and inflicting deadly damage at a sprawling Amazon warehouse in Illinois.<\/p>\n

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The western Kentucky town of Mayfield was reduced to “matchsticks,” its mayor said.<\/p>\n

The small town of 10,000 people appeared post-apocalyptic in drone footage posted by storm-chaser Brandon Clement: city blocks leveled, with almost nothing salvageable; historic homes and buildings beaten down to their slabs; tree trunks strip<\/a>ped of their branches; cars overturned in fields.<\/p>\n

“It is indescribable\u2014the 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.”<\/p>\n

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.” <\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

CNN played a heart-rending tape of an urgent plea posted on Facebook<\/a> by one of the factory’s employees.<\/p>\n

“We are trapped, please, y’all, get us some help,” a woman says, her voice quavering as a co-worker can be heard moaning in the background. “We are at the candle factory in Mayfield. … Please, y’all. Pray for us.”<\/p>\n

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\n \"A
\n A woman walks away from what is left of the Mayfield Consumer Products Candle Factory as emergency workers comb the rubble after it was destroyed by a tornado in Mayfield, Kentucky, on December 11, 2021.
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The woman, Kyanna Parsons-Perez, was rescued after being pinned under a water fountain.<\/p>\n

But Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan told CNN in midafternoon that there had been no successful rescues from the factory since 3:00 am, adding to fears the death toll will rise.<\/p>\n

“When I walked out of City Hall this morning, it\u2014it looked like matchsticks,” she said of Mayfield. <\/p>\n

“Our downtown churches have been destroyed, our courthouse… is destroyed, our water system is not functioning at this time, there is no power.”<\/p>\n

“It looks like a bomb has exploded in our community,” 31-year-old Mayfield resident Alex Goodman told AFP. “The sheer force of the wind and the rain was incredible.”<\/p>\n

The tornado that smashed through Mayfield had rumbled along the ground for over 200 miles in Kentucky and for 227 miles overall, Beshear said. <\/p>\n

Previously, the longest a US tornado has ever tracked along the ground was a 219-mile storm in Missouri in 1925. Powerful and devastating\u2014as such long-track storms tend to be\u2014it claimed 695 lives.<\/p>\n

In one measure of this storm’s awesome power, when winds derailed a 27-car train near Earlington, Kentucky, one car was blown 75 yards up a hill, and another landed on a house, though no one was hurt.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Emergency
\n Emergency workers search what is left of the Mayfield Consumer Products Candle Factory after it was destroyed by a tornado in Mayfield, Kentucky, on December 11, 2021.
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‘Unimaginable,’ says Biden<\/b><\/p>\n

Reports put the total number of tornadoes across the region at around 30.<\/p>\n

At least eight people were killed in other storm-hit states, including two at the Amazon facility in Illinois.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Four people died in Tennessee, while one died in Missouri.<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden spoke to the governors of all five states and said the massive storm system had inflicted an “unimaginable tragedy”. He vowed to provide all needed federal aid. <\/p>\n

The American Red Cross said it was working to provide relief across all five states.<\/p>\n

At least four Kentucky counties were left devastated, with officials describing Mayfield as “ground zero.”<\/p>\n