Pic of the devastation following a Friday night tornado in Mayfield, Kentucky by Airways Magazine’s Ben Bearup. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear now estimates as many as 70 are dead in the state, calling it “the most devastating tornado event in our state’s history.” Among the dead was a commuter student at Western Kentucky University who had been set to graduate on Saturday.
This pretty much sums it up in :19. #Mayfield #MayfieldTornado #KyWx #WX pic.twitter.com/IcPL4XGtPS
— WxChasing- Brandon Clement (@bclemms) December 11, 2021
The Evansville Courier and Press reports a freight car was flung more than 225 feet off the tracks when a CSX train took a direct hit from a tornado outside Earlington, Kentucky. None of the train crew were injured, nor were the residents of a nearby house hit with another freight car.
NEW: @NOAA's #GOES16🛰️ tracked the fast-moving #severe thunderstorms that produced a devastating #TornadoOutbreak overnight. More than 30 #tornadoes were reported across 6 states. Kentucky's governor called it "the most severe and deadly tornado event in Kentucky history." #KYwx pic.twitter.com/wmZplFUP0j
— NOAA Satellites – Public Affairs (@NOAASatellitePA) December 11, 2021
Multiple Amazon workers are still believed trapped inside a facility in Edwardsville, Illinois that took a direct hit from a tornado. At least two employees died there, police say. Another person was reported killed outside of St Louis, Missouri. At least one person is dead at a nursing home in Monette, Arkansas and three more were killed in Tennessee. The storm front is moving east, with high wind warnings in effect across the Atlantic Coast for Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning.