Several states in the South and Midwest including Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee were ravaged by tornadoes on Friday (December 10, 2021) leaving dozens of people dead. According to the National Weather Service, 37 tornadoes were said to be crossing those states. It is expected that it will take several days before scientists could make an official comment on the severity ranking of the tornadoes. They added that debris could have been thrown as high as 30,000 feet into the air, which is the cruising altitude of many passenger airliners.

According to Andy Beshear, governor of Kentucky, at least 70 to 100 people were killed in his state. At least 56,000 customers of electric utilities were without power in the state. Housing in many parts of Kentucky had no roofs, doors, or windows and temperatures were expected to plummet below freezing. Six warming centers were opened throughout the state.

A candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky was destroyed. Forty people were rescued and Governor Beshear said it would be “a miracle” if any other survivors were found in the wreckage. He noted that it was the most devastating tornado event in the state’s history. This tornado was believed to be one of at least four that savaged at least 10 counties in Kentucky. Beshear declared a state of emergency, activated the Kentucky National Guard and deployed the state police.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker reported on Saturday that six people had died when a tornado struck an Amazon warehouse during the middle of a shift change on Friday night. The twister collapsed the building. Due to the shift change, authorities don’t know if anyone is still unaccounted for. The site was a delivery station, a facility that prepares orders for the last mile delivery. The complex employed 190 people across a number of shifts. The station has received warnings between 8:06 p.m. and 8:16 p.m. and managers ordered workers to take shelter immediately. Workers sheltered in place in two locations. One was directly hit.

As of Saturday night, at least 36 people were known to be dead across the five states -– 22 in Kentucky, six in Illinois, four in Tennessee, two in Arkansas and two in Missouri.

It was reported that one tornado left a path of destruction of nearly 200 miles. However, a researcher on extreme weather at Northern Illinois University claimed that the path of that tornado extended more close to 250 miles. The longest twister in history was tracked for more than 220 miles through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana in March 1925.

Storms were also reported in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the home of Western Kentucky University that killed a student, according to the president of the University. Eleven Kentuckians were confirmed dead in Bowling Green.

According to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Chief of Staff, at least four people were killed in that state.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson reported that at least two people were killed in Defiance and New Melle, Missouri and collapsing buildings injured hundreds of people.

A tornado also struck a nursing home in Monette, Arkansas and killed one person and trapped 20 inside the collapsed building. Craighead County Judge Marvin Day said that emergency responders rescued people who were trapped in the building, which was “pretty much destroyed.”

Meanwhile, residents of Michigan experienced strong winds with gusts of up to 60 mph that plunged about 200,000 electric utility customers into darkness on Saturday.

The strong winds knocked down trees and power lines. A spokesperson for Consumers Energy said that crews were working around the clock to restore power.

The winds that invaded the state began on the lakeshore and traversed quickly through the entire state. The winds were clocked at more than 35 miles an hour. Scattered thunderstorms were also predicted for the state.

Wind speeds varied between 43 mph up to 64 mph throughout the state.

In addition, damaging winds and power outages hit New York on Saturday. About 300,000 customers of electric utilities lost power at the height of the event. The hurricane force winds reached up to 77 mph. As of Sunday, more than 200,000 customers have had their power restored. As many as 97,000 customers were still without power.

On Friday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul deployed state emergency response as high wind warnings were issued for counties in Western New York. The governor also mobilized mutual assistance resources in response to the weather event.

According to poweroutages.us, as of 9:39 a.m. on Monday, December 13^th, the top areas of outages included:

• Michigan 59,550
• New York 30,929
• Kentucky 25,097
• Tennessee 6,426
• Arkansas 2,086

As shown in this most recent weather event, no region of the United States is safe from the ravage of severe weather. Whether it’s hurricanes, snowstorms, thunderstorms, tornadoes, sizzling hot temperatures, or severe winds anyone is susceptible to power outages. It’s best to be prepared. A standalone generator can protect you and your family from power outages. APElectric offers a wide variety of generators from some of the most popular manufacturers in the U.S. Visit the APElectric website to review the products they have available and gather other information including how to go about selecting the proper generator for your needs.