‘The whole town has disappeared’: Survivors describe the horror of tornadoes in the US

(CNN) – Kyanna Parsons-Perez did her best to avoid panicking after strong tornado winds collapsed the building she was in and left her pinned to the ground under heaps of heavy rubble.

Parsons-Perez was one of many workers trapped under the rubble of a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, after it was hit by a tornado Friday night.

“It happened so fast,” Parsons-Perez told CNN, describing the destruction the tornado wreaked at the factory. “We all just rocked back and forth, and then boom, it all fell on us.”

That tornado was one of at least 50 to hit eight states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee. The winds tore down power lines, ripped roofs off buildings and, in some cases, decimated communities.

More than 100 people are feared dead, including at least 80 in Kentucky, according to state and local officials.

These are some stories of those who survived.

‘Boom, it all fell on us’

Parsons-Perez was working his shift at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory when the tornado struck.

She was one of more than 100 people working at the factory, which had been “running 24 hours a day, seven days a week” in part to meet the demand for Christmas candles, Rep. James Comer told CNN. , which represents the area.

The horror began when she felt the wind, despite being deep within the building where she and other workers were sheltering in a storm shelter.

The lights flickered and his ears started popping, remember. Seconds later, the building was being ripped apart around him, collapsing like a house of cards, he said.

“It was like someone took one of the pieces,” he said, “and the top part collapsed on us.”

Something hit his head and when the chaos stopped, he found his legs immobilized under a fountain of water. When rescuers arrived, they told her she was trapped under at least 1.5 meters of debris.

Co-workers surrounded her. Some cried out for help for her. Others prayed.

Parsons-Perez made jokes to try to keep people calm.

But as the minutes passed and his toes lost feeling, Parsons-Perez also became concerned. At this point, he says, he began broadcasting on Facebook Live.

“I don’t know who’s watching,” he said, as his panicked coworkers were heard in the background. “Please send us some help. We are trapped. The wall has me trapped.

“No one can reach us. All of you. Pray for us. Try to find someone to help us.”

Over time, his supervisor and inmates who worked at the factory as part of a work release program for low-security, low-level offenders began breaking down the drywall to get some air.

When rescuers arrived, they evacuated everyone in their section before finally reaching it. The team worked to remove the debris from under her, until she was able to move her body up and free her legs.

With one person pushing up from under her and another pulling her arms, she was able to climb through five feet of debris to get out, she said.

“Once I got out of there, I couldn’t do anything but thank God,” he said. “That’s the only thing that saved me. It’s unbelievable that someone got away from there.”

‘Missed by a hair’

A group of friends went on a duck hunting trip in Tennessee’s Reelfoot Lake State Park when they found themselves in the path of a tornado.

Cayden Rawls, Korbin Stanton and Aaron Jones, who are originally from Buffalo, Texas, were visiting Tiptonville on the day of Jones’ college graduation.

Rawls said they knew there was a possibility of thunderstorms and wind before their trip, but were unaware of the potential destruction.

When they arrived in Tennessee and began unloading their truck, they heard a tornado warning siren.

“We discovered there were tornadoes when we heard the sirens … about 15 minutes later it happened,” Jones told CNN.

The three friends rushed into his motel room shortly before the tornado. About 50 feet from his hotel was an RV park.

When they opened the door after the tornado, everything except his truck and a few other cars was missing, Rawls said. Trailers, cars, and trees were missing or smashed.

“There was a caravan about 20 feet (6 meters) behind my truck and the tornado completely washed out it,” Rawls said.

“You could almost see the line where the tornado passed behind my truck and took away the trailer and everything behind it, and all it did to my truck was break the glass,” Rawls said. “Missed by a hair.”

For three hours, the men searched for survivors and helped strangers they saw wandering until law enforcement arrived, said Rawls, a member of the Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department.

“You see this on TV all the time, you don’t imagine you’re going to see it right there in front of you and it’s like, ‘Hell, what do I do?'” Rawls said. “You can’t train for things like this.”

‘I knew more would come’

Jeffery Weir was home alone in Bay, Arkansas, watching the local news and tracking the storm on his iPad when the power went out.

After heading out to check the weather, lightning struck and Weir surprisingly caught a glimpse of an unexpected tornado. Weir, who grew up in Bay, was used to windstorms, but nothing like this.

Initially, he wasn’t scared, he said, but then he heard the cracking of tree branches and thought he might hurt himself. He ran inside.

“That was just the first line of storms,” ​​he said. “I knew more would come.”

