birmingham. i had a conversation with the chief of police. we re at the staging area here, which is city hall. one of the only few structures in this community that has not been obliterated as a result of the tornado. he described it striking about 6:00 last night, coming a swath a half-mile wide right through the middle of the city. they know they have six people confirmed dead, however, he believed that the death toll will go considerably higher. they have nine search and recovery teams out in the affected neighborhoods. they have five more teams staging and getting ready to head out. he says people are still trapped in their homes, and that they are being freed all the time. we have already witnessed that there are bodies still to be recovered out in the area that has been hardest-hit. this is a town of about 10,000 people, so they re taking it extremely hard. the damage is quite striking. i will have to say this. you know, everybody here measures it back to the big storms they had
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i have seen several tornado outbreaks but nothing that can compare to this. we have two oak trees, each about 50 feet, that were 50 feet high. this is what happens when they experience wind gusts tops 200 miles per hour sustained from the massive tornado that came through. believed to be an ef-4 at least. you see the devastation we have of one house and one of many structures not only across tuskaloosa but parts of the southeast. 128 de. we m debris is everywhere. when you have the strong winds and debris, these small things like these splinters of wood become a projectile, as deadly as any missile or bullet. that is one of the big reasons why you have so many deaths. in a situation like this, storms that are this strong with winds so powerful, the only safe place you can find would be underground. unfortunately, many of the people that call this area home
warning. were there no tornado sirens that went off? i was just curious about that. reporter: we want to ask one more thing. we have heard this from a number of people in the community. did you have a warning? did you heard a tornado siren? yes, i did hear a tornado siren. when we hear that, you don t expect something that massive. i think that s what caught everybody off-guard. we thought it was another, you know, severe thunderstorm basically and a little outskirt tornado. that caught everybody off guard, it was so massive. reporter: when you saw it it, what was your first reaction? did you want to take cover immediately? shear shock, disbelief? fear. it was just that. it was intimidating to see something that big and massive moving. that was my initial thing, to find somewhere and take cover. reporter: were any of your loved ones, any of year families members injured or lose their life? i lost some friends to it. i had a buddy of mine that got
sgood morning. give us a sense of damage and the most recent death toll that you know. well, yeah, we ve been working with the states. alabama seems to be the hardest hit. we had loss of life in mississippi, impacts in georgia all the way up into virginia. they re comparing this outbreak to the 1974 super tornado outbreak. the amount of fatalities unfortunately is now being reported close to a little over 200, and search and rescue operations are still under way in alabama and some of the other areas. tell me about that. how many people has tefema sento alabama, and what exactly are they doing? right now, last night the governor requested assistance. president obama declared an emergency declaration. that allows us to send in direct federal assistance to the governor s team. we recognize as bad as this tornado is, a lot of the response is being done by local officials, mutual aid from surrounding communities as well as the governor has called out the national guard.