Biden will travel to Kentucky on Wednesday, where governor says 74 are confirmed dead

As rescue teams and volunteers combed through debris across nine states this weekend looking for survivors, the unprecedented scale of devastation left behind by the storm began to come into focus.

Homes and businesses had been torn from their foundations. Two warehouses had collapsed, trapping and killing employees. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were left without power in mid-December, forcing Kentucky and Tennessee to open shelters where people could warm themselves.

MAYFIELD, Ky. — Jimmy Finch hauled rare commodities into Mayfield in the predawn hours Sunday morning: hot food and optimism for a community reeling from the deaths and destruction wrought by the worst tornado event in Kentucky’s history.

Finch, 42, drove from his home in Clarksville, Tenn., to spend the day feeding residents who had been without heat or water since Friday night. He worked his meat smoker with chicken, hot links, burgers and soy patties as he surveyed what remained of the packs of bottled water and frozen meat in the bed of his pickup truck.

The tornadoes took everything when they barreled through Judy and Billy Miller’s house in Kentucky, leaving just a ring of cinder blocks.

But their photos — documenting a 56-year marriage cut short — survived.

Kentucky officials working to identify residents killed in the weekend tornado outbreak are still trying to verify information from a candle manufacturer indicating that the death toll at the factory is far lower than feared.

A spokesman for Mayfield Consumer Products told The Washington Post on Monday evening that eight employees are confirmed dead and 102 have been found alive — after officials initially thought that dozens had perished.

Despite accurate forecasts and timely warnings, Friday night’s tornado outbreak was December’s deadliest on record. Researchers of many stripes, from engineers and forecasters to social scientists, now face the burning question: why?

Experience from past tornado disasters assures that the answers will be complex and multidimensional, taking months if not years to pin down.

The official death toll in Kentucky after tornadoes swept through its western region has reached 74 people, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) announced Monday afternoon

“Again, we expect that this death toll will continue to grow,” Beshear said at a news conference. “One-hundred-nine Kentuckians now unaccounted for. But as I look at this broken down by county, it’s way more people unaccounted for than this.”

At least 64 people in western Kentucky are dead and 105 are missing after at least four tornadoes swept through the state this weekend, Beshear said, adding that “there will be more” fatalities confirmed.

The identified victims range in age from 5 months to 86 years, and six were juveniles, Beshear told reporters. Eighteen of the dead remain unidentified.

Federal regulators are investigating the collapse of an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Ill., which occurred Friday night during a tornado in the region.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed Monday that compliance officers have been on-site at the building collapse since this weekend. It has six months to conduct the investigation, it said in a statement.