MAYFIELD, Kentucky: US President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Kentucky on Sunday night (Dec 12) after the state was hit by a swarm of ferocious tornadoes that killed dozens of people and flattened towns across the Midwest.
At the state governor’s request, Biden upgraded an earlier emergency declaration to a “major disaster”, allowing additional federal aid to be channeled into recovery efforts.
He had previously called the rare late-season burst of twisters that struck the US heartland on the weekend “one of the largest” storm outbreaks in American history.
While emergency workers have continued searching for survivors, federal and local officials have cautioned that the death toll, for now at 94, could yet rise.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said cadaver dogs were still finding bodies.
“The very first thing that we have to do is grieve together and we’re going to do that before we rebuild together,” Beshear told an afternoon news conference.
More than 80 people are dead in Kentucky alone, many of them workers at a candle factory in the ravaged town of Mayfield, Beshear said Sunday.
“That number is going to exceed more than 100,” he told CNN.
Later in the day, the governor said the factory’s owner believed more of the workers had been located, and it would be “pretty wonderful” if the toll were to be revised down, but he stressed he could not verify that information.
“Remember, we’re still finding bodies. We’ve got cadaver dogs in towns that they shouldn’t have to be in,” Beshear said.
At least six people died in an Amazon warehouse in the southern Illinois city of Edwardsville, where they were on the night shift processing orders ahead of Christmas.
Emergency crews worked through the night into Sunday at both locations, and agents from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Red Cross volunteers were on the scene in Kentucky.
But Edwardsville fire chief James Whiteford told reporters the operation had turned from rescue to focusing “only on recovery”, fueling fears the toll will rise.
Four were killed in Tennessee and two died in Arkansas, while Missouri recorded two fatalities. Tornadoes also touched down in Mississippi.
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