Planning questions emerge at tornado-destroyed candle plant
By DYLAN LOVAN and MATT O'BRIEN
1 of 6
Tamara Yekinni hugs a friend outside a shelter in Wingo, Ky., on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021, after residents were displaced by a tornado that caused severe damage in the area. Yekinni is an employee at a candle factory where employees were killed and injured by the storm. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)
MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — The Mayfield Consumer Products factory was the third-biggest employer in this corner of western Kentucky, an important economic engine that churned out candles that lined the shelves of malls around the U.S.
But why its workers kept making candles Friday night as a tornado bore down on the region remains unclear as rescuers continue scouring the factory wreckage for signs of life.
Kentucky’s governor said Sunday the ferocity of the storm was so great that there was nowhere safe to hide inside the plant.
“It appears most were sheltering in the place they were told to shelter,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “I hope that area was as safe as it could be, but this thing got hit directly by the strongest tornado we could have possibly imagined.”
Of the 110 workers overnight Friday, Beshear said early Sunday that only 40 were rescued and it would be a miracle if any more were found alive. He said later on Sunday that it might be a “better situation” than initially feared as the state works to verify a worker headcount provided by the factory.
Some workers said they had been told to huddle in a central hallway area, the strongest part of the building, as the storm approached.
“That’s where everybody is supposed to go,” said Autumn Kirks, who worked at the plant with her boyfriend, who is still missing. “We stopped everything and tried to get as sheltered as we could.”
Kirks said an earlier weather warning siren during her shift prompted some workers to leave for the night.
“I know a lot of the workers left. We thought about it but decided against it,” she said.
The factory where she and her boyfriend worked employs many people in and around Mayfield, a city of about 10,000 in Kentucky’s southwest corner. It is Graves County’s third-biggest employer, according to the county’s website. Even some inmates at the county jail have worked there.
Scented candles made in the plant eventually found their way onto the shelves of prominent retailers like Bath & Body Works. The Ohio retailer said in a statement it was “devastated by the horrible loss of life at the Mayfield Consumer Products factory – a long-standing partner of ours.”
And this was high season in Mayfield for turning out gift candles as Christmas approaches. Shortly before the disaster, the company had posted on Facebook that it was looking to hire more people for 10- to 12-hour shifts involving fast-paced work and mandatory overtime.
Most American candle-makers used to complete their holiday orders by early November, but labor shortages and other economic trends tied to the COVID-19 pandemic have extended crunch time well into December, said Kathy LaVanier, CEO of Ohio-based Renegade Candle Company and a board member at the National Candle Association.
LaVanier said candle-makers around the U.S. are horrified by what happened in Kentucky and are trying to find ways to help. Unlike many manufactured products, most candles sold in the U.S. are American-made, in part thanks to hefty and longstanding tariffs on Chinese-made candles.
“All of us in the candle business are reeling,” she said. “It could have been any of us.”
LaVanier said regular disaster drills are important at candle plants, especially to include temporary workers who might have just arrived to fill a demand surge. But the way they are built — rarely with basements, and structured to accommodate long manufacturing lines — makes it hard to avoid damage when a truly devastating storm hits.
“If we had enough advance notice and felt it was severe enough you might send people home,” she said.
Bryanna Travis, 19, and Jarred Holmes, 20, stood vigil near the rubble of the Mayfield candle factory Saturday where they had worked for months, usually for about $14.50 an hour. The engaged couple wasn’t working when the storm hit.
“I worked with these people. I talked to these people. I tried to build connections with these people. And I don’t know if one of my friends is gone,” Holmes said.
Holmes said there had been no drills during their time at the factory to prepare people in case of a storm.
“We haven’t had one since we’ve been there,” he said.
Search are rescue crews work at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory early Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021 in Mayfield, Ky. Tornadoes and severe weather caused catastrophic damage across multiple states Friday, killing several people overnight. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader via AP)
Executives at Mayfield Consumer Products didn’t respond to requests for comment Sunday. The company said in a statement on its website that it had started an emergency fund to help employees and their families. The company was founded in 1998 and split off from another firm several years ago.
“We’re heartbroken about this, and our immediate efforts are to assist those affected by this terrible disaster,” CEO Troy Propes said in the statement. “Our company is family-owned and our employees, some who have worked with us for many years, are cherished.”
