Vietnam condoles tornado devastation in US

In messages sent to U.S. President Joe Biden Sunday, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh condoled the deaths and widespread destruction wreaked by many tornadoes in the U.S.

They also thanked the U.S. for giving Vietnam more than 24 million Covid-19 vaccine does via the Covax facility, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

More than 30 tornadoes that appeared on the night of Dec. 10 swept through six states in central and southern U.S., including Arkansas, Chicago, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi, killing more than 80 people, and the death toll is expected to rise, possibly to more than 100, especially in Kentucky.

President Biden has called the events an “unimaginable tragedy.”

Kentucky declared a state of emergency Friday, with at least 100 people feared dead as of Sunday evening, Reuters reported.

Saying the disaster was likely one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history, Biden told reporters he would be asking the Environmental Protection Agency to examine what role climate change may have played in fueling the storms. He also raised questions about tornado warning systems, the report said.