- Rescuers in Kherson come under Russian shelling: 1 killed, 8 injured Ukrinform
- Russia-Ukraine war: Russia fires at rescue workers in Kherson; drone attacks reported across Ukraine – as it happened The Guardian
- Ukraine-Russia news – live: One dead as Putin’s troops ‘fire at rescue workers in flood-hit Kherson’ Yahoo News
- Ukraine Rescue Worker Killed, 8 Injured by Russian Fire in Kherson – Minister The Moscow Times
- Russia-Ukraine War Live Updates: Ukraine rescue worker killed, 8 injured by Russian fire in Kherson Times of India
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Tag Archives: Rescuers
Rescuers find lost hiker on California mountain where Julian Sands is missing | California
Rescue personnel in California have found a 75-year-old hiker who was lost on the same snow-covered mountain where actor Julian Sands is missing.
NBC LA captured images of Jin Chung, of North Hollywood, being loaded into an ambulance Tuesday afternoon. He had a leg injury and some weather-related injuries but was able to walk with assistance and was taken to a hospital, the San Bernardino county sheriff’s department said. His condition was not immediately known.
The sheriff’s department launched the search after Chung didn’t return from a hike Sunday on the 10,064ft (3,068-meter) Mount Baldy.
Chung carpooled to the mountain with two others and made plans to meet them at the vehicle at 2pm, but Chung did not return, authorities said.
The sheriff’s department said rescuers unsuccessfully continued searching for Sands on Mount Baldy over the weekend.
“Helicopters and drones continued to use infrared devices during the search however, all were negative for any signs of Sands,” the department’s statement said.
Sands, 65, was reported missing 13 January while hiking. Search and rescue crews began looking for him on the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains, about 40 miles (64km) north-east of downtown Los Angeles.
“No evidence of his current location has been discovered. The search will continue, weather and ground conditions permitting,” a sheriff’s department statement said.
Storms have coated the mountain with heavy snow and ice and searches have been thwarted by the threat of avalanches and foul weather, including powerful winds.
Authorities describe mountain conditions as extremely dangerous. Two hikers have died in recent weeks. One fell at least 500ft down an icy slope.
Sands starred opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the 1985 British romance from director James Ivory, A Room With a View.
He also had major roles in in 1989’s Warlock, 1990’s Arachnophobia, 1991’s Naked Lunch, 1993’s Boxing Helena and Leaving Las Vegas in 1995.
Sands has worked consistently in the decades since with smaller roles in film and television.
Vietnam rescuers race to save boy trapped down 115-foot concrete hole since New Year’s Eve
Hundreds of rescuers in Vietnam were battling for a third day Monday to save a 10-year-old boy who fell more than 100 feet down a shaft at a construction site on New Year’s Eve.
The boy was reportedly heard calling for help shortly after he fell into the shaft of a hollow concrete pile just 25 cm (10 inches) in diameter at a bridge construction site in the Dong Thap province Saturday morning while searching for scrap metal with friends.
But as of Monday, he hasn’t been responding to rescuers, who lowered a camera to help locate the boy’s position down the estimated 115-foot-long support pillar, according to Reuters.
Efforts to lift the pile with cranes and other heavy equipment have so far been unsuccessful.
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, ‘INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT’ LEAVES 3 DEAD, OTHERS INJURED AT CONSTRUCTION SITE
Rescuers work to free a 10-year-old boy trapped in a deep shaft at a bridge construction site in Vietnam’s Dong Thap province on Jan. 2, 2023.
(STR/AFP via Getty Images)
“I cannot understand how he fell into the hollow concrete pile, which has a diameter of a [25 cm] span only, and was driven 35 meters into the ground,” Le Hoang Bao, director of Dong Thap province’s Department of Transport, told Tuoi Tre News, a local newspaper, according to Reuters.
Rescuers in Vietnam on Monday worked to free a 10-year-old boy who fell into a deep shaft at a construction site two days earlier.
(STR/AFP via Getty Images)
The newspaper reported that rescuers “are not sure about the current condition of the boy,” as he “has stopped interacting with the outside though oxygen had always been pumped into the” hole.
AFP identified the trapped 10-year-old as Thai Ly Hao Nam. Video showed the boy’s distraught family members being carried from the scene while awaiting news on his condition.
