Deadly tornadoes in the central United States have killed at least 83 people and the damage is extensive. They are even sometimes particularly impressive like in Mayfield, Kentucky.
With our special correspondent in Mayfield, Guillaume Naudin
In Mayfield, the tornado crossed the city diagonally from southwest to northeast and devastated everything in its path. The city is literally plowed, turned over, the buildings are gutted when they are still standing. There are pieces of sheet metal rolled up on what remains of the trees. The Mayfield center looks like ” to a pile of matches Mayor Kathy O’Nan said on CNN.
►Also read: United States: several regions of the country devastated by deadly tornadoes
The city center is devastated, but other sectors are relatively untouched, which testifies to the extreme and very localized violence of this exceptional climatic event, especially for the month of December. Witnesses describe a noise that resembles a freight train passing by for two or three minutes in a row, thunder continuously. The tornado even swept away the roof of the fire station, who had to gut their garage doors in order to get out and rescue the population in the midst of the chaos.
Help is getting organized
Monica is 41 years old, her house was not directly in the path of the tornado, but she was very scared. ” Well we hid in the closet and it looked like a train was coming on top of us. You could see that the tornado was really very large. It made a lot of noise. Lots of objects were banging against the windows. We prayed and thank god we weren’t hurt. “
All day Saturday, help was organized. Solidarity too. People voluntarily came to help clear the rubble or provide food and water. A little further on, Pat is chopping up torn trees. He came from Lexington, over 5 hours away to help. “ I walked in and said “guys, where do you need me?” I have two chainsaws, my gasoline. I have my own business. We told me, “find a place and start cutting”. Everyone plays as a team to start cleaning up and completely rebuilding the city “.
A collapsed factory
Entire residential neighborhoods have been devastated, destroyed, but not only. The factory located to the south of the city, the Mayfield Consumer Product, which made candles has completely collapsed and rescuers, helped by the National Guard who secures the accesses, are trying to find survivors. There were, according to sources cited by the firefighters, between 110 and 130 people inside.
Mayfield has 10,000 inhabitants, that means everyone knows someone who was in this factory. The human toll is obviously not definitively known, but it will be very heavy and the disaster will leave an indelible mark on the eyes and on the minds of the city.