Indiana Task Force 1 searching Kentucky candle factory after tornadoes

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An elite Indiana search and rescue team is currently in Kentucky hoping to find survivors of the devastating tornado.

The chief of the search and rescue group Tom Neal says this is a dangerous rescue effort. On Monday, the group moved steel structures from the roof of a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, in an attempt to locate anybody who’s still unaccounted for.

“To have a tornado on the ground for 277 miles in the commonwealth of Kentucky is a significant storm,” Neal said.

The team’s hope is to find anyone who has managed to survive under the rubble left from Friday’s massive tornado. It’s a daunting mission for a team that also responded to Ground Zero after 9/11 and to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“We’ve responded over the years … to a lot of various disasters, and by far this is probably one of the worst ones we’ve come on,” he said.

One hundred people were believed to be inside the factory Friday night. Authorities have confirmed 8 deaths so far.

“If we have single-digit fatalities out of this particular facility, then it was amazing that those people survived this type of incident,” Neal said.

Neal told News 8’s Camila Fernandez that their rescue mission involves cutting steel and using cranes to get the roof sections peeled off to provide areas for searching. He says it’s a slow and careful process.

“If anyone is still alive — and we certainly would hope that we could recover someone that’s in a void space that they were protected from the damage — that we would recover them as quickly as possible because of hypothermia and other medical reasons,” he said.

Neal also says he and his team are working 12-hour shifts each day. The group wants to make sure that everyone is accounted for, and if they do find anyone still remaining in the building, that they can return to their family.