In wake of the horrific damage left by what is turning out to be one of the worst natural disasters to hit the Midwest and Kentucky in decades, The Daily Wire interviewed residents from Mayfield, Kentucky, on Saturday to hear their first-hand experience with one of the many tornadoes to wreak havoc across the interior United States.
Early Saturday morning, The Daily Wire reported that Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) told media that “Multiple tornadoes have touched down and we have damage in — I believe — over a dozen Kentucky counties. The primary tornado was on the ground continuously for over 200 miles in our state, something we have never seen before.”
“We have deaths in multiple — possibly many counties,” the governor added. “The hardest-hit county appears to be Graves, where the city of Mayfield has been devastated. A roof collapse at a candle factory has resulted in mass casualties.”
In an interview with The Daily Wire, one woman recounted her horrific ordeal Friday night in Mayfield, Kentucky, saying, “I’ve lived in the area since 1973. And I had a friend here last night that — I knew the tornado was touching down — and she lived in a mobile home and I begged her to get out of the mobile home — and she got into a building here that was owned by her boss and the building collapsed, but she is okay.”
“Thank God for that,” she continued, “And I’ve never in my life seen destruction like this — never.”
On Saturday, The Daily Wire reported that the candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, had been completely obliterated by the tornado, leaving nothing but scrap metal and debris all around. The employees — including local prisoners who work at the factory — teamed together to help each other out:
One factory employee, Kyana Parsons-Perez, was “trapped under five feet (about 1.5 meters) of debris for at least two hours until rescuers managed to free her,” the AP reported. She told “The Today Show” that this was the “absolutely the most terrifying” thing she had ever experienced, adding, “I did not think I was going to make it at all.”
Parsons-Perez explained that employees had been gathered in a section of the factory meant for storm emergencies. She said the lights started to flicker and “all of a sudden,” they felt a gust of wind and her ears started popping as if she were in an airplane. She said everything started swaying and then the roof collapsed.
“All I heard was screams,” she said as images of the destruction was shown on screen.
Parson-Perez also explained that some local prisoners worked at the factor as part of a work-release program with the prison, and that they were “working their tails off” to help rescue their coworkers.
“They could have used that moment to try to run away or anything, but they did not. They were there, helping us,” she said.
The loss of life stemming from the band of tornadoes has risen to more than 80 feared dead on Sunday, and many fear it is likely to continue to rise.
On Saturday, President Joe Biden expressed that he was “monitoring the situation very closely since early this morning. This is likely to be one of the largest tornado outbreaks in our history. I want to emphasize what I told all the governors: The federal government will do everything — everything it can possibly do to help.”
The Daily Wire’s exclusive footage and interviews can be seen here:
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Source: Dailywire
