AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Recovery efforts are underway after deadly tornadoes swept through Missouri and Kentucky, caused by the storm systems that hit parts of the country on Friday. The worst affected area was London, Kentucky, where more than a dozen people were killed. Karyn Czar with member station WUKY joins us now from that town. Thanks for being with us.
KARYN CZAR, BYLINE: Good morning. Thank you for having me.
RASCOE: So you've spent the last 24 hours in London, Kentucky. What have you been seeing and hearing?
CZAR: Well, when I first got to London early Saturday, roads were still shut down, so I had to walk about a mile into one area that had been really hard hit. Some neighborhoods were active scenes well into the afternoon, and what that means is the coroner and first responders were still searching for possible victims. They were marking each pile of rubble with spray paint to let others know that that site had been checked. And Governor Andy Beshear surveyed damage from the air and on the ground Saturday.
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ANDY BESHEAR: Tough part of this one is I worry there might be a block, a whole block out there where everybody's dead. And I hope that's not the case, but you see five houses in a row - they're just gone.
RASCOE: What can you tell us about the victims?
CZAR: Governor Beshear confirmed, as you said, at least 18 people are dead, and he says that dozens are injured. We do know one of the victims was a first responder. Roger Leslie Leatherman was a firefighter with Laurel County. The youngest victim, as of now that we know of, is 25. Most of the others were in their 60s and 70s. Also 10 people are in critical condition at the hospital. And first responders said the rescue was quite chaotic, as it was overnight and dark. They had to use whatever means to get people help. This is Kentucky State Police Commissioner PJ Burnett. He told me state troopers were transporting critical patients.
PJ BURNETT: They were picking up severely injured individuals, carrying them into their cruisers and taking them to the hospital.
RASCOE: Are people being allowed to go back to their homes now?
CZAR: Yes, people are able to look through the rubble. They are salvaging what they can. Neighbors whose homes survived are helping others. One family I ran into was out looking for their puppy. It was heartbreaking. It had been ripped out of their 6-year-old's arms during the storm as they were all huddled together.
And there are also stories of heroism. The governor talked yesterday about a young man who carried his mother to safety just moments before a tree fell on the chair where she was sitting. And volunteers have set up donation centers and shelters. You can hear chainsaws and heavy equipment everywhere. But the amount of debris here is so massive, it could take weeks to clean up, and then the recovery process could take years. We are still rebuilding from deadly tornadoes that hit Western Kentucky - that was in 2021 - and deadly flooding in Eastern Kentucky that was in 2022.
RASCOE: So where do recovery efforts stand right now? I mean, is federal aid on the way?
CZAR: Yes, Governor Beshear said he talked with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FEMA officials. He's provided a situational report to the Trump administration and requested an official federal disaster declaration. Kentucky Senate President (ph) Robert Stivers was also on site. He's a Republican. Beshear is a Democrat. And they don't always see eye to eye, but in this situation, both say politics should not play a role, and they promised state funding would be available to storm victims. A state of emergency has been declared, and price-gouging laws are in effect. And this morning, recovery continues.
RASCOE: That's Karyn Czar with member station WUKY. Thanks for your reporting.
CZAR: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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