Severe storms that sent tornadoes whipping through Missouri and Kentucky on Friday killed at least 21 people and injured dozens of others, local authorities said.
At least 14 people were killed in the storms in Kentucky, the state’s governor, Andy Beshear, said early Saturday, with the number expected to rise. Many of the deaths appeared to be in Laurel County, about 150 miles southeast of Louisville, where the county sheriff’s office said earlier that a tornado had killed at least nine people. Others had suffered severe injuries, and emergency and rescue workers were searching the area for survivors, the office said.
The tornado ripped through a church and tore the roofs off buildings, photographs shared by the local broadcaster WKYT-TV showed.
The tornadoes were unleashed by a major storm over the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic that downed power lines and whipped debris through streets. There was severe damage in Missouri, where tornadoes killed at least seven people, five of them in St. Louis, and injured dozens more.
Power outages caused by the storms hit more than 400,000 customers from Michigan to Kentucky on Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us.
In Kentucky, local authorities said the deadly tornado hit an area near London-Corbin Airport around midnight Friday. Emergency crews were at work on Saturday, the local London Police Department said, asking residents to keep roads cleared.
Information about the destruction was still filtering out early Saturday, but Kentucky’s emergency management agency said a painful picture was emerging. It said hundreds of Kentuckians had lost their homes or suffered property damage.
The Kentucky National Guard was mobilized along with emergency medical workers to treat the injured and assess the damage, the agency said.
Ahead of the storm on Friday, Mr. Beshear had declared a state of emergency. “Please pray for all of our affected families,” he said on social media early Saturday.
In St. Louis, cellphone towers were taken out and traffic lights were down, city authorities said. Officials urged residents to stay away from damaged areas as crews swept through neighborhoods to search for people trapped in their homes. Shelters were also opened for people in need.
“Our city is grieving tonight. The loss of life and the destruction is truly, truly horrendous,” Cara Spencer, the mayor of St. Louis, said at a news conference on Friday night.
A tornado also killed two people in Scott County, in southeastern Missouri, according to the county sheriff’s office. One woman also died in Fairfax County, Va. after a tree fell on her vehicle during the storm, county police said.
More storms were expected to bring large hail, strong winds and tornadoes across North Texas and the southern plains on Saturday, the National Weather Service said early in the day.
Isabella Kwai is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news and other trends.
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