Journalism of Courage
At least 100 people were feared dead in Kentucky after a swarm of tornadoes tore a 200-mile path through the US Midwest and South, demolishing homes, levelling businesses and setting off rescue operations to find survivors beneath the rubble. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the collection of tornadoes were the most destructive in the state's history. Seen here are firefighters searching a debris field that came from a house that was ripped off its foundation and trees were cut off after a tornado ripped along Highway F at the intersection of Stub Road in St. Charles County, Missouri. (AP)
The powerful twisters destroyed a candle factory, and the fire and police stations in a small town in Kentucky, ripped through a nursing home in neighboring Missouri, and killed at least six workers at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois. (Reuters)
About 40 workers had been rescued at the candle factory in Mayfield, which had about 110 people inside when it was reduced to a pile of rubble. It would be a "miracle" to find anyone else alive under the debris, Beshear said. (Reuters)
189 National Guard personnel have been deployed to assist with the recovery. Seen here is a woman searching for valuables amidst the remnants of a home in Missouri. (AP)
The genesis of the tornado outbreak was a series of overnight thunderstorms, including a super cell storm that formed in northeast Arkansas. That storm moved from Arkansas and Missouri and into Tennessee and Kentucky. Seen here are people walking by the debris caused by tornado in Kentucky. (AP)
In Illinois, at least six workers died after a warehouse collapsed in the town of Edwardsville, when the winds ripped off the roof and reduced a wall longer than a football field to rubble. (Reuters)
The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center said it received 36 reports of tornadoes touching down in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi. Kentucky officials called on residents to stay off the roads and to donate blood, as responders rushed to rescue survivors and account for people in communities that had lost communications. (AP)
Debris from destroyed buildings and shredded trees covered the ground in Mayfield, a city of about 10,000 in western Kentucky. Twisted metal sheeting, downed power lines and wrecked vehicles lined the streets. Windows and roofs were blown off the buildings that were still standing. (AP)
