Tornadoes kill more than 20 in south-central US

The authorities said on Saturday that severe storms swept the American states in Missouri and Kentucky, leaving at least 21 people, and setting waste for local communities and reducing electricity to nearly 200,000 people.

Kentucky Governor Andy Bishr said on X that at least 14 people died in storms on Friday night, while local officials in Missouri said that seven others had died there.

Jimmy Burns, 38, who lived with her husband and son in a trailer house in the town of London, Kentucky, had to search for a shelter on the basement of her sister’s brick house while the storm destroyed about 100 to 200 homes in the area.

“The things that were here for a period longer than me, and the things that were here for 30 years,” Burns told AFP in an interview.

“It is wild, because you will look at one area and it is just shattered … completely flat, like, not there anymore.”

Driver shots published by the local media showed scenes of destruction in London, where the houses were linked and reduced to fragments and tree trunks that stand naked, and they are completely outperforming the branches.

Beshear added that more than 100,000 people were left without authority in the state, and announced five provinces of emergency.

The Eastern State of Kentucky, a region historically known as coal mines, is one of the poorest regions in the country. “Many of us live in the unsafe manufactured homes for the hurricane,” Burns said.

Hurricanes are pillars of air that touch the ground from huge thunderstorm clouds.

“One of the worst storms”

In the state of Missouri, five people were killed in the largest city of Saint Louis, while the authorities said it was one of the worst storms in its history, and two in Scott County, according to the highway patrol in a statement to Agence France -Presse.

The statement added that more than 80,000 people were left without strength and opened three shelters in the area. The harsh weather was expected to be more on Sunday night and Monday.

Mayor Kara Spencer asked on Saturday by a reporter if it was the worst storm to Saint Louis.

She said 38 people in the city were injured and damaged about 5,000 buildings.

Miss Kiho state governor, Mikeho, said during the same briefing the press that his office was keeping the White House to the situation.

In a neighborhood in St. Louis, a church was severely damaged, according to CBS footage, and rescue workers continued to treat victims near the building on Saturday morning.

Derek Perkins, the priest in the centennial Christian Church, told CBS: “It is shining for a hurricane here and causing this great damage to the population and also the Church,” Derek Perkins, the priest in the centennial Christian Church, told CBS. “Our hearts are broken.”

Bruce Madison, who is also working in the church, said that society meets in the face of the tragedy.

“Now, we just pray for … everyone is trying to find it now.”

While there are warnings before the harsh weather – it has declared caution on the state of emergency on Friday – it may raise the latest questions of questions about whether the severe discounts by the Trump administration have left the national weather forecast teams seriously, forcing some offices to reduce operations.

An estimated 500 NWS has been launched by 4200 NW or early retirement this year, according to the Washington Post.

The United States witnessed the second highest number of hurricanes registered last year with nearly 1,800, according to the National Oceanic and Air Country Administration (NOAA), late 2004.

© 2025 AFP