of torture, rape, and even murder. 11 east investigates the crimes and those settings behind them on our 0. ah, this is al jazeera ah, hello, i'm marianne demising. welcome to the news, our life from london coming up in the next 60 minutes with entire towns devastated warnings. the death toll in kentucky will top a 100 as rescue as dig through the rumble, searching for survivors. homes totally, totally gone, and the people inside them totally. ready gone to to grime, rebels, re take the town of lally baylor home to unesco world heritage site 11 days after

losing it to ethiopian government forces. also we're talking about bone tissue, nerve damage. we meet a former nice victim, taking deadly weapons off the streets of london to bring down the u. k. soaring teenager, moderate. and i'm sorry, how much was sport from our fee for our cup studio in doha max for staff and is your new formula one? well, champion of the dramatic when at the out with abby gone, ah hello and welcome to the program. our top story rescue teams in 6 us states are picking through the trail of rubble and devastation left by around 30 powerful tornadoes. that struck late on friday night. a governor of kentucky is saying, whole towns have been flattened. it's not known how many people are missing in the

states, and hopes of finding survivors as fast fading. emergency responders had to be extracted themselves 1st from destroyed police and fire stations before they could then rescue other victims. there's been a lot of focus on that. the small town of may field, which is shown here, it's really been described as ground 0 in all this, dozens of people are fair to have died in a candle factory where a 110 people were working. families have been posting pictures of missing loved ones who were at work when the tornadoes swept through the area. there was a warning for people to get to to the right area. but this, the storm. it's like nothing any of us have ever seen before. even in a movie or, or on tv. it is that devastating. i mean homes. totally, totally gone. and the people inside them totally gone to it. this is, this is something so devastating. i want it up to the fire station,

which is right behind us over here. and i seen that was the only safe place that were point people. and as soon as i got my family to safety, i went ahead to start helping people out here. and i started taking people to pre out here, i help one lady that was trapped in the debris with the fired team and we got them her stable and they had to move on to their 3rd search and rescue. and i pull her up to the street to the fire station myself and continue to do that till about like 2 am and night. it's worrisome because it's wiped out everything. it's wiped out churches, it's wiped out businesses, it's wiped out homes. i don't even know you look around and you have so many people saying how can we help it? it's almost like where do you begin? like we have to move earth to get all this clear before we can even rebuild. um, and when you talk about rebuilding an entire community, it's not like 2 businesses having to be rebuilt. built we're going to have to

rebuild our community. and i don't, i don't know how long it's gonna take, but i know we're going to come back. we'll charge goes from the town of mayfield, came together in the shadows of a ruined church on sunday. to honor those who were lost in the tornadoes with a press service. people sang and rang bells in a parking lot, surrounded by rubble piles of broken brakes. and twisted metal many express that shock at the devastation in the community. so there are people who have gathered here today who've lost their homes, who have lost loved ones. there are people who've not heard from their family and loved ones and had been so worried. we will just simply pull together and find ways to grieve. celebrate to locate and to care. i did your castro's falling is so a she actually joins is live now from the town of mayfield and kentucky which has been described as ground 0 because of the sheer scale of damage and destruction

that what's it been like and, and what have you been seeing and hearing throughout the day will marry him, the focus remains on this stuff where it's search and rescue effort that continues over at the candle factory, which is near by to downtown mayfield where i stand. now we're expecting an update from the governor of kentucky soon on whether or not there were more survivors pulled. though the occasions have been low throughout the day, given that the last person rescued alive was early in the morning on saturday. it's been more than 28 hours since they here in mayfield. we're seeing scenes of recovery even as people up here now to comb through the rebels. and that's where we found our guest. chuck foster, an attorney here. very nice to meet you chuck. thinking about your business that's across the street or what happened? oh, we're attorneys, we have a building across the street. we practice law here in town on my partner. friday

night we normally close about 5 o'clock. everybody had gone home about 5. i left about 6 o'clock about 8th at about 930. the storm came through and just destroyed the building. totally demolished everything there. there's nothing standing sick except the records of all which is all concrete structure on the inside. fortunately for us and for downtown may feel most people go home about 430 or 5. if tornado had struck through 4 or 5 hours earlier, there had been mass devastation. we would have lost probably 4 or 500 people because it would been so crowded downtown. unfortunately, many people though the candle factory does work a 24 hour shift. so they had their 2nd shift in there, i guess at night. or they got hit, had a direct hit from the tornado. and that's the tragedy of this whole thing is a loss of life getting that occurs. and we're all sadden and hurt because i'm a fool, a small town. and we know a lot of people here in town, my watches,

