State governor terms event most devastating, most deadly tornado in Kentucky\u2019s history
\nOnline
\nMayfield
\nAt least 100 people were feared dead in Kentucky after a swarm of tornadoes tore a 200-mile path through the U.S. Midwest and South, demolishing homes, levelling businesses and setting off a scramble to find survivors beneath the rubble, officials said Saturday.
\nThe powerful twisters, which weather forecasters say are unusual in cooler months, destroyed a candle factory and the fire and police stations in a small town in Kentucky, ripped through a nursing home in neighboring Missouri, and killed at least six workers at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois.
\nKentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the collection of tornadoes was the most destructive in the state\u2019s history. He said about 40 workers had been rescued at the candle factory in the city of Mayfield, which had about 110 people inside when it was reduced to a pile of rubble. It would be a \u201cmiracle\u201d to find anyone else alive under the debris, Beshear said.
\n\u201cThe devastation is unlike anything I have seen in my life and I have trouble putting it into words,\u201d Beshear said at a press conference. \u201cIt\u2019s very likely going to be over 100 people lost here in Kentucky.\u201d
\nBeshear said 189 National Guard personnel have been deployed to assist with the recovery. The rescue efforts will focus in large part on Mayfield, home to some 10,000 people in the southwestern corner of the state where it converges with Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas.
\nVideo and photos posted on social media showed brick buildings in downtown Mayfield flattened, with parked cars nearly buried under debris. The steeple on the historic Graves County courthouse was toppled and the nearby First United Methodist Church partially collapsed.
\nMayfield Fire Chief Jeremy Creason, whose own station was destroyed, said the candle factory was diminished to a \u201cpile of bent metal and steel and machinery\u201d and that responders had to at times \u201ccrawl over casualties to get to live victims.\u201d
\nPaige Tingle said she drove four hours to the site in the hope of finding her 52-year-old mother, Jill Monroe, who was working at the factory and was last heard from at 9:30 p.m.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t know how to feel, we are just trying to find her,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a disaster here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
State governor terms event most devastating, most deadly tornado in Kentucky\u2019s history Online Mayfield At least 100 people were feared dead in Kentucky after a swarm of tornadoes tore a 200-mile path through the U.S. Midwest and South, demolishing homes, levelling businesses and setting off a scramble to find survivors beneath the rubble, officials said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1595,1621,1622],"class_list":{"0":"post-232531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-kentucky","9":"tag-night","10":"tag-tornadoes"},"yoast_head":"\n