One photo he took showed the tornado whizzing by right in front of him.

After seeing the tornado, Weir grew increasingly concerned: He had no way of verifying the direction of the tornado. And with the darkness outside and the risk of injury from falling tree limbs, he had no choice but to wait.

While the storm raged, he snuggled with his dog and waited for his friends to call him and update him on the tornado’s trajectory. Hours later, when the sun rose, Weir could see the devastation tornadoes had caused in Trumann, a city about 5 miles away.

The houses were destroyed. The roofs had blown up. Debris scattered all over the fields and roads.

“It was heartbreaking to see the damage and loss of life in the area,” he said. “My heart aches for those who have lost their homes, especially just before Christmas. I know it will be difficult to clean up and even rebuild. It will take time.”

‘A piece of my heart is broken’

Leisha Doran was filled with holiday cheer Friday at the Good News Shoppe, a Christian bookstore she has owned in Mayfield, Kentucky, hours before tornadoes hit her state.

“Everyone was so happy. We were singing and laughing and having a good time,” Doran told CNN.

Doran lost power and cell phone service and had no way to search his store.

Eventually, he received a text message telling him that the bank and the courthouse next to his store had been destroyed.

“And then this morning when I came in, it was really sad to see (that it had been destroyed),” he said.

“We had just had a great day on Friday, and then this morning, he was gone.”

Doran shared the news on Facebook, along with photos of his store before and after the storm. A recent photograph showed the Christmas decorations he had just put up.

“A piece of my heart is broken,” he captioned the photo. “I had just taken this photo and this is how I will always remember it. I am so thankful that none of us were there tonight.”

Despite the loss of his business, which had been in business for 42 years, Doran said the hardest part is the many loved ones who were lost in the storm.

“Things can be replaceable, but your family, your friends cannot,” he said. “So that was a very difficult part today.”

‘I have never felt more isolated in my life’

Hayley Gibson’s Friday nights generally consist of playing video games online or studying for her art history class. Dining on the bathroom floor in your bedroom is rarely part of the plan.

But when Edwardsville, Illinois, was placed on tornado watch and students at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville were told that a tornado had made landfall, things got very dark.

Gibson was playing Fortnight with his friends when the power failed and he, along with the rest of the students in his dorm, was instructed to take refuge in their individual bathrooms.

“I didn’t feel so confident,” the 22-year-old told CNN. “I was about to break down, honestly. I kind of went on a roller coaster of boredom and loneliness and fear, and then I was trying to laugh through it all.”

Heavy winds and rains hit her windows and shook the trees as Gibson sat on the bathroom floor in the dark for four hours, unable to communicate with family or friends.

While Gibson made it out safely, the destruction made her realize how grateful she is for her life and for those around her.

“I have never felt more isolated in my life,” she said. “When it got really bad, I thought, ‘I lived a good life! I’m not really afraid of death.’

An Amazon warehouse was also damaged in Edwardsville during the storm, leaving at least six people dead and an unknown number of trapped workers that rescuers continue to search.

‘The whole town has disappeared’

Residents of Mayfield, home to the candle factory and one of the most devastated communities, have no idea what awaits their city.

Steven Elder, a banker who works in the Kentucky city of about 10,000 residents, said the tornadoes “went through the heart of Mayfield.”

The once picturesque county square of the town, which have struggled to continue to thrive with new shops, is gone. The bell tower of the courthouse has collapsed. All that remains is the rubble of what was once the soul of the city.

“Every historic building that we have is on the ground, churches that have been around for hundreds of years, hundreds of years,” Elder said. “It’s like a war zone or just something out of the movies.”

Old buildings that used to be clothing factories, a great centerpiece of the city, have also been vandalized. Also his First Presbyterian Church, as well as the historic Carr Steakhouse and City Hall.

“It will never look the same,” he said. “The whole town has disappeared.”

Elder, a former city council member, is on the board of the Mayfield Community Foundation, which raised money for covid-19 relief and is now raising money for tornado recovery.

The biggest concern now, Elder says, is the impact the tornadoes have had on community members, many of whom have lost loved ones or are awaiting news of those who are still missing.

For now, the united community will work on search and rescue and to clean up what remains, including clearing roads and restoring power.

And while Christmas may not look like it did last year, the holiday spirit will remain in the gratitude and love that will reunite the small town of Mayfield.

“It’s not the gifts under the tree (this year),” Elder said. “It’s the fact that we can be together.”

CNN’s Paul P. Murphy and Harmeet Kaur contributed to this report.