The devastation is so severe across such an expanse that we still don't know the toll of the Southern and Midwestern tornadoes. Starting the night of December 10, at least 59 twisters carved through ten states —a swarm you wouldn't expect two weeks before winter. We spent the last several days in Kentucky, where it was still strangely warm and questions of climate change are being asked. The answers aren't clear, but we do know what we saw is rare. The storm threw down one twister that cut a path of destruction of more than 165 miles. One meteorologist we talked with called that tornado, "the beast."
All that rises from a levelled landscape are bonfires of memories. On the Rickard farm, in western Kentucky, they burn what they can't save from the two-story brick home that seemed unshakable on that foundation down there on the right and the garage by its side.
Shawn Rickard: It sounded like ten trains on a track, coming towards you full speed.
Scott Pelley: Your neighbor shot a video of the tornado—
Shawn Rickard: Yes sir. Uh-huh.
Their neighbor turned his phone toward the Rickard cattle farm and framed lightning catching history.
Shawn Rickard: Been viewed many times on Facebook, I believe. that video is basically as it's hitting our farm.
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