known to have been killed, with more than a hundred others still missing. president biden has called it, one of the largest storms in american history, and has declared a majorfederal disaster in kentucky. lebo diseko has this report. picking up the pieces of their lives. homes, businesses and whole towns reduced to rubble. it s horrible, it s the definition of hell on earth. i can t. people have lost everything and it s just, it s terrible, it s horrible. this is what was left of one home. its owner says it tookjust four minutes to do this. everything stopped. i stuck my head out and looked up with my flashlight to the edge of the house and i noticed there was no wall there and that s when i told my wife, i said, i m going to tell you right now, i m warning you, when we go up there, i don t think the house is there, it s gone. kentucky s governor says this is the most devastating tornado event in his state s history, with no one found
toll could rise. presidentjoe biden has called it one of the largest storms in american history, and has declared a majorfederal disaster in kentucky, the state that s been worst affected. lebo diseko has this report. picking up the pieces of their lives. homes, businesses and whole towns reduced to rubble. it s horrible, it s the definition of hell on earth. i can t. people have lost everything and it s just, it s terrible, it s horrible. this is what was left of one home. its owner says it tookjust four minutes to do this. everything stopped. i stuck my head out and looked up with my flashlight to the edge of the house and i noticed there was no wall there and that s when i told my wife, i said, i m going to tell you right now, i m warning you, when we go up there, i don t think the house is there, it s gone. kentucky s governor says this is the most devastating tornado event in his state s history, with no one found alive since saturday.
authorities are just now assessing the damage. 70 miles northeast of mayfield, in dawson springs, kentucky, total destruction in this part of town. homes destroyed. in marshall county, kentucky, along kentucky lake, home after home reduced to piles of wood. trees sheared off, cars thrown everywhere. the entire neighborhood gone. these men standing on a home, the top sliced off. tonight, kentucky s governor describing it this way. the worst tornado event in the history of our commonwealth. our state was hit by at least four tornadoes. thousands of homes are damaged, if not entirely destroyed. and it may be weeks before we have final counts on both deaths and levels of destruction. the governor choking up when discussing the ages of the victims. i know like the folks in
could very well be the worst tornado event in your state s history. it is the worst tornado event. 200 miles just in kentucky, of pure devastation. this town is gone. dawson springs, where my dad is from, just up the road, half of it is gone. more lives lost, more people displaced. it s devastating. what does this state need tonight from this country, and from the federal government? we need prayers. we re still hoping for miracles. every person we find or locate, we re just getting cell service back up. so we re finding people and every single moment is incredible. we need support. we need more financial support, whether to the red cross or the team western kentucky relief fund. and we need commitment. because a lot of people want to help today. this will take years to rebuild, when you look at what is around us. and you said you just found someone? because i know you said it would be a miracle at this point. we keep locating people.
at least six people there killed during a shift change. a nursing home ripped apart in arkansas. families describing terrifying moments, hunkered down in their basements. on the ground here, we see it firsthand. neighborhood after neighborhood destroyed. the grandmother huddled over her grandchildren, one just 14 months old, saving them. one of the only things still standing her christmas tree. late today, kentucky governor andy beshear calling it the deadliest tornado event in state history. tonight, the national guard has now been deployed here, helping in the search for survivors. tens of thousands in the cold and in the dark without power and the temperature dropping. meantime, hospitals here in western kentucky already overwhelmed with covid patients, now treating a rush of victims pulled from flattened homes and buildings. a doctor describing the chaos inside the e.r. victims being brought in on pickup trucks. everyone jumping in to help, pounding on the hospital doors for help