More than 20 people have died after severe storms swept through the US states of Missouri and Kentucky, laying waste to local communities and cutting off electricity to nearly 200,000 people, authorities said.
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said on X that at least 14 people had died in the storms Friday night, while local officials in Missouri said another seven were dead there.
Jamie Burns, 38, who lives with her husband and son in a trailer home in the town of London, Kentucky, had to seek shelter in the basement of her sister’s brick house while the storm destroyed some 100 to 200 houses in the area.
“Things that have been here longer than I have, things that have been here for 30-plus years are just flat,” Burns told AFP in a phone interview, her voice quavering.
“It’s wild, because you’ll look at one area and it’s just smashed… totally flattened, like, not there anymore.”
Drone footage published by local media showed scenes of devastation in London, with houses leveled and reduced to splinters and tree trunks standing bare, completely shorn of branches.
Beshear added that more than 100,000 people have been left without power in the state, and five counties have declared a state of emergency.
Eastern Kentucky, an area historically known for its coal mines, is one of the poorest regions in the country. “A lot of us live in manufactured homes that aren’t safe for tornado weather,” said Burns.