(Mayfield) The bruised body but happy to be alive: Jemaryon Hart spent nearly seven hours of anguish under the rubble of the Mayfield, Ky. Candle factory which was razed to the ground by a forceful tornado on Friday. historical.
“I’m just happy to be alive,” said the 21-year-old African-American, who had worked for ten days on the production line at the Mayfield Consumer Products factory.
He had worked in this building before, located in the west of the small town almost destroyed by the tornado. The building is now nothing more than a heap of sheets and steel that rescuers methodically clear in the hope, increasingly thin, of finding survivors.
Friday night, says Jemaryon Hart, “we heard the siren (alarm) and we rushed to the security areas but when it happened, suddenly there was nothing to do” .
The tornado hit the building, whose roof collapsed, trapping the employees.
PHOTO JOHN AMIS, FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY
The Mayfield, Ky. Candle factory was razed to the ground by a tornado on Friday.
“It was terrifying, I was crushed by walls, metal blocks, wooden walls,” he says. “The longer it lasted, the more the building sagged. At first I was able to move a little, after that it was no longer possible, I was compressed. ”
“I was trying to control my breathing but for others it was impossible and they were panicking. We couldn’t see anything. Some passed out, others died. ”
” Hope ”
The young man still managed to get his phone out of his pocket to call his girlfriend, who is pregnant, and then his mother.
“It gave me hope, confidence to resist and survive, and wait for help,” which released him after about seven hours of anguished waiting, at 3:40 in the morning, he explains. he.
The first rescuers, who arrived an hour after the tornado had passed, took a long time to clear the debris. “The slightest bad gesture would have crushed us under the rubble,” he explains.
Once cleared, he was brought to safety by the firefighters. He no longer felt his legs.
“It was there that I saw that the factory, the parking lot, the cars, everything had disappeared,” he recalls.
Beyond the physical injuries and leg pain, he remains psychologically bruised.
A young colleague he knew is dead and he keeps reliving his ordeal each time the factory is mentioned.
“The images are spinning in your head. It’s difficult to manage, ”he says.
He denounces the lack of security measures on the part of the management, which has decided to continue production despite warnings from the authorities.
“Some are angry because we had to work that evening and there was no alert,” he explains. The company could be sued: “If we don’t do what it takes to make employee safety the top priority, that’s what they deserve.” ”