Special Report: Devastating Tornadoes Claim 70+ Lives

As many as 19 tornadoes touched down across Kentucky, Arkansas and surrounding states in a severe weather outbreak Friday night.

This storm line was the same that affected us Motzei Shabbos.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said at a press conference, “This has been one of the toughest nights in Kentucky history, and some areas have been hit in ways that are hard to put into words.”

At least six died in a collapse at an Amazon facility in Edwardsville, Kentucky.

More than 100 people were working at a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, when it collapsed in the storm. Governor Beshear said this caused “mass casualties”. Dozens died in that collapse.

The video below is from the Courier Journal:

The storm originated in Arkansas, according to Kentucky Division of Emergency Management director Michael Dossett, and touched down in Missouri and Tennessee before making its way into the Bluegrass State, where it ripped through the western half of the state before finally weakening in central Kentucky.

This has been the most devastating tornado event in our state’s history,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said at a news conference. He said he thought “at least dozens” of workers at the candle factory were killed when the roof collapsed.

“The level of devastation is unlike anything that I have ever seen,” Beshear said. “We were pretty sure that we would lose over 50 Kentuckians, I’m now certain that that number is north of 70. It may, in fact, end up exceeding 100 before the day is done.”

The National Weather Service said damage appeared to be consistent with an F3 tornado capable of producing winds as strong as 206 mph, according to preliminary estimates.

"Surveys will continue for the long track tornado as well as other tracks for the next several days," the National Weather Service office in Paducah said. 

The Paducah office added that, according to an aerial assessment, the "historic long track tornado" was at least three-quarters of a mile wide in Kentucky as it went from southwest of Cayce in Fulton County to at least Beaver Dam in Ohio County.

For the sake of comparison, that's a tornado as wide as 13 football fields stretched end to end.