A harrowing Facebook video, posted from inside a Kentucky candle factory, gives an idea of the horror faced by those trapped by debris after deadly tornados tore through the South and Midwest on Friday night.
The video, credited to Kyanna Lou, lasts about 1 minute and 41 seconds and is largely in complete darkness with multiple voices – apparently candle factory workers – heard crying in the background as they beg for help after the tornado struck a candle factory in Mayfield.
‘I don’t know who’s watching,’ a woman is heard saying. ‘We got hit by a hurricane. I’m at work in Mayfield and we are trapped.’
‘Please y’all, give us some help. We are at the candle factory in Mayfield. Please, please. Y’all! Please send us some help. Somebody please send us some help, we are trapped.’
The woman then gave further details of the workers’ conditions.
‘The wall is stuck on me,’ she added. ‘Nobody can get to us, y’all, we can’t move.’
Kyanna Lou, the woman believed to be on the Facebook video asking for help as she and other workers were trapped at a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky
Lou begging for help, saying ‘the wall is stuck on me’ and that nobody can get to the factory to assist them
Mayfield Consumer Products prior to the tornado, where workers from the candle factory are currently stuck
A storm watcher claimed that fire personnel have arrived on the scene to try and help the factory workers
Mayfield, Kentucky, was the scene of devastation on Friday night after a tornado smashed through the centre, ripping the tower off the Victorian courthouse
Storefronts in Mayfield, KY, were ripped open and their contents flung onto the sidewalk
She is then heard telling someone else in the room to ‘calm down’ before continuing.
‘Please y’all, pray for us, get somebody to come and help us. A tornado… and the building fell. We were all in the safe shelter place. The whole building fell. We are stuck.’
Chris Jackson, a storm watcher, said just before 1am that fire personnel had arrived.
‘We have multiple cars kinda fused into a tractor-trailer, the candle factory was apparently 120,000sq ft and the entire building is gone and there is at least 1 vehicle sitting in what used to be the middle of the building,’ he tweeted.
As of midnight, no deaths were reported in Mayfield, where a ‘severe’ tornado struck, though Kentucky State Police say loss of life is ‘expected.’
One analyst measured the debris as traveling up to 30,000 feet in the air, a near record.
The tornadoes left a path of destruction that killed a nursing home resident in Arkansas and another person in Missouri, trapped workers inside a collapsed Amazon warehouse in Illinois and leveled Mayfield – home to about 10,000 people.
Mayfield, KY, was devastated by the tornado on Friday night
Large trees were uprooted and a dark shadow hung over the skies of Mayfield, Kentucky on Friday night
Emergency crews were on the scene in Monette, Arkansas, where two people died in a nursing home collapse
The Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, was pictured on Friday night with its roof ripped off after a tornado swept through the area
The huge tornado is seen as a black shadow in the sky, as emergency crews respond to the warehouse in Edwardsville
Lightning bolts can be seen in the distance as the emergency workers tried to free those trapped inside the Amazon warehouse
Mayfield had the grim distinction of being hit by among the most intense storms on record, with debris thrown 30,000 feet into the air, according to storm trackers.
Around Mayfield there was ‘absolute devastation’, said Brett Adair of Live Storms Media.
Craig Ceecee, a meteorologist and researcher at Mississippi State university, described the Mayfield storm as ‘among the most intense ever recorded’.
He said it was ‘an extremely violent tornado’.
‘Communities being hit hard. And we won’t know how bad it is until morning. We have to think and pray for those being affected,’ he tweeted.
Mayfield, founded in the early 19th Century, saw its main street battered by the storm.
Many of the Victorian buildings were severely damaged, including the courthouse, built in 1888 – the fourth such building on the site.
The courthouse was renovated in 1990.
Mayfield’s residents, 35 percent of whom are classed as living in poverty, according to the census, work mainly in manufacturing and food processing, the Graves County economic development board says.
The governor of Kentucky declared a state of emergency on Friday evening.
Andy Beshear activated the Kentucky Guard and Kentucky State Police to respond to the destruction in western Kentucky.
So far, no fatalities have been confirmed but officers said ‘loss of life is expected,’ according to WLWT.
Multiple agencies are responding and assisting Kentucky State Police.
The governor said he will providing an update with Kentucky Division of Emergency Management officials at 5am Saturday.
‘We are praying for our Western Kentucky families,’ Beshear said in a tweet.
Two people were killed in a nursing home in Monette, Arkansas, according to KARK, and residents of the small town in the north east of the state were ordered to shelter in place.
Crews at the scene reported the nursing home had partially collapsed, with five others injured and as many as 20 people trapped, according to Craighead County Judge Marvin Day.
Melissa Moon, a reporter with WREG3, tweeted a photo of the severely damaged Monette Manor nursing home, with what appeared to be a mangled bed in the parking lot.
Almost 300 miles to the north of Monette, Southern Illinois Fire Incidents confirmed a ‘mass casualty incident’ at the Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville and said more than 20 units of emergency responders were attending the scene.
‘About a third of the warehouse is torn down and damaged from either straight by line winds or tornado,’ tweeted Jenna Rae, with Illinois’s KMOV station.
One woman said she was speaking to a family member inside the warehouse as the storm hit.
‘He was on the phone with me while it was happening,’ Aisha White told KMOV.
‘The tornado was hitting the back of the building, the trucks were coming in, I told him to jump out the truck and duck.
‘We watched the building go up, stuff hitting the cars, I told him I was on my way.’
J.B. Pritzker, governor of Illinois, tweeted: ‘My prayers are with the people of Edwardsville tonight, and I’ve reached out to the mayor to provide any needed state resources.’
Richard Rocha, an Amazon spokesman, said: ‘The safety and well-being of our employees and partners is our top priority right now.
‘We’re assessing the situation and will share additional information when it’s available.’
And across the region, tornadoes on Friday night were barreling through parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky – with one becoming what a storm chaser said was the first quad-state tornado in U.S. history.
A tornado watch was in place until 2am CST.
Photographs posted on social media in Arkansas showed tornadoes touching down on Friday night
Footage on social media from across the region showed huge swirling towers of storm clouds sweeping across the plains.
Storm chasers photographed the tornado near Caruthersville in Missouri, along the I-55.
Video showed multiple semis thrown onto their sides, twisted in the road.
Observers speculated that the tornado was at four or even five on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale.
Wind speeds of between 136 and 165mph are found in EF4 tornados, and of 200mpg in EF5 tornados.
Chris Jackson, a professional storm chaser, said that he had seen tractor trailers in Steele, Missouri, lifted off the ground and flung into the air.
‘A second tractor trailer was picked up and thrown on I-55 near exit 17,’ he tweeted.
‘Just spoke to the driver. Has some minor cuts but is ok.’
Jackson said that emergency responders were flocking to the area, with their lights flashing as they raced to help people.
He said the power was down along the I-69 between Troy and Mayfield, Kentucky.
