6 Confirmed Dead After Severe Weather Causes Edwardsville Amazon Warehouse To Partially Collapse

CHICAGO (CBS) — At least six people have been confirmed dead after part of an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, collapsed Friday night, authorities say.

Around 8:33 p.m. a "severe weather event" occurred on the west end of Edwardsville, resulting in "catastrophic damage" to a significant portion of the Amazon warehouse, located at 3077 Gateway Commerce Center Drive South.

When Edwardsville firefighters arrived, they found about 150 yards of the building had collapsed.

Forty-five people who were in the building were reunited with their families at a reunification center set up by authorities. One of those people was airlifted to an area hospital to be treated for injuries, according to James Whiteford, Edwardsville Fire Chief and Incident Commander.

Authorities said their work has transitioned from search and rescue to search and recovery. Search crews are using cranes and heavy equipment to clear the debris as they look for more victims.

Amazon says it cannot say exactly how many people were in the building at the time of the collapse.

The Red Cross will deploy more volunteers to where their St. Louis, MO-based volunteers are located by the warehouse. They will be also opening shelters for displaced people.

Six states were hit by the tornados, which scarred more than 200 miles. Edwardsville was one of the worst areas hit, along with parts of Kentucky.