Death Toll and Missing Rise in US from Devastating Tornadoes

More than 100 people are listed as missing in Kentucky.

The death toll from devastating tornadoes that swept across several US states is rising. In Kentucky alone, 74 people have died. 

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear repeated concerns that the number of deaths could rise further. More than 100 people are listed as missing in Kentucky. 

Recall that on the night of December 11, tornadoes leveled a candle factory in the city of Mayfield that had been operating around the clock due to the Christmas season. The governor said eight people died at this facility alone. 

Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and Tennessee were also hit, where at least 14 more people died, including six employees of an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois. 

The White House said that US President Joe Biden will travel to the disaster area on December 15 to get a sense of the scale of the destruction. In total, at least 30 tornadoes were recorded in six states (Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi). 

An unusual story about a tornado and a photograph

On December 11, 30-year-old Cathy Posten from New Albany, Indiana, went out to her car in the morning and found a black-and-white photograph on the windshield. The picture shows a woman in a striped sundress and headscarf holding a small boy on her lap. 

On the back of the photograph was written: “Gertie Swatzell & J.D. Swatzell 1942”. The woman decided the photo had been brought by the tornado that killed dozens of people in five states. In a comment to AP, she said: “Seeing the tag, I realized this was most likely from a home damaged by a tornado. How else could it have ended up there?”.

Posten posted the photograph on social media to find its owners. Many people reshared her post. Eventually, users who knew a man with the surname Swatzell responded and began tagging him in the comments. 

A few hours after the post, the owner of the photograph was found. Cole Swatzell said the photograph belongs to a family from the city of Dawson Springs, Kentucky, located 209 km in a straight line from New Albany. 

In the city of 2,700 residents, the tornado completely destroyed dozens of homes, and rescuers continue to search for survivors. Swatzell did not comment on the story with the photograph. 

A meteorology professor at the University of Oklahoma said the fact that the photograph traveled more than 200 km was “unusual but not unique.” He said that in one documented case (in the 1920s), paper debris flew 370 km from the southeastern Missouri lowlands to southern Illinois. 

He noted that a tornado can lift paper scraps to altitudes of 9,000 m to 12,000 m, and as the storm dissipates, the debris falls back down. Cathy Posten plans to hand the photo over to its owners in the coming days. 

Cathy Posten

This is truly amazing. It is definitely one of those things that, given what has happened, makes you think about how valuable memories, family heirlooms and similar things are. It shows the power of social media for good.