Various rescuers and construction workers dig around the concrete shaft to save the boy.
(Reuters Connect)
Crews have also been drilling and softening the surrounding soil to attempt – so far without success – to pull up the concrete pillar.
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According to AFP, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Monday tapped federal rescuers to join local authorities’ efforts to save the boy.
Hong Kong rescuers searching for crew of a vessel that broke in half after being caught in typhoon
The Honk Kong Government Flying Service (GFS) said the vessel sunk some 300 kilometers, or 185 miles, southwest of the island.
In a post on its Instagram account, the GFS said it received a rescue request at 7:25 a.m. local time on Saturday. It said the vessel’s crew abandoned ship after it suffered substantial damage in the South China Sea.
A dramatic video from the rescue operation showed a crew member being pulled up on a rope into a helicopter from the ship as it was sinking.
Three crew members were rescued, but the fate of the remaining 27 people who were on board the ship remains unclear, GFS said, adding that harsh weather conditions were hampering the search and rescue operations.
Four helicopter and two fixed-wing aircraft sorties were deployed to the scene to conduct search and rescue operations, the GFS added.
The storm caused disruptions across the region, with flights canceled and some businesses closed due to strong winds and heavy downpours.
Hong Kong authorities have issued a warning over the typhoon on Thursday, during the highly anticipated visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The grand opening of a new Hong Kong Palace Museum that was meant to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from British to Chinese rule was postponed until Sunday because of the storm.
Chaba has made landfall in Guandong Province in China at about 3 p.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).
Rescuers dig for survivors after Russian missiles pound Ukrainian shopping mall
KREMENCHUK, Ukraine, June 28 (Reuters) – Firefighters and soldiers searched on Tuesday for survivors in the rubble of a shopping mall in central Ukraine after a Russian missile strike killed at least 18 people in an attack condemned by the United Nations and the West.
Family members of the missing lined up at a hotel across the street where rescue workers set up a base after Monday’s strike on the busy mall in Kremenchuk, in the region of Poltava, southeast of Kyiv.
More than 1,000 people were inside when two Russian missiles slammed into the mall, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. At least 18 people were killed and 25 hospitalised, while about 36 were missing, said Dmytro Lunin, governor of Poltava.
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Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies, at a summit in Germany, said the attack was “abominable”.
“Russian President Putin and those responsible will be held to account,” they said in a joint statement.
Zelenskiy said in a Monday evening video address that it was “not an accidental hit, this is a calculated Russian strike exactly onto this shopping centre”.
A survivor receiving treatment at Kremenchuk’s public hospital, Ludmyla Mykhailets, 43, said she was shopping with her husband when the blast threw her into the air. read more
“I flew head first and splinters hit my body. The whole place was collapsing,” she said.
“It was hell,” added her husband, Mykola, 45, blood seeping through a bandage around his head.
Russia has not commented on the strike but its deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, accused Ukraine of using the incident to gain sympathy ahead of a June 28-30 summit of the NATO military alliance.
“One should wait for what our Ministry of Defence will say, but there are too many striking discrepancies already,” Polyanskiy wrote on Twitter.
The U.N. Security Council will meet on Tuesday at Ukraine’s request following the attack. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the missile strike was deplorable.
BATTLE FOR LYSYCHANSK
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Ukraine endured another difficult day following the loss of the now-ruined city of Sievierodonetsk after weeks of bombardment and street fighting.
Russian artillery pounded Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk’s twin city across the Siverskyi Donets River.
Lysychansk is the last big city held by Ukraine in eastern Luhansk province, a main target for the Kremlin after Russian troops failed to take the capital, Kyiv, early in the war.
Eight residents including a child were killed and 21 wounded by shelling when they gathered to get some drinking water in Lysychansk on Monday, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said.
There was no immediate Russian comment.
Ukrainian forces controlled the city but its loss was possible as Russia poured resources into the fight, he added.
“They really want this and a lot of reserves are being thrown just for this … We do not need to lose an army for the sake of one city,” he told Reuters in an interview.
Rodion Miroshnik, the ambassador to Moscow of the separatist Luhansk People’s Republic, said Russian troops and their Luhansk Republic allies were advancing westward into Lysychansk and street battles had erupted around the city’s stadium.
