Desperate victims of Mayfield tornado burn the wreckage of their own home to stay warm as temperatures drop below freezing ahead of Biden's visit: 12 children are among the 74 confirmed dead from storms

 The victims of last week's Mayfield tornadoes, which killed at least 74 across Kentucky, have been left without heat, water or electricity as they burn what's left of their homes to stay warm in frigid temperatures. 

State authorities said the level of destruction was hindering their ability to tally the total damage of Friday's storms that raged across five states and worried about people's ability to fend off the freezing cold as President Joe Biden heads to Mayfield on Wednesday to survey the ruin. 

 'Our infrastructure is so damaged. We have no running water,' Mayfield Mayor Kathy Stewart O'Nan told CBS Mornings.

'Our wastewater management was lost, and there's no natural gas to the city. So we have nothing to rely on there. So that is purely survival at this point for so many of our people.'

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Members of the Bowlin family, in Mayfield, Kentucky, light a fire from the wreckage of their home after Friday's tornadoes cut off heat and electricity in the city. Temperatures drop to near freezing in the night

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The storms left 74 dead in Kentucky and destroyed thousands of homes. Jessica Hart is pictured surveying the destruction of her house with her son, Gus, who is crying at what was once his home

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One hour away at Dawson Springs, residents estimate that about 60 per cent of homes have been left beyond repair

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Home owners in Cambridge Shores, Kentucky, are gathering up their remaining belongings where their house once stood

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The aerial view of the aftermath depicts homes left empty and gutted by the tornadoes that struck last Friday

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Jeffery Bowlin kept attending to the fire by feeding it a piece of wood from the wreckage of his own home

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More than 10,000 homes in Mayfield were also left without water after a water tower was destroyed

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said that lodges in state parks were being opened as shelters to allow families to take refuge. 

Across the state, which was the worst hit by a cluster of more than 30 tornadoes, about 26,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity, the Associated Press reported. 

In Mayfield, more than 10,000 homes and businesses have no water, and another 17,000 are under boil-water advisories. 

Beshear said it could take days to pin down the full death toll brought about by the natural disaster as door-to-door searches would be impossible in some places due to the devastation. 

Biden will visit Fort Campbell for a storm briefing on Wednesday before heading down to Mayfield and Dawson Springs, where the damage has been the worst. 

Biden 'wants to hear directly from people, and he wants to offer his support directly to them,' Press Secretary Jen Psaki said as the president vows to offer federal support for the victims. 

'We're going to get this done,' Biden said. 'We're going to be there as long as it takes to help.' 

Lifelong Mayfield resident Cynthia Gargis, 51, told the AP she lost everything in the storms as one of the tornadoes tore her house apart and sucked out everything inside. 

 'I don't know, I don't see how we'll ever get over this,' Gargis said. 'It won't ever be the same.'

Many Mayfield residents also held candlelight vigil on Monday for those who died during Friday's storm.  

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Kentucky residents are doing their best to salvage all their lost belongings. Matt Robertson, right, and his son, Charlie, are pictured boxing up whatever they can find from the ruins of their home

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Across the state 26,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity in the aftermath of the disaster

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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said that lodges in state parks were being opened as shelters to allow families to take refuge

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Beshear said the complete scale of destruction won't be known for days as some homes are impossible to get to 

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Mayfield residents like Susan Orten, above, cried as they walked in the ruins of their city to try and find their belongings

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On Monday, Mayfield residents gathered to hold a candlelight vigil for those who died from the storms 

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The 30 twisters that hit Kentucky claimed the lives of 74 people across the state

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Families and residents of all ages attended the vigil to mourn the deaths of their neighbors

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The vigil concluded with participants singing 'Amazing Grace' to pay tribute to the fallen

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Jessaundra Jackson, right, hugs an employee of Mayfield Consumer Products, were at least eight people diedAn hour away in Hopkins County, Judge-Executive Jack Whitfield estimated that more than 60 per cent of the homes in the town of Dawson Springs were beyond repair.

'It looks like a bomb went off,' Whitfield said. 'A full recovering is going to take years.' 

Tim Morgan, a volunteer chaplain at the Hopkins County Sheriff's Department, said the aftermath was beyond anything he's' ever seen before from a natural disaster. 

 'Just absolute decimation. There is an entire hillside of houses that are 3 feet tall now,' he told the AP.

In addition to the deaths in Kentucky, the storms killed at least six people at an Amazon distribution center in Edwardsville, Illinois; four were killed in Tennessee; two in Missouri and two in Arkansas where nursing home workers shielded the elderly with their own bodies. 

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The tornadoes tore across the state of Kentucky and sent some homes in Cambridge Shores under water

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Residents said that entire hills where homes once stood were now destroyed  

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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, pictured hugging volunteer emergency responder Brehanna Lee, said he would open emergency shelter sites across the state to help those displaced by the storm

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A recovery crew member searches for missing victims at a creek in Bowling Green, Kentucky

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Residents said they are not sure if their lives and homes could ever return to normal following the disaster

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Pictured, an aerial view of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory that was decimated by the tornadoes

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Volunteers from the the candle factory lined up to help residents salvaged their possession from the wreckage

Initially, as many as 70 people were feared dead in Mayfield at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory, where workers claimed that they were threatened with layoffs if they evacuated early as the tornadoes approached. 

