We are here in Kentucky for as long as it takes, says Joe Biden

Joe Biden pledged more federal assistance to Kentucky as he ­surveyed the damage in tornado-ravaged towns and consoled survivors of the twisters that took scores of lives.

US President Joe Biden consoles residents as he tours storm damage in Dawson Springs, Kentucky. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden pledged more federal assistance to Kentucky as he ­surveyed the damage in tornado-ravaged towns and consoled survivors of the twisters that took scores of lives.

“The scope and scale of this ­destruction is almost beyond ­belief,” the US President said after visiting the towns of Mayfield and Dawson Springs.

“These tornadoes devoured ­almost everything in their path,” he said in Dawson Springs in western Kentucky. “Your homes, your businesses, your houses of worship, your dreams, your lives.”

Mr Biden said the federal government would foot 100 per cent of the bill for emergency relief for the next 30 days and would continue to do “whatever it takes, for as long as it takes”.

Mr Biden strolled down a ­ruined street in Mayfield, stopping to chat and shake the hand of a woman who was seated in the rubble of a collapsed building.

Wearing a baseball cap and a dark blue suit with no tie, the President paused in the street at one point and bowed his head in prayer with the town’s mayor and several others.

Before touring Mayfield, a town of 10,000 people, and ­Dawson Springs, population 2500, Mr Biden received a briefing on the damage from last week’s tornadoes, which killed at least 74 people in Kentucky and 14 in surrounding states.

“There’s no red tornadoes, there’s no blue tornadoes,” he said in a reference to the colours of the nation’s two largest political parties.

In addition to federal aid, more than 500 National Guard troops have been deployed to help with law enforcement, traffic control and recovery, along with volunteers and associations on the ground to support victims.

“We appreciate the President coming down … to Mayfield,” lawyer Bryan Wilson said as he sifted through the rubble of his firm’s flattened downtown building.

“It does mean a lot.”

Mr Wilson, speaking over the sounds of construction equipment removing debris, said he was trying to salvage legal files, client records, computers – anything that would preserve the ­integrity of the business.

He said Mr Biden’s visit signalled that the people in Washington “do care about rural America”.

“And hopefully that gives the incentive for people to stay, to build back,” he said.

Mr Wilson said he hoped Mr Biden’s trip healed some of the bitter political and cultural rifts in the country. “America has been divided for too long,” he said. “This is not ­Republican, this is not Democrat, this is not independent. This is America.”

Brad Mills, a 63-year-old ­orthodontist in Mayfield, said his message to Mr Biden was to expedite federal disaster assistance.

“Let’s get the federal aid in here that we need,” he said. “As divided as we are on so many ­issues, we’ve got common ground here.”

While Mr Biden said it was certain the tornadoes were “unusual”, due in part to the length of their path and the number of ­places they touched down, he was careful to note that the link ­between the phenomenon and climate change still needed more investigation.

“We have to be very careful. We can’t say with absolute certainty that it was because of climate change,” he said.

As Mr Biden toured Kentucky, weather forecasters warned that parts of the midwestern US were facing a potentially “historical weather day” with wind gusts up to 160km/h and the possibility of tornadoes.

AFP