Fighting was going on in several villages around the city, and Russian and allied troops had entered the Lysychansk oil refinery where Ukrainian troops were concentrated, Miroshnik said on his Telegram channel.
Reuters could not confirm Russian reports that Moscow’s troops had already entered the city.
Russia also shelled the city of Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine on Monday, hitting apartment buildings and a primary school, the regional governor said. read more
The shelling killed five people and wounded 22. There were children among the wounded, the governor said.
‘AS LONG AS IT TAKES’
Moscow denies targeting civilians in what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, but Kyiv and the West have accused Russian forces of war crimes.
The war has killed thousands, sent millions fleeing, and triggered spikes in global food and energy prices. read more
During their summit in Germany, G7 leaders vowed to stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes” and tighten the squeeze on Russia’s finances with new sanctions that include a proposal to cap the price of Russian oil. read more
Zelenskiy asked for more arms in a video address to G7 leaders, U.S. and European officials said. He also requested help to export grain and for more sanctions on Russia.
The White House said Russia had defaulted on its external debt for the first time in more than a century as sanctions have effectively cut the country off from global finance.
Russia rejected that, telling investors to go to Western financial agents for the cash, which was sent but bondholders did not receive. read more
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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Robert Birsel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Rescuers Look for Survivors at Kyiv Apartment Block Hit During U.N. Chief’s Visit to Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine—Rescue workers sifted through the debris of a 21-story apartment block that was struck by a Russian missile here as the head of the United Nations was visiting the Ukrainian capital, while Ukrainian forces stepped up their efforts to prevent Russian troops from advancing from positions in the east of the country.
Kyiv Mayor
Vitali Klitschko
said a body had been found in the debris around the bottom of the building late Thursday. It was later identified as that of Vira Hyrych, a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who lived in the building, the news service said.
Mr. Klitschko said the toll would likely have been higher if not for the fact that many of the apartments were empty since Russia’s initial attempt to take the city in February and early March. Since then, Moscow has focused on consolidating its positions and advancing from the south and east of the country. “Kyiv continues to be under enemy fire,” Mr. Klitschko said.
Sales manager Mikhail Vovchynsky, 22, and his girlfriend, Olha Bortnik, 20, had just returned from work to their apartment on the 14th floor when the missile struck the building. If they had arrived home just a few minutes later they might have gotten stuck in the elevator, or worse, he said. Though the structure is still standing, its lower floors were gouged out by the impact and most of the windows were shattered by the shock wave.
The apartment block is next to a manufacturing plant that had previously been targeted in a Russian strike. Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday said it destroyed the facility with a precision Kalibr missile in addition to hitting a range of other targets across Ukraine.
Ms. Bortnik said Moscow might have hit the apartment building by mistake. But Mr. Vovchynsky speculated it could have been targeted deliberately to scare residents like him who fled the city in the early days of the invasion but returned after Russian forces retreated from around the capital last month.
Kyiv residents carry their belongings out of their building following Russian strikes in the Ukrainian capital.
Photo:
sergei supinsky/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
They said they were loading their belongings into a vehicle but plan to remain in Kyiv because of work.
More than 100 civilians have been killed by Russian attacks on the capital since the start of the invasion, including four children, Mr. Klitschko said.
The missile strike came shortly after U.N. Secretary-General
António Guterres
met with Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky
on Thursday after meeting with Russian President
Vladimir Putin
in Moscow earlier this week. He said the U.N. would continue to push for a full-scale cease-fire, telling Portuguese broadcaster RTP that he was “shocked” by the missile attack, “not because I’m here but because Kyiv is a sacred city for Ukrainians and Russians alike.”
Mr. Zelensky, meanwhile, said in his customary late-night address that the timing of the attack “says a lot about Russia’s true attitude to global institutions, about the efforts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the U.N. and everything that the organization represents.”
Earlier in the day, Mr. Guterres had conceded his exasperation that the U.N. Security Council, where Russia is a permanent member, had failed to stop the conflict in Ukraine. “Let me be very clear. The security council failed to do everything in its power to prevent and end this war,” he said in a joint news conference with Mr. Zelensky. “This is a source of great disappointment, frustration and anger.”
