Kentucky governor says 64 dead from tornadoes, dozens still missing

At least 64 deaths have been confirmed after tornados tore through Kentucky over the weekend, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said on Monday.

“As of this morning our best count for confirmed deaths — the most accurate count we have as of this morning are 64 Kentuckians,” Beshear said at a briefing. “Remember, this is fluid and the numbers will change, and sometimes they have, thank God, gone down, other times they’ve gone up.”

According to Beshear, the deaths reported across the affected Kentucky counties are: 20 in Graves County, 13 in Hopkins County, 11 in Muhlenberg County, 12 in Warren County, four in Caldwell County, one in Marshall County, one in Taylor County, one in Fulton County and one in Lyon County.

“Undoubtedly there will be more. We believe it’ll certainly be above 70, maybe even 80, but again with this amount of damage and rubble it may be a week or even more before we have a final count on the number of lost lives,” said Beshear.

The death toll from the collapse of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory, located in Graves County, had initially been estimated to be around 70, but later reports said only eight deaths had been confirmed so far, with eight still missing.

At least 105 Kentuckians are believed to be missing as of Monday.

Beshear governor ordered flags to fly at half-staff to honor those who were killed or impacted by the storms. The order is set to stay in place until Dec. 20.

Both the Kentucky state government and the federal state government have declared a state of emergency. Beshear said the speed at which the White House a state of emergency is believed to be the fastest such a declaration has been issued.

At least 14 other people are believed to have died due to severe weather across the nearby states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois.