Kentucky tornado death toll rises to 74

(CNN) – At least 74 people in Kentucky have died after weekend tornadoes in eight states ripped through homes and businesses in the midwest and southern United States.

Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters that the death toll comes from emergency management officials and may differ from what county coroners report.

The governor said at a press conference Monday afternoon that the numbers will change because “we have several of our towns in rubble.”

In addition to the deaths in Kentucky, 109 residents remain missing, Beshear said. At least 14 people have died in four other states: six in Illinois, four in Tennessee and two in Arkansas and Missouri, authorities said.

Beshear said 95 National Guard soldiers are registering fatalities and missing persons.

“We hope they don’t find them. We hope someone contacts them and they’re out there and we just don’t know where they are yet,” he said. “Maybe they don’t have cell service.”

He previously described the destruction, saying that more than 1,000 houses have been razed and a tornado traveled at least 200 miles.

“When this tornado hit, it didn’t just take off a roof, which is what we’ve seen in the past,” Beshear said.

“It blew up the whole house. People, animals, the rest, it just disappeared.”

Among the victims are babies

At least 15 of those killed in Kentucky were in Warren County, coroner Kevin Kirby said Monday.

The youngest victims identified there include two babies, Samantha and Alma Besic, the coroner’s office said.

A 4-year-old boy, Nyles Brown, also died. The oldest identified victim in Warren County is Mae F. White, 77.

Family businesses are demolished

Just five hours before a tornado tore through the town of Mayfield, the kids had packed Gibson’s pharmacy for Santa’s annual visit.

“The lobby was full of families. My kids were there,” said Sam Brown, whose father bought the pharmacy 38 years ago, the year Brown was born.

“That’s actually the last video I have of the property, a hallway full of kids sitting on Santa’s lap.”

Brown and his family survived the tornado. But he said the pharmacy was reduced to “a scene of war. It is totally demolished.”

The family, however, is still committed to getting the medications to the neighbors quickly.

“We have another location open on the other side of town. We want to be up and running today … to serve the community to the best of our ability. We’ve been working non-stop to make it work.”

More donations are needed (including blood)

In just two days, donors gave $ 4 million to the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief FundBeshear said.

“Help keeps coming in from all over the county. Thank you all. We feel your love here,” the governor said.

He said the fund’s first expense will be to provide $ 5,000 for burial expenses to families who lost loved ones during the storm. The state has asked funeral homes not to charge the families of storm victims more.

Beshear said no family will have to apply, as the state will communicate directly.

But more help is needed, said State Senator Whitney Westerfield.

“We still need blood donations and we could still use donations” for Team Western Kentucky’s Tornado Relief Fund, Westerfield said.

“I encourage you, (if) you have free space this Christmas, give it to West Kentucky.”

The American Red Cross has established eight shelters and is helping nearly 200 people, the group’s Kentucky executive director Steven Cunanan said Sunday.

Cunanan said the main goal of the Red Cross is to provide food and care to people who were forced from their homes by tornadoes. “We have to help them get their lives back and help them get back to normal,” he said.

The emotional cost of having your life disrupted by a natural disaster is also an important consideration, Cunanan said. “I’ve seen it in every disaster I’ve been to. They’re shocked. They don’t know where to turn.”

Several state parks have also been opened to help house families who lost everything, Beshear said Sunday.

“We are taking them in,” Beshear said. “We are trying to guarantee everyone a two-week stay, so they are not worried about tomorrow. They can worry about finding their relatives and making sure their children have enough to eat.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is on the ground helping after President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration over the weekend. The measure allows grants and low-cost loans to go toward housing and home repairs in the affected areas.

Biden said he will visit Wednesday to examine damage from the tornadoes.

When rescuers can’t go door to door because “there are no doors”

In some parts of Kentucky, it is impossible to find out where porches and front doors were.

“I have towns that disappeared, that just, I mean, they disappeared,” the governor told CNN on Sunday. “You go door to door to see how people are doing and see if they are okay. There are no doors … it’s devastating.”

About 75% of Dawson Springs has been razed, Mayor Chris Smiley said.

“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Smiley, who has lived in the small town for 63 years. “It’s just devastating.”

More than 100 people have been reported missing in Dawson Springs, said Nick Bailey, director of emergency management for Hopkins County. But officials hope that most of them have left town and have not yet registered.

But “hundreds and hundreds” in the city of nearly 3,000 people no longer have a place to live, Bailey said.

“Almost an entire city has been displaced at this time,” he said.

And those whose houses are still standing will likely be without power for up to a month, Bailey said.

50 tornadoes in 8 states

While Kentucky may have suffered the most extensive damage, at least 50 tornadoes were reported in seven other states over the weekend, the National Weather Service said.

As of Sunday, EF-3 tornadoes have been identified in Defiance, Missouri; Edwardsville, Illinois; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Saloma, Kentucky; and a strip of Kentucky between Cayce and Beaver Creek.

In Illinois, at least six people were killed when an Amazon warehouse collapsed in Edwardsville, Fire Chief James Whiteford said.

Those six victims were between the ages of 26 and 62, the Edwardsville Police Department said.

One was identified as Clayton Cope, a 29-year veteran of the United States Navy. He had worked at Amazon for just over a year as a maintenance mechanic, said his mother, Carla Cope.

The young man’s father also worked at the facility in the same position.

“If (Clay) hadn’t been there, my husband would have,” Carla Cope said.

An Amazon representative said a tornado warning siren sounded 11 minutes before the storm’s arrival.

“Managers were on loudspeakers telling people to get to the shelter area at the scene. They were also being guided by other managers and other employees trying to get everyone to that safe place,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. , to CNN affiliate KSDK on Sunday.

She said the employees took shelter in two unspecified safe areas. Nantel said dispatchers also contacted Amazon delivery drivers in the area and told them to shelter in place.

In Arkansas, the storm hit a Dollar General store in Leachville and killed Deputy Director June Pennington, Mississippi County spokesman Tom Henry said.

In the nearby town of Monette, at least one person died in a tornado-damaged nursing home, Mayor Bob Blankenship said.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said it was a “miracle” that only one person died in the nursing home.

“When I went to that facility, it was as if the sky had absorbed the ceiling and all of its contents,” he said.

“And it’s just a miracle with 67 residents that we’ve only lost one there. And that’s due to the heroic efforts of the staff and also the fact that we had a 20 minute warning.”

More severe weather may be on the way

As officials focus on the immediate needs of tornado victims, forecasters are on the lookout for the possibility of more severe weather in the region.

While it’s still early, some areas hit by tornadoes could experience the same kind of weather pattern this week, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said.

That could include warmer temperatures followed by another possible risk of severe weather for the weekend.

CNN’s Gregory Lemos, Carma Hassan, Jason Hanna, Ashley Killough, Laura Studley, Kiely Westhoff, Susannah Cullinane, Eric Levenson, and Amir Vera contributed to this report.