The dramatic toll of tornadoes in the United States is still climbing. Above all, he should continue to do so “in a big way”, by the Governor of Kentucky’s own admission. In the center and south of the country, five states affected by the winds are now at least 83 dead.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday lamented “one of the worst series of tornadoes” in US history, calling their devastation “unimaginable tragedy”. Images of the disaster show flattened houses as far as the eye can see and tangles of rubble. About thirty of these storms swept across the country on Friday evening and Saturday morning.
Deaths in an Amazon warehouse
In Illinois, at least six people died in the collapse of an Amazon warehouse, announced the Edwardsville fire chief, specifying that the rescue part of the operations was now over leaving room for the recovery of the victims. Tennessee has recorded four deaths, two people have died in Arkansas, while at least one death is in Missouri.
But it is Kentucky that pays the heaviest price after the passage of this devastating meteorological phenomenon, particularly affecting the immense American plains. After announcing “at least 70 dead” in his state, Governor Andy Beshear said that “by the end of the day or tomorrow”, the death toll would rise to more than 100 deaths. He called on residents to donate blood to treat the injured. “The devastation is incomparable with anything I have seen in my life, and I find it difficult to find the words to describe it,” he added.
Mayfield, a town of 10,000 people, was at the epicenter of the disaster. The heart of the city looks “like a pile of matches,” Mayor Kathy O’Nan told CNN. “The churches in the center have been destroyed, and the court in the heart of the city has been destroyed,” she added. Across the city, buildings were gutted, metal twisted, vehicles overturned, and trees and bricks strewn across the streets.
No more water or electricity
In a parking lot in the center, volunteers are hard at work collecting essential items for affected families. They bring together warm clothes, baby diapers and bottles of drinking water, while the water and electricity distribution networks are no longer operational. Federal disaster response agencies have already started to be deployed there, said Joe Biden, who pledged that “the federal state will do all it can to help.”
After deploring the expected results of tornadoes, the American president stressed that meteorological phenomena were “more intense” with global warming. However, he has not established a direct causal link between climate change and the disaster of Friday night.