LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The death toll from a series of weekend tornadoes in Kentucky stood at 50 by late Sunday but remained unclear in some parts of the state. By nightfall, new reports showed the number of dead and missing at a destroyed Mayfield candle factory was much lower than initially feared.
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At a news conference in Mayfield on Sunday night, Gov. Andy Beshear said the number of people confirmed killed by tornadoes in the state had topped 50 and that thousands of homes and structures had been destroyed. Independent counts by coroners in multiple counties confirmed at least 50 deaths around the state.
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Beshear made a host of national media appearances on Sunday morning, less than 48 hours after at least four tornadoes flattened entire towns in Western Kentucky, knocking out power to more than 77,000 customers. Beshear initially said deaths had topped 80 and that a total of 100 was expected.
Kentucky was the worst-hit state by far in an unusual mid-December swarm of twisters across the Midwest and the South that leveled entire communities and left at least 14 people dead in four other states.
The outbreak killed at least six people in Illinois, where an Amazon distribution center in Edwardsville was hit; four in Tennessee; two in Arkansas, where a nursing home was destroyed and the governor said workers shielded residents with their own bodies; and two in Missouri.
Getting an accurate count of the number of people who have been killed will take time because search and rescue efforts are ongoing, Beshear said on CNN.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanna Criswell told CNN's "State of the Union" FEMA search and rescue teams were in Kentucky and helping with recovery efforts.
"They arrived through the day yesterday. They're going to be able to assist the localities with their ongoing rescue efforts. And so I think that we're -- there is still hope, and we should continue to try to find as many people as we can."
Criswell said early December tornadoes are not uncommon. But it was the strength of the tornadoes that leveled parts of Kentucky that was unusual.
"I don't think we have ever seen one this late in the year. But it's also historic. Even the severity and the amount of time this tornado or these tornadoes spent on the ground is unprecedented," Criswell said.
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When asked if climate change was a factor in the storms, Criswell said: "This is going to be our new normal. And the effects that we're seeing from climate change are the crisis of our generation."
Beshear said Saturday at least 10 counties could report casualties.
A 42-year-old woman was killed in Taylor County, officials there said.
Warren County Coroner Kevin Kirby said his office was working 12 cases related to the severe weather. Kirby said Sunday several were children.
He said the FBI was helping to make identifications.
"There are some children. ... There were several," said Kirby. "It is a broad range of ages."
All but one death occurred in the Russellville Road area in Warren County.
Eleven people died in Muhlenberg County, Coroner Larry Vincent said. One of the people killed in Muhlenberg County was Brian Crick, a district judge for McLean and Muhlenberg counties. Beshear told NPR's "Weekend Edition" on Sunday two of the victims were his uncle's first cousins.
Caldwell County Coroner DeWayne Trafford said in a radio interview that the county had at least four deaths, including a husband and wife.
He said the deaths were all in the Dawson Road area of the county in a 3½- to 4-mile radius.
"This is the worst devastation I've seen in my life," he told WKDZ radio.
A spokesperson for Consumer Products Manufacturing in Mayfield said late Sunday evening the number of deaths at that company's candle factory is likely much lower than was initially feared. Approximately 110 people were working at the candle factory at the time the tornado hit.
Initial reports said only 40 people had been located.
Mayfield Consumer Products Spokesperson Bob Ferguson told the Associated Press late Sunday that eight employees have been confirmed dead and another eight are still missing, but dozens of people who were initially missing have been located.
"Many of the employees were gathered in the tornado shelter and after the storm was over they left the plant and went to their homes," he said. "With the power out and no landline they were hard to reach initially. We're hoping to find more of those eight unaccounted as we try their home residences."
At his news conference on Sunday afternoon, Beshear said he could not confirm the company's numbers. But if the company was correct, that would mean Kentucky's death toll could be much, much lower than originally feared.
"It would be a miracle" if other live survivors were pulled from the factory, Beshear said Sunday.
"It's 15-feet plus of steel," Beshear said of the candle factory site.
Cars in the parking lot are also now on top of that pile of rubble.
An official total of the number of killed in Graves County has not been released. Phone calls and emails to Graves County officials have not been returned as much of the area is without power.
Beshear said Sunday the state had opened 11 shelters but only six remain open " because people have opened their homes."
75,000 WITHOUT POWER
Western Kentucky hospitals have been able to manage the surge in the number of people seeking treatment, he said on NPR.
