embrace one another after the storm. you mentioned that homeland security secretary janet napolitano was here with other catholic members. and clearly you could tell that as they strolled through this, and they have seen a disaster or two, that they were very moved by the extent of the damage in this town. remember, this town was struck by an ef-5, that s the worst tornado you can possibly have. and here is how she spoke afterwards. on behalf of president obama, we will stand by and assist the state of mississippi and the people of smithville any way we can. we know that this storm hit this state hard, not just submitville, but a lot of the other communities as well. we also saw a number of other states hit. it was a very busy day at the smithville cemetery. it is ironic that this is the only business that is still in
smithville cemetery. and that, by the way, is the only business that is still up and operating in this tiny town of 900 people. she was quite emotional as we spoke. she was preparing for a burial that was going to take place today. here s how she described her town. they ve been hard days for all of us. this school was gone. our church is gone. there s nothing. reporter: so, as you hear, she s very, very emotional as she describes the losses in her town. of course, when you talk to people here, they say they will rebuild. we should point out that there is a caravan of obama cabinet officials that are coming to smithville. they ve actually been over in birmingham, alabama. they ve also been in other heart
she s just off camera here. they re trying to salvage what they can from this place. it s been a business 14 years. they plan and promise they will reopen. they just can t say exactly when that will be. for a lot of other people as you can see there isn t a whole lot that they can reclaim. there s not much at all as they try to sift through the pieces and pick up their lives. it is a day of faith sunday smithville at the baptist church. several hundred people gathered in the parking lot of that church because their house of worship was absolutely flattened as a result of the tornado that came through on wednesday. for many people it was a very emotional time. not just because the exact that they celebrate their faith but the fact they got to see one another again. this town has been dweeply divided and people have been spread all over as a result of the disaster that struck here. so it was a chance to come and, yes, celebrate. celebrate the fact that they were alive. there ar
the school is gone. our church is gone. there s nothing. it is a scene that will play out over and over in the coming days. the death toll from the storms now stands at 339. thousands more are injured, missing or homeless. alabama today declared a day of prayer for the victims. the state suffered the greatest loss of life with about 250 people dead. federal officials today got firsthand looks at the destruction in mississippi and alabama. listen for them to struggle for words to describe what they saw. i ve had an opportunity now to walk a few of these streets, you know, i don t think words can fairly express the level of devastation here. i m not articulate enough to really express what i saw. a lot of people looked to fema when we see tragedies like this. look at the people standing up there on that street. your fire department, the police department, the first responders, many of whom have lost their homes, many of whom in the middle of the storm were going out helpi
the most violent weather this planet can produce in any one place at one time. in one night, 173 separate tornadoes reportedly touched down. if that number holds, it will stand as a single-day record. that would make it the deadliest tornado outbreak since 1974. here are the numbers as of now. there are 280 americans confirmed dead so far across a five-state region. more than 1,000 people injured, damage that will take years to clean up and fix. and full disclosure here, we signed off the broadcast last night saying we would see you from london for the royal wedding coverage, and we went to london indeed overnight but realizing this death toll, the scope of this strajied rng we came back to begin our coverage of this story, so we do. our team is spread out across the region. they re all in place. we want to begin with jim cantore. he s in tuscaloosa, alabama. jim, good evening. reporter: good evening, brian. the winds with this powerful tornado probably in excess of 200 mil