After tornadoes hit part of the United States hard on Friday, at least 50 people have been killed in Kentucky, and around 100 people are still believed to be trapped in a ravaged building in Illinois on Saturday.
For the moment, it is in Kentucky, in the central east of the country, that the heaviest toll is to be deplored after the passage of tornadoes, a meteorological phenomenon that particularly affects the United States every year.
“I’m afraid there are more than 50 dead in Kentucky […], we are probably closer to 70 to 100 dead, it is awful, declared Saturday the governor of this state, Andy Beshear, during a press conference.
Several counties were devastated by the strongest tornado that traveled more than 300 km in that state, he added.
The roof collapse of a candle-making factory, in particular, “has claimed countless lives” in the town of Mayfield, he said.
“Before midnight, I declared a state of emergency,” he said, adding that search and rescue teams had been deployed in this chaos made worse by the power cuts.
Photos and videos of Mayfield, shared on social media, show gutted buildings, twisted metal, trees and bricks strewn across the streets.
American channels filmed the passage of the tornadoes: black cylinders sweeping the ground, illuminated by intermittent lightning.
Further northwest, in Illinois, around 100 people, according to media reports, were trapped in a storm-ravaged Amazon warehouse. These are employees of the distribution giant who worked nights to process orders before the holiday season.
“Mass incident”
The Collinsville Emergency Management Agency referred to “many people trapped in the Amazon warehouse” after this “mass incident”.
The emergency services worked until the early hours of Saturday to try to free these people from the installation, a third of which is nothing more than rubble.
Images from the Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, shared by U.S. news channels and social media, show much of the installation’s roof torn off, a collapsed wall in the building and rubble strewn across the site.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said he addressed his “prayers to the people of Edwardsville”, noting that the Illinois Police and Emergency Management Agency “are coordinating their actions closely with local officials.”
No assessment of possible victims has yet been communicated.
In a statement to local media, Amazon spokesman Richard Rocha said the “safety and well-being” of Amazon employees and partners was the group’s “top priority”.
“We are assessing the situation and will share additional information as soon as it becomes available,” he added.
In Arkansas, one person was killed and 20 others were trapped in a nursing home, media reported. But rescuers managed to evacuate the trapped from the building, whose structure was “virtually destroyed,” Craighead County official Marvin Day told local news channels. Another person died elsewhere in that state.
In Tennessee, at least two people have been killed in inclement weather incidents, according to an emergency management official as quoted by local media.
Tornadoes also hit Missouri.
Scientists have warned that climate change is increasing the magnitude and frequency of storms already affecting the United States.