A series of devastating tornadoes ripped through western Kentucky and four other states this weekend, leaving dozens dead and utter destruction in its wake. 

The most extensive damage came in Kentucky, where at least 60 appeared to have died Friday and Saturday. More than a dozen people have been confirmed dead in Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri. 

“This event is the worst, most devastating, most deadly tornado event in Kentucky history,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a Saturday press briefing. 

Those killed in the tornadoes included workers in factories, including at least eight at a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky. More than 90 people were working there Friday night as the factory was running “24/7” to meet demand, Kentucky Congressman James Comer told CNN. On Sunday, the company said at least eight people were still missing.

Initially, more than 40 people at the factory were unaccounted for, said Beshear. But on Sunday, the candle company said that after initial trouble reaching the missing workers, more than 90 of the 110 workers at the factory had been located. Beshear added Sunday that the death toll in Kentucky state could now be closer to 50, when previously he’d said it could top 100.

“We are praying that maybe original estimates of those we have lost were wrong,” Beshear told the Associated Press. “If so, it’s going to be pretty wonderful.” 

Six workers at an Amazon delivery depot in Edwardsville, Illinois were also confirmed dead after an tornado registering EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale—meaning wind speeds of up to 165 miles per hour with severe damage—ripped through the building, partially collapsing it. The company told the New York Times that the tornado formed in the distribution center’s parking lot. 

“I felt like the floor was coming off the ground,” driver Alonzo Harris told the New York Times. “I felt the wind blowing and saw debris flying everywhere, and people started screaming and hollering and the lights went out.”

President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for eight Kentucky counties Sunday, giving the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) the power to coordinate the response and provide assistance to people in the affected areas.

Beshear declared a state of emergency Saturday and activated nearly 200 members of the state National Guard as well as the Kentucky State Police to aid in rescue and relief efforts. The governor said that more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed by the tornadoes. 

“It's the definition of hell on earth,” one man in Mayfield told Reuters. “People's lost everything, it's just terrible.” 

Beshear said entire communities were obliterated by the tornadoes, including half of his family’s hometown of Dawson Springs. “I have got towns that are gone, that are just, I mean, gone,” he told CNN. 

“My dad's hometown, half of it isn't standing. It is hard to describe,” Beshear said, adding: “You think you would go door to door to check on people and see if they're OK. There are no doors.”

More than 200,000 people in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois were without power as of Saturday, according to PowerOutage.US. As of Monday morning, more than 26,000 Kentuckians still didn’t have power, according to PowerOutage.US. 

The tornadoes began Friday evening and made their way northeast, tearing through an entire swath of the country until Saturday morning, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. At least one of the tornadoes stayed on the ground for 227 miles, Beshear told CNN Sunday, including more than 200 miles in Kentucky. 

If that’s confirmed, it would break a record set in March 1925 for longest continuous tornado path. 

The National Weather Service received reports of 37 separate tornadoes and issued 146 warnings Friday and Saturday, the most warnings it’s ever given during a single December event, according to the Washington Post. 

Though tornadoes can happen year round, December has been unusually warm and humid in much of the country including the affected areas, which is where tornado conditions thrive. “One word: remarkable; unbelievable would be another,” Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini told the AP. “It was really a late spring type of setup in the middle of December.”

It’s unclear to what extent tornado activity is directly impacted by climate change, but a paper Gensini co-authored in 2018 found that since 1979, the Midwest and southeast United States has seen a “robust” increase in tornado activity.

Taken together, Gensini said, the “statistics are pretty clear that not only has there sort of been a change—a shift, if you will—of where the greatest tornado frequency is happening,” Gensini said in an interview with CNN. "These events are becoming perhaps stronger, more frequent and also more variable.” 

Towns across northern New South Wales have been left with dangerously low levels of drinking water, while thousands remain stranded on motorways and in their homes, as Australia’s east coast “Rain Bomb” continues to travel south. Officials have warned residents across Sydney to be ready. 

The low pressure system currently rolling through northern NSW claimed an additional five lives on Wednesday, bringing the national death toll to 14 on Wednesday. The state’s deputy premier, Paul Toole, offered a midday address to reporters on Wednesday and campaigned for higher dam walls. 

