The phenomenon hits five states, especially Kentucky, where the governor predicts that the deceased will reach one hundred
In a scenario sown by hundreds of kilometers of devastation, the US authorities this Saturday found it difficult to find words to define the degree of destruction and death caused by the wave of tornadoes that on Friday night and early Saturday morning swept through the southeast of the country. “It’s devastating”, Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, the most affected of the five states that were overwhelmed by a historic catastrophe that has so far left more than 70 dead, could barely say in shock. However, as Beshear himself warned, the final figure is still a long way off and only in his territory does he expect the victims to reach a hundred.
While rescue teams and dozens of national guards worked against the clock in search of survivors, televisions and social networks put a face to the catastrophe. In photos and videos you could see destroyed buildings, with bent metal structures, trees and rubble scattered on the streets. Some networks even managed to immortalize one of the 24 tornadoes that the Storm Prediction Center recorded in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. A large black cone with rays inside it and that destroyed everything in its path.
In Kentucky, where the governor declared a state of emergency at midnight on Friday, the highest death toll was recorded in the town of Mayfield, already considered “ground zero.” The worst of the tragedies was triggered by the collapse of the roof of a candle factory in which 110 workers worked the night shift. Of them, 40 could be rescued alive this Saturday, Beshear reported, which also noted that more than 56,000 people were without electricity.
THE KEYS:
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Mayfield, the “ground zero.”
The greatest tragedy occurred when the roof of a factory with 110 employees collapsed inside -
Without precedents.
One of the tornadoes traveled 365 kilometers, the longest displacement in history -
Latent danger.
The Storm Prediction Center warns that the threat will continue throughout the weekend
“The city of Mayfield took the hardest hit. There is massive devastation, “recognized the CNN chain Michael Dossett, director of the office in charge of disaster management in Kentucky. Concrete buildings in the center of town turned to rubble, cars parked and almost buried in the middle of the destruction and the demolished county courthouse bell tower were all accounts of it.
The tornadoes also derailed a CSX freight train in western Kentucky, although no injuries were reported, according to the ‘New York Times’. In any case, the degree of devastation was such in a score of counties in the state that the governor on Saturday urged US President Joe Biden to declare a state of emergency to facilitate the arrival of aid. “We need federal assistance,” he insisted to the head of the White House, who was “heartbroken” by the damage.
In neighboring Illinois the situation was not much better. The eyes were focused last night on the rescue of a hundred workers who were trapped inside an Amazon distribution center in the town of Edwardsville. Despite a tornado warning, employees were on the premises Friday night processing a multitude of orders on the eve of the end of the year holidays. The phenomenon destroyed a third of the tank, a large part of the roof was raised and one of its walls collapsed.
«Confirmed victims»
Drone footage of the warehouse showed a dramatic scene in the early morning darkness, with hundreds of emergency vehicles in the vicinity and rescue teams with flashlights peering through the rubble. Edwarsville Police reported Saturday that there were “confirmed victims,” without giving further details. Meanwhile, Amazon spokesman Richard Rocha noted that “the safety and well-being of our employees and partners is our top priority right now. We are addressing the situation and will share additional information when we have it. ”
At the same time, in Arkansas another person died and about 20 were trapped after a tornado hit a nursing home in the city of Monette. In the State of Tennessee, for its part, at least two individuals lost their lives in accidents related to the storms, indicated a person in charge of emergency management.
Although tornadoes are quite common in the United States, climate change experts warn that global warming is causing them to be increasingly intense and continuous. One of those that made landfall late Friday in Kentucky traveled more than 365 kilometers through the region, the longest journey in history, according to reports from the National Weather Service, dating back to 1925.
The danger, in any case, has not passed. The Storm Prediction Center warned that the tornado threat will continue throughout the weekend as the system moves east from northern Louisiana to southern Ohio.
A year marked by natural catastrophes
2021 will be remembered in the United States for having been a year full of natural disasters. The wave of tornadoes on Friday is just the last link in the twenty phenomena that have hit the country in recent months and that make it the worst hit on the planet. This is attested by a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an organization that since 1980 has kept a record of the worst disasters.
Waves of cold, heat, storms, hurricanes, floods, fires have caused more than 600 deaths in the United States, in addition to damages estimated at 1,000 million dollars, not counting what the reconstruction will mean in the five States affected by the most tornadoes. recent ones, which are added to others registered in March.
The start of the year was already flaunting harshness, hitting Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Arkansas in February with an arctic cold wave that killed 24 people and froze a third of the country. The phenomenon caused unusual signs: a collapsed electrical system that left three million Texans unable to heat up and broken pipes due to freezing that forced part of the population to melt the snow and boil their water to survive.
The other side, radically opposite, was experienced at the end of June, when an unprecedented heat wave hit North America, leaving 95 deaths in Oregon and another 38 in Washington. The extreme heat that was felt in the Pacific Northwest caused the roads to begin to bend, as well as the rails on which the trains travel. In Portland and Seattle, for example, temperatures of between 42 and 46.5 degrees were reached, the highest record since 1940.
Fires and drought
Like a domino effect, the rise in mercury led to a wave of fires in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Arizona and especially California. In the latter, the dozens of fires, in addition to burning thousands of hectares, led the governor, Gavin Newson, to declare a state of emergency and urge the inhabitants of the most populous state in the United States to ration water and electricity for the biggest drought in four decades.
During the hurricane season, it was the turn of ‘Elsa’, Fred, ‘Nicholas’ and, especially ‘Ida’, which as it passed through the east coast at the end of August left considerable material damage, more than a million people without electricity and major flooding in New Orleans, New Jersey and New York that killed 40 people. Most of the deaths occurred when they were trapped in their cars by the waterspouts, which flooded the metro stations of the city that never sleeps.
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