Following tornado destruction through the Quad State area
What may have been the country’s deadliest-ever outbreak of December tornadoes tore through parts of the Midwest and Tennessee Valley on Friday and Saturday, devastating areas in six states.
[Live updates: Tornado kills more than 70 people in Kentucky, governor estimates]
The vicious centerpiece was a monster supercell that carved an hours-long, 250-mile path from eastern Arkansas to western Kentucky. At least 70 people were killed in Kentucky alone.
The National Weather Service received reports of more than three dozen tornadoes from Friday night to Saturday morning.
One of them caved in the roof of an Amazon distribution warehouse near Edwardsville, Ill., less than 20 miles northeast of St. Louis, killing at least two people.
Another damaged buildings on the Western Kentucky University campus in Bowling Green, where a person was killed in off-campus housing.
[See the damage caused by the deadly tornadoes]
In the wee hours of Saturday morning, a stretch of homes was badly damaged or destroyed along a road in Dickson County, Tenn., and several people were trapped. Near Defiance, Mo., at least one person died of injuries caused by an intense tornado.
[How Friday night’s rare and deadly December tornado outbreak unfolded]
The largest tornado — which may have been more than one tornado spawned by the same supercell — formed in Arkansas southwest of Jonesboro and destroyed swaths of towns and rural areas, tossing debris more than 30,000 feet in the air.
At 7:24 p.m., it touched down in Monette, Ark., and ripped apart a nursing home, killing one person and injuring five.
LEFT: An aerial view of Monette Manor nursing home in February 2021. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies) RIGHT: An aerial view of Monette Manor nursing home on Saturday, after a tornado passed through the area. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies)
In nearby Leachville, a person died inside a Dollar General store, the steel frame of which was “wadded up like an aluminum can,” said Chuck Brown, a business owner and sheriff’s department lieutenant in the county.
Cabins were turned to sticks at Cypress Point on the banks of Reelfoot Lake in the tiny town of Samburg, Tenn., where two people died.
LEFT: Homes and buildings in Mayfield, Ky., on Jan. 28, 2017. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies) RIGHT: Damaged homes and buildings in Mayfield, Ky., on Saturday after a tornado passed through the area. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies)
The town of Mayfield, Ky., took a direct hit about 9:30 p.m., and much of the town about 10,000 people was destroyed. Homes were sheared from their foundations and commercial buildings were flattened, including a candle factory where scores of workers were trapped inside when the walls and roof caved in.
LEFT: An aerial view of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory in Mayfield, Ky., in January 2017. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies) RIGHT: An aerial view of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory in Mayfield, Ky., on Saturday. Many workers were trapped inside when the walls and roof caved in as a tornado passed through the area. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies)
Twenty-seven cars of a train were derailed and overturned in Earlington, Ky., just before 11 p.m. One tanker car landed 75 yards away from the track. Another car landed on a nearby house, and other homes were reduced to debris.
Lauren Tierney and Chiqui Esteban contributed to this story.