school teacher, she has students that have parents and friends, relatives that work there at the candle factory and some of whom have made it out. so have not been recovered yet. so it's just a tragic because it's not always somebody losing their life, but it's somebody that you know, and i have other contacts with we've been in just impressed all day today we've had so many people volunteer to help us. we've had people from, from fort campbell, we've had church groups, people from the other states out of town, they've just driven and given their time to help us clean up. and yeah, we've been here since about 9 o'clock this morning just trying to clean up the rubble and get everything sorted through savage. what we can get everything just moved around. how does a town like this though rebuild? i mean, if this is utter devastation, well, walks and blocks leveled. it is so extensive here too, that it's gonna be tough because a is a small town. we have a limited number of contractors here in town and you got to have insurance adjusters come in and view everything and people have to go to the banks,

borrow money, and have to look at ways to provide the funds and get their insurance proceeds. and that you got to find somebody to do the work and brought out. we don't have power, electricity, we're not sure where that's going to be restored. it may take a couple weeks. so for the next couple of weeks, everything's just going to be kind of a do what you can with what's available and try to hopefully get electricity back and then try to make plans to rebuild. it'll be difficult, it'll take a while to do. oh, good luck to you, chuck rashid your time and i know that chuck's business is moving into temporary offices so much of mayfield now trying to bounce back do what they can to recover from this. the storms that hit on friday came unexpectedly. it was unseasonably warm. than these huge storms erupted, miriam, they cover not only kentucky, but 6 us states, a storm to go down in the history books. thank you very much. from the town of may field heidi joe castro, joining us. and also now i have fatima castillo,

who is also in may field kentucky. she works for the world central kitchen organization and is involved in aid efforts that she joins us live now. thank you for taking the time to speak to us. i know you must be very busy because you know, we have been seeing these images of communities torn apart by this tornado. and because of that, that the devastation that i'm seeing all around you how, how people that coping very hard duration and thank you for, for your fossil us. we're seeing a lot of damage. a lot of guys, there's no electricity. the water is still working, being worked on to restore it. the water tower was totally wiped out by the jer nieto. i'm in downtown mayfield, and as you can see, there still cleaning up the rubble. we were just delivering lunch epic, kendall factory, about 2 hours ago. and beating the 1st responders,

seeing what the needs are and well from what i can see is that the communities are very, very together. and all of this they're supporting. a lot of people are coming in from other states. they're bringing in free food. there's a lot of food trucks that set up around the area that's really here and just offering free food and fresh fruit and water. and there's people going door to door and asking if they need something. they are blankets, they have clothing, they have dock food and it's amazing to see how everybody's coming together to help out the community effects. down in this area, you speak about this incredible effort organizations and those who are able to local residents reading, mobilizing to help people. when you go door to door, what are people telling you about their main concerns? we keep hearing about the search for survivors. obviously it's

a race against time now to try and find people who might be stuck in the rubble. yes, exactly. that is a prior priority, right? alas, for understanding authorities are still trying to rescue people. there are there have the number is actually known. they don't know how many are still missing people people are, are not in a good situation. there's a lot of people that are staying and other, you know, friends and family homes and just waiting for information at the theda emergency operation center that was set up by the authorities is just basically overwhelmed. and people are just patiently waiting to hear on the whereabouts of their family and their friends that are and of course those that well i, i suppose we're just looking at buildings that have been completely flattened. i suppose you'd be very fortunate to have your house or just some sort of shelter,

but what is being done to provide shelter to those that are in need of it who have lost their homes? yes, there are a shelter of organized schools and community centers and churches that they've opened up and they're helping folks with shelter and other and as i told you before, there's a lot of people actually taking people in to their homes. we are sending dinner tonight from our shops to a house where a lady was telling us that she had had neighbors with her. and she would happily take in some more school need. the other neighbors that have also and it is storm like this is, is very unusual at this time of year obviously that people are accustomed, stepping tornadoes and harkins. but in december i think that's usually the time where the cold weather means that it's very unlikely that something like this

should happen. very unusual. what is the weather like now to people means blankets and, and teaching as well as that the food and emergency kits. yes, the weather is very cold and i do believe the blanket, the and warm jackets are something that's highly needed other than the basic toilet trees that would serve them a while and i as well. and it was very rare. that's a lot of comments that were getting from a lot of people that this was an unexpected for the for december. well, fatima casio, thank you very much for joining us there from the, from the wells central kitchen and best of luck with your efforts and. and helping people with the supplies that they need. joining us from the town of mayfield and kentucky. thank you. yes,

we're all keep serving them hot meals and be here for as long as you did. and we're very happy to see the community is supporting each other and we'll see how we can support them as well to get your supporting. everybody. thank you. thank you very much for tim castillo. appreciate it. and so that gives you a sense of what's happening there. in kentucky, but it's not k, how many people are still missing in edward's vill, illinois, where tornadoes partially collapsed and amazon warehouse killing at least 6 people . witness to say, workers were caught by surprise and forced to take shelter anywhere they could find around. 45 employees did make it out though the amazon founded jeff bezos says he's heart broken by the incident and pledge support the community. now ruskie teams on the italian island of sicily are digging through the rubble of collapse, buildings they're searching for survivors almost 24 hours off to a massive gas explosion. at least 3 people are ported dead. 6 more are still missing in the town of revenues. her natural gas pipe exploded on saturday,

