"Boom, Everything Came Down oN uS"

"Probably the most remarkable thing is that there's not a greater loss of life."

"It is catastrophic. It's a total destruction."

Gov.Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas

"It's Christmastime and she works at a place that's making candles for gifts. To give up the gift of life to make a gift. We haven't heard anything, and I'm not presuming anything. But I'm expecting for the worse."

Darryl Williams, brother of missing 50-year-old candle factory worker

"[It was absolutely] the most terrifying [event]. I did not think I was going to make it at all."

"Boom. Everything came down on us."

"They [prison inmates from nearby jail] could have used that moment to try to run away or anything, but they did not. They were there, helping us."

Kyanna Parsons-Perez, factory employee

People embrace in Mayfield on Sunday surrounded by rubble. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Five American states bore the violent brunt of what experts are calling possibly the largest tornado ever seen in that geographic region. "This was an incredible storm that lasted a long time and covered a lot of territory", explained Larry Vannozzi, head meteorologist at the National Weather Service office covering the Nashville area. What hasn't yet been determined by meteorologists is whether the storm spawned multiple tornadoes or was the product of a single tornado.

 

In Kentucky, emergency response crews sifted through wreckage of what was left of a candle factory where 110 people were working overnight, in the town of Mayfield at the time the storm hit the region. Forty people were fortunate enough to have been rescued. The search continues. "We had to, at times, crawl over casualties to get to live victims", Jeremy Creason, the city's fire chief and EMS director, explained.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, speaking to the press, said at least 70 people were likely killed when the twister touched down for over 320 kilometres in the state. It was his opinion that the number of deaths eventually might exceed 100, encompassing ten or more counties. Five states in all were affected where in Arkansas, a nursing home was destroyed. Missouri and Illinois were hit as well, the latter housing an Amazon facility.

 

The twister "will likely go down perhaps as one of the longest track violent tornadoes is U.S. history", researcher on extreme weather Victor Genzini at Northern Illinois University stated. In March of 1925, the longest tornado on record tracked for approximately 220 miles (355 kilometres) through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Mr. Genzini, however, said this one may have touched down for close to 250 miles; all the more remarkable since it arrived in December, a time when normally, cold weather limits tornadoes.

 

The town of Mayfield with its 10,00 population located in western Kentucky appeared to have borne the brunt of the tornado, with debris from smashed buildings and shredded trees covering the ground with twisted meal sheeting, broken power lines and wrecked vehicles lining the streets. Rescue crews used heavy equipment to move rubble at the candle factory, while coroners were called in as bodies were recovered. 

 

An aerial view of the destruction to downtown Mayfield is seen on Sunday. (Gerald Herbert/The Associated Press)

One of the factory employees spoke of being trapped under 1.5 metres of debris for hours until rescuers arrived and freed her. She described the building's lights flickering just before the tornado struck. Her ears began popping, she felt a gust of wind and people began screaming. She heard other workers praying. Inmates from the nearby Graves County Jail were recruited to help in the rescue efforts. The town's main fire station and emergency services hub were hit by the tornado as well, complicating rescue. 

At the Amazon facility in Edwardsville, Illinois, the building roof had been ripped off, and a wall the length of a football field collapsed. One person died there, and others were taken to hospitals in St.Louis. Cranes and backhoes were brought to help move debris and sort through the rubble. Even workers at a National Weather Service office took shelter as the tornado passed by their office in Weldon Spring, Missouri.

Buildings collapsed at the towns of Defiance and New Melle, a few miles from the weather service office. The nursing home in Monette, Arkansas, collapsed leaving people with serious injuries after trapping people inside, where one person died. In northwestern Tennessee, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency reported four deaths related to the storm. Expectations are that the numbers will increase as excavations continue.

Devastation has been left in the wake of tornadoes and extreme weather that ripped through Kentucky. Search and rescue efforts are underway, and at least 100 people are feared dead.  Associated Press