'I've got towns that are gone': Kentucky governor describes carnage left by tornadoes
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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Sunday that a tornado outbreak in his state has led to 80 reported casualties with that number expected to rise as authorities continue to sift through the wreckage.
“I can tell you from reports that I’ve received, I know we’ve lost more than 80 Kentuckians. That number is going to exceed more than 100,” Beshear said on CNN.
He went on to describe the aftermath of the tornadoes in emotional detail.
“I’ve got towns that are gone — that are just, I mean, gone,” he continued. “My dad's hometown, half of it isn’t standing. It is hard to describe. I know people can see the visuals, but that goes on for 12 blocks or more in some of these places. And it’s going to take us time. I mean, you think you go door-to-door to check on people and see if they’re OK? There are no doors. The question is if somebody is in the rubble of thousands upon thousands of structures. I mean, it is devastating.”
"I know we've lost more than 80 Kentuckians. That number is going to exceed more than 100. This is the deadliest tornado event we've ever had," says Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on the tornado aftermath. https://t.co/wVBWOeoDSG #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/OgEjXrnejm
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) December 12, 2021
On Friday night, violent twisters tore tracts of destructions across the Upper South and lower Midwest, with six people killed in Illinois, four in Tennessee and two each in Missouri and Arkansas, according to the Associated Press on Sunday.
The damage was especially bad in Mayfield, Ky., where a tornado tore a candle factory into pieces. According to CNN, more than 100 people were working in the candle factory when the storm hit — a reflection of increased demand during the holidays.
“Boom. Everything came down on us. And all you heard was screams,” Kyanna Parsons-Perez, who was trapped in the factory and recorded part of the experience on Facebook Live, told NBC’s “Today” on Saturday.
“You can hear people screaming and praying in Spanish,” she added, after explaining that many Latinos were employed there.
Chilling video shows the cries of a candle worker trapped inside a factory after a deadly tornado collapsed their building. Kyana Parsons-Perez is speaking out on this horrifying experience amid severe tornado storms across the country. pic.twitter.com/zsr0rhc3RQ
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 11, 2021
Images from Mayfield show cars, building fragments and uprooted trees in piles of debris as rescuers searched for survivors.
“A candle factory there — it’ll be a miracle if they pull anybody else out of that,” Beshear said Sunday. “It’s now 15 feet deep of steel and cars on top of where the roof was. It’s tough. But our rescuers out there are incredible. They worked through the night while it was occurring, putting themselves in danger. Through all of yesterday.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Beshear if it was known how many people are unaccounted for.
“That’s region by region,” he said. “I’ll just say that in Dawson Springs, again, that’s where my family’s from. It’s a town of about 2,700. The list of unaccounted for was about eight pages, single spaced. So ... pretty bad.”
