US emergency workers on Sunday searched for survivors of a brutal tornado that killed dozens in several states and ravaged cities, but the governor of hard-hit Kentucky warned that carcasses were still being found by dogs .
President Joe Biden called the rare late-season burst in the US heartland one of the “largest” hurricane outbreaks in US history, and both federal and local officials warned the death toll, now at 94 , may still increase.
The Democratic president sent the heads of the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Kentucky to assess the situation and promised a full range of federal aid.
In fact, local officials began to help stunned residents sift through the rubble of their homes and businesses – but the devastation was intense.
“The very first thing we have to do is grieve together and we’re going to do that before we rebuild together,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear told an afternoon news conference.
More than 80 people have died in the state alone, with many workers at a candle factory in the devastated city of Mayfield, Beshear told CNN on Sunday.
Later in the day, the governor said the factory owner believed more workers had been found, and that it would be “excellent” if the toll was revised, but insisted that he verify that information. could not do.
“Remember, we’re still looking for bodies. We have cadaver dogs in towns that shouldn’t have them,” he said.
At least six people died at an Amazon warehouse in the southern Illinois city of Edwardsville, where they were on orders to process the night shift before Christmas.
Emergency workers worked at both locations from night to Sunday, and FEMA agents and Red Cross volunteers were on the scene in Kentucky.
But Edwardsville Fire Chief James Whiteford told reporters the operation was shifting from rescue to focusing “only on recovery”, fearing the toll would rise.
Four were killed in Tennessee and two in Arkansas, while two deaths were recorded in Missouri. Tornadoes also knocked in Mississippi.
‘Unlike anything I’ve seen’
Emergency teams were helping stunned citizens clear the rubble of their homes and businesses in the US heartland.
David Norsworthy, a 69-year-old builder in Mayfield, said the storm blew up their roof and front porch while the family hid in a shelter. “We’ve never had anything like this here,” he told AFP.
But while a non-denominational church in Mayfield was handing out food and clothing to storm survivors, it was also providing a place for the county coroner to do his job, His House Ministries pastor Stephen Boyken told AFP.
People “come in with pictures, birthmarks – they talk about using DNA samples to identify people now lost,” he said.
The power of the Hurricane system kept it in historic company.
Storm trackers said it had dropped debris 30,000 feet (9,100 meters) into the air, and the deadly Mayfield twister broke a nearly century-old record, tracking more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) of land.
“The catastrophe is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life,” Beshear said.
As Americans grappled with the enormity of the disaster, Pope Francis said he was praying “for the victims of the tornado in Kentucky”.
Biden’s Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin took a break from strained bilateral ties, saying his country “shares in the grief” of those who lost loved ones.
‘Hope for a miracle’
Mayfield, a town of about 10,000 near the westernmost tip of Kentucky, was reduced to “matchboxes,” said its mayor, Cathy O’Nan.
Still, she told NBC on Sunday, “there is always hope” of finding survivors among the missing. “We hope for a miracle.”
Troy Propps, the CEO of the company that owned the candle factory, defended his decision not to close it as the storm approached.
“We did everything that was supposed to happen,” he told CNN on Sunday. “My heart is bleeding for absolutely everyone.”
Mayfield was described by the authorities as “Ground Zero”, and appeared post-apocalyptic: city blocks were leveled, historic homes and buildings were beaten to their slabs, trees splayed from their branches. Trunks were stripped, and cars were turned over in the fields.
Some Christmas decorations could still be seen on the side of the road.
The report puts the total number of tornadoes in the entire region at around 30. “This is going to be our new normal. And the impact we are seeing from climate change is the crisis of our generation,” Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Dean Criswell told CNN on Sunday.
Biden said he plans to travel to affected areas soon, once his presence will not violate relief efforts.
read all breaking news, today’s fresh news And coronavirus news Here.
,