Kentucky’s state safety and health agency website lists a series of 12 safety violations at the factory in 2019, though it doesn’t say what they were for.
Beshear told CNN on Sunday that his understanding was that it did have an emergency plan.
“We believe most of the workers got to what is supposed to be the safest place in the facility,” he sad. “But when you see the damage that this storm did not just there but across the area, I’m not sure there was a plan that would have worked.”
—-
O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. AP writer Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report.
In ruins of Kentucky factory, hope for improbable 'miracle'By DYLAN LOVAN and MATT O'BRIEN
1 of 6
Tamara Yekinni hugs a friend outside a shelter in Wingo, Ky., on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021, after residents were displaced by a tornado that caused severe damage in the area. Yekinni is an employee at a candle factory where employees were killed and injured by the storm. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)
MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — The Mayfield Consumer Products factory was the third-biggest employer in this corner of western Kentucky, an important economic engine that churned out candles that lined the shelves of malls around the U.S.
But why its workers kept making candles Friday night as a tornado bore down on the region remains unclear as rescuers continue scouring the factory wreckage for signs of life.
Kentucky’s governor said Sunday the ferocity of the storm was so great that there was nowhere safe to hide inside the plant.
“It appears most were sheltering in the place they were told to shelter,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “I hope that area was as safe as it could be, but this thing got hit directly by the strongest tornado we could have possibly imagined.”
Of the 110 workers overnight Friday, Beshear said early Sunday that only 40 were rescued and it would be a miracle if any more were found alive. He said later on Sunday that it might be a “better situation” than initially feared as the state works to verify a worker headcount provided by the factory.
Some workers said they had been told to huddle in a central hallway area, the strongest part of the building, as the storm approached.
“That’s where everybody is supposed to go,” said Autumn Kirks, who worked at the plant with her boyfriend, who is still missing. “We stopped everything and tried to get as sheltered as we could.”
Kirks said an earlier weather warning siren during her shift prompted some workers to leave for the night.
“I know a lot of the workers left. We thought about it but decided against it,” she said.
The factory where she and her boyfriend worked employs many people in and around Mayfield, a city of about 10,000 in Kentucky’s southwest corner. It is Graves County’s third-biggest employer, according to the county’s website. Even some inmates at the county jail have worked there.
Scented candles made in the plant eventually found their way onto the shelves of prominent retailers like Bath & Body Works. The Ohio retailer said in a statement it was “devastated by the horrible loss of life at the Mayfield Consumer Products factory – a long-standing partner of ours.”
And this was high season in Mayfield for turning out gift candles as Christmas approaches. Shortly before the disaster, the company had posted on Facebook that it was looking to hire more people for 10- to 12-hour shifts involving fast-paced work and mandatory overtime.
Most American candle-makers used to complete their holiday orders by early November, but labor shortages and other economic trends tied to the COVID-19 pandemic have extended crunch time well into December, said Kathy LaVanier, CEO of Ohio-based Renegade Candle Company and a board member at the National Candle Association.
LaVanier said candle-makers around the U.S. are horrified by what happened in Kentucky and are trying to find ways to help. Unlike many manufactured products, most candles sold in the U.S. are American-made, in part thanks to hefty and longstanding tariffs on Chinese-made candles.
“All of us in the candle business are reeling,” she said. “It could have been any of us.”
LaVanier said regular disaster drills are important at candle plants, especially to include temporary workers who might have just arrived to fill a demand surge. But the way they are built — rarely with basements, and structured to accommodate long manufacturing lines — makes it hard to avoid damage when a truly devastating storm hits.
“If we had enough advance notice and felt it was severe enough you might send people home,” she said.
Bryanna Travis, 19, and Jarred Holmes, 20, stood vigil near the rubble of the Mayfield candle factory Saturday where they had worked for months, usually for about $14.50 an hour. The engaged couple wasn’t working when the storm hit.
“I worked with these people. I talked to these people. I tried to build connections with these people. And I don’t know if one of my friends is gone,” Holmes said.
Holmes said there had been no drills during their time at the factory to prepare people in case of a storm.
“We haven’t had one since we’ve been there,” he said.