At least eight people at the factory were killed, among dozens of fatalities across several Kentucky counties. 

Word of the approaching storm circled for hours with up to 15 of those on shift asking managers if they could leave in order to shelter at their own homes, only to allegedly be told 'no'. 

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The city of Mayfield, Kentucky was hit particularly hard, including a candle manufacturing factory that was operating at the time the twister hit

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Autumn Kirks, right who was on shift tossed aside wax and fragrance buckets to make an improvised safe place. She glanced away from her boyfriend, Lannis Ward, left, and when she looked back, he was gone

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There were 110 people in the building at the time that it was nearly collapsed by the tornado

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Eight people from the factory died, with 74 people across Kentucky killed. Ten are still missing

Some ended up leaving during shifts without fear of what the repercussions may be. 

It turned out to be the right decision. The factory was completely flattened with just rubble and twisted metal left behind - a testament to the destructive power of the storm. 

Autumn Kirks who was on shift tossed aside wax and fragrance buckets to make an improvised safe place. She glanced away from her boyfriend, Lannis Ward, and when she looked back, he was gone. 

Later in the day, she got the terrible news - that Ward had been killed in the storm. 

Gov. Beshear had initially said that only 40 of the 110 people working in the factory at the time were rescued, and that 'it'll be a miracle if anybody else is found alive in it,' but by Sunday, the candle company said that while eight were confirmed dead and eight remained missing, more than 90 others had been located.  

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Mark and Courtney Saxton look at their home, which was devastated by a tornado in Mayfield. Mark says he was given no option to leave the factory as the tornadoes approached

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Justin comforts his girlfiriend Sunny as the two stay at the The Way shelter in Wingo, Kentucky, Sunny's brother lost his best friend in the candle factory collapse after tornadoes destroyed the facility

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Many were still back on shift when the tornado hit destroying the factory. Mayfield is pictured

'We are praying that maybe original estimates of those we have lost were wrong. If so, it's going to be pretty wonderful,' the governor said. Across the state, 74 people have been confirmed dead.

At the candle factory, rescuers had to crawl over the dead to get to the living at a disaster scene that smelled like scented candles. 

McKayla Emery, 21, said workers first asked to leave the candle factory just after sirens sounded at around 5:30 p.m.

Workers stood in bathrooms and hallways, but it was several hours before the tornado came.

After believing the danger to have passed, workers asked to go home.

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This combination of satellite images shows Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory before the storm hit, and then on Saturday after

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A warehouse lies damaged after it was hit by a tornado in Mayfield, Kentucky

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Mayfield Candle Factory - pictured before the storm stuck

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Buildings are razed to the ground after a tornado destroyed almost everything in Mayfield

'People had questioned if they could leave or go home,' said Emery to NBC News. 

'If you leave, you're more than likely to be fired,' Emery claims to have overheard managers tell four fellow workers who were standing close by. 'I heard that with my own ears.

When the storm approached, the lights in the building began to flicker. Suddenly, everyone who was standing near her was struck by a block of concrete. 

'I kid you not, I heard a loud noise and the next thing I know, I was stuck under a cement wall,' she said. 'I couldn't move anything. I couldn't push anything. I was stuck.' 

Emery was also badly burned by hot candle wax.  

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n this aerial view, crews clear the rubble at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory after it was destroyed by a tornado on Friday

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A man searches for victims while climbing past the collapsed roof of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory in the aftermath of a tornado in Mayfield, Kentucky'Some people asked if they could leave, but managers told them they would be fired,' employee Latavia Halliburton said. 

Another employee, Haley Conder, 29, said about 15 people asked to go home early on the night shift with a window of around three or four hours. 

She describes how initially team leaders refused to let workers leave so everyone was kept in hallways and bathrooms. After believing that tornadoes were no longer a threat, it was back to work.   

'You can't leave. You can't leave. You have to stay here,' Conder said managers told her. 'The situation was bad. Everyone was uncomfortable.' 

Mark Saxton, 37, who drives a forklift said he was given no option to leave.

'That's the thing. We should have been able to leave. The first warning came, and they just had us go in the hallway. After the warning, they had us go back to work. They never offered us to go home. 

'It hurts, 'cause I feel like we were neglected,' he added.

The company has denied any allegations that staff were not allowed to leave or would be risking their job if they departed early

'It's absolutely untrue,' said Bob Ferguson, a spokesman for the company. 'We've had a policy in place since Covid began. Employees can leave any time they want to leave and they can come back the next day.'

'Those protocols are in place and were followed,' he said.  

A 24-hour hotline has now been set up for employees to call should they wish to discuss hazard pay or grief counseling.