Tornadoes in the United States: Jeff Bezos says he is “heartbroken” after deadly collapse of warehouse – franceinfo

“The news from Edwardsville is tragic.” The boss of e-commerce giant Amazon, Jeff Bezos, said on Twitter on Saturday (December 11th) that he had “broken heart” after the group’s warehouse collapsed in Edwardsville, Ill., hit by a series of deadly tornadoes.

At least six people died in the collapse, said the fire chief of Edwardsville, Illinois, where the building is located. “We identified 45 staff who were able to exit the building, one who had to be airlifted to an area hospital for treatment and six fatalities.”James Whiteford said at a press conference.

The fire chief of this city of 25,000 inhabitants also said that the rescue operations were concluded earlier in the afternoon, now giving way to operations to recover the bodies. The announcement raises fears that the toll of this collapse will grow even worse during the three days that the operations must last.

Much of the roof of the Amazon warehouse was torn off, while one of the walls collapsed into the building. The provisional death toll from these tornadoes is now at least 83 across five US states.