Not less than 50 persons are thought to have died as tornadoes and storms hit a number of US states, toppling buildings and trapping individuals inside.
Kentucky’s Governor Andy Beshear mentioned the state had “skilled a number of the worst twister injury we have seen in a very long time”.
He mentioned the variety of deaths would probably “exceed 50” and may very well be as excessive as 100.
He mentioned the neighborhood of Mayfield had been devastated, with a roof collapse at a candle manufacturing unit leading to “mass casualties”.
Mr Beshear mentioned 56,854 individuals have been left with out energy.
He mentioned he had additionally declared a state of emergency.
“It has been one of many hardest nights in Kentucky’s historical past,” he mentioned.
Elsewhere, at the least 5 individuals have been confirmed to have died, and emergency crews in Illinois are responding to experiences of accidents at an Amazon warehouse after the roof collapsed.
Three individuals died in Tennessee, whereas one individual died and a number of other have been injured when an obvious twister hit a nursing dwelling in Arkansas, and at the least one fatality has been reported in Missouri.