Missing people after tornadoes: hope is fading

After the series of tornadoes in the USA, the chances of finding survivors decrease. Nevertheless, emergency services fight their way through the rubble without a break. Kentucky was particularly hard hit.

The rescue workers were on duty all night long in the crisis region, and when the temperature was below zero they made sure that those who had become homeless were given a temporary roof over their heads to eat and drink enough. However, no other dead were recovered.

“There are no more doors”

There was also no new knowledge of the extent of the devastation, reported the chief civil protection officer of Kentucky, Michael Dossett, in the morning local time. There is nothing new; it is a sad and serious rescue mission that will now continue in daylight. “We are now moving more resources, more personnel and more rescue workers to the hardest hit areas,” said the disaster relief worker.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear described on CNN the difficulties the rescue workers are facing. “You think of it as the disaster relief workers going from door to door to check on people,” says Beshear, “but there are no more doors.” The point now is to see whether there are still survivors under the rubble. In Dawson Springs alone, where the governor’s family comes from – a small town with 2,700 residents – the list of those missing is eight tightly printed pages long.

30 tornadoes leave debris behind

The candle factory in Mayfield, which collapsed completely and from which only 40 of the 110 employees who were on duty when the hurricanes hit, has become a symbol of the tornado disaster. Beshear has little hope here for those who have not been salvaged so far. “It would be a miracle if we could get someone out alive,” said the governor. And yet the search continues today. President Joe Biden has promised all possible federal assistance. Today the head of the disaster control agency FEMA and home security minister Alejandro Mayorkas are expected in Kentucky. Biden himself is expected to travel to the region earlier this week.

In the six states through which a series of 30 tornadoes left a trail of devastation, it remains difficult for disaster relief workers to even get an overview. CNN says 80 people died in Kentucky alone, the hardest hit, but Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and Tennessee also have fatalities. The “New York Times” assumes at least 70 people who fell victim to the natural disaster.