Amazon Drivers Died in Warehouse as Tornado Ripped Through

Six people died in an Amazon warehouse in Illinois on Friday when six states were hit by a devastating swarm of tornadoes. Austin J. McEwen, 26, was a cargo driver for the company who was sheltering with colleagues in a bathroom when he was killed, Reuters reports. Employees tell the news outlet that's where supervisors told them to take shelter as emergency alerts started rolling in. Some employees also say they got those alerts on their cellphones, which they had kept with them despite a company policy prohibiting them doing so, but Amazon disputes that and says there is no such policy. The mother of another victim, 29-year-old Clayton Cope, tells the Daily Beast she urged him to take shelter, but "he just said he needed to tell someone that [the tornado] was coming."

Larry Virden, 46, also died at the warehouse. His girlfriend of 13 years tells the New York Post he was not allowed to leave until the storm blew over. "We heard the tornado didn’t touch down until 8:39 so he had 20 minutes to get home," she says. "I told him where we live, it was only lightning at the time. After that, I got nothing from him." She says she doesn't blame the company for the death of Virden, a father of four, "but it’s that what-if situation: what if they would have let him leave? He could have made it home." The other warehouse victims have been identified as Illinois resident Kevin D. Dickey, 62, and Missouri residents Deandre S. Morrow, 28, and Etheria S. Hebb, 24. MEAWW has more on the victims here. No one else is believed to be missing in the warehouse, KIRO 7 reports. Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos released a statement on the devastation only after social media outcry. (More tornado stories.)