bringing down several houses and starting fires. 2 survivors have been pulled out of the rubble watching the news. our life london much was still had for you on this program. now, that offer his presence or a rama poses tested positive because at night in bring you all the latest information we have on that. also, boris johnson was that person face as a tidal wave of the only kron very an hours after he's branded a threat to public health. then you had of communion for all gets a massive vote of confidence from one of the most powerful people in the game. ah, president say to grind rebels have recaptured the northern ethiopian town of langley, baylor, just 11 days off to government forces said they had taken it back to gripe people's liberation fronts as its launched wide spread counter offensives in numerous locations including road linking gas, sheena and langley bailey, in the am har,

region communications have been cut off in the conflict zone. and this makes it very difficult to verify reports from the town, which is also home to a u. n. world heritage site residence had to grind fighters were in the town center, but there's no fighting. and abby, hamid's office is saying the prime minister is headed back to the front lines after turning to the capital, addis ababa on wednesday come. it is reporting more gains against the rebels, bought the t p l f. disputes this or professor cotillion tron, vo is sir head of peace and conflict studies at oslo new university college. and he specializes in this region also traveled widely in the region. he joins me via skype from oslo. now tara tree keeps changing hands as we were just reporting where it's going back and forth. how much of a blow is the loss of lively baylor to the federal government?

where labella doesn't hold any military store, attending significant search, but it is a symbolic it tall as it is a well known unesco world heritage site. and so it nationally, it is available. so in that regard it is a drawback, obviously that the government lost control. it but there are other towns like gus and now which might be more strategically important for t d, f and, and for the military offensive they are currently undertaking. so where is the, where is the focus likely to shift to now, what are the t p s force is going to be doing next? well, i think what we hear, it is an intensive military campaign ongoing as we speak for the last 2 or 3 days. that territory has shifted again, as you mentioned. and it seems to be that the t d f, the tactical retreat. so my week

a week ago has managed them to regroup and to read grad to john's. and now to push back on the government offences against ticket and held territories where it will take them. we don't know yet, this is on the western front line. we see the most intensive fight things over the last couple of days, and that might indicate that they are possibly heading to earth's the state. government controlled rest degree, for instance, but again, that's too early to say. how countries in the region of viewing this, i suppose they, i mean you, you have both sides and neither is likely to declare and all out victory just yet. but will they be hedging that bat if anticipate some change in the power arrangements? an artist of a bar a bit further down the line?

i think the whole sub region is falling very closely what's happening in the o. b and the whole world for that matter. and obviously the saddam is most effect. well professor, please forgive me for interrupting you there. we just have some breaking news coming to us, where we are hearing from the governor of kentucky, getting an update on the aftermath of devastating tornadoes in the region. and bremen were hit hard, bowling green, sustained, significant damage. i believe this will ultimately be the, the longest tornado and certainly u. s. history from the point where it touched down to when it finally picked back up over 220 miles. 200 of them are in my state. but there are people that have suffered from it. it was joined by at least 3 other tornadoes here in kentucky. i think we now believe maybe many, many more. i've been living this in real time since midnight

yesterday. but while i was at the states emergency operation center, receiving reports in real time, western kentucky and it's people are at ground 040 hours in. here's where i think we are. first we're grateful. we are grateful to our 1st responders who are there all through the evening out in the storm itself, showing incredible heroism and they are still at work. we're grateful for all the help that we've received from other cities and other states help from the federal government that has come in so many different forms. we're grateful for the out pouring of love the best way i can describe it from all over the country and from all walks of life. i want to thank everybody for standing with the people of kentucky. we feel it. in fact, one of our,

one of our biggest challenges right now is organizing the amount of people that want to help want to donate and one of voluntary. but you know what? that's the best challenge that any of us could, could ask for. so we declared our state of emergency in advance of midnight before the storm hit. that's a state state of emergency. we've now been granted the immediate federal state of emergency. it is rare, it was granted incredibly quickly. and we are grateful to homeland security to fema and the president biden himself the national guard has been deployed. we have over 300 guardsmen that are active. they are out in our communities. they are doing everything from going door to door, though many of these communities we will have doors anymore. they're going rebel to, to rebel searching, hopefully for survivors, but otherwise to at least have certainty for families that we can advise them of