Debris inside a building in Kyiv that was damaged by Russian strikes.
Photo:
genya savilov/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Speaking with the U.K.’s Sky News Friday, Mark Malloch Brown, a former U.N. deputy secretary-general, said there are now concerns that the body is facing a crisis similar to that which crippled its predecessor, the League of Nations, before World War II.
“There are many that worry that the U.N. faces a similar moment of crisis of legitimacy and confidence,” he said. “One of the original guarantors of the U.N., the former Soviet Union, now Russia, has become a rogue state, an enemy of the international law and order system.”
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, meanwhile, said Russian forces were continuing their efforts to gain full control of the Donbas region in the east of the country, parts of which broke away from Kyiv’s control in 2014, the same year Moscow annexed the strategic Crimean Peninsula. It said the primary Russian objective appears to be maintaining a land corridor from Donbas to Crimea, while trying to cut off Ukrainian units in the area.
Ukrainian officials and Western analysts say the Russian forces are making slow progress, however. Significantly, Ukraine said its special forces had hit a strategic railway bridge in Melitopol on Thursday. Video footage showed it had been severely damaged, potentially disrupting Russia’s ability to supply its front lines toward the city of Zaporizhzhia from Crimea.
A priest welcomes back a woman to Hostomel after she had fled to western Ukraine.
Photo:
Justyna Mielnikiewicz/MAPS for The Wall Street Journal
Mr. Zelensky, meanwhile, welcomed news that President Biden had sent Congress a request for $33 billion to fund more weapons and economic assistance for Ukraine, calling it a significant development. The move has garnered broad support in Congress and signals how the U.S. and its European allies are preparing for a longer war.
Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization emphasized the likely duration of support Ukraine would require.
“It’s a very unpredictable and fragile situation in Ukraine but there is absolutely a possibility that this war will drag on and last for months and years,” NATO Secretary-General
Jens Stoltenberg
said.
A man opens a garage door peppered with bullet holes in Zahaltsi, Ukraine.
Photo:
Alexey Furman/Getty Images
—Ann M. Simmons contributed to this article.
Write to Isabel Coles at isabel.coles@wsj.com
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Moroccan rescuers race to save boy stuck down a well for four days
The child, who is called Rayan, is stuck in the well which reaches more than 100 feet (30 meters) underground in Chefchaouen province.
Machines dug vertically to a depth of more than 90 feet overnight, state media MAP reported Friday, while the emergency workers are now planning to start digging horizontally.
“People who love us are sparing no effort to save my child,” Rayan’s father said as he stood watching rescue efforts on Friday night, Reuters reported.
Live feeds on state-owned Al-Aoula TV said Friday afternoon that the diggers still had to cover 6.5 feet vertically and just under 10 feet horizontally to reach the boy.
The child fell into the well Tuesday afternoon and was discovered after he was heard crying, his mother said in an interview with Al-Aoula two days later. She said he was playing in a nearby area before disappearing for a brief time, and that she was quick to call authorities after hearing him.
His father told Al-Aoula that the authorities sent food and water down the well, and that he saw his son drinking some water.
“He was moving, and drank a little bit of water. I believe he will be okay, God help him,” he said.
Local media also reported that the child had taken food and water that was dropped down to him using a rope on Thursday.
The authorities are using machinery in the difficult operation because the diameter of the well is only just over a foot and a half wide, Al-Aoula reported.
The Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan has going viral across North Africa, as the desperate mission continues.
A member of the rescue team told MAP that while the excavation work has been ongoing, the rescue operation has reached a “complex stage” and the machinery has stopped from time to time as emergency workers “determine the necessary interventions to avoid the ground collapsing.”
A medical helicopter from the Royal Gendarmerie and medical staff who are specialists in resuscitation from the Ministry of Health are on standby at the scene for when the child is pulled out, MAP said. Five bulldozers are on the scene digging, the statement added.
Rescuers in Morocco Race to Save 5-Year-Old Stuck in Well for Days
CAIRO — Rescuers working day and night raced against the clock on Friday to try to save a 5-year-old boy, his face distraught and bloodied, after he was trapped in a 100-foot-deep well in a sleepy Moroccan village for three days.
