Tornadoes put 5 million people in the US at risk 0:49
(CNN) -
The storms unleashed devastating tornadoes Friday night and early Saturday in parts of the central and southern United States, including Kentucky, where the governor says the death toll may exceed 70 after "a one of the hardest nights in Kentucky history. "
Among the most significant damages: Tornadoes or high winds collapsed a candle factory in Kentucky, an Amazon warehouse in western Illinois, and a nursing home in Arkansas, killing people in every community and leaving first responders scrambling to rescue. to others.
Minute by minute: deadly tornadoes swept through several US cities
More than 30 tornadoes have been reported in at least six states, including Missouri, Tennessee, and Mississippi.
A stretch of more than 402 kilometers from Arkansas to Kentucky could have been hit by a violent long-trajectory tornado, say CNN meteorologists.
"I'm pretty sure the death toll (in Kentucky) is over 70 ... in fact it could top 100 before the day is out," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Saturday. morning.
"The level of devastation is unlike anything I have seen."
Candle Factory Catastrophe
Emergency workers search what remains of Mayfield Consumer Products' candle factory after it was destroyed by a tornado on December 11, 2021 (JOHN AMIS / AFP Photo via Getty Images).
One of the most devastated sites is the city of Mayfield, in southwestern Kentucky, where a tornado hit the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory Friday night as people worked.
About 110 people were inside and dozens are feared dead there, Beshear said.
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A video from Mayfield showed what was left of the factory: a huge field of debris, much of twisted metal, several meters high, with rescuers using hands and machines to dig.
Among the survivors is Kyanna Parsons-Perez, who said workers had been taken to a safe area before the storm hit.
While taking care of the factory, he saw "a bit of wind dust."
"My ears start to pop. And it was like the building, we were all moving from one side to another, and then boom, everything fell on us," Kyanna Parsons-Pérez told CNN's Boris Sánchez.
Trapped by the rubble with other people, she used her phone to broadcast on Facebook Live and called 911, her mother and a co-worker's relative.
He knew rescuers were close when he could feel the pressure from above: people walking on the rubble.
"I was screaming like, 'Sir, can you take this so I can move my leg?'
He said, 'Ma'am, there's about 1.5 meters of debris on top of you,' "he said.
Rescue teams eventually removed her and others, she said.
"Many, many" people were pulled out of the Kentucky factory
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At least 70 people are likely to have died after multiple tornadoes hit southwestern Kentucky Friday night, Gov. Andy Beshear said.
Other deaths have been reported in Arkansas and Illinois.
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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Multiple tornadoes ripped through parts of the Midwest late Friday night, leaving a large path of destruction.
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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A Mayfield, Kentucky city sign amid tornado damage on December 11, 2021 in Mayfield, Kentucky.
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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Interior view of tornado damage to Emmanuel Baptist Church on December 11, 2021 in Mayfield, Kentucky.
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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"This has been the most devastating tornado event in our state's history ... The level of devastation is unlike anything I have ever seen," said Governor Andy Beshear.
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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President Biden called the loss of life in the storms that hit parts of the United States "an unimaginable tragedy."
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images).
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Vice President Kamala Harris said she and her husband were praying for communities affected by the storms this weekend.
Harris said the devastation from the storms is "heartbreaking."
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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General view of the collapse of Mayfield Consumer Products (foreground) where workers were present when the tornado struck Friday night December 11, 2021 in Mayfield, Kentucky.
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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People search a building damaged by the tornado on December 11, 2021 in Mayfield, Kentucky.
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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People inspect for tornado damage downtown on December 11, 2021 in Mayfield, Kentucky (Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images).
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Emergency workers search what remains of Mayfield Consumer Products' candle factory after it was destroyed by a tornado on December 11, 2021 (JOHN AMIS / AFP Photo via Getty Images).
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Traffic piles up amid tornado debris and cleanup efforts on December 11, 2021 in Mayfield, Kentucky.
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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The main fire station and some of the police assets in Mayfield, Kentucky, are down as a result of the tornado system that swept through the area, according to authorities.
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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A CNN Weather analysis of the warning data shows that residents of Mayfield, Kentucky, received an alert more than 20 minutes in advance before the tornado struck.
(Photo by Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
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An Amazon distribution center in Edwardsville, Illinois, partially collapsed in the storm late Friday.
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At least 30 tornadoes in six states of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee caused severe damage overnight Friday.
Ivy Williams was at the Mayfield site Saturday looking for her wife who she says was at the factory.
"I hope he's in a safe place," Williams said through tears.
"Please call me ... I'm looking for you, baby."
First responders pulled "many, many" people out of the rubble, some alive and some apparently dead, storm chaser Michael Gordon told CNN Saturday morning from the scene.
"It's kind of hard to talk about ... They're digging that rubble by hand right now," Gordon said.
People were working there, as the factory has been "running 24/7" in part to meet the demand for Christmas candles, US Rep. James Comer, who represents the area, told CNN. .
Other affected buildings in Mayfield, a city of about 10,000, include the Graves County Courthouse and the adjoining jail.
"The landscape has changed ... here in Mayfield," said Kentucky State Police Lt. Dean Patterson.
