it s unfortunate but is something fema is experienced at. we knowex with tornadoes the immediate search t and rescue, e next question you ask is where do people stay. i think we go back to what the gentleman was doing. he knewma what to do to keep hi family safe, get in the bathroom, get low. they were able to survive the storm. now we need to focus on how do we rebuild, get the power up. his home is okay. a lot of this will be getting power back up to the areas that can take power and look at what can be done for the people that lost their homes. that s where fema s programs for temporary housing, giving people vouchers to get in hotels and motels, short-term shelters and start looking at the long-term housing needs for these people so the communities can start rebuilding. what s the first thing that fema director will do when she gets there today. what else will she do?
our crews are spread out across the affected communities. nbc s wendy wol folk is in main field, more chan chesky is in more gansville and ali velshi is on the ground in may field as well. ali, i know you got there yesterday after your show. what have you seen so far? reporter: kind of remarkable, lindsey. tornado destruction is not like hurricanes. it hits these isolated places. so ten minutes from here there will be no damage. there s no power anywhere around us in may field. we re due south of paducah. we re in southwestern kentucky. take s a look at this, this cit hall over the area. trees completely stripped. this is poll, we re talking about power being down. in a tornado nay snapped. these are household goods, a
continue here in may field. they continue to be search and rescue efforts, not recovery, meaning they re still looking for people who could be trapped alive. there are a lot of people unaccounted for. we have all sorts of help in here. fema has been activated here. we ve got the national guard in and around kentucky. there areen other sites in kentucky that have been hit like arkansas and illinois. but the bottom line is the search continues, and it is desperate right now because of, the temperature. you hearder from the president. he s spoken to the governor of kentucky two times already in the last 24 hours and keeps on saying, whatever you need, we will send. the federal government stands ready to help. right nowad it s a matter of finding the people who might be buried under the rubble. i remember your interview with the survivor of the candle factory. she said they were digging through the drywall trying to get out. 20 degrees in places where there is no power, just devastating.
us out of there because that house was about to cave in on itself. it was pretty traumatic. absolutely.tt douglas, we re going to show somee of the pictures that we told everybody would be hard to see. this is the rmt of what you went through. you and your middle son are in the hospital right now. how is everyone doing today? today my wife, my 2-month-old baby and my oldest, bentley, they re all and my mother-in-law, they re all at my actual house, and they re all doing pretty good. we re having issues with the generator right thnow. she just messaged me and said it died again on us, and we don t have power yet. so my actual house didn t get destroyed. but my mother-in-law s house is completely gone. myou mother-in-law has nothing left, absolutely nothing left.
out for is when those warm air masses are coming and you have a cold air mass, safe, from the arctic region coming through, some of the conditions for these strong storms lead to clashing of these types of weather fronts. and where these storms are occurring, when a tornado it s a very small phenomenon, very hard to get a handle of. it s not just the warm, moist air, which fuel greater power. you also have other conditions, such as vertical wind shear and a capping layer at the top that has to be warm, but not too warm and dry. so you need these ingredients and when they come together, if you have warmer, moist air at the surface in the mix, we re finding that it can be very dangerous and it s a time when you have to pay attention to weather forecasting in your area. i appreciate you explaining it in a way that i cansup. brenda, what do we need to do to