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President Biden will travel to Kentucky on Wednesday to survey the damage following tornadoes and unseasonal extreme weather across the Midwest that left dozens dead.
The White House said the president will travel to Ft. Campbell, Ky. for a storm briefing Wednesday, and to Mayfield and Dawson Springs, Ky. to survey storm damage.
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The president said Monday that he has “made it clear to every governor” that his administration will deploy “whatever they need, when they need it,” and will get it to them “as rapidly as we can.”
“That’s what we’re doing here in Kentucky, we’re going to have to go beyond what is available to the federal government,” Biden said, noting that if the administration “can’t provide it through a government agency, we’ll do our best to find out private agencies to get help from–churches, Red Cross, a whole range of institutions.”
Over the weekend, Biden approved an emergency declaration providing federal funds to Kentucky, and said he would deploy federal resources to the storm ravaged areas.
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Biden said he told Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear he would be “happy to come but I don’t want to be in the way.”
Biden explained that “when the president shows up he shows up with an awful lot of personnel” and implied he did not want to “get in the way” of the recovery efforts and is working with the government to make sure his visit is a “value added” proposition.
Kentucky was the worst-hit state–with four twisters hitting the area, including one with an extraordinarily long path of approximately 200 miles.
Approximately 300 National Guard members went house to house, checking on residents and helping to remove debris.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Beshear said 64 people have been confirmed dead following tornadoes in Kentucky and at least 105 remain unaccounted for.
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“There will be more. We believe it will certainly be above 70, maybe even 80,” he said. “But again with this amount of damage and rubble it may be a week or even more before we have a final count on the number of lost lives.”
And Mayfield Mayor Kathy Stewart O’Nan warned Monday in an appearance on NBC’s “Today” that the town could be without heat, water and electricity for a “long time” as authorities continue to survey tornado damage from Friday.
“The resources are gonna take a long time to be restored here,” O’Nan said.
