AccuWeather's Ali Reid is in London, Kentucky, where recovery is underway after an EF3 tornado tore through the region. Many historic planes at the city's airport were destroyed by the tornado.
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00:00The outbreak has already caused between nine to 11 billion dollars in damage at staggering price
00:06for a disaster that's claimed at least 28 lives. And with saturated ground and weakened trees,
00:12even more damage will unfold as storms move east today. Our live coverage continues right now
00:18with Allie Reed. She joins us live from London, Kentucky. Allie, you shared so much information
00:23earlier on the show and we know there's so much more to share.
00:25Right. And this morning, we're live from the London Corbyn Airport, where this area looks more
00:33like a demolition site than an actual airfield. And we're getting you an up close and personal
00:38perspective of what some of these planes look like this morning. Single engine planes, Cessna planes,
00:44you name it, they are torn up just like this one. And this really gives you a very good visual
00:51representation of how fast and destructive this EF3 tornado was, uplifting planes just like this
01:00one. And again, all across this area, if you take a look around us here, you'll see twisted metal
01:05and then those airplane wreckage all around us here. And not only was the airport severely damaged
01:12because of Friday's tornado, but if you look in the distance, you'll also notice that neighboring
01:16neighborhoods also severely impacted here. It is clear, and you're going to see from this drone
01:22footage now, the airport took a direct hit here. A number of major hangars were destroyed in the
01:28process and single engine planes, again, now sit scattered and mangled across the tarmac here.
01:34One of the hardest losses came from a group that was in town flying T-34 aircraft.
01:39They had traveled here for formation training. Seven of their vintage planes were destroyed,
01:46many of them historic and one of a kind. On top of all of that, the storm knocked out runway
01:51lighting, making night operations impossible for right now. But the damage here is more than just
01:56physical. It's personal, too. Those who built this place up over decades watched it disappear in
02:02seconds.
02:04I mean, you just sit there and you think, well, it took us 30 years to get
02:07this many buildings gathered up and everything working, and it was all wiped out in about 30
02:12seconds. The subdivision just on the other side over here, they had a bunch of fatalities
02:19in that subdivision, and a lot of the stuff that we've been cleaning up over here came from the
02:25subdivision. Well, it's pretty heartbreaking, really, because we just, we were pretty proud of what we
02:30had, and we spent a lot of time trying to make it that way, and so we'll just have to start fighting
02:36our way back. It's all I know.
02:41Despite the setbacks, there are early signs of progress. The runway has somewhat reopened,
02:46but only for VFR daylight traffic. The airport has also become a central hub for recovery.
02:51The London Police Department is using it as a staging area for emergency crews and a temporary
02:55medical clinic that has been set off offering tetanus shots and basic care to those injured
03:01or helping in the cleanup effort. Again, we bring you back live. We were talking about some of those
03:06T-34 aircraft. Here they are right here in the airfield to give you a good perspective. Again,
03:12some of them just showing you the sheer magnitude of this EF-3 tornado ripping through this town here.
03:19Really, really incredible stuff to see. So devastating for the people in this community. Again,
03:25many people using this airport. I mentioned it earlier just to give you a perspective on location here.
03:30For those of you who don't know where London, Kentucky is, we are halfway in between Knoxville,
03:35Tennessee, and Lexington, Kentucky. It's a big area for what it's worth here in the Kentucky area,
03:41but certainly not a major city by any means. So getting in and out of this area is very difficult.
03:45Losing this airport here and as much damage as we've seen is a hard hit for this community.
03:51And in the next time that I check in with you guys in about an hour from now,
03:55we're going to bring you to some of those neighborhoods on the outskirts of the airport
03:58here where that damage, again, so significant, people losing everything. And the cleanup efforts
04:05continue into today. That is going to continue for weeks, months, and years on end, guys.