Tornadoes in the United States: the death toll climbs to 88, Joe Biden will be there on Wednesday

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The tornadoes that devastated parts of the central and southern United States rose to 88 dead on Monday, while dozens of people are still missing. The US president will be there on Wednesday.

Authorities in Kentucky expressed relative relief on Monday, December 13, to find alive around 100 workers at a candle factory destroyed by one of the devastating tornadoes that ravaged the southern and central United States, and killed at least 88 people.

The MCP candle factory in the devastated small town of Mayfield was the subject of all worries: the modern building, where 110 employees were supposed to be located on Friday night, had been transformed by the elements into a tangle of joists and of twisted sheets, giving rise to fear of a very heavy toll.

But the company, after frantic searches in the rubble, was able to confirm that 94 of its employees were “alive and have been found”, announced Monday morning the governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear. “We feared it would be much worse,” he told a press conference, seeing it as a “glimmer of hope” as eight people died in the destruction of the plant and eight remain missing.

Weeks to have a final assessment

US President Joe Biden, who assured “does not want to interfere” with relief operations, will visit the site Wednesday, as well as in the city of Dawson Springs, a hundred kilometers away, to assess the damage.

Three days after the disaster, Governor Beshear also announced Monday afternoon that at least 74 residents had lost their lives in the state of Kentucky alone. He also announced, during this press briefing, that 109 were still missing in his State. The victims are aged from 5 months to 86 years, he had specified in the morning, very moved, warning that it would perhaps be necessary to wait “weeks” before having a final toll of deaths and damage.

In addition, 14 deaths were recorded in the neighboring states of Tennessee (4), Illinois (6), Missouri (2) and Arkansas (2), this exceptional weather phenomenon having affected six states.

Joe Biden declared a state of major disaster in Kentucky on Sunday, unlocking more federal aid.

“We will be present to allow the population to recover and rebuild,” Alejandro Mayorkas, US Minister of Homeland Security, promised Monday morning on CNN television.

“Reconstruction is underway. It’s not a matter of weeks or months, it’s something that will last for years,” Governor Andy Beshear warned.

“New standard”

The United States faces a “new standard” of multiplication of devastating weather events, the head of the United States Disaster Management Agency (FEMA), Deanne Criswell, warned on Sunday. In particular, she underlined the “incredibly unusual” and “historic” dimension of these tornadoes for this season, the month of December being usually rather spared by such events in the United States.

Joe Biden, him, underlined Saturday that the meteorological phenomena were “more intense” with the warming of the planet, without however establishing a direct causal link between climate change and the disaster which grieved the country.

With AFP