Work crews were hauling away tons of debris on Tuesday in western Kentucky towns pulverized by deadly tornadoes as traumatized residents turned to rebuilding their shattered lives.

"Total devastation," said Ashley McKnight, a 41-year-old schoolteacher, pointing to the remains of her neighbors' homes in Dawson Springs.

State Governor Andy Beshear said the death toll from the powerful twisters which struck late Friday remained at 74 but he expected more victims to be found in the rubble.

In total, at least 88 people died, with fatalities also recorded in Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois.

"Damage assessments are ongoing and major work continues to remove debris from roadways," Beshear told a press conference. "But I tell you what, it's pretty good to not just be pushing this stuff out of the way, but to be loading it up and taking it out of town.

"There's something therapeutic about taking that chaos and destruction and death and getting it out of some of those areas," he said.

Michael Dossett, the director of the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management, said debris removal is a "Herculean task" and the extent of the damage in some areas "will take your breath away."

"Pictures and video do not do it justice," Dossett said. "It is simply indescribable in some places."

Beshear put out a call for blood donations and said state parks have opened to provide rooms for people who have lost their homes.

McKnight was wearing a headlamp as she pulled some salvageable valuables and other items from her damaged home in Dawson Springs, a town of about 2,500 residents.

"We are the tightest community you ever saw," she told AFP as she placed a plastic doll house on the flatbed of her pickup truck.

McKnight lost her teenage son last month in a traffic accident one day before Thanksgiving.

"The same people who helped me so much three weeks ago as I mourned now have homes that are demolished," she said, her voice cracking.

- 'Total loss' -

Just up the street, Jennifer Pleasant, 48, survived the tornado with her husband and six children in their small home, running into the central hall for safety as the storm shook the house.

"We're hoping to repair," Pleasant said, but houses around her were a "total loss."

As rescue and repair crews fanned out through the town, National Guard troops set up a checkpoint on the edge of Dawson Springs regulating who is coming in and out.

Governor Beshear said more than 500 National Guard troops have been deployed to help with law enforcement, traffic control and recovery efforts.

He also confirmed that eight people died in the collapse of a candle factory that was flattened by the storm in Mayfield, another western Kentucky town.

Some 110 employees were working late Friday at the Mayfield Consumer Products plant to meet the Christmas holiday rush and there had been fears the death toll could be considerably higher.

"If you saw it in person, that's a miracle," Beshear said. "The level of absolute destruction in one place, it's hard to describe."

Six people were killed at an Amazon warehouse in the southern Illinois city of Edwardsville, where workers were on the night shift processing orders ahead of Christmas.

President Joe Biden is to visit Kentucky on Wednesday to survey the damage.

Biden has declared a major disaster in Kentucky, allowing additional federal aid to be channeled into recovery efforts.

'Just numb' -- Kentucky twister leaves survivors in shock
Dawson Springs, United States (AFP) Dec 14, 2021 - Susan Orten struggles for words as she picks through the destroyed home of her partner of 25 years, swept to his death as their picturesque town was reduced to rubble by Kentucky's worst tornado on record.

"I'm just numb. I'm just lost. There's no words to say," the 61-year-old told AFP on Tuesday, weeping as she spoke.

Orten's partner Ernie Aiken was sitting in his recliner, watching television, in his trailer home near downtown Dawson Springs when she called Friday night to check on him.

"'If I'm here I'll talk to you tomorrow.' And that's his last words," she said.

Minutes later the 86-year-old man, a beloved fixture in the tight-knit community, was gone, along with his trailer, crushed to splinters in the ferocious storm.

Home after home in several square blocks of this small western Kentucky town were obliterated as the twister cut a swathe through six US states -- the neighborhood virtually destroyed.

Along Pine Street, the scene was post-apocalyptic, with virtually no house standing. American flags flew defiantly on poles jabbed into the rubble where dozens of families' lives were turned upside down.

The weekend tornadoes killed at least 13 people in the town of 2,500 -- more than half a percent of the population -- with more than 100 still unaccounted for, according to Dawson Springs officials. The mayor said 75 percent of the town has been destroyed.

- 'People screaming' -

Jackie Gordon, 55, said she survived with her husband in their basement, diving under a work table when the tornado rolled over them like a freight train.

"When it ended, which seemed like an eternity... all we could do is hear people screaming 'Help me,'" she said.

Gordon's husband raced outside "and started digging people out," she said.

They quickly converted what was left of their house into a makeshift triage unit, bandaging a wounded woman's head and helping a boy who crawled up the driveway with a broken ankle.

On Tuesday morning, amid the sound of nearby chainsaws and debris removal efforts, Gordon gathered up bits and pieces from her shattered life.

She lost her composure as she opened a recovered Crayola tin box that contained precious childhood photographs of her daughter, who now lives in Louisville.

Then Gordon looked down at the broken Christmas tree in her yard to find a cherished snowman ornament with her name on it, hanging from one of the branches.

"I've lost a lot, but I've (found) things that's irreplaceable. I'm very fortunate," she told AFP.

Part of her home stood eerily intact. While the front wall was blown off, a cabinet six feet (two meters) away was untouched, with Christmas stockings hanging from door handles.

In Gordon's bedroom upstairs, a ceiling light was exposed to blue sky where the roof used to be.

Asked whether she would rebuild, she didn't offer an answer. "I don't even know."

- 'Tightest community' -

Along Pine Street, where men wearing gloves and boots salvaged what they could, 60-year-old Susan Lacy was calling out for her sister's eight beloved cats who went missing in the tornado.

"Bella! Henry! Felix! Rex! Aria!" she yelled.

In a measure of the randomness of a tornado's path of destruction, Ashley McKnight's nearby home was largely intact, although parts of her roof caved in and the house suffered water damage.

McKnight, 41, wore a headlamp as she pulled salvageable valuables and other items, including a plastic doll house, from her home.

She said her town's resilient residents were already pulling together to make their way beyond tragedy.

"We are the tightest community you ever saw," she stressed.

Facing the tornado's aftermath has been hard to bear for McKnight, who said she lost her teenage son Logan in a traffic accident the day before Thanksgiving.

While all around her home there was "total devastation," McKnight said, "I really feel my angel up there had something to do with my house still standing."

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Natural catastrophes caused $250 bn in damage in 2021: Swiss Re
Zurich (AFP) Dec 14, 2021
Natural catastrophes and extreme weather events caused around $250 billion in damage this year, an increase of 24 percent over the previous year, the world's biggest reinsurer Swiss Re, estimated on Tuesday. For the insurance industry alone, "extreme weather events... including a deep winter freeze, floods, severe thunderstorms, heatwaves and a major hurricane, resulted in annual insured losses from natural catastrophes estimated at $105 billion, the fourth highest since 1970," Swiss Re said in a st ... read more