what we have now learned tonight. and made in america is back. tonight, the success story that might have passed you on the highway. good evening, and it s great to have you with us here on a monday night, and we begin with the severe storms at this hour. emergency teams are on the scene tonight after what s believed to be a tornado hitting maryland not long ago. cars upside down, buildings destroyed, all part of this storm system. blinding rain, and damaging storms from the south all the way up through new york. you can see the damage coming in from the scene in maryland. there were high water rescues elsewhere. abc s gio benitez leading us off. reporter: tonight, powerful winds tossing cars like toys in maryland. a possible tornado ripping through this car. the driver of this car escaping with minor injuries. walls caving in, roofs shredded, in this parking lot, all part of a storm system stretching all the way to texas. in san antonio, a race to save residents trapped in high
i grew up in baltimore just outside in townsend. hey! charm city. erica, we d love to have you back as much as you can to talk about the efforts. i would be happy to be back. i think, we believe bringing this attention you did save lives this weekend. thank you very much. appreciate it. absolutely. thank you. coming up in the next hour, a special report on ferguson, three years later. after that city really changed and the events after michael brown s death. the violence that followed and the riots that happened and specifically there and a change in political figureheads, too and we ll dive into that in the next hour and we have thousands that are now cleaning up tonight after severe storms pummeled part of the country including a tornado hitting tulsa, oklahoma with dozens of injuries and very serious damage. we get on the ground there next. ? olay regenersit shatters the competition big hype. big price. big deal. olay regenerist hydrates skin
delays. and we ll have a domino effect, not only on the road and in the skies but this and two days before christmas, we re in december. i don t remember a tornado hitting in december. it must be extremely rare. it is pretty rare. we have more of a springtime pattern in place with temperatures running 20 to 30 degrees above normal, and we re going to see travel coming home from the holidays on sunday. we re looking at a snow system impacting portions of oklahoma,
severe weather caused some major travel problems and headaches across the country. in total, 55 million people min 24 states faced winter advisories and the first major storm of 2015. karen mcguinness has details for us. reporter: the first major storm of 2015 bringing severe weather to much of the eastern half of the country just as millions of travelers are headed home from the holidays. in all, 55 million people in 28 states faced winter storm watches, warnings and advisories this weekend. in mississippi, rain and strong winds destroyed several mobile homes bringing down trees, knocking out power lines, a possible tornado hitting jasper county in the southeastern part of the state. it was just like a train is coming. that s the way it was. it was just like a train coming.
we got downstairs in the basement, it just started going crazy. we was praying and just thanking the lord to get us through it. small town in northern oklahoma took a direct hit last night as well. at least one person is ted in that state. and is dead in that state, and destruction in kansas as well. yet another tornado hitting near baxter springs, kansas, leveling homes and businesses there. now, meteorologists to not yet know how strong these tornadoes were. the national weather service will have teams on the ground trying to determine that. some of the local meteorologists on the ground estimated winds were upward offed 130, 135 miles-per-hour, extremely strong, and you can see just how strong those winds were and what they are capable of. pretty scary stuff. especially now that part of the southern states could be under the gun this evening. casey, incredible. thank you very much.