(Reuters) -At least 21 people were killed overnight in Kentucky and Missouri when a volatile weather system spawned tornadoes as it ripped across a large swath of the U.S. Midwest and Great Lakes, officials said on Saturday.
In Kentucky, at least 14 people were killed and the death toll was expected to rise, said Governor Andy Beshear. Earlier, he declared a state of emergency in his state, as did Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe.
“We lost at least 14 of our people to last night’s storms, but sadly, this number is expected to grow as we receive more information,” Beshear said in a social media post.
At least nine of the fatalities were in Laurel County, about 150 miles (241 km) south of Louisville, where a tornado touched down late on Friday, Sheriff John Root said on social media, describing it as “a mass casualty event.”
There were numerous severe injuries, he said, and a search for survivors was under way.
Aerial images posted on social media showed scenes of destruction in Laurel County, with entire blocks of houses reduced to splinters, and cars and pickup trucks left battered or crushed in the tornado’s wake.
In Union County, near the Illinois border 250 miles west of Laurel County, a reported twister leveled mobile homes in the city of Morganfield, but there were no immediate reports of casualties in that area.
TORNADO HITS ST. LOUIS
Earlier, a tornado ripped through St. Louis, killing at least five people, injuring 38 and damaging 5,000 properties as it tore off roofs, Mayor Cara Spencer said. It also knocked down power lines and swept through a major thoroughfare during rush-hour traffic on Friday.
Two others were killed in Scott County, in southeastern Missouri, according to officials.
“Our city is grieving tonight,” Spencer, who was sworn in as mayor a month ago, told reporters on Friday night. “The loss of life and the destruction is truly, truly horrendous.”
St. Louis resident Joan Miller recounted her narrow escape when a tornado struck her brick house.
“The wind started, the tree out front was shaking so violently,” she said. “And suddenly all the doors shut, the windows flew out from the bedroom … the entire back of my house … you can see straight into the alley now.”
The National Weather Service said thunderstorms were widespread across portions of the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio Valleys on Friday. At least half a dozen tornadoes touched down in Missouri and neighboring Illinois and other severe weather stretched all the way to the Atlantic Coast, including another tornado reported in New Jersey.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she had talked with the governors of Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois to offer federal resources to help their states cope with the aftermath.
“We discussed how while emergency management is best led by local authorities, we reinforced that DHS stands ready to take immediate action to offer resources and support, she wrote on social media.
Noem has championed a change in the federal strategy for managing disasters under the Trump administration by shifting responsibilities to states. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget includes deep cuts for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which falls under her purview.
As of Saturday afternoon, about 155,000 customers were without power in Kentucky and Missouri, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks blackouts across the country.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta, Harshita Meenaktshi, Steve Gorman and Frank McGurty; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Susan Fenton, Diane Craft and Rod Nickel)
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