Search are rescue crews work at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory early Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021 in Mayfield, Ky. Tornadoes and severe weather caused catastrophic damage across multiple states Friday, killing several people overnight. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader via AP)
Executives at Mayfield Consumer Products didn’t respond to requests for comment Sunday. The company said in a statement on its website that it had started an emergency fund to help employees and their families. The company was founded in 1998 and split off from another firm several years ago.
“We’re heartbroken about this, and our immediate efforts are to assist those affected by this terrible disaster,” CEO Troy Propes said in the statement. “Our company is family-owned and our employees, some who have worked with us for many years, are cherished.”
Kentucky’s state safety and health agency website lists a series of 12 safety violations at the factory in 2019, though it doesn’t say what they were for.
Beshear told CNN on Sunday that his understanding was that it did have an emergency plan.
“We believe most of the workers got to what is supposed to be the safest place in the facility,” he sad. “But when you see the damage that this storm did not just there but across the area, I’m not sure there was a plan that would have worked.”
—-
O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. AP writer Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report.
The site of the MCP candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky
that was destroyed by a tornado (AFP/John Amis)
Cyril JULIEN
Sun, December 12, 2021
It was a banal industrial building, low, wide and largely unexceptional, with a few windows and a sign proudly declaring its occupant: "MCP, Mayfield Consumer Products."
It is no more.
Inside what was once a candle factory, dozens of workers were trapped when the most powerful tornado in the history of Kentucky -- and possibly of the entire United States -- rumbled through like a freight train Friday night.
In all, 110 employees were inside, working to supply scented candles and essential oils -- popular products during the holiday season. The factory had been operating around the clock.
But that night the exceptionally powerful storm flattened the factory -- as it did much of the nearby town of Mayfield.
By Sunday morning, workers were using bulldozers and construction equipment to clear debris from the historic town's devastated center, working in chilly temperatures but under a bright sun.
Forty employees of the candle factory were rescued in the early hours of Saturday, Governor Andy Beshear said. He did not say how many might have made their own way out on their own.
Now, the hopes of finding survivors are fading fast.
"I pray for it," Beshear told CNN on Sunday. "It would be an incredible miracle." But, he acknowledged, no survivor had been found since a few hours after the storm ripped through.
- 'Terrifying experience' -
The governor said at least 80 deaths have been confirmed in Kentucky, the state hardest hit by a slew of tornadoes.
Many of the dead perished at the Mayfield candle factory, which lay squarely in one twister's path.
MCP was a major employer in the town of 10,000. A family-owned business created in 1998, it had recently been hiring -- a rarity in an America where small manufacturers more often lose out to international competitors.
"Our Mayfield, Kentucky facility was destroyed December 10, 2021, by a tornado, and tragically employees were killed and injured," CEO Troy Propes said in a message on the company website.
"Our employees, some who have worked with us for many years, are cherished."
The factory also employed trusted inmates from a local prison.
Since late Friday, rescue workers have been desperately searching through the tangle of debris that is all that remains of the factory, where fallen girders and twisted sheet metal are piled high.
They have been seen removing corpses, while advancing gingerly through the wreckage with heavy equipment. Specially trained dogs sniff the debris to find anyone -- dead or alive -- still buried.
Jason Riccinto had worked at the factory, but as a volunteer fireman he has spent hours with a search crew on the scene.
"We moved stuff by hand to search for people. Once we knew nobody was there, they get the excavators," he told AFP. "It's search, pull back, search, pull back."
"It's total devastation."
The His House Ministries, a nondenominational church near Mayfield, has been providing food and clothing for survivors -- and a space for the county coroner to do his work, pastor Stephen Boyken said.
People "come with pictures, birthmarks -- they talk now about using DNA samples to identify those who have been lost," he said.
Those who made it out alive described scenes of terror and anguish.
One trapped factory worker, Kyanna Parsons-Perez, broadcast herself on Facebook Live, pleading in a quavering voice for anyone to come help.
The harrowing sound of fellow workers crying and moaning could be heard. But there was also the sound of one woman's voice quietly seeking to calm the others.
Parsons-Perez miraculously survived.
"It was absolutely the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced in my life," she said later.
cyj-hr/seb/bbk/mlm
Cyril JULIEN
Sun, December 12, 2021
It was a banal industrial building, low, wide and largely unexceptional, with a few windows and a sign proudly declaring its occupant: "MCP, Mayfield Consumer Products."