"Local hospitals have received calls from all over Kentucky offering help," Beshear said. "We have been able to move people who need a higher level of care to other hospitals."
More than 75,000 customers in Western Kentucky were still without power early Sunday.
By 5 p.m., the number of customers without power had dropped to 51,064. Power had been largely been restored in Warren County, according to Poweroutage.us, which tracks power outages.
In Graves County, 5,288 structures were still without power at 5 p.m.
Meanwhile, National Weather Service survey teams were still in the process of gathering additional information about the tornadoes that hit Kentucky.
One tornado in Western Kentucky had a historic long track and was categorized as being at least an EF-3 tornado. The maximum width of the storm was at least three-fourths of a mile, according to the National Weather Service.
The weather service will be gathering data to look at wind speeds and to assess storm strength.
The weather service said winds reached 155 miles per hour in Bowling Green, 115 miles per hour in Hardyville and 105 miles per hour near Falls of Rough. The tornado in Bowling Green was categorized as an EF-3.
The weather service said a survey team in Taylor County confirms at least EF-2 torando damage, with estimated wind speeds of 120 mile per hour near Saloma.
Meanwhile, search efforts at the Amazon facility in Illinois were expected to take several days, but authorities said they did not expect to find additional survivors.
AMAZON WAREHOUSE
Amazon has not said how many people were in the building not far from St. Louis when the tornado hit at 8:35 p.m. Friday. Authorities said they didn't have a full count of employees because it was during a shift change and there were several part-time employees.
Both sides of the warehouse used to prepare orders for delivery collapsed inward and the roof caved, according to Edwardsville, Ill., Fire Chief James Whiteford. Authorities received reports of workers being trapped and the fire unit arrived within six minutes, Whiteford said. Police helped pull people from the rubble. While 45 employees survived, six people were killed and a seventh person was airlifted to a hospital.
Whiteford said crews would search the rubble for several days.
Madison County Coroner Stephen Nonn identified Sunday the six people who were killed. Four were from Illinois: 26-year-old Austin McEwen of Edwardsville, 29-year-old Clayton Cope of Alton, 46-year-old Larry Virden of Collinsville and 62-year-old Kevin Dickey of Carlyle. Two others -- 28-year-old Deandre S. Morrow and 34-year-old Etheria S. Hebb -- were from St. Louis.
Cope's younger sister, Rachel Cope, said her brother had worked for Amazon for over a year and served in the Navy. He was also an avid motorcycle rider, lover of video games and his dog, Draco.
"He would go out of his way for anyone," she told The Associated Press in a written message.
Nonn said Sunday there were no pending reports of missing people related to the building collapse.
"Search efforts continue to ensure that there are no additional victims," he said in a statement.
The damage to the building was extensive. The structure's steel support pillars were exposed after the walls and roof caved.
"These walls are made out of 11-inch thick concrete, and they're about 40 feet tall, so a lot of weight from that came down," Whiteford said at a Saturday news conference.
Employee Amanda Goss had just started her first week in a new job as an Amazon delivery driver when the tornado hit.
"As I look up, the corner of the building was shaking, and it comes down the garage area and then I felt the gates coming in behind me," Goss told KTVI-TV. "All I do is sit there in my van hoping it don't move."
The Amazon facility, among three in Edwardsville, is a 1.1 million square foot "delivery station" that employs about 190 workers across several shifts, according to Amazon. The facility, which opened in July 2020, prepares orders for "last-mile delivery" to customers.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their loved ones, and everyone impacted by the tornado," Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. "We're continuing to support our employees and partners in the area."
Amazon said that when a site is made aware of a tornado warning, all employees are notified and directed to move to a shelter. But company officials declined to answer specific questions about when employees were warned.
A union representing retail employees that has pushed to organize Amazon employees blasted the company for "dangerous labor practices" for having employees work during the severe weather.
"Time and time again Amazon puts its bottom line above the lives of its employees," Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Requiring, said in a statement. "Requiring workers to work through such a major tornado warning event as this was inexcusable."
Information for this article was contributed by Beth Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt Spears of the Lexington Herald-Leader (TNS) and by Sophia Tarreen, Bruce Schreiner, Dylan Lovan, Kristin Hall, Claire Galofaro, Jay Reeves, Seth Borenstein and Travis Loller of The Associated Press.
Gallery: Tornadoes' aftermath, Dec. 12, 2021
