Severe storms swept through the US states of Missouri and Kentucky, leaving at least 21 people dead, laying waste to local communities and cutting off electricity to nearly 200,000 people, authorities said Saturday.
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said on social media that at least 14 people had died in the storms on Friday night, while local officials in Missouri said another seven were dead there.
Jamie Burns, 38, who lives with her husband and son in a trailer home in the town of London, Kentucky, had to seek shelter in the basement of her sister’s brick house while the storm destroyed some 100 to 200 houses in the area.
“Things that have been here longer than I have, things that have been here for 30-plus years are just flat,” Burns said in a phone interview, her voice quavering.
“It’s wild, because you’ll look at one area and it’s just smashed … totally flattened, like, not there any more.”
Drone footage published by local media showed scenes of devastation in London, with houses levelled and reduced to splinters and tree trunks standing bare, completely sheared of branches.