their law. they're doing debris removal and they are also helping out in law enforcement capacity, where needed or transportation cabinet has been out hundreds of kentucky workers and every large truck we can find. and let me tell you today in mayfield where we even started moving debris out. and when you think 40 hours in that as a testament to the people in the workers here. and also the workers at that cabinet division of forestry is assisting what 3 removal we requested. and we have received assistance from all over the state and from the federal government, including help in search and rescue from federal teams as well as other state teams . and for supplies, especially drinking water and generators. we're now working on getting enough water for the hospital here to operate on a daily basis until the service is restored. we launch the team. western kentucky

relief bond at w k. y relief bond dot k y dot gov. here's how the people of america responded. $18031.00 donations over $2300000.00. every single penny of which is going to come to help our families here. the 1st set of expenses grants that we're going to be rolling out or for funeral assistance. very 1st thing that we have to do is greet together. and we're going to do that before we rebuild together. more information will be coming on that today can also announce that our state parks are open to help families that have lost their homes . we're taking them in. we are trying to guarantee everybody a 2 weeks day. so they're not worried about tomorrow. they can worry about finding the relative, making sure their kids have enough to eat. we've opened kentucky. damn village can like, like barclays, that is in this region. baron river and rough river,

which can help the people of bowling green. and audubon, which can help the folks in muhlenberg county. we already have a $104.00 adults and 2 kids, a penny rile itself and the people of dolphin springs town, that half of which is leveled its, opened the 1st responders and volunteers as well. and let me thank all of them every single one for what they are are doing. they've helped us clear roads and, and ultimately to have even knocked on doors where they stand to check on people. we want to thank the rest of the country for your attention, for your help, and for your prayers. we've needed them and we're still hoping as we move forward for some miracles, to find more people and hopefully have a lower death count than what we expect. i wish i understood why we've gotten hit with the pandemic historic ice storm flooding and now the worst tornado in our

history, all in a span of 19 month. what i do know is that in kentucky with good people and we care about one another, that's why people are out in the storm, helping their neighbors or people they don't know. that's why other counties you can look on people, shirts are here and we're here immediately trying to help. it's why we open 13 shelters, but only have 6 open anymore because we take each other into our homes. we're going to grief together. we're going to dig out and clean up together and we will rebuild and move forward together. we'll get through this. we're going to get through this together because that is, is what we do. we are blessed today to have both the secretary for u. s. department of homeland security and had administrator for the federal emergency management agency known as fema with us less than 40 hours after this

event began. the federal government has been there every step of the way, even helping us to to know what we can ask for. and saying, yes, i want to thank all of them that starts with the president who called me 3 times yesterday alone. i believe we're going to hear from congressman comber here in a minute. i've heard from senator mcconnell, we are very pleased with the response. we want to keep it up but, but we want to thank you so much. we're 1st going to hear from our 100 my orcas, secretary of the u. s. department for homeland security. mister secretary, we can't thank you enough for being here for our people. thank you very much. governor fema administrator, dan criswell and i and our teams visited the candle factory side of the decimated site. earlier today we spoke with the leader of the search and rescue

team. and had the opportunity to think some of his members i saw on site a backpack that was left behind and a pair of shoes. and it represents the tragedy that this tornado has wreaked on this area of kentucky. we learned the telephone that was recovered. a cell phone that got recorded 27, miss messages. we've lost father's mother's brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and others. but as the governor, so poignantly and powerfully stated, we will get through this. we will brief together, but we will also recover to together. and that is why we in the federal government are here today. i want to make it perfectly clear that we are here physically today

. but we will be here tomorrow in the days, weeks and months ahead, until the recovery is complete. i want to express part tremendous thanks, an admiration of the governor for his leadership of the people of kentucky in a time like this. it is a time to come together and that is indeed what we have done. federal, state, and local personnel of all walks in response to the needs of the people. we also visited a fire station and saw 1st responders who themselves are survivors of the disaster. place their own needs behind and continue to respond to the needs of others. and i want to pay special

things to the 1st responders and to all of those here in this area who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the well being of others. we met with the mayor of mayfield and heard her expression of resolve and commitment to the recovery. one of the things we've learned over the years about disasters is that need to lean forward and move personnel and resources are very early and that is indeed what we have done. fema has deployed its incident management assistant assistance teams to kentucky to help lead the federal effort on the ground damage assessment teams, search and rescue experts and additional staff were standing there ready to support the rescue. operation. fema is helping deliver food, water, shelter, power,

and all necessary aid to local communities. upon receiving the request yesterday from the governor, president biden approved an emergency declaration for kentucky, giving this commonwealth and its local emergency responders needed resources for this response, including direct federal assistance from d h s, and the department of homeland security. fema and the rest of the federal family, as the president told the country yesterday. whatever is needed here in kentucky and across any community affected by this tragic event, the federal government will do everything we can. everything in our power to help. now let me turn it over to administrator d n. chris well for further details. thank you. thank you mr. secretary and they.