department, there is something about an announcement coming down tomorrow morning. what is that about? reporter: on monday morning president obama will announce his nomination to replace the current chairman of the joints chief of staff, and he is going to reportedly name general dempsey. if he is confirmed by the senate he will work with the cia director and secretary of defense on pretty serious issues, especially this summer given the troop drawdown that is expected to occur in afghanistan. thank you. let s go to joplin now and the desperate search for any sign of 100 people or so still missing. msnbc s jay gray is in missouri with more. reporter: it s a working weekend in joplin. families poring through what is
welcome to american morning. we ve got a lot of breaking news, international news and right here in the united states. that s right. we start with extreme weather happening right now. towns from texas to the great lakes under the gun this morning from a combination of high winds, heavy rains and, again, the threat of tornadoes. unbelievable. in oklahoma the governor declaring a state of emergency in 68 counties hit. look at this tornado. that is remarkable. taken by storm chaser. about as close as you can get to a tornado without being hit by it. 16 people have been hit in the latest round of storm that s not including what happened sunday in joplin, missouri. let s go to joplin where they re picking up pieces this morning. the death toll now up to 125. an estimated 1500 people have not yet been accounted for. later this morning state officials will release a list of those who are missing or unaccounted for so they can figure out how many people just haven t been heard from.
slow down. amazing video indeed. those storms, by the way, have already claimed ten lives in the state of oklahoma. the governor declaring a state of emergency in 68 counties. in arkansas, the death toll has climbed to four people from the same string of bad weather. let s go to joplin, missouri. 1500 people remain missing. three days since the deadly tornado. many of those who survived are only now beginning to come to terms with what happened. cnn s casey wian is joining us from joplin with one family s dramatic story of survival. casey? reporter: wolf, imagine surviving one of the worst tornadoes in u.s. history by holding on to a couple of dog crates while your home collapses
officials here remain hopeful. in all situations like this, the longer time goes by, the harder it is to pull people out of these structures. rescuers are confident that if anyone is still alive in any of these collapsed homes or structures, they will be able to get them out hopefully by tomorrow. all right. thank you. now for more on rescue efforts, let s go to joplin city manager who is live on the phone. sir, we ve seen the horrific weather conditions there. what is going on right now? who do you still have out there in the field searching and do you have resources you need? we had 400 to 5 volunteers, fire personnel, and public works department personnel that showed up early this morning and as soon as the early storm lifted, we deployed them. during the course of the day we ve been able to rescue some 17 citizens and we continue our