At least 78 dead in "historic" tornadoes in the United States

Dozens of missing, buildings flattened as far as the eye can see, tangles of rubble: six American states have been crossed by "one of the worst series of tornadoes" in the history of the country, lamented US President Joe Biden , by qualifying their ravages "of unimaginable tragedy".

Already 78 deaths have been recorded but the toll could increase: "We still do not know how many lives were lost or the extent of the damage", noted President Biden on the national antennas.

Federal disaster response agencies have started to be deployed there, the head of state said, promising that "the federal state will do all it can to help."

Kentucky, in the center-east of the country, was particularly bereaved by this violent meteorological phenomenon affecting particularly the immense American plains, black columns sweeping the ground, illuminated by intermittent lightning.

After announcing "at least 70 dead" in his state, Governor Andy Beshear said he feared that the death toll would exceed 100 and even that this "number rose considerably". He called on residents to donate blood for the injured.

"A pile of matches"

"The devastation is incomparable with anything I have seen in my life and I am struggling to find the words to describe it," he added.

Mayfield, a town of 10.000 people, was at the epicenter of the disaster. The heart of the city looks "like a pile of matches," Mayor Kathy O'Nan told CNN.

"The churches in the center have been destroyed, and the courthouse in the heart of the city has been destroyed," she added.

"It's as if a bomb had exploded in our neighborhood," Alex Goodman, a resident of Mayfield, told AFP after a trying night in the dark and in anguish.

Across the city, buildings were gutted, metal twisted, vehicles overturned, and trees and bricks strewn across the streets.

In a parking lot in the center, volunteers were hard at work collecting essential items for affected families, noted an AFP journalist.

They gathered warm clothes, baby diapers and bottles of drinking water, while the water and electricity distribution networks are no longer operational.

Employees of a candle factory were trapped there after the roof gave way under the strong winds. One hundred and ten people were present when the storm hit. About forty survivors were rescued.

Kentucky was notably swept over 200 miles (320 kilometers) by one of the longest tornadoes on record in the United States, according to its governor. The longest that has been tracked on the ground, over 219 miles, occurred in 1925 in Missouri, killing 695 people.

"We had an alert at 9:30 am, we were told that the tornado was coming. It came and went again like that, suddenly" told AFP David Norseworthy, 69, in front of the porch destroyed from his home in Mayfield. "We've never seen anything like it in the area. Where it hits, it destroys everything."

About thirty of these storms swept across the country on Friday evening and Saturday morning.

Outside Kentucky at least thirteen deaths have been recorded, including six in Illinois. These six victims worked nights in an Amazon warehouse, whose roof collapsed. Of the approximately one hundred people present, only forty-five were able to get out, according to the firefighters. Rescuers continued their search on Sunday.

"We are heartbroken by the loss of our colleagues there, and our hearts and prayers are with their families and loved ones," Amazon boss Jeff Bezos said on Twitter.

Tennessee has recorded four deaths, two people have died in Arkansas, while at least one death is in Missouri.

President Biden stressed that the meteorological phenomena were "more intense" with global warming, without however establishing a direct causal link between climate change and the disaster that has grieved the country.