At least 64 people have died in Kentucky from devastating tornadoes that left a trail of destruction across the US state, the governor says, with 14 people confirmed killed in other states.
Two days after the tornadoes hit, officials are still struggling to establish the toll as emergency responders pick through the rubble of thousands of damaged or destroyed homes and buildings.
“Undoubtedly there will be more (dead). We believe that it will certainly be above 70, maybe even 80,” says Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.
Pete Desai, owner of the Cardinal Motel in Bowling Green, Kentucky surveys tornado damage on December 12, 2021. (Gunnar Word / AFP)
Thousands of people have been left homeless by what Beshear has described as the state’s worst storm on record.
Some 105 people in Kentucky remain unaccounted for, and “it may be weeks before we have final counts on both deaths and levels of destruction,” he says.
Communities are also digging out in five other states where tornadoes touched down Friday night into Saturday, in what US President Joe Biden has described as “one of the largest” storm outbreaks in American history.
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