united states and the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin with a multi-state tornado disaster as the tegt toll climbs and the search for the missing intensifies. our commrrespondents are coveri all sides of the story. brian todd is in mayfield. what are you seeing on the ground tonight? reporter: wolf, nearly three days after the tornadoes ripped through this area, there s still a very dynamic situation of salvage, search and rescue. you have crews moving heavy debris with a heavy shovel. over here you have devastation on almost every street corner of downtown mayfield as officials are assessing the damage in kentucky and seven other states tonight. rescuers race the clock, using cranes and search dogs as they pick through the debris of friday s tornadoes. mayfield, kentucky, was hit by the worst one. a path of destruction stretching perhaps 200 miles through kentucky and beyond. the worst tornado event in the history of our commonwealth.
be addressing reporters later this hour as well as fema giving up an update where things stand and the emergency aid that the president has promised for all, half dozen states, affected by this. they include kentucky, arkansas, tennessee, illinois, missouri. we heard of damage in ohio and mississippi and indiana as well. let s go right now to governor beshear of kentucky with the very latest. wrecked, destroyed. so many of our communities. the newest estimates of deaths from coming from emergency management that may differ from the coroner, there s one of these that we re checking on, we re now up to 74 kentuckians that we have lost. one additional one in graves. four additional in hopkins, this is one we re checking right now. i have 14. emergency management came back with 17. 14 i hope. three in warren county and one here in franklin county where an individual actually coming to work at this very complex that we re broadcasting from was pushed off of the road in the storm
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
much-needed resources to the devastated communities. storms unleashed more than 30 tornados late friday into early saturday, destroying buildings and claiming lives across six states, and one twister, just one, may be responsible for damage along a 250-mile stretch from arkansas to kentucky. officials now fear as many as 80 people may have lost their lives. here in edwardsville, authorities say a recovery effort could take three tase days, as we look at what s left of this amazon warehouse behind me. at least six people died after a tornado just carved through the building. 11-inch concrete walls falling in. the roof collapsing. roughly 45 people made it out, but getting an exact number of how many were in the warehouse at the time has proved difficult. these were shift workers, a lot of people coming and going. rescue and search and cries operations i should say have shifted into search and recovery operations. officials not expecting to find anyone else alive underneath
working inside when the tornado hit. this is in kentucky. but with storms still in the area, and debris everywhere, we will not know the extent of the damage and the casualties for some time. now, kentucky s governor says tornadoes tore through a 200 mile stretch of his state. thousands are without power. many homes are destroyed. and now with the state of emergency declared, the national guard is deployed to the hard-hit areas. 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. and as we re sitting here today, this is before daybreak, we believe our death toll from this event will exceed 50 kentuckians, probably end up closer to 70 to 100 lost lives. remember, each of these are children of god, irreplaceable to their families and to their communities. meantime, at least one person was killed in nearby northeastern arkansas after a tornado ripped through a nursing home. residents and staff