Biden visits tornado-stricken US districts
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US President Joe Biden has toured Kentucky to survey the areas hardest hit by one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in the country’s recent history, a system that killed at least 74 people in the state and at least 14 elsewhere.
The disaster has thrown Biden into his familiar role as consoler-in-chief and he promised to bring the might of the federal government to rebuild devastated communities that suffered billions of dollars in damage.
In storm-ravaged Mayfield, Biden received a briefing from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and emergency response officials about the recovery effort.
Biden said it was remarkable how the area’s communities had come together to help each other out.
“There’s no red tornadoes, there’s no blue tornadoes,” he said, referring to the colours associated with Democrats and Republicans.
“I have not seen this much damage from a tornado,” he said, telling local officials “don’t hesitate to ask for anything”.
Beshear has said the dead included a dozen children and that he expected the death toll to rise in the coming days, with more than 100 still missing.
Biden, aboard Air Force One, landed at the army installation at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and boarded his Marine One helicopter for a first-hand view of the devastation wrought by the tornado.
He landed in Mayfield to tour a neighbourhood and then was to head to Dawson Springs.
The two towns, which are located about 115km apart, were largely flattened by the twisters.
The president’s goal was to survey storm damage and make sure the US government is doing everything it can to deliver assistance as quickly as possible to the hard-hit areas, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on the flight from Washington DC.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has sent search-and-rescue and emergency response teams to Kentucky, along with teams to help survivors register for assistance.
FEMA has also sent dozens of generators into the state, along with 511,000 litres of water, 74,000 meals and thousands of cots, blankets, infant toddler kits and pandemic shelter kits.
Mayfield was the hardest hit of several western Kentucky communities in the 320km path of a twister that turned cities into piles of debris that are now being hauled away by work crews and National Guard troops.
The city of 10,000 is under a boil-water order and accounts for more than one-third of the state’s 14,000 power outages.
City Council member Jana Adams said it would take seven to 10 days for crews to resurrect utility poles and hook up transmission lines.
