Vietnam sends condolences to US over deadly tornadoes

In their telegraphs sent to U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and PM Pham Minh Chinh also thanked the U.S. for gifting Vietnam more than 24 million Covid-19 vaccine does via the Covax facility, according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement.

More than 30 tornadoes that appeared on the night of Dec. 10 had swept through six states in the central and southern U.S., including Arkansas, Illinois, 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 this event “unimaginable tragedy.”

Kentucky declared a state of emergency on 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, and he raised questions about the tornado warning systems, the report said.