The operation to save the boy, named Rayan, who fell to the bottom of the well in northern Morocco, reached a critical stage on Friday, as Moroccans and others across North Africa breathlessly followed the rescue on live streams.
Rayan has been stuck in the well near his home in the tiny village of Ighrane, about 125 miles from the city of Chefchaouen, since Tuesday afternoon. Rescuers brought in bulldozers to dig a parallel shaft from which they could tunnel through to reach the child, but they feared that either part of the well or the parallel shaft would collapse before they could get there.
According to the state-run news agency Maghreb Arabe Presse, the drilling process was in its “final stages.” The operation was temporarily paused around nightfall on Friday, but rescuers resumed digging once it was deemed safe to proceed.
According to Le360, a local publication, two rescuers were manually digging the final inches that separated them from Rayan. A helicopter was on the scene to transport Rayan to a hospital in one of the major cities as soon as he emerged.
As rescue workers jockeyed to save the boy, throngs of people looking on at the site recited prayers and shouted encouragements to the rescue team. Some onlookers sat around or slept under trees, eager to witness the resolution of the crisis. Rayan’s family made couscous, the traditional Moroccan dish, and served it to people among the crowd. Others distributed bread and dates.
Abdelhadi Temrani, one of the rescuers, said the effort was a very delicate process.
“This stage is the most important and most complicated one,” he said. “You can’t sacrifice a team if there is a chance of collapse,” he added, explaining that the rescuers could not send anyone down to start digging across until they had secured the parallel shaft.
Using rope, rescue workers on Thursday had lowered an oxygen tube and water to the boy, and also sent down a camera to monitor him, according to Maghreb Arabe Presse.
Short videos of the boy, barely moving, were shared in which he appeared to still be breathing.
Local media reported that there were five bulldozers and dozens of rescuers, including a team of topographers, involved in the effort. The reports said that even a local mountaineering and caving society was taking part.
The rescue efforts were complicated by the nature of the soil in the area, which is a mix of unstable sand and rock, according to local authorities.
Over the past three days, digging had to be suspended several times to avoid a landslide. As the workers drew closer, each scoop of dirt needed to be dug out with extra care.
In an interview with Le360, Rayan’s father said that he had been in the process of fixing the well, which he owns, when his son fell in.
“Everyone is doing their best so that he comes out alive and that we can take him in our arms by the end of the day,” he said.
The tiny village of Ighrane was overrun with reporters, many of them broadcasting live.
The scenes of bulldozers digging under floodlights while thousands of Moroccans waited in suspense made the Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan a viral rallying cry on Twitter.
The hashtag was trending across Morocco and neighboring Algeria, and even in France, where there is a large Moroccan diaspora.
As rescuers struggled to reach the boy, people in the region were glued to the operation on television and online, eager for some good news at a time when many have been buffeted by Covid pandemic gloom.
“I pray and beg God that he comes out of that well alive and safe,” his mother, Wassima Kharchich, told 2M, a Moroccan television network. “Please God, ease my pain and his, in that hole of dust.”
And the rescue effort has proved to be something of a unifying moment for the people of Morocco and Algeria, which have been locked in a feud that some analysts have called a regional cold war. It has dampened the tensions between the two North African countries, as Algerians have flooded social media with messages of solidarity and encouragement for the rescuers.
“Oh, Lord, show us the miracle of your kindness,” the well-known Algerian novelist Ahlam Mostghanmi wrote on Twitter, reposting an image of Rayan. She was among many Algerians who rallied to the hashtag #SaveRayan, including soccer stars, singers and political commentators, as well as ordinary Algerians.
As neighbors in the Maghreb, the Francophone western swath of North Africa along the Mediterranean, Algerians and Moroccans share similar dialects and cross-border family and cultural ties. But their history has been marked by diplomatic spats and military clashes.
In recent years, Morocco has accused Algeria of supporting a separatist group, the Polisario Front, which is contesting Morocco’s territorial claim to a region in the Western Sahara.
Mona El-Naggar contributed reporting from Cairo.
Rescuers Work to Free Child Stuck in Well in Morocco: Live Updates
Video
CAIRO — Rescuers working day and night were racing against the clock on Friday to try and save a 5-year-old boy, his face distraught and bloodied, after being trapped in a 100-foot-deep well in a sleepy Moroccan village for three days.
