President Biden will Travel to Kentucky to Survey Damages from Tornadoes

Listen to this article

The White House officials have announced that President Biden will travel to Kentucky on Wednesday to assess the damage from a tornado outbreak that devastated the state and killed more than 80 people. The statement said that President Biden will first participate in a storm briefing at Fort Campbell before heading to Mayfield and Dawson Springs to survey the storm damage. The President pledged his administration during a briefing at the White House on the storms and said his administration is going to be there as long as it takes to help. The death toll from the tornadoes that struck Friday night has continued to grow in Kentucky, which was hit the hardest, as rescue crews continue combing through the wreckage. On Monday, Governor Andy Beshear announced that at least 64 people were killed, dozens wounded, and more than 100 are still missing.

Beshear said the ages of those who died range from 5-months to 86 years. At least 6 of the victims are under the age of 18. He said 110 people were working at a candle factory in Mayfield when the tornado hit and left at least 8 people died and 10 are missing. The governor also warned it could be weeks before the final death toll from the storm is known. More than 12 more people were also killed in the other US States affected by the severe weather. On Sunday, President Biden approved a disaster declaration for Kentucky and allowed federal aid and funding to flow to the state to supplement its recovery efforts. Point to be noted that China has also offered humanitarian assistance to the US over the tornado disaster that swept across several Midwestern and Southern states.

A spokesperson for the CIDCA (China International Development Cooperation Agency), a vice-ministerial agency of the People’s Republic of China, made the announcement during a press briefing on Monday afternoon. The spokesperson for CIDCA, Xu Wei said, “We have noticed that a number of US states have been hit by severe tornadoes recently, causing significant casualties and property damage. We expressed our condolences and willingness to provide emergency humanitarian help to the affected people according to the needs of the US side”. Reports have indicated that more than 100 people are feared to have been killed in Kentucky after a tornado struck Mayfield (a city of about 10,000 in the state’s west). On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that Beijing expresses its condolences for the casualties and economic losses caused by tornadoes and severe storms that hit the US on Friday.