The small town in the US state of Kentucky was hit particularly hard by the tornado.
(Photo: AP)
Mayfield Autumn Kirks tore her goggles from her eyes, pushed buckets of wax and scented oils aside, and crouched on the floor. She only averted her gaze from her boyfriend Lannis for a very short time, then suddenly he was gone, she says. And instead of the wall of the factory in which she worked, there was suddenly the night sky with twitching lightning bolts.
A few weeks before Christmas, the Mayfield Consumer Products factory was very busy – even at night. For the Christmas business, candles were made in shifts, 110 people were working in the building in the US state of Kentucky on Friday night when a tornado suddenly swept over Mayfield. Up to 70 of them were initially missing, including Autumn’s friend Lannis. But in the end the number of victims was apparently lower. A spokesman for the factory said on Sunday that eight workers had been killed and eight were still missing.
“It would be a miracle if we could pull someone out,” Kentucky’s Governor Andy Beshear had told CNN a few hours earlier. 4.5 meters of steel and broken cars are now where the roof used to be.
“Not having any certainty right now is worse than knowing,” said Autumn Kirks. “I try to stay strong. It’s very difficult at the moment. “
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Like her, others in the 10,000-resident parish in western Kentucky were waiting to hear whether their loved ones were dead or not. Many residents gathered at a parish office where Pastor Joel Cauley himself can barely put the events into words. “You could smell the smell of the candles and the cries for help from the people,” he says. He would never have believed that he would experience something like this at the same time.
Path of Desolation
Governor Beshear first said that more than 100 people were believed to have died in Kentucky alone when a series of hurricanes raged through the American Midwest, most of them in Mayfield. But the number of victims may not have been that high after all. The storm system also cost several people their lives in other states, but Kentucky was by far the hardest hit.
Many dead after tornadoes in several US states
CNN reported more than 30 tornadoes in total in Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and Tennessee. It will take days for the full extent of the disaster to become known. According to Beshear, a tornado struck a swath of devastation over 227 miles, 200 miles of which was in Kentucky. “Nothing that was in the direct line of this tornado still stands,” said the governor.
For the United States, it is the latest in a series of natural disasters. This year alone there had been numerous storms, floods and forest fires. US President Joe Biden sees the accumulation and severity of the disasters as a consequence of climate change, and he has made combating it one of his top priorities.
Beshear thanked Biden’s government and numerous supporters from across the United States for their help. “We are grateful for the great love that has been shown to us.” Biden has announced a visit to the disaster area in Kentucky as soon as he no longer interferes with the rescue operations.
On Sunday, many residents came together for a service to pray for the dead and the missing. Because their churches were badly damaged, the two congregations met in a parking lot, surrounded by rubble. The tornado’s destructiveness is still difficult to put into words for most, as it is for Laura McClendon. “Our little town will never be the same,” she said.
More: “We are Ground Zero”: Tornadoes are wreaking havoc in several US states