VIDEO. Tornadoes in the United States: Mayfield, a city in the midst of chaos

The city of Mayfield, in Kentucky (United States), is devastated following the passage of a tornado on Friday, December 10. The town, now wiped off the map, is nothing more than a field of ruins as far as the eye can see. The atmosphere is silent, apart from the noise of construction machinery. Many residents have seen their last hour arrive. “She struck suddenly. We just had time with my brother to take refuge in the bathtub. There were flying telephone and electric poles, fireballs “, confides a resident. The town hall was razed. In an earthquake setting, some come to collect what is left of the stocks of an old neighborhood grocery store.

According to state radar services, debris was sucked up to 11,000 meters, the altitude of airliners, before falling. The city center gives the image of a bombardment. “We are heartbroken. I don’t know if we’ll be able to get over it “, confides a parishioner. A few hundred meters away, a candle factory, which was turning 24 hours a day as the Christmas holidays approached, was hit hard. The toll will amount to dozens of deaths. “Fortunately [la tornade] struck in the evening, most people were at home and not in the streets, which surely prevented further tragedies “, comments the journalist Loïc de La Mornais, special correspondent at Mayfield.