Dec. 13 (UPI) — President Joe Biden said Monday he will go to Kentucky later this week to inspect the devastation wrought by tornadoes in the South and Midwest that killed dozens of people across several states.
Biden said during a White House briefing with top administration disaster officials that he will visit Kentucky on Wednesday after state officials raised the death toll to at least 74.
“We’re going to get this done. We’re going to be there as long as it takes to help,” Biden said in a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell and Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall on federal efforts to provide aid to the devastated areas.
Governors of the states that had been affected would get “whatever they need, when they need it,” Biden added.
In addition to the deaths in Kentucky, at least 14 more were reported in Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri.
Biden will first go to Ft. Campbell, Ky., for a storm briefing, then travel to the hard-hit communities of Mayfield, Ky., and Dawson Springs, Ky., to survey storm damage, according to a White House pool report.
The president approved an emergency declaration for Kentucky, making federal aid available to eight counties.
During Monday’s briefing, Biden said his main concerns were the “mental health” of victims and the uncertainty they are facing.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday in an afternoon news conference that 74 people were killed in his state and 109 residents were unaccounted for, warning that it may be weeks before the final death toll and amount of destruction are known.
Beshear added that 95 National guard troops were conducting fatality and missing person searches.
“We hope that they don’t find them. We hope someone connects to them and they’re out there and we just don’t know where they are yet,” he said. “Maybe they don’t have cell service.”
Choking back tears at an early press conference, Beshear said, “Like the folks in western Kentucky, I’m not doing so well today, and I’m not sure how many of us are.”
He pledged that “we’re not going anywhere. We’ll be with you today, we’ll be with you tomorrow,” adding, “I think everybody in Kentucky but also everybody in the country is standing with you.”
Officials, however, reported some good news in Mayfield, which was one of the hardest-hit areas. Officials said most of the 110 people who worked at a candle manufacturing plant there, which was devastated by one tornado, have been accounted for.
More than a dozen people died and dozens were missing in Dawson Springs and more than two dozen were reported dead in Bowling Green and Bremen.
Dawson Springs Mayor Chris Smiley said about 75% of the community was wiped out.
“The devastation is quite frankly something that you would see in a war zone,” Michael Dossett, director of Kentucky Emergency Management said, according to CNN. “This is an event where we had commercial and residence properties literally stripped clean from the earth.”
Several people died in Edwardsville, Ill., when another tornado hit an Amazon warehouse.
