The Daily Mail:
- Governor Andy Beshear said Kentucky’s toll, confirmed at 80, could rise to 100 as searches continued today
- He said going door-to-door was out of the question because in the state’s worst-hit areas: ‘There are no doors’
- The total death toll from the storm stands at 94, with fatalities in Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri
- One twister carved a track that could rival the longest on record, as the stormfront smashed apart a candle factory in Kentucky, crushed a nursing home in Arkansas and flattened an Amazon warehouse in Illinois
- At least eight people were killed in the candle factory when the tornado rampaged through the small town of Mayfield, bringing the walls crashing down and tearing the roof off. Another eight workers are still missing
- Kyanna Parsons-Perez was among the 110 employees working the night shift amid the busy Christmas rush
- After the storm hit ‘everything came down on us,’ Parsons Perez said. Adding, ‘all you heard was screams’
Survivors of the deadliest twister in Kentucky’s history have described the harrowing ‘screams of people’ as they lay cowering in devastated factories and homes during the storm – as the governor warned the death toll could exceed 100 amid continued rescue efforts on Monday.
Governor Andy Beshear said going door-to-door was out of the question because in the Bluegrass State’s hardest-hit areas: ‘There are no doors.’
‘I’ve got towns that are gone, that are just, I mean gone. My dad’s hometown – half of it isn’t standing,’ Beshear said of Dawson Springs.
The state, which has a confirmed death toll of 80, was by far the worst struck on Friday night by 30 tornadoes that ripped across the Midwest, killing another 14 people in Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri.
One twister carved a track that could rival the longest on record, as the stormfront smashed apart a candle factory in Kentucky, crushed a nursing home in Arkansas and flattened an Amazon distribution center in Illinois.
At least eight people were killed in the candle factory when the tornado rampaged through the small town of Mayfield, bringing the walls crashing down and tearing the roof off. Another eight workers are still missing.
Kyanna Parsons-Perez was among the 110 employees working the night shift during the busy Christmas rush.
She told NBC: ‘They had us in the area where you go in case there’s a storm, and we were all there and then the lights got to flickering and all of a sudden we felt a gust of [wind], we could feel the wind and then my ears kind of started popping as they would as if you were on a plane.’
After they were rocked by the winds, Parsons-Perez said ‘everything came down on us.’ After that, she said, ‘all you heard was screams.’