It is no more.
Inside what was once a candle factory, dozens of workers were trapped when the most powerful tornado in the history of Kentucky -- and possibly of the entire United States -- rumbled through like a freight train Friday night.
In all, 110 employees were inside, working to supply scented candles and essential oils -- popular products during the holiday season. The factory had been operating around the clock.
But that night the exceptionally powerful storm flattened the factory -- as it did much of the nearby town of Mayfield.
By Sunday morning, workers were using bulldozers and construction equipment to clear debris from the historic town's devastated center, working in chilly temperatures but under a bright sun.
Forty employees of the candle factory were rescued in the early hours of Saturday, Governor Andy Beshear said. He did not say how many might have made their own way out on their own.
Now, the hopes of finding survivors are fading fast.
"I pray for it," Beshear told CNN on Sunday. "It would be an incredible miracle." But, he acknowledged, no survivor had been found since a few hours after the storm ripped through.
- 'Terrifying experience' -
The governor said at least 80 deaths have been confirmed in Kentucky, the state hardest hit by a slew of tornadoes.
Many of the dead perished at the Mayfield candle factory, which lay squarely in one twister's path.
MCP was a major employer in the town of 10,000. A family-owned business created in 1998, it had recently been hiring -- a rarity in an America where small manufacturers more often lose out to international competitors.
"Our Mayfield, Kentucky facility was destroyed December 10, 2021, by a tornado, and tragically employees were killed and injured," CEO Troy Propes said in a message on the company website.
"Our employees, some who have worked with us for many years, are cherished."
The factory also employed trusted inmates from a local prison.
Since late Friday, rescue workers have been desperately searching through the tangle of debris that is all that remains of the factory, where fallen girders and twisted sheet metal are piled high.
They have been seen removing corpses, while advancing gingerly through the wreckage with heavy equipment. Specially trained dogs sniff the debris to find anyone -- dead or alive -- still buried.
Jason Riccinto had worked at the factory, but as a volunteer fireman he has spent hours with a search crew on the scene.
"We moved stuff by hand to search for people. Once we knew nobody was there, they get the excavators," he told AFP. "It's search, pull back, search, pull back."
"It's total devastation."
The His House Ministries, a nondenominational church near Mayfield, has been providing food and clothing for survivors -- and a space for the county coroner to do his work, pastor Stephen Boyken said.
People "come with pictures, birthmarks -- they talk now about using DNA samples to identify those who have been lost," he said.
Those who made it out alive described scenes of terror and anguish.
One trapped factory worker, Kyanna Parsons-Perez, broadcast herself on Facebook Live, pleading in a quavering voice for anyone to come help.
The harrowing sound of fellow workers crying and moaning could be heard. But there was also the sound of one woman's voice quietly seeking to calm the others.
Parsons-Perez miraculously survived.
"It was absolutely the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced in my life," she said later.
cyj-hr/seb/bbk/mlm
Spokesman: 8 factory workers dead, 8 missing from tornado
By BRUCE SCHREINER and DYLAN LOVAN
1 of 22
Satellite images provided by Maxar shows homes and buildings before and after thee storms in Mayfield, Ky. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies via AP)
The outbreak also killed at least six people in Illinois, where an Amazon distribution center in Edwardsville was hit; four in Tennessee; two in Arkansas, where a nursing home was destroyed and the governor said workers shielded residents with their own bodies; and two in Missouri.
Debris from destroyed buildings and shredded trees covered the ground in Mayfield, a city of about 10,000 in western Kentucky. Twisted sheet metal, downed power lines and wrecked vehicles lined the streets. Windows were blown out and roofs torn off the buildings that were still standing.
In the shadows of their crumpled church sanctuaries, two congregations in Mayfield came together on Sunday to pray for those who were lost. Members of First Christian Church and First Presbyterian Church met in a parking lot surrounded by rubble, piles of broken bricks and metal.
“Our little town will never be the same, but we’re resilient,” Laura McClendon said. “We’ll get there, but it’s going to take a long time.”
___
Associated Press writers Kristin Hall and Claire Galofaro in Mayfield; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Seth Borenstein in Washington; and Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.
