The US state of Kentucky has so far confirmed 64 deaths after the tornadoes that hit the United States last weekend, Gov. Andy Beshear said on Monday (13), after initial estimates said there were 80 dead. Thus, the official number of victims of the tragedy in the country, including other states, is 78 victims so far.
The review came after Kentucky authorities confirmed that the death toll at a candle factory in the town of Mayfield was lower than expected.
“We feared something much, much worse,” the governor said, citing estimates that could raise the total death toll in the state alone to more than 100. But as the searches continue, authorities are working with about eight dead at the scene. “I pray this number is accurate,” he says. There are still missing: of 110 workers who were in the factory at the time of the tornado, 94 were found alive.
The death toll could still increase as the search progresses. “It may take weeks before we have the numbers of deaths and the scale of destruction,” the governor said. There were victims of all ages, the youngest at 5 months and the oldest at 86 years.
Kentucky was the hardest hit state, but 14 deaths are also reported in other states in the region. In Illinois, six workers were killed in an Amazon shed. In Arkansas, there were two dead, one of them in a nursing home. Tennessee and Missouri recorded another six deaths.
In small Mayfield, a town of 10,000 inhabitants in southwestern Kentucky, the tornado destroyed, in addition to the candle factory, the headquarters of the police and fire departments. Homes were destroyed and lost roofs, giant trees uprooted and street signs mutilated. More than 28 thousand homes and businesses are without energy.
National Guard men and state teams are distributing supplies and clearing roads to make way for debris removal, the governor said. Rescuers went back to digging through debris this Monday in search of more survivors, which becomes more difficult as time goes on.
President Joe Biden has yet to visit the state after the tragedy, but on Sunday he decreed a state of emergency, which paves the way for distributing federal aid.
The origin of the series of tornadoes came from a cluster of thunderstorms formed at night, which moved from Arkansas and Missouri to Tennessee and Kentucky. Experts say tornadoes could be part of a climate system that is wreaking havoc in other parts of the country as well.
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