“It’s a tragedy. We still don’t know how many lives were lost, nor the full extent of the damage,” Biden said in a televised address.
He described the series of storms as one of the worst storms in American history. As of this report’s last update, tornadoes have left more than 70 people dead.
The five affected countries are:
- Kentucky (with at least 70 dead);
- Tennessee (with at least 3 dead);
- Arkansas (at least one dead);
- Illinois (at least two dead);
- e Missouri (at least one dead)
When asked if climate change has affected the storms, Biden said he couldn’t say so because he would ask the government’s Environmental Protection Agency to look into the matter.
“But the truth is, we all know that everything gets more intense when the climate warms everything up,” the president said. “And it obviously has some influence here, but I can’t give you a quantitative reading of that.”
Biden promised to visit the affected area, but made it clear he wanted to make sure he wasn’t “on the path to rescue and recovery.” The White House had already informed that the federal funds would be directed to where it was most needed.
According to poweroutage.us, more than 600,000 consumers in five states (Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania) were without power on Saturday evening.
Kentucky Governor Andy Bashir had earlier claimed that the death toll in the state could reach more than 100 before Saturday’s end.
“This is going to be one of the worst tornado damage we’ve seen in a long time,” Bashir said in an interview with local WLKY TV. He declared a state of emergency and activated the state’s National Guard to help relief the affected areas.
In the town of Mayfield, a candle factory was operating when it was hit by a hurricane. According to WLKY, there were more than 100 people in the building.
“Mayfield is going to be ground zero,” Michael Doucet, director of emergency management for Kentucky, told CNN. “The city has received the worst blow. There is massive destruction,” he added, according to AFP.
Look at the situation in the countries
Satellite images show the streak of storms sweeping the United States
In Tennessee, severe weather had killed at least three people as of Saturday morning, according to an official with the state emergency agency.
The Arkansas district judge said the tornado destroyed the roof of a nursing home, killing at least one person and injuring five others.
In Illinois, the hurricane wrecked much of Amazon’s distribution warehouse, where dozens of people worked the night shift, processing thousands of orders before the holiday season. According to Reuters, local authorities confirmed two deaths.
The local police chief told the media that about 50 people were in the Amazon warehouse when the tornado hit around 8:30 p.m. Friday (10).
In Kentucky, employees work at the scene of a derailed train after a powerful tornado devastated several US states – Photo: Cheney Orr/Reuters
In Kentucky, employees work at the scene of a derailed train after a powerful tornado devastated several US states – Photo: Cheney Orr/Reuters
An aerial view of a train derailing amid the devastation caused by a tornado in Kentucky, USA – Photo: Cheney Orr/Reuters
Amazon shed destroyed by a tornado in Edwardsville, Illinois – Photo: Chris Phillips/Maverick Media Group, LLC via Reuters
Bill Mosley walks with his wife Bonnie holding two of his rifles, the only items he was able to recover after their home was destroyed in a tornado in Kentucky, USA – Photo: Cheney Orr/Reuters
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