The operation to save the boy named Rayan, who fell to the bottom of the well in northern Morocco, reached a critical stage on Friday, as Moroccans and others across North Africa breathlessly followed the rescue on live streams.
Rayan has been stuck in the well near his home in the tiny village of Ighrane, about 125 miles from the city of Chefchaouen, since Tuesday afternoon. Rescuers brought in bulldozers to dig a parallel shaft from which they could tunnel through to reach the child, but they feared that either part of the well or the parallel shaft would collapse before they could get there.
The state-run news agency Maghreb Arabe Presse said the drilling process is in its “final stages.” The operation was temporarily paused around nightfall on Friday but rescuers resumed once it was deemed safe to proceed.
According to Le360, a local publication, two rescuers are manually digging the final inches that separate them from Rayan. A helicopter was on the scene to transport Rayan to a hospital in one of the major cities as soon as he emerges.
As rescue workers jockeyed to save the boy, throngs of people looking on at the site recited prayers and shouted encouragements to the rescue team. Some onlookers sat around or slept under trees, eager to witness the resolution of the crisis. Rayan’s family made couscous, the traditional Moroccan dish, and served it to people among the crowd. Others distributed bread and dates.
Abdelhadi Temrani, one of the rescuers, said the effort was a very delicate process.
“This stage is the most important and most complicated one,” he said. “You can’t sacrifice a team if there is a chance of collapse,” he added, explaining that the rescuers could not send anyone down to start digging across until they had secured the parallel shaft.
Using rope, rescue workers on Thursday lowered an oxygen tube and water to the boy and also sent down a camera to monitor him, according to Maghreb Arabe Presse.
Short videos of the boy, barely moving, were shared where he appeared to still be breathing.
Local media reported that there were five bulldozers and dozens of rescuers, including a team of topographers. The reports said that even a local mountaineering and caving society had gotten involved in the efforts.
In an interview with Le360, Rayan’s father said that he had been in the process of fixing the well, which he owns, when his son fell in. He was playing when he fell, according to local news reports.
“Everyone is doing their best so that he comes out alive and that we can take him in our arms by the end of the day,” he said.
The tiny village of Ighrane was overrun with reporters, many of them broadcasting live.
The scenes of bulldozers digging under floodlights while thousands of Moroccans waited in suspense made the Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan a viral rallying cry on Twitter.
The hashtag was trending across Morocco and neighboring Algeria, and even in France, where there is a large Moroccan diaspora.
Mona El-Naggar contributed reporting from Cairo.
Kentucky tornadoes: Rescuers search for survivors after deadly severe weather tears through several states
More than 80 people are feared dead following reports of tornadoes late Friday and early Saturday in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
In Kentucky alone, the death toll may be more than 70, Gov. Andy Beshear said Saturday, calling it “one of the toughest nights” in state history.
Destroyed buildings, downed power lines and wrecked vehicles lined the streets in hard-hit areas, making it harder for rescuers trying to reach communities with no phone or power lines after the twisters hit.
“This has been the most devastating tornado event in our state’s history,” Beshear said at a news conference. “The level of devastation is unlike anything I have ever seen.”
Arkansas officials have reported two weather-related deaths; Tennessee has confirmed four; Illinois has reported six; and Missouri two. Kentucky has not released an official death toll, but it’s believed to be one of the hardest-hit states.
Family members search for those unaccounted for
Tornadoes or strong winds collapsed an occupied candle factory in Kentucky, an Amazon warehouse in western Illinois, and a nursing home in Arkansas, killing people in each community and leaving responders scrambling to rescue others.
More than 30 tornadoes were reported in six states. CNN meteorologists said a stretch of more than 250 miles from Arkansas to Kentucky might have been hit by one violent, long-track twister.
Beshear visited some of the affected areas Saturday to assess the damage. In his father’s hometown of Dawson Springs, which has a population of about 2,700, some remain unaccounted for.
“One block from my grandparent’s house, there’s no house standing and we don’t know where all those people are,” Beshear said.