By BRUCE SCHREINER and DYLAN LOVAN
1 of 22
In this aerial photo, a collapsed factory and surrounding areas are seen in Mayfield, Ky., Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. Tornadoes and severe weather caused catastrophic damage across multiple states Friday, killing several people overnight. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — Workers on the night shift at Mayfield Consumer Products were in the middle of the holiday rush, cranking out candles, when a tornado closed in on the factory and the word went out: “Duck and cover.”
Autumn Kirks pulled down her safety goggles and took shelter, tossing aside wax and fragrance buckets to make room. She glanced away from her boyfriend, Lannis Ward, and when she looked back, he was gone.
On Sunday, he was among those feared dead in the rubble of the factory and elsewhere across the state.
Gov. Andy Beshear initially warned Sunday that the state’s overall death toll from the outbreak of twisters Friday night in Mayfield and other communities could exceed 100. But later in the day, the candle company said that while eight were confirmed dead and eight remained missing, more than 90 others had been located.
“Many of the employees were gathered in the tornado shelter and after the storm was over they left the plant and went to their homes,” said Bob Ferguson, a spokesman for the company. “With the power out and no landline they were hard to reach initially. We’re hoping to find more of those eight unaccounted as we try their home residences.”
The update raised hope that the toll from the twister outbreak wouldn’t be as high as first feared, and the governor said it would be “pretty wonderful” if original estimates were wrong.
Kentucky was the worst-hit state by far in an unusual mid-December swarm of twisters across the Midwest and the South that leveled entire communities and left at least 14 people dead in four other states.
Forty people who were inside the candle factory were pulled out soon after the twister struck, authorities said. The number of people who had been in the factory was initially put at 110. Rescuers had to crawl over the dead to get to the living at a disaster scene that smelled like scented candles.
But by the time churchgoers gathered Sunday morning to pray for the lost, more than 24 hours had elapsed since anyone had been found alive in the wreckage. Instead, crews recovered pieces of peoples’ lives — a backpack, a pair of shoes and a cellphone with 27 missed messages were among the items.
Layers of steel and cars 15 feet deep were on top of what used to the factory roof, the governor said.
“We’re going to grieve together, we’re going to dig out and clean up together, and we will rebuild and move forward together. We’re going to get through this,” Beshear said. “We’re going to get through this together, because that is what we do.”
Four twisters hit the state in all, including one with an extraordinarily long path of about 200 miles (322 kilometers) long, authorities said. The outbreak was all the more remarkable because it came at a time of year when cold weather normally limits tornadoes.
Eleven people were reported killed in and around Bowling Green alone.
“I’ve got towns that are gone, that are just, I mean gone. My dad’s hometown — half of it isn’t standing,” Breshear said of Dawson Springs.
He said that going door to door in search of victims is out of the question in the hardest-hit areas: “There are no doors.”
“We’re going to have over 1,000 homes that are gone, just gone,” the governor said.
With afternoon high temperatures forecast only in the 40s, tens of thousands of people were without power. About 300 National Guard members went house to house, checking on people and helping to remove debris. Cadaver dogs searched for victims.
Kirks said she and her boyfriend were about 10 feet apart in a hallway when someone said to take cover. Suddenly, she saw sky and lightning where a wall had been, and Ward had vanished.
“I remember taking my eyes off of him for a second, and then he was gone,” she said.
Later, she got the terrible news — that Ward had been killed in the storm.
Kirks was at a ministry center where people gathered to seek information about the missing.
“It was indescribable,” Pastor Joel Cauley said of the disaster scene. “It was almost like you were in a twilight zone. You could smell the aroma of candles, and you could hear the cries of people for help. Candle smells and all the sirens is not something I ever expected to experience at the same time.”
MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — Workers on the night shift at Mayfield Consumer Products were in the middle of the holiday rush, cranking out candles, when a tornado closed in on the factory and the word went out: “Duck and cover.”
Autumn Kirks pulled down her safety goggles and took shelter, tossing aside wax and fragrance buckets to make room. She glanced away from her boyfriend, Lannis Ward, and when she looked back, he was gone.
On Sunday, he was among those feared dead in the rubble of the factory and elsewhere across the state.
Gov. Andy Beshear initially warned Sunday that the state’s overall death toll from the outbreak of twisters Friday night in Mayfield and other communities could exceed 100. But later in the day, the candle company said that while eight were confirmed dead and eight remained missing, more than 90 others had been located.
