Kentucky tornado – latest: Biden takes aerial tour of wreckage as survivors plead for more temporary housing

Fourteen people were killed within just a few blocks, and 11 people, including seven children, died on just a single street in Bowling Green, Kentucky when the tornado struck.

Moss Creek Avenue was hit hard when the ferocious storms hit the western part of the state on Friday night.

Entire families passed away, with two of those who died being infants. Melinda Allen-Ray hadn’t slept much since early on Saturday when tornado warnings prompted her to take her grandchildren into the bathroom, holding on to them as the house was torn apart by the storm. Then she heard the screams of her neighbours.

“I heard them — it traumatised me. I think about that each night when I go to sleep, when I do sleep,” she said. “I just think about all those babies.”

The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander reports:

From a helicopter over the town of Mayfield, President Biden on Wednesday saw neighbourhoods pockmarked by piles of debris and homes without roofs and windows.

After his aerial tour, the president told local officials at an airport briefing: “I’m here to listen.”

Mr Biden pledged that federal aid would continue to flow and described the tornado damage as some of the worst he had ever seen. He said this kind of tragedy “either brings people together or it knocks them apart”.

“There’s no red tornadoes and blue tornadoes,” he said.

Some of the thousands of Kentuckians who lost their homes to tornadoes are calling for the government to address a shortage in temporary housing.

“People need places to go,” one man said in a video shared by The Weather Channel. “We need housing. We need food. We need clothes.”

Another man said: “We have no power, we have no water. I woke up this morning at three o’clock and thought I was frost-bit.”

Governor Andy Beshear has said state agencies are working tirelessly with federal officials to coordinate aid, including housing.

President Biden’s visit to Kentucky marks the fifth time he’s taken on the grim task of touring an area ravaged by a natural disaster since taking office.

He landed at Fort Campbell for a storm briefing before heading to Mayfield and Dawson Springs to survey storm damage.

While Mr Biden is expected to speak, it’s not the focus of the trip. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president will meet with storm victims and local officials to provide federal support.

The president “wants to hear directly from people, and he wants to offer his support directly to them”, Ms Psaki said.

President Joe Biden arrived in Kentucky on Wednesday morning to tour tornado damage with Governor Andy Beshear.

He was seen stepping off of Air Force One at Fort Campbell, where he was greeted by the governor, first lady Britainy Beshear and former governor Steve Beshear.

Thirteen children have been confirmed dead in the wake of last weekend’s storm, including 12 in Kentucky:

Bowling Green, Warren County

• Nariah Cayshell Brown, 16
• Nyles Brown, 4
• Nolynn Brown, age not specified
• Selmir Besic, age not specified
• Elma Besic, age not specified
• Samantha Besic, infant
• Alma Besic, infant

• Jha’lil Lee Dunbar, 3
• Marilyn Gingerich, 7
• Daniel Gingerich, 4

Dawson Springs, Hopkins/Caldwell counties

The 13th child killed was nine-year-old Annistyn Rackley of Caruthersville, Missouri.

Deaths have been confirmed in at least five of the six states hit by a number of tornadoes over the weekend. The death toll is feared to be more than 100 in Kentucky alone, but casualties have also been reported in Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee, with fatalities confirmed in all but one of the states.

While at least eight of the victims remain unidentified, The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander explains what we know so far:

Governor Andy Beshear on Tuesday confirmed that Kentucky’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (KY OSH) will investigate the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory where eight workers were killed by a tornado.

At least four workers claimed they were told they would be fired if they tried to leave their shifts early as warning sirens began to wail.

Asked about a state investigation, Gov Beshear said: “After seeing a tornado like this, we all have to look back at protocols to see what we can do better. I haven’t seen any direct accounts from the candle factory, that’s obviously something people are going to look at.

“Hopefully they did everything right. If they didn’t, that will come out. Absolutely the state will look through it.”

The governor emphasised that KY OSH investigates all workplace fatalities, saying: “It shouldn’t suggest that there was any wrongdoing but it should give people confidence that we will get to the bottom of it.”

The Independent’s Io Dodds explains factory workers’ claims:

An MMA fighter helped rescue his wife, sister-in-law and others from the wreckage of a Mayfield, Kentucky, candle factory that was destroyed by a tornado.

Brian Brooks said the tornado narrowly missed his home before he received a call from his wife, who was at the Mayfield Consumer Products facility.

“She calls and tells me she loves me, that she’s trapped, and they’re smashed. And she hung up,” he told Fox News.

Mr Brooks rushed to the factory to find it had been reduced to a pile of rubble. “It was like the worst war movie you see on TV. The people that were screaming that you could not see in the dark,” he said.

He sprang into action pulling workers to safety, including his wife and his sister.

“They didn’t think they were ever going to see us again,” Mr Brooks said. “I’m so grateful … I just want to say my prayers for everybody who wasn’t so lucky.”

Eight out of roughly 100 people at the factory were confirmed dead in the wake of the twister. The Independent’s Harriet Sinclair reports: