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Most workers escaped Kentucky candle factory, company says

Gentian Emini and his wife spent six years saving up to build a home for their family. It was nearly complete when the tornado hit. They lost everything. (Video: Mike Schuh, Alice Li/The Washington Post)

This live coverage has ended. For Monday’s updates, click here.

Authorities were combing through debris in search of the dead and the missing Sunday after a tornado outbreak ripped through parts of the South and the Midwest late Friday and early Saturday. About 50 people have been confirmed dead in Kentucky, the state’s governor said.

Many of the fatalities were estimated to have occurred at a candle factory in Mayfield, Ky., that was flattened with about 110 people inside; a spokesperson for the company that owns it said more than 90 people had been found alive. Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said no one had been rescued there since Saturday morning.

The storms leveled more than 1,000 homes across the state, Beshear said, leaving a trail of destruction that authorities are struggling to assess.

Complete coverage: Tornadoes hit several states, killing dozens

President Biden arrived in Kentucky on Wednesday to survey the swaths of damage in areas hardest hit by a string of tornadoes that killed at least 74 people there and 14 in other states.

Live updates: Biden arrives in Kentucky, hardest-hit state after devastating tornado outbreak

Victims: What we know about some of the lives lost in Kentucky

Photos and video: See the damage left by the tornadoes

The storm’s path: Satellite images show leveled buildings

The candle factory: ‘Everyone was trapped’: A candle factory survivor tells her story

Climate: Researchers ponder why Friday’s tornadoes led to so many deaths, despite ample warning

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