Devastating Damage From ‘Longest-Ever’ Twister Captured In Drone Footage
Published
Footage from a devastating tornado storm that left at least 80 people dead across six states has been shared on social media, showing the extent of the destruction.
The storm, which President Joe Biden has described as likely ‘one of the largest’ in US history, has left dozens more missing in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee.
In Kentucky – the worst-hit state – drone footage captured thousands of flattened homes over a miles-long stretch in the city of Mayfield, as search and rescue teams continued to look for survivors.
The Guardian reports that the tornado’s estimated path covered about 227 miles, which if confirmed would see it surpass the 1925 Tri-state tornado as the longest in history.
‘The most intense damage I have found in [Mayfield],’ wrote storm chaser Brandon Clement, who filmed the footage. ‘The entire path in the town is less than 2 [per cent] of the total path length. Homes with only slabs remaining.’
In various clips posted by Clement, entire streets can be seen reduced to rubble, with almost no structure in the tornado’s path left intact. Another clip posted from Dawson Springs, 70 miles from Mayfield, showed similarly catastrophic scenes in the aftermath of the twister.
Clement’s clips have been viewed more than 4.1 million times as people try to get their heads around the scale of the disaster.
‘It looks like a warzone,’ one person tweeted in reply to the footage, with another writing ‘praying for these people, [I] can’t even fathom.’
‘Worst damage I’ve seen yet,’ a meteorologist based in Illinois – one of the states affected by the storm – tweeted.
President Biden has declared a federal emergency in Kentucky, allowing federal resources to be directed to the states. In remarks about the disaster, he said ‘It’s a tragedy, and we still don’t know how many lives are lost and the full extent of the damage.’
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