Severe weather batters US, 14 dead in Kentucky, 7 in Missouri

Storm systems sweeping across parts of the Midwest and South have left at least 21 dead, many of them in Kentucky, where what appeared to be a devastating tornado crumbled buildings and flipped a car over on an interstate in the US.

In Kentucky, some 14 people were killed by severe weather, and the death toll is likely to rise, according to Gov Andy Beshear. Local authorities in Laurel County, in the state’s southeast, said nine people were killed after a tornado touched down.

Laurel County resident Chris Cromer said he got the first of two tornado alerts on his phone around 11.30 pm or so, about a half-hour before the tornado struck. He and his wife grabbed their dog, jumped in their car, went to a relative’s nearby home and got into a crawlspace.

“We could hear and feel the vibration of the tornado coming through,” said Cromer, 46.

His home is intact, though a piece of the roof got ripped off and windows were broken. A house two doors down is destroyed, along with others in the Sunshine Hills neighbourhood, Cromer said.

“It’s one of those things that you see on the news in other areas, and you feel bad for people — then, when it happens, it’s just surreal,” he said, describing a landscape of destruction. “It makes you be thankful to be alive, really.”

Rescuers were “on the ground all night looking for possible survivors,” and the search was continuing into the morning, the Sheriff’s spokesperson said.

World