“Many of the employees were gathered in the tornado shelter and after the storm was over they left the plant and went to their homes,” said Bob Ferguson, a spokesman for the company. “With the power out and no landline they were hard to reach initially. We’re hoping to find more of those eight unaccounted as we try their home residences.”
The update raised hope that the toll from the twister outbreak wouldn’t be as high as first feared, and the governor said it would be “pretty wonderful” if original estimates were wrong.
Kentucky was the worst-hit state by far in an unusual mid-December swarm of twisters across the Midwest and the South that leveled entire communities and left at least 14 people dead in four other states.
Forty people who were inside the candle factory were pulled out soon after the twister struck, authorities said. The number of people who had been in the factory was initially put at 110. Rescuers had to crawl over the dead to get to the living at a disaster scene that smelled like scented candles.
But by the time churchgoers gathered Sunday morning to pray for the lost, more than 24 hours had elapsed since anyone had been found alive in the wreckage. Instead, crews recovered pieces of peoples’ lives — a backpack, a pair of shoes and a cellphone with 27 missed messages were among the items.
Layers of steel and cars 15 feet deep were on top of what used to the factory roof, the governor said.
“We’re going to grieve together, we’re going to dig out and clean up together, and we will rebuild and move forward together. We’re going to get through this,” Beshear said. “We’re going to get through this together, because that is what we do.”
Four twisters hit the state in all, including one with an extraordinarily long path of about 200 miles (322 kilometers) long, authorities said. The outbreak was all the more remarkable because it came at a time of year when cold weather normally limits tornadoes.
Eleven people were reported killed in and around Bowling Green alone.
“I’ve got towns that are gone, that are just, I mean gone. My dad’s hometown — half of it isn’t standing,” Breshear said of Dawson Springs.
He said that going door to door in search of victims is out of the question in the hardest-hit areas: “There are no doors.”
“We’re going to have over 1,000 homes that are gone, just gone,” the governor said.
With afternoon high temperatures forecast only in the 40s, tens of thousands of people were without power. About 300 National Guard members went house to house, checking on people and helping to remove debris. Cadaver dogs searched for victims.
Kirks said she and her boyfriend were about 10 feet apart in a hallway when someone said to take cover. Suddenly, she saw sky and lightning where a wall had been, and Ward had vanished.
“I remember taking my eyes off of him for a second, and then he was gone,” she said.
Later, she got the terrible news — that Ward had been killed in the storm.
Kirks was at a ministry center where people gathered to seek information about the missing.
“It was indescribable,” Pastor Joel Cauley said of the disaster scene. “It was almost like you were in a twilight zone. You could smell the aroma of candles, and you could hear the cries of people for help. Candle smells and all the sirens is not something I ever expected to experience at the same time.”
Satellite images provided by Maxar shows homes and buildings before and after thee storms in Mayfield, Ky. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies via AP)
The outbreak also killed at least six people in Illinois, where an Amazon distribution center in Edwardsville was hit; four in Tennessee; two in Arkansas, where a nursing home was destroyed and the governor said workers shielded residents with their own bodies; and two in Missouri.
Debris from destroyed buildings and shredded trees covered the ground in Mayfield, a city of about 10,000 in western Kentucky. Twisted sheet metal, downed power lines and wrecked vehicles lined the streets. Windows were blown out and roofs torn off the buildings that were still standing.
In the shadows of their crumpled church sanctuaries, two congregations in Mayfield came together on Sunday to pray for those who were lost. Members of First Christian Church and First Presbyterian Church met in a parking lot surrounded by rubble, piles of broken bricks and metal.
“Our little town will never be the same, but we’re resilient,” Laura McClendon said. “We’ll get there, but it’s going to take a long time.”
___
Associated Press writers Kristin Hall and Claire Galofaro in Mayfield; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Seth Borenstein in Washington; and Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.
Kentucky's governor said at least 70 may have died in the state and the toll was climbing after tornadoes and severe weather ripped through at least five states, leaving widespread devastation. (Dec. 11)
Video taken the morning after the masssive tornado that tore through several US states shows the destruction it left in one small town. (Dec. 11)
President Joe Biden said Saturday that he was briefed on the situation after a monstrous tornado killed dozens of people in Kentucky. (Dec. 11)
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