Twenty-four hours after the tornado passed, Mayfield, Kentucky looks like a city that has been bombed, or as if a giant has passed diagonally, crushing and ripping everything in its path. The provisional toll is devastating after a series of tornadoes of incredible violence hit the central and southern United States: at least 83 dead, at least 70 in the only state of Kentuky which pays the most dear tribute. Governor Andy Beshear expects a much heavier toll and called on residents to donate blood to treat the injured.
“This is one of the scariest events of my life, said Jeremy Creason, the Mayfield firefighter captain. I was in the barracks when the tornado passed. We looked at her, we saw her coming towards us. You could hear like a roar, like a freight train heading towards you for two or three consecutive minutes, continuous thunder could be heard. And then the lightning started to intensify. There was a flash and we could see the width of the funnel. It was very scary. ” The mind-boggling din also terrified Monica, a hairdresser at Mayfield.
“We were hiding in the closet. It looked like a train was going through it. The noise was very loud. Lots of things were banging on the window.”
Monica, hairdresser in Mayfieldto franceinfo
“We just prayed and thank God we weren’t hurt”, Monica continues, relieved.
Monica’s house is still standing. But across the street, where the tornado passed, an old building has become nothing less than a pile of red bricks. A 25-meter radio relay collapsed. Everywhere lie wooden electric poles, broken into several pieces, tangled wires, trees by dozens torn from the ground or broken, pieces of sheet metal, whole roofs which were carried away several meters from the sheds they covered. What gives the idea that the winds of the tornado were swirling are these smaller pieces of tin, these plates, literally wrapped around the remains of traffic signs or red lights. As if the giant had simply crumpled, crushed, shattered everything that came to hand before sending everything flying everywhere. The houses still standing are empty. Most of the residents have been evacuated. There is no electricity, except for a few generators like in front of the police station. The city has been under curfew from 7 p.m. until the next morning.
The help continues to bustle, in particular around a candle factory which turned until late at night lately, because of the period, between Thanks Giving and Christmas. There were between 110 and 130 people there, difficult to know precisely, say the emergency services. It was almost completely destroyed. Journalists cannot approach. Only medical teams, national guards, members of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Relief Agency, are allowed access. Mayfield Fire Captain Jeremy Creason summed up the situation. Without speaking of the balance sheet in this factory, he said: here, everyone knows each other in a town of barely 10,000 inhabitants. We all have a connection, a loved one who worked there.