“Today is an important message for those that want to stand in the way of building dams or raising dam walls. This actually impacts people's lives,” Toole said. “It impacts on protecting people’s property. I say to those people get out of the way. Stop coming up with excuses and not allowing these dams to be built or raised where they need to be.”

However, he wouldn’t be drawn on whether the government could be doing more to help those impacted. 

The deluge has left a path of mass destruction in its wake so bad that officials believe it could take years to recover. For farmers in northern parts of the state, the flood emerges as the third natural disaster they’ve faced in as many years, claiming the lives of thousands of cattle and destroying land and infrastructure. 

In Tatham, a centre in the state’s northern rivers region, police helped a herd of cows only just able to keep their heads above water to safety. Not all farmers had the same luck.

Farmers from Lismore said they could only watch on as cattle were swept away by a wall of floodwater earlier in the week. Paul Weir, a dairy farmer located in Lismore, said that as the water came up his cattle “started like a crowd crush”, forcing a gate open and drifting away. He said he thinks he has lost half of them. 

Across some parts of the state, people remain stranded on highways, some without medicine, while others have new concerns about access to clean drinking water and food. 

The situation deteriorated dramatically later Wednesday afternoon, forcing state police to coordinate a helicopter drop of food and other essential supplies into a church in Coraki, about 30 kilometres south of Lismore, where about 300 flood evacuees have been seeking refuge. 

Residents of the Tweed Shire, meanwhile, were warned via the council on Facebook to “CONSERVE WATER NOW”, after water pumps were left without power for close to 24 hours and reservoirs started to run dry. 

Later on Wednesday, the state's premier, Dominic Perrottet was asked by reporters whether he thought evacuation warnings had been effective and timely. In response, he said his constituents were “resilient”.

“This is not the first time we’ve gone through this. This has been – over the last four years – natural disaster, after natural disaster, after natural disaster,” he said.

“And there’s been key learnings along the way, particularly in relation to warnings, particularly in relation to the clean-up. One of the concerns that we have, and we keep saying it at every press conference, is follow the instructions of the State Emergency Service (SES).”

Both state and federal governments have come under even more pressure to give serious thought to reconfiguring the support systems in place for the unavoidable natural disasters that too often cripple the continent. 

As a result, Perrottet promised residents – many of whom have lost their entire lives to the floodwater over the last few days – that he was putting pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to give the state more financial support.

In the meantime, Morrison – who on Wednesday morning returned a positive COVID-19 test result – reminded residents who stand to lose everything that they can apply for emergency relief funding of $1,000 per person through Services Australia. 

As parts of northern NSW continue to reckon with rescue and recovery efforts, major cities along the nation’s east coast are bracing themselves for unprecedented levels of rainfall and have been urged to monitor SES and Bureau of Meteorology messaging for updates.

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As Storm Eunice sows chaos across the UK, a YouTube channel livestreaming planes landing at Heathrow has become a viral sensation.

BIG JET TV’s enthusiastic commentator, Jerry Dyers, has been admiring when pilots successfully land their planes despite record wind gusts, interspersed with Alan Partridge impressions. 

“Flippin’ ‘eck,” he shouts over the roar of jet engines. “Go on then, son.” 

Jerry Dyers. FLIPPIN' EEEEEECK

Millions of people have been told to stay home as Storm Eunice is set to be one of the worst storms to hit the UK in decades.

Red warnings have been issued in several areas nationwide. 

Some of the planes are taking several attempts to land successfully – proving to be tense moments for Dyers to comment on. 

At the time of writing, 200,000 people are viewing the stream.

Storm Eunice caused havoc across the United Kingdom on Friday, with winds of over 100mph even tearing off the roof of the O2.

Big Jet TV has been running as a YouTube channel since 2017, accruing over 28 million views. 

Prior to his YouTube channel, Dyers ran a mountainbiking magazine as well as an interior fitting company. 

With so many Brits staying indoors due to Storm Eunice’s red alert, many have been enjoying Dyers’ commentary.

Dyers revealed on air that this was the biggest livestream he’s ever done, and that Reuters were attempting to run his stream too. 

He added whilst streaming that the channel has gained over 20,000 new subscribers. “Jerry is viral. It’s us! It’s you!”