MAYFIELD, Ky. (WKRN) — Cleanup continues around the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory after a late-night tornado destroyed the building Friday night.
New aerial footage from Monday shows massive damage in the Kentucky city of 10,000.
Gov. Andy Beshear said 94 of the 110 employees from the Mayfield Candle Factory are alive and accounted for during a media briefing on Monday. Eight employees have been confirmed dead and eight more are still missing.
The governor announced Monday the state’s total death toll from the storms had risen to 74, 69 of whom have been identified. At least 109 Kentuckians are still missing.
Kentucky residents in the storm’s path could be without heat, water or electricity in frigid temperatures for weeks or longer, state officials warned Monday.
“Our infrastructure is so damaged. We have no running water. Our water tower was lost. Our wastewater management was lost, and there’s no natural gas to the city. So we have nothing to rely on there,” Mayfield Mayor Kathy Stewart O’Nan said on ”CBS Mornings.” “So that is purely survival at this point for so many of our people.”
Possibly the first-ever “quad-state” tornado, which may have been on the ground through parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky, left the path of destruction. It will be days before the National Weather Service will be able to confirm whether this was one tornado or multiple tornadoes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.