Joe Biden has personally verified this Wednesday the consequences of the devastating series of tornadoes that last Friday night devastated towns and farms in six states in the central and southern United States. The president flew to the most devastated area, in the extreme western part of Kentucky, this morning to convey to the victims the commitment of the federal government in the recovery, which is expected to be long and costly. "We will be here as long as it takes," he promised. "I have never seen a destruction of this magnitude by a tornado." Biden has also asked local authorities not to hesitate "to ask for what they need." "I have come here to listen," he said.
The trip had two stops, preceded by a helicopter flight over the region: Mayfield, ground zero of the catastrophe, where a candle factory took the worst of it, and Dawson Springs, a town of 2,000 inhabitants that has seen entire neighborhoods disappear to the passing of the storms. The president has walked accompanied by local authorities and the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, through both towns, separated by 70 miles (about 113 kilometers) in which the great eddies distributed the destruction capriciously in their wake, leaving several municipalities intact.
Only in Kentucky, where the most ruthless of the thirty tornadoes was registered (which traveled for about 200 miles, an unprecedented distance), there have been 74 deaths so far, although the authorities expect that number to increase; there are still a hundred missing. The other affected states, Illinois, where six workers lost their lives in an Amazon warehouse, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee, add another 14 deaths.
Biden boarded Air Force One first thing in the morning for the Fort Campbell military airport, where Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, his wife and his father, Steve Beshear, who was also Governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015, were waiting for him. The Beshear come from the town of Dawson Springs, the second stop of the day for the president, who announced over the weekend of his plans not to visit the affected area immediately "so as not to hinder recovery efforts."
Governor Beshear, the visible face of this catastrophe, has expanded the information on the deceased, who have ages, he said, between two months and 98 years.
Biden gave clearance Saturday for the catastrophic zone, which has allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to ship its equipment, as well as dozens of generators, along with 135,000 gallons (511,000 liters) of water, 74,000 meals and thousands of mattresses, blankets and baby kits.
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