Communities in western Kentucky and surrounding states continue rescue and recovery efforts from Friday evening’s deadly tornado outbreak that killed dozens of people. Officials are still trying to assess the extent of the damage.
Latest numbers
On Monday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters that 74 Kentuckians were killed as a result of the storms but noted that at least 100 people are still unaccounted for or missing. The Associated Press reported that the storms killed 14 people in Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee, bringing the current death toll to 88.
Beshear estimated that as many as 1,000 homes had been destroyed by the storms as of Monday, leaving an untold number of Kentuckians homeless.
The National Weather Service originally reported that around 60 tornadoes had touched down in nine states — Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana and Ohio. That number was revised to 70 tornadoes as of Tuesday morning after NWS survey teams looked at more damaged areas. The total could go up again.
Tuesday morning, PowerOutage.us reported more than 24,000 customers in Kentucky had no electricity, mostly in the southwestern part of the state. The highest number of power outages was in Graves County, where one of the strongest tornadoes hit the Mayfield area.
Impact on supply chains
The tornadoes could cause significant disruptions to supply infrastructure, especially at local and regional levels. There was major damage to an Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) warehouse outside St. Louis, as well as a candle factory and a giant Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ: PPC) chicken hatchery in Mayfield, Kentucky.
Poultry is Kentucky’s top agricultural commodity and Mayfield is in Graves County, the state’s top county for agricultural sales. Graves County accounts for 6% of the state’s total farm business, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Storms ripped roofs off a storage system that holds nearly 6 million bushels of grain at Mayfield Grain, enough corn to fill two vessels each the length of two football fields. Also in Mayfield, a John Deere flagship farm equipment dealership was destroyed.
The destruction could raise already high chicken and grain prices and may add to supply chain headaches that have made it difficult for farmers to replace machinery parts.
Moving forward
Beshear did report some good news Tuesday, noting that officials have now accounted for all the employees who were working at a Mayfield candle factory when the tornado hit it. Though eight workers died in the storm, officials initially feared the death toll in the factory would be much higher.
Beshear declared a state of emergency Saturday morning. Hours later President Biden approved emergency federal assistance for the state. Biden will travel to Kentucky on Wednesday. He is expected to visit Mayfield and Dawson Springs, two of the hardest-hit areas in Kentucky.
“We’re going to stay as long as it takes to help them,” Biden told reporters Monday during an Oval Office briefing on the disaster, adding that the most urgent priority was “making sure … that we’re not leaving anybody still breathing under debris.”
Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Nick Austin.
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