From the evening of December 10 to the early morning of December 11, local time, severe weather such as tornadoes swept across several states in the central and southern United States, including Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee, with about 30 tornadoes. The severe weather caused power outages for more than 330,000 households, and more than 25 million Americans were facing serious threats.
According to overseas.net, citing US media reports on the 11th local time,More than 80 people have been killed in the tornado so far..
US President Biden said,This may be one of the largest tornado disasters in U.S. history, and he will go to the disaster area when it does not affect rescue..
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said:The "devastating destruction" could leave at least 50 people dead in the state, with the death toll likely rise to nearly 100..
Factories were destroyed, warehouses collapsed...
CCTV News quoted foreign media reports that a candle factory in Kentucky collapsed due to a tornado, trapping about 110 people. Governor Andy Beshear called the incident "tragic" at a press conference on the morning of the 11th, and the death toll is expected to exceed 50, or even reach 70 to 100.
"This was one of the toughest nights in Kentucky's history, and the damage in some areas is hard to put into words," Beshear said.
Beshear declared a state of emergency in Kentucky and asked President Biden for federal assistance. Beshear warned residents that four tornadoes expected to hit the state could kill up to 100 people in five areas of Kentucky. Kentucky State Trooper Sarah Burgess said several buildings in Kentucky collapsed due to the severe weather.
A Kentucky man posted a video on social media that recreated the scene when the tornado occurred. The video was shot around 11 o'clock that night. The occasional lightning vaguely reflected the huge tornado on the distant horizon. In the video, you can also hear the sharp alarm when the tornado hits.
The Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, was hit by a tornado and collapsed on a large scale. A wall the length of a football field and the roof of the warehouse collapsed, killing at least two employees and injuring many others. The exact number is still unknown. Emergency rescuers called the collapse of the Amazon warehouse a "mass casualty incident." It is reported that there are as many as 50 to 100 employees in the warehouse, and dozens of workers are trapped.
In 2016, Amazon opened two logistics warehouses in Edwardsville, about 25 miles east of St. Louis, employing about 2,200 people, according to a 2017 report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Amazon spokesman Richard Rocha called it a "devastating tragedy" and said the company "offers our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies to the victims, their loved ones and everyone affected."
Amazon's stock price has fallen for two consecutive days. The latest price is US$3,444.24 per share, with a total market value of US$1.7467 trillion.
In Missouri, a tornado hit the National Weather Service office in Weldon Springs, Missouri, forcing workers to seek shelter. One person was killed and two others were injured when a building collapsed near the town of New Mailer, just a few miles from the weather service office.
Local media reported that a nursing home in Arkansas was hit by a tornado on the evening of the 10th, killing at least 2 people and seriously injuring 5 people. The nursing home is located in Monett, a small town in northeastern Arkansas, with about 90 beds. After the incident, at least 20 people were trapped in the nursing home. The authorities urgently launched a rescue operation and relocated the trapped people. Local police said that in addition to the roof of the nursing home being blown off, a mobile phone signal tower and some other buildings in the town were also damaged by the tornado.
Tennessee has confirmed three storm-related deaths, two of which occurred in Lake County and the third in Obion County, said Dean Fleener, a spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
It is reported that search and rescue operations are still ongoing in some places, and the exact number of casualties is still unclear. It is reported that more than 330,000 households in the above-mentioned disaster areas have lost power.
Biden: This could be one of the biggest tornado disasters in U.S. history
According to a report by Overseas Network citing US media on the 11th local time, six states in the central United States were hit by at least 30 tornadoes on the night of the 10th.So far, more than 80 people have died.
US President Biden said,This may be one of the largest tornado disasters in U.S. history, and he will go to the disaster area when it does not affect rescue..
According to reports from CNN and other media, US President Biden spoke out about the storm disaster, calling it a tragedy.This could be one of the biggest tornado disasters in our historyHe said it was still unknown how many people had died or the full extent of the storm's devastation.
Biden promised to provide assistance to the affected states and said he intends to travel to the disaster-stricken state of Kentucky if it does not affect rescue efforts.
Earlier, US media reported that the six states hit by tornadoes were Arkansas, Mississippi, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri.
The U.S. National Weather Service issued a tornado warning on the 10th, saying thatAt least 25 million people will be affected by this tornado..
Tornadoes are difficult to predict accurately
The New York Times quoted meteorological experts on the 11th as saying that generally speaking, tornadoes are relatively small-scale and short-duration meteorological events, but this tornado seemed to have erupted in a large "cluster", which is also a trend in tornado disasters in the United States in recent years.
Senior U.S. meteorologist Dan Piednoski said on the 10th, "This is what we call a tornado cluster outbreak, that is, a storm system produces a large number of tornadoes over a large geographic area." But it is extremely unusual for such a "large and powerful" storm system to appear in December. The area usually only sees this in May or April.
"It's certainly not unheard of, but it's a little unusual for this time of year to have such a large outbreak and so many reports of tornadoes," Piednoski said.
Tornadoes are caused by strong air convection in extremely unstable weather, often accompanied by a high-speed rotating funnel-shaped cloud column. The wind speed near the center can reach 100 to 200 meters per second, and even up to 300 meters per second, which is several times higher than the maximum wind speed near the center of a typhoon (generated at sea). It is extremely destructive. Wherever a tornado goes, there is devastation: broken bricks and tiles, trees that have been "cut in half", and cars that have been smashed beyond recognition...
Relevant experts pointed out that in meteorology, tornadoes are severe convective weather. They occur suddenly, move quickly, and are extremely destructive. Accurately predicting when and where they will occur during the day and where they will pass has always been a global problem.
The United States is truly a country of tornadoes. According to the data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States has an average of about 1,250 tornadoes per year. Tornadoes are difficult to predict because their horizontal scale (diameter) is very small, and small-scale weather events have strong temporal and spatial randomness. Meteorological detection equipment and detection systems cannot effectively and accurately monitor and track the occurrence and development of tornadoes, and accurate prediction is even more difficult. Even in countries with advanced tornado warnings such as the United States, it is still difficult to accurately predict.
In 2011, severe storms ravaged the southern United States, killing 329 people and injuring more than 1,700 people, of which 158 were directly caused by tornadoes. Nearly ten states, including Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, declared a state of emergency. According to U.S. media reports at the time, some residents in the tornado-hit areas said that just a few minutes after the radio issued a tornado warning, it really came and they could not avoid it in time.
Even if the weather department can issue a warning more than 20 minutes in advance, a tornado can still cause heavy losses. An American meteorologist said that tornadoes move very fast, and if they happen to fall into a relatively densely populated area, it is inevitable that they will cause heavy losses.
Out of rigor, scientists generally do not jump to conclusions about the underlying causes of the frequent occurrence of extreme weather such as tornadoes, because climate research requires years of scientific tracking and statistics, and only on the basis of a large amount of data can a relatively definite conclusion be drawn. However, by observing the occurrence of extreme weather in recent years, it is not difficult to find that their frequency of occurrence in the 21st century is tending to increase.
Editor|Lu Xiangyong Duan Lian Du Hengfeng Du Bo
Proofreading|Cheng Peng
Source: Daily Economic News WeChat Official Account (https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/th43oxgMEo_SMcs0XURqDA）
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