history. the governor now speaking. let s listen in. to the worst tornado event in the history of our commonwealth. our state was hit by at least four tornadoes. one stayed on the ground in kentucky for at least 200 miles devastating anything in its path. 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. we lost lives in at least eight counties and at least 18 counties suffered damage. as of this morning, our best count for confirmed deaths, the most accurate count we have as of this morning, 64 kentuckians. remember this is fluid and the numbers will change and sometimes they have thank god gone down, other times they have gone up. it breaks down as follows. 20 in grace, 13 in hopkins, 11 in mulenburg, i think that was reported at 12, but we believe 11. 12 in warren. four in caldwell. one in marshall. one in taylor. one in fulton. and one in lyon. undoubtedly there will be m
still without electric and the overnight temperatures are dropping into the freezing digits. dana: destruction spans more than 200 miles from arkansas to kentucky and the bluegrass state bearing the brunt of the damage. bill: look at these satellite images. this is above mayfield, kentucky, the town basically wiped off the map. meanwhile we re hearing stories from survivors that say all it happened to them in the blink of an eye. i ve never been through anything like that in my life. we got stuck downtown and all the rubble i went through. i don t know it was like a war zone or something. it was so awful. my apartment and my car, people say live in the apartment with me lost everything, too. i don t have anything. i ve been through the town a couple of times and saw everything but it is just it s upsetting to know that s the town that you grew up in and everything and you know, memories are all gone. bill: just story after story. to help us through that story
beshear. he is holding his news conference. tornado event in the history of our commonwealth. our state was hit by at least four tornadoes. one stayed on the ground in kentucky for at least 200 miles, devastating anything in its path. 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. we lost lives in at least eight counties and at least 18 counties suffered damage. as soft this morning, our best count for confirmed deaths, the most accurate count we have, as of this morning, are 64 kentuckyians. remember this is fluid, and the numbers will change and sometimes, they have, thank god, gone down. other times, they ve gone up. it breaks down as follows. 20 in graves, 13 in hopkins, 11 in muilenburg. i think that s been reported as 12. we believe it is 11. 12 in warren. 4 in caldwell. 1 in marshall. 1 in taylor. 1 in fulton. and one in lyon. undoubtedly, there will be more. we be
Still without electric and the overnight temperatures are dropping into the freezing digits. dana: destruction spans more than 200 miles from arkansas to kentucky and the bluegrass state bearing the brunt of the damage. bill: look at these satellite images. this is above mayfield, kentucky, the town basically wiped off the map. meanwhile we re hearing stories from survivors that say all it happened to them in the blink of an eye. i ve never been through anything like that in my life. we got stuck downtown and all the rubble i went through. i don t know it was like a war zone or something. it was so awful. my apartment and my car, people say live in the apartment with me lost everything, too. i don t have anything. i ve been through the town a couple of times and saw everything but it is just it s upsetting to know that s the town that you grew up in and everything and you know,
Jose, we don t see anything like what we just saw. and as a matter of fact, the paducah, kentucky national weather service has called in for structural engineers, and that kind of hints they may think this had been a high category 4 twister or maybe a low 5. so either way, the devastation as you ve been showing us, is just unimaginable. and our hearts and prayers go out to everybody in those communities across those six states. they really do. al roker, it s i really appreciate your time. thanks for being with me this morning. a crucial part of the mayfield, kentucky community was severely damaged by the deadly tornadoes. next, i ll talk to the director of a women and children s shelter about how their residents survived. you re watching jose diaz-balart reports. art report.