Kentucky tornadoes: governor confirms at least 64 deaths as toll expected to rise

The ages of those killed ranged from a few months to 86 years, six of them younger than 18, Beshear said at an emotional press conference in Frankfort, the state capital.

He said that 109 Kentuckians were still unaccounted for and that the eventual number of confirmed deaths might not be known for weeks.

Crews continued to sift the devastated ruins of towns across multiple states on Monday as many grieved and survivors shared harrowing tales of their escape.

Kentucky was the worst hit of eight states where dozens of tornadoes whirled through in massive nighttime storms that leveled whole communities.

Across the state, about 26,000 homes and businesses were without electricity, according to poweroutage.us, including nearly all of those in Mayfield. More than 10,000 homes and businesses have no water and another 17,000 are under boil-water advisories, Kentucky Emergency Management Director Michael Dossett told reporters.

Joe Biden declared a major federal disaster in Kentucky, where representatives of a candle factory in the small city of Mayfield reduced to eight the number they said were still unaccounted for. Another eight of 110 shift workers are known to have died after an unseasonal, record-breaking tornado with whirling winds up to 200mph razed the building.

The US president plans to visit Kentucky on Wednesday.

But he added he was worried about the mental health of survivors, too, many of whom he said were on fixed or lower incomes.

As rescuers continued to search the wreckage in Mayfield and across the state, thousands remained without power and water, or homeless.

In addition to the deaths in Kentucky, the tornadoes 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.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Monday that it has opened an investigation into the collapse of the Amazon warehouse in Illinois.

Outside a wrecked apartment complex in Mayfield, Kentucky, residents spoke of being trapped in the debris for hours and crying for help as they tried to escape.

Johnny Shreve watched from his window as an office structure across the street disintegrated, then dived onto his kitchen floor as the tornado hit his building and chunks of concrete pelted his body.

The factory was reduced to 15-ft deep wreckage of twisted metal, with corrosive chemicals spilled everywhere and smashed cars on top, where the roof had been.

More than 100 others were in the shelter with Johnson. Aid agencies have set up similar facilities in churches, school gymnasiums and community halls across Kentucky and elsewhere to provide warmth, food and clothing.

Weather experts were analyzing the unprecedented nature and severity of the unseasonal tornadoes.

More than 80 tornadoes were reported in eight states, prompting Biden to ask the US environmental protection agency to investigate what role the climate crisis might have played.