"We are seeing (destruction) that none of us have seen before."
Severe thunderstorms are still possible Saturday from the northern Gulf states to the south-central Appalachians, the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center said.
2 dead in Amazon warehouse in Illinois
An Amazon distribution center in Edwardsville, Illinois partially collapsed in the storm
At the collapsed Amazon warehouse in the Illinois town of Edwardsville outside of St. Louis, at least two people were killed and rescue attempts were underway Saturday, Police Chief Mike Fillback said.
Rescues are proceeding slowly because the hanging debris posed a danger to first responders, Fillback said.
Dozens of people were able to escape without being seriously injured, Fillback said.
A resident told CNN affiliate KMOV that a family member and an employee were trapped inside, and that others inside were quiet and working their way out of the warehouse.
Video from the scene showed a great emergency response.
"It's devastating to see the amount of damage there and to know that there were people inside when that happened," Fillback told KMOV on Saturday morning.
Police did not know how many people were in the building at the time of the collapse, Fillback said, or how many people were still trapped inside.
Deaths in Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee, authorities say
Deadly destruction has also been reported in Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee.
In the northeastern Arkansas city of Monette, at least two deaths were reported, including one person killed in a nursing home was damaged by a tornado, Mayor Bob Blankenship said.
At the nursing home, many people were trapped before being rescued, authorities said.
At least 20 were injured at the facility, Blankenship told CNN.
Another person was killed in nearby Leachville when an adult woman was "in a Dollar General store when the storm hit and they couldn't get out," Mississippi County Sheriff Dale Cook told CNN.
Also in Arkansas, Interstate 555 near the town of Trumann was closed due to overturned vehicles, said LaTresha Woodruff, a spokeswoman for Arkansas Emergency Management.
State officials had been told that the city's fire department, emergency medical facilities and a nursing home were damaged, Woodruff said.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who toured the damages in Monette and Trumann, issued an emergency declaration for four counties in northeast Arkansas on Saturday.
"Come here to Monette and you will see the devastation of this tornado ... the most remarkable thing is that there is no further loss of life," Hutchinson said.
Saturday's climate threat
In northwest Tennessee north of Memphis, one person died in Obion County and two died in Lake County during the storms, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said.
In Obion County, several structures were damaged in the Samburg community, according to officials.
The city "is pretty flat," Obion County Sheriff's Dispatcher Judy Faulkner told CNN.
In Missouri, an 84-year-old woman died during night storms in the Defiance community, according to St. Charles County Emergency Management Officer Mary Enger.
The woman was home when the storm hit, and Enger said she had no further details.
More than 400,000 homes and businesses were without power in eight southern and midwestern states as of 10 am ET Saturday, including more than 130,000 in Tennessee and more than 60,000 in Kentucky, according to poweroutage.us.
The longest stretch of devastation stretched more than 402 kilometers from Arkansas to Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky.
That stretch could have been hit by a long-running tornado, CNN meteorologists said.
If it was a tornado, its trajectory may have exceeded the longest on record: a tornado that was on the ground for 219 miles at 352 in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
"Gutters hang from your ... ceiling"
About 70 miles northeast of Mayfield, Lori Wooten took refuge in her daughter's basement in the small Kentucky community of Dawson Springs when the storm passed Friday night.
She emerged to see a two-foot piece of wood that had cut through a master bedroom and debris strewn outside.
"The gutters hang from his ... ceiling. The trampoline, there are so many things here, it's hard to know what belongs to them and what belongs to other people," Wooten, an aunt of CNN political analyst Scott Jennings, told CNN the Saturday.
More than 100 tornado warnings were issued in the US on Friday before midnight, the most on a day in December.
Along with multiple tornadoes, the storms produced dozens of reports of wind and hail as of early Saturday morning.
By activating weather alerts on Friday from Arkansas to Indiana, the severity of the storms is anticipated to decrease throughout Saturday.
Much of the eastern US will be affected by rain through Saturday night.
Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms can occur from the Ohio and Tennessee valleys into the northern Gulf states, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
Wind gusts, hail, and an isolated tornado remain possible.
The count of the damages
An official death toll for Kentucky has not been released.
Deaths have been reported in Arkansas (three), Tennessee (three), Illinois (two), and Missouri (one).
The National Guard and other state personnel are deploying to the hardest hit areas to conduct "house-to-house" searches and debris removal, Beshear told CNN.
In a message on Twitter, President Joe Biden called the loss of a loved one in storms like this an "unimaginable tragedy" and said that the federal government is "working with governors to ensure they have what they need as they continue the Survivor Search and Damage Assessments ".
This morning, I was briefed on the devastating tornadoes across the central US To lose a loved one in a storm like this is an unimaginable tragedy.
We're working with Governors to ensure they have what they need as the search for survivors and damage assessments continue.
- President Biden (@POTUS) December 11, 2021
Biden has spoken with Beshear and "indicated that he has directed FEMA and other federal agencies to provide the fastest possible assistance to affected communities," the White House said.
CNN's Paul P. Murphy, Nadia Romero, Keith Allen, Brandon Miller, Joe Sutton, Dave Hennen, Haley Brink and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.
Tornadoes