At least 70 people are likely dead after multiple tornadoes barreled through southwestern Kentucky on Friday.
"Now we are certain that that number is more than 70, it may, in fact, end up exceeding a hundred before the day is done," CNN reported citing Governor Andy Beshear.
At least five states were hit by unseasonably powerful storms and tornadoes on Friday night, including Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee, said Bill Bunting, the operations chief at the Storm Prediction Center, part of the National Weather Service, New York Times reported.
United States President Joe Biden on Friday (local time) declared that an emergency exists in Kentucky.
He ordered federal assistance to supplement Kentucky and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from severe storms, straight-line winds, flooding, and tornadoes beginning on December 10, 2021, and continuing, read the US President's Statement.
The President's action authorises the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population.
It will provide appropriate assistance required for emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the counties of Breckenridge, Bullitt, Caldwell, Fulton, Graves, Grayson, Hickman, Hopkins, Lyon, Meade, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Shelby, Spencer, and Warren, read the statement.
Specifically, FEMA is authorised to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.
Emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 per cent Federal funding.
Deanne Criswell, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named John Brogan as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected areas, added the statement.
