Tornado death toll nears 100 and victims include Amazon worker who tried to warn colleagues, judge and toddler

AN Amazon worker who tried to warn colleagues, a dad-of-three judge and a toddler are among the victims of the deadly tornadoes.

Rescuers are desperately searching for survivors today after dozens of devastating tornadoes tore through six US states, leaving a reported 94 people dead, dozens missing, and towns in ruin.

Kentucky and in particular the town of Mayfield appears to have borne the brunt of the twisters.

The confirmed death toll in Kentucky is currently at 94, higher than any tornado in the state’s history. As recovery efforts continue, the number is expected to rise.

Governor Andy Beshear said Sunday that the state’s toll could exceed 100. “We are praying that maybe the original estimates of those we have lost were wrong. If so, it’s going to be pretty wonderful,”

A candle factory where 110 workers were on overnight shifts to meet Christmas demand was flattened by the storm. Beshear said “it’ll be a miracle if anybody else is found alive in it.

The candle company confirmed Sunday that eight people were confirmed dead and another eight remained missing. More than 90 others had been located.

Only 40 people have so far been pulled alive from the rubble with dozens believed dead.

Elsewhere, six Amazon warehouse workers are known to have been killed when a tornado hit a facility in Edwardsville, Illinois, and trapped 100 workers inside on Friday.

Among those confirmed to be dead is Clayton Hope, a 29-year-old maintenance worker and Navy veteran who tried to warn colleagues.

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“He just said he needed to tell someone that [the tornado] was coming,” his mother, Carla Cope, told

“He had a big heart and he was a very sweet man.”

Clayton’s mother went to the warehouse after the storm passed on Friday, looking for her son. She learned hours later from authorities that Clayton didn’t make it.

“[It was] gut-wrenching, nauseating and heartbreaking,” Cope said.

When Clayton wasn’t at his job, his mother said that he “loved riding his Harley and fishing.”

Longtime friend Leighton Grothaus described him as “one of a kind person” who “buy anyone a drink at the bar”.

“He was the kind of person who would take the shirt off his back for anyone,” he added.

The other 5 victims in Illinois were named on Sunday as 28-year-old Deandre S. Morrow; 62-year-old Kevin D. Dickey; 34-year-old Etheria S. Hebb; 46-year-old Larry E. Virden; and 26-year-old Austin J. McEwen.

McEwen, the youngest Amazon victim, was a driver with Amazon who reportedly died while sheltering in the bathroom with coworkers.

Friends said he was an only child who loved to hunt with his friends.

AMAZON VICTIMS NAMED

“He was my friend and he didn’t make it,” coworker Brian Erdmann, who was on his way to make a delivery to the warehouse, told .

“If I would have got back 45 minutes earlier, I probably would have been at the same place. I would have been right there with him.”

Employees told Reuters they were told to hide in the bathrooms when alerts came in about 40 minutes before the tornado hit.

“Our team worked quickly to ensure as many employees and partners could get to the designated Shelter in Place,” Amazon confirmed.

“We thank them for everything they were able to do.”

The family of Etheria S. Hebb described her as a new mother, according to the .

“She was a younger cousin of our generation so I always felt the big cuz/lil cuz bond, she was a new and dedicated mother, a naturally beautiful person from the heart all the way to her radient [sic] outer beauty,” her cousin Coerce Smith wrote on Facebook.

Friends also described Morrow as a “very loyal friend.”

“I came on here to express how much of a GREAT FRIEND he was to me for so many years! I learned so much from him during my school years he taught me early what loyalty was,” his ex-girlfriend wrote, according to the Post.

CHILDREN AMONG VICTIMS

Elsewhere in Kentucky Judge Brian Crick, a married dad-of-three has been named as among the around 70 people killed when the tornadoes struck.

The state’s chief justice John D. Minto confirmed his death in a statement.

“This is a shocking loss to his family, his community, and the court system, and his family is in our prayers,” he said.

Also among those killed is a three-year-old toddler who died when a tornado flattened his family home in Mayfield, large parts of which have been flattened.

Mayfield resident Jamel Alubahr, 25, said his three-year-old nephew died in the storm.

Neighbor Angela Wheeler described how she saw the boy’s family screaming for help from their leveled home.

She told WLWT5 her own home did not collapse, but twisted off its foundation, trapping the family in the basement before they eventually escaped through a window.

“Like everybody says, it was like a roar and it shifted the house where we were at and almost made us fall into the basement,” she said.

A five-year-old also died in Kentucky during the storm.

Two deaths have been confirmed so far in Arkansas.

One victim died when the nursing home they were a resident of was destroyed.

The other died in a store battered by the high winds.

The death toll in Tennessee currently stands at four people and two people died in Missouri.