Video from Mayfield, a city of around 10,000 people, showed what remained of the factory there: a massive debris field full of twisted metal and rescuers using their hands and machines to dig through.
“There’s at least 15 feet of metal with cars on top of it, barrels of corrosive chemicals that are there. It will be a miracle if anybody else is found alive in it,” Beshear said. “Downtown is completely devastated.”
Some family members are still searching for relatives who worked at the candle factory.
Paige Tingle, who was looking for her mother-in-law, Jill Monroe, said time is of the essence. The last time the family spoke with her, she was in the bathroom in the safe shelter area,” Tingle said Saturday.
“She [Monroe] has lung problems, she has heart problems,” Tingle said. “We’ve got to get her.”
The family checked local hospitals but they haven’t found her. Calls to her phone have gone unanswered.
Ivy Williams was at the Mayfield site Saturday looking for his wife of 30-plus years, Janine Williams, who was at the factory.
“I hope she’s somewhere safe,” Williams said, through tears. “Please call me … I’m looking for you, baby.” He last heard from her before the tornado hit, and was shocked to find the building completely leveled when he arrived at the scene.
First responders have pulled people out of the rubble — some of them alive, storm chaser Michael Gordon told CNN Saturday from the scene.
“It’s kind of hard to talk about. … They’re digging in that rubble by hand right now,” Gordon said.
The state has deployed the National Guard to conduct door-to-door to searches, clear debris from roadways, and take generators to help power shelters and hospitals.
The governor urged people in affected communities that still have power to stay off the roads.
“Let our first responders get to everybody. Don’t go to these areas to see it. We need to make sure those who do this work can do it at the fastest possible speed,” he said.
He also implored those who can to donate blood.
“We were already pretty short with Covid out there. We’re going to have a lot of deaths, but we are also going to have a lot of injuries,” he said.
Kentucky State Police Lt. Dean Patterson said the destruction is unlike anything he’s seen before. And the rescue and recovery effort will come with challenges.
“It’s a very thorough and slow process, because you have to be careful when you are dealing with so much debris, and so many unknowns. One wrong move and you could actually cause more damage, so it’s a slow methodical process. Lots of people out there, working together to do everything they can to hopefully find some survivors in that devastating area.”
A hospital in Paducah, Kentucky, some 27 miles north of Mayfield, has been treating tornado victims. A majority of them had chemical burns, long bone injuries and crush injuries, Mercy Health Lourdes Hospital spokesperson Nanette Bentley said.
National Weather Service Chief Meteorologist John Gordon told a news conference in Kentucky that the tornado event was a “worst-case scenario.”
“Warm air in the cold season, middle of the night — this sickens me to see what has happened,” he said. “Look at the pictures on your screens. Homes, totally impaled, two-by-fours through cars, eighteen-wheelers thrown 30 feet moved in the northwesterly direction — that takes a lot of force.”
Deaths reported in several other states
In addition to Kentucky, deadly destruction was also reported in Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee.
At least six people died at the collapsed Amazon warehouse in the Illinois city of Edwardsville, Fire Chief James Whiteford said. The recovery phase is expected to take three more days and first responders will continue to search the site for evidence of life, he said.
In the northeastern Arkansas city of Monette, at least one person was killed at a nursing home damaged by a tornado, Mayor Bob Blankenship said. A second person died after the storm hit a Dollar General store in nearby Leachville, officials said.
“At this point, I have two confirmed deaths. One is in Monette at the nursing home and the other one was in Leachville at a store that was struck in deadly fashion,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told CNN.
Officials confirmed two storm-related deaths in Missouri.
“In St. Charles County, a woman was killed at home and two others were hospitalized. In Pemiscot County, a young child was killed at home and at least nine people were transported to hospitals,” Gov. Mike Parson’s office said in a news release.
Tennessee is reporting a total of four weather-related deaths from the severe weather. Two were in Lake County, one in Obion County, and one in Shelby County, Tennessee Emergency Management spokesman Dean Flener said.
CNN’s Paul P. Murphy, Nadia Romero, Keith Allen, Brandon Miller, Joe Sutton, Dave Hennen, Haley Brink, Dave Alsup, Travis Caldwell, Laura Studley, DJ Judd, Andy Rose, Sharif Paget and Carma Hassan contributed to this report.