Mass casualties feared in Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois after tornadoes
Dozens are feared dead after severe storms and tornadoes tore across the central U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois, with emergency crews currently trying to respond to damage and injury reports.
Some 50 people are likely to have been killed in a devastating outbreak of tornadoes late Friday and early Saturday, the Washington Post quoted Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear as saying. The Post also quoted Beshear as acknowledging during an interview with local TV station WLKY that the number of dead could be "significantly north of that."
"I fear that there are more than 50 dead in Kentucky ... probably closer to somewhere between 70 and 100, it's devastating," he told a news conference early Saturday.
"The reports are really heartbreaking," the Post quoted him as saying. It added that a spokesperson for the state's emergency management service said that rescue officials had not confirmed figures for deaths or injuries as of early Saturday.
Beshear, who declared a state of emergency in Kentucky, was quoted as saying the damage would be "some of the worst ... we've seen in a long time."
Three people died in severe weather in Tennessee, one person died and several were injured when an apparent tornado struck an Arkansas nursing home, and emergency crews in southern Illinois were responding to reports of workers trapped inside an Amazon warehouse after its roof collapsed from storm damage.
At least one fatality was also reported in Missouri as severe storms, some believed to be tornadoes, swept across the Midwest and parts of the South late Friday and into Saturday morning.
In Tennessee, two storm-related fatalities were reported in Lake County in the state’s northwestern corner, said Dean Flener, spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. A third death was reported in neighboring Obion County. Flener said the Tennessee Department of Health confirmed the deaths; however, there were no other details immediately released.
A tornado struck the Monette Manor nursing home in Arkansas on Friday night, killing one person and trapping 20 people inside as the building collapsed, Craighead County Judge Marvin Day told The Associated Press (AP).
Five people had serious injuries, and a few others had minor ones, he said. The nursing home has 86 beds.
Day said another nursing home about 20 miles (32 kilometers) away in Truman was badly damaged but no injuries were reported. The residents were being evacuated because the building is unsafe.
Workers at a National Weather Service office had to take shelter as a tornado passed near their office in Weldon Spring, Missouri, about 30 miles west of St. Louis. One person died and two others were injured in building collapses near the towns of Defiance and New Melle, both just a few miles from the weather service office.
At least 100 emergency vehicles descended upon the Amazon warehouse near Edwardsville, Illinois, about 25 miles east of St. Louis, where a wall that was about the length of a football field collapsed, as did the roof above it.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were hurt, but one person was flown by helicopter to a hospital.
News.Az
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