Kentucky governor becomes emotional as tornado death toll climbs: 'I'm not doing so well'

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that the confirmed death toll from the tornado outbreak in his state is 74 — a number that is expected to rise as authorities continue to sift through the wreckage.

“Undoubtedly there will be more,” Beshear said at a press briefing less than 72 hours after four tornadoes touched down in Kentucky, one of six states hit by the deadly group of storms.

The governor said around a hundred people remain unaccounted for, and that it will likely be weeks before officials have an accurate number for the fatalities.

The governor became visibly distraught as he announced the ages of the victims, which ranged from 5 months to 86 years. Six of them were younger than 18.

“I’m not doing so well today,” Beshear said at one point during the press conference. “And I’m not sure how many of us are.”

The governor did offer one glimmer of good news. He said that officials were working to confirm a report that 94 of 110 people working in a candle factory in Mayfield, Ky., are alive and have been accounted for — a far greater number of survivors there than initially thought. Eight bodies were recovered from the factory, Beshear said, and it’s believed that eight people remain missing.

“We feared much, much worse,” he said.

Beshear ordered flags lowered to half-staff at all state office buildings in honor of those killed or severely injured.

Kentucky received a major disaster declaration from the federal government Sunday, which Beshear said was the fastest in the history of the United States.

“We are really grateful,” he said. “And we need it.”

Kentucky was hit hardest by Friday night’s tornadoes, which tore across the upper South and lower Midwest. Six people were killed in Illinois, four in Tennessee and two each in Missouri and Arkansas, according to the Associated Press.

President Biden received a briefing on the federal response to the tornadoes at the White House on Monday.

“We’re going to get this done," Biden told reporters after meeting with Department of Homeland Security and FEMA officials. "We’re going to be there as long as it takes to help."

The president himself will visit Kentucky Wednesday to survey the damage in tornado-ravaged Mayfield and Dawson Springs.