At least five US states were hit by a tornado that caused extensive damage on Saturday and at least 50 dead.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announces that at least fifty people have lost their lives in what he called a “historic weather event”.
"The news is depressing," he told a local channel.
“We had a tornado that swept the ground continuously for at least 300 km.
(…) I fear that there are more than 50 deaths in Kentucky (…), we are probably closer to 70 to 100 deaths, it's awful ”.
In Arkansas, one person was killed and 20 were trapped in a nursing home, media reported.
But rescuers managed to evacuate the trapped from the building whose structure was "virtually destroyed," Craighead County official Marvin Day told local news channels.
In Tennessee, at least two people were killed in incidents related to the storm, according to an emergency management official quoted by local media.
Amazon workers trapped in warehouse
In Illinois, relief workers worked until the early hours of Saturday to try to clear from the facility, a third of which is now rubble, those people who were working nights to process orders before the Christmas holidays. .
No toll of possible victims was advanced for the time being.
Images from the Edwardsville Amazon warehouse, shared by U.S. news channels and social media, show much of the facility's roof torn off, one of the walls collapsed into the building and rubble strewn across the site .
Amazon employees were trapped Saturday in a warehouse of the distribution giant ravaged by a storm the day before, in the US state of Illinois, according to authorities and media who speak of a hundred people .
The Collinsville Emergency Management Agency referred to "many people trapped in the Amazon warehouse" after the "mass incident", with local media citing around 100 people still inside.
🔴 FOLLOW-UP - #United States: A powerful #tornado hit #Edwardsville in # Illinois at around 8:30 p.m. local time, up to 100 people could be trapped inside an # Amazon warehouse in that same city .
#AmazonWarehouse #tornado #storm #tornadoemergency pic.twitter.com/0imOE2JG5s
- FranceNews24 (@ FranceNews24) December 11, 2021
Illinois Governor JB Pritzer said he addressed his "prayers to the people of Edwardsville" noting that the Illinois Police and Emergency Management Agency "are coordinating their actions closely with local officials."
In a statement to local media, Amazon spokesman Richard Rocha said the "safety and well-being" of Amazon employees and partners was the group's "top priority".