Amazon factory collapses as deadly tornadoes lash Illinois, Kentucky, other US states

At least 50 people were likely to have been killed in a devastating outbreak of tornadoes that ripped through Kentucky and several other US states late on Friday and early on Saturday, including workers at an Amazon factory in Illinois. Edwardsville Police Chief Mike Fillback said at a news conference Saturday morning that at least one person had died at the Amazon warehouse in southern Illinois, and crews continued to search through the rubble. Two people were taken by helicopter to hospitals in St. Louis for treatment, Fillback said. The Collinsville Emergency Management Agency described it as a “mass casualty incident” with “multiple subjects trapped at Amazon Warehouse”. Hundreds of officials were working through the early hours of Saturday to rescue the workers, who were on the night shift processing orders ahead of the Christmas holidays. One woman outside, Sarah Bierman, said she was very worried about her husband, who worked at the facility. “I talked to him about eight o’clock tonight, a little before I texted him, and he was returning to the warehouse to drop his van off,” she told a reporter. “And I haven’t heard from him since, I just heard through the news and we live in Edwardsville; we lost power. So I decided to come down here to see what was going on, and I had no idea the building looked that bad. And I’m just ... I’m worried sick,” she said. The roof of the building was ripped off and a wall about the length of a football field collapsed. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the damage was caused by straight-line storms or a tornado, but the National Weather Service office near St. Louis reported “radar-confirmed tornadoes” in the Edwardsville area at around the time of the collapse. About 30 people who were in the building were taken by bus to the police station in nearby Pontoon Beach for evaluation. Early on Saturday, rescue crews were still sorting through the rubble. Fillback said the process could take several more hours. Cranes and backhoes were brought in to help move debris. Gov. Beshear has declared a state of emergency based on major tornado damage in multiple Western Kentucky counties. He has activated the @kentuckyguard and the @kystatepolice. The Governor will be providing an update with @KentuckyEM officials at 5 a.m. EST in Frankfort. 1/2 — Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) December 11, 2021 In Kentucky, multiple tornadoes touched down overnight across the state, causing damage in more than a dozen counties. The primary tornado travelled more than 320 kilometres (200 miles) across Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear told an early morning news conference. The death toll could exceed 50 people and could reach up to 100 people, said the governor, who declared a state of emergency. “I fear that there are more than 50 dead ... probably closer to somewhere between 70 and 100, it’s devastating,” Beshear said, adding that it was the “most severe tornado event in Kentucky’s history”. “The reports are really heartbreaking. This has been one of the toughest nights in Kentucky history and some areas have been hit in ways that is hard to put into words,” he said. Some of the worst destruction was in Mayfield, in western Kentucky. About 110 people were inside a candle factory in the area when the tornado ripped through, taking down the roof, Beshear said. “We believe we’ll lose at least dozens of those individuals,” the governor said. Some 56,000 Kentuckians were without power, he said. He declared a state emergency and was deploying dozens of national guardsman to communities. Pointing at a Kentucky map, Beshear said, “We believe that there were likely four likely tornadoes. Not just one. They hit in multiple places across Kentucky. This is why so many counties have had significant damage.” Pictures and videos shared on social media from Mayfield showed buildings ripped apart by the storm, with bent metal, trees and dislodged bricks scattered across the streets and only the remnants of houses left behind. In Tennessee, the severe weather killed at least three people, Dean Flener, spokesman for the state’s Emergency Management Agency, said in comments reported by the Washington Post. At least one person was killed and five were injured when a tornado shredded the roof of a nursing home in Monette in northern Arkansas, the Post quoted local officials as saying. The storms caused a CSX company freight train to derail in western Kentucky, although it said no injuries were reported, the New York Times said. Bill Bunting, operations chief at the Storm Prediction Center, part of the National Weather Service, said at least five states were hit by the tornadoes, naming them as Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas, the Times reported.