Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said some 50 people were “likely” killed in a devastating outbreak of tornadoes that hit Kentucky and several other US states late Friday and early Saturday.
He told local TV station WLKY that the death toll Could be “quite in the north,” as the Washington Post reports.
“The report is really heartbreaking,” he said according to the Post. It said a spokesman for the state’s Emergency Management Service said rescue officials had not confirmed figures of deaths or injuries until early Saturday.
Reading: The Tonight Show Starring Joe Biden: US President Makes Late Night TV Debut
As the New York Times reports, some of the worst devastation occurred in Mayfield, western Kentucky. It said that at the time of the tornado, there were around 110 people inside a candle factory in the area.
“We are confident we will lose at least a dozen of those people,” the Times quoted Beshear as saying.
Western Kentucky experienced some of the worst tornado damage we’ve seen last night, and we’re urging everyone to be safe as there are still active cells. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/jkv1sqf3za
— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) December 11, 2021
In Tennessee, severe weather killed at least three people, Dean Fleiner, a spokesman for the state’s emergency management agency, said in comments carried by the Post.
The Post quoted local officials as saying that at least one person was killed and five were injured when the roof of a nursing home in Monet, northern Arkansas, exploded.
In Illinois, officials said several people were trapped after a roof partially collapsed at an Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) warehouse near St. Louis late Friday, following tornadoes and severe tornadoes in the area.
Some are already calling it the first “quad-state tornado”. catastrophic #mayfield # tornado Trekked over 200 miles of Kentucky alone, but the storm that caused it covered more than 400 miles. #kywx #arwx #mocks #tnwx pic.twitter.com/63Qou0xUTc
— Alden German (@WXAlden) December 11, 2021
Beshear, who declared a state of emergency in his state, was quoted as saying that the damage was “some of the worst … we’ve seen in a long time”.
The Times said the storm derailed a CSX Company freight train in western Kentucky, although it said no casualties were reported.
Bill Bunting, the chief of operations for the Storm Prediction Center, part of the National Weather Service, said at least five states were hit by the tornado, he named Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas, the Times reported.