are the crisis wof our generation. >> reporter: i'm pamela brown in mayfield kentucky, one of the many communities devastated by this weekend's outbreak of deadly tornados. still hopes for a miracle here, that search crews will find a survivor in the rubble of a candle factory but still at work, the odds are long, dozens of people still missing. so much grief and heart-ache tonight but also a sense of resiliency. this town of 10,000, hardest hit. they lost their town, town square, so many people lost their homes from the factory, farmland, once quaint downdown, few buildings still standing. many people i talked to are wondering about their jobs, how will they survive moving forward. one man today said he couldn't find blood pressure medicine, lost his home, didn't know what to do. so much need here in mayfield and beyond in kentucky and the heads of homeland security and fema have been in this area today and are bringing much needed federal resources, more than 80 people, though, are feared dead. kentucky's governor says the flood of support has eased the heartbreak somewhat. >> we are grateful for the out pouring of love, best way i can describe it, from all over the country and all walks of life, i want to thank everybody for standing with the people of kentucky, we feel it. in fact, one of our biggest challenges now is organizing the amount of people that want to help and donate and volunteer but you know what, that's the best challenge any of us could ask for. >> reporter: that is so true and in talking to fellow kentuckiens today, so many lost their homes, lost their most cherished belongings but forging ahead. one man said you just got to pull up your big boy britches and plow forward, many just thankful to be alive when you look at the growing death count and illinois 200 miles from here, crews removed mountains of debris from amazon warehouse when a tornado blue into the building and 11-inch thick concrete walls crumbled and collapsed. one hard hit here in kentucky is dausson springs, a popular tourist destination, much of it now in ruins and people still missing. now, our ed lavandera, i know you're speaking to people with unimaginable heartbreak today, what are they telling you? >> reporter: there's a great deal of grief and a lot of people processing that. it has been a day of search and rescue and we have new, grim updates here in dawson springs. we were told, updated the last hour that the death toll is now 13, up from 10 when we spoke with you last night. two bodies pulled out of the rubble here in the dawson springs area. today we saw search and rescue teams nearly 140 people involved in the search and rescue with canine units pouring over the landscape here of this area that has just been so decimated by these storms. we were also told by county officials it's looking like it will now take weeks for the electricity to be fully restored across the city. but right now, the most urgent and pressing issue people are dealing with is trying to piece together and collect as many of their personal belongings as they can. they're also kind of coming to terms with the brush with death that so many people here in this neighborhood had. we know of the 13 people that died here, in hopkins county, many of them were from this very neighborhood that we've been reporting from and many people describe some harrowing accounts of what it was like when the storm hit this very spot. >> we were right down in here, so i couldn't necessarily see the house move but you could feel the wind coming in on top of you. >> reporter: wow and when you walked out -- >> we had to climb out. totally dark. no power. i couldn't see anything. and the whole basement is trashed. >> reporter: so it's like this storm lifted up your entire foundation. >> pushed it over there, yeah, and i was in there thinking why is the wind blowing so hard down here? >> reporter: and local officials are telling us tonight that there are still about a hunt people on the missing list. the hope is these are people that have left the area and still haven't checked in with anyone and so they are hopeful that is not an indication of this many more deaths, that will need to be reported, but they are also telling us that the search and rescue part of this storm is really now coming to an end and anything they do here on out is really a recovery process, as i mentioned earlier. two people pulled out of the rubble today, but they had been found dead and that is the kind of gruesome work that is still undergoing throughout vast swaths of this county. pamela, to put a fine point on it here, 2/3 of this city of nearly 3,000 people was decimated by this tornado. >> that really just sums up the reality there in dawson springs. and back here in mayfield, i want to bring in the mayor kathy onann, now thank you, i know you have been going nonstop since the tornado came through. first of all, what can you tell us about the search efforts and is it still a rescue mission? >> it's just still a search and rescue mission here. i talked to the fire chief, in charge of all of that, and he told me that usually lasts 10 days before it's a complete recovery. now that is hearsay, you know, from him, but he should know. so i think we're still searching and hoping to rescue, but as you know as i do, every day that goes by, we lose a little bit of that hope. >> reporter: and it's so cold and everything. we know fema homeland security officials are here. are you getting the help you need? what else needs to be done? >> absolutely, we're getting the help we need. this afternoon, secretary of homeland security was here, head of fema along with our governor and i stood with them and spoke at the press conference, behind me, are the people that came to us. i never called them. before the sun rose after this event happened i talked to the governor three or four times, talked to mitch mcconnell, they are ready for whatever we need and i am so thankful for both, the help on both the state and federal levels. >> can you give us an update on how many people in your county are still unaccounted for? >> i won't give you a number because i don't know that number. and so, i'm just hesitant to say. >> reporter: i understand. is there any update at the candle factory? we know crews are around it there around the clock. >> still there, no update that we know of. the manager mentioned at the press conference thissen froorks there was always a discrepancy of some type how many were in the building at the time it collapsed. so we had heard now, that possibly, the number is lower, the number of casuals is lower than we anticipated. we certainly hope that is true, that possibly in the days to come only half the casualties, but we can't say that for sure. >> right, i mean that's, those early days, you're just trying to get information and it's hard to come by. i had been talking with residents here in mayfield, many of whom lost their homes and just are at a loss of where to go, what to do, how to get medicine. i spoke to one man paying out of pocket for a motel room about an hour away. what do you tell those residents here? >> hold on. just hold on. help is going to be here. the fairgrounds here is a wonderful source, we tell people to take any type of supplies they have brought. there's a coordinating effort that will get stronger there everyday, if you need this here it is, that, here it is. there is a fun set-up through a local bank here, independence bank, and of course they can do no banking so it is admin centered through a branch of theirs at fancy farm, where people can send money. it has been posted other places but will be posted on the city facebook page by tomorrow. i know i have a family member that is the manager of a big licker store in lexington. he's holding $8,000 they collected on saturday for us and as soon, i just sent him the address. >> reporter: from lexington, that makes me feel proud. >> one of those big liquor bars, you know, and we're famous for our bourbon and proud of our bourbon so we'll proudly take the money they donated to us. >> reporter: i just want to note, i grew up a few hours away in lexington but before i came here i wient to the mayfield site, just last week, in your office you were saying what makes mayfield feel so special is the people and this is of course before the tragedy, talking about all the christmas festivities, isn't it surreal? in the background, just decimated buildings. your town is gone. what does that feel like? >> it's horrible, we're standing in front of the church and three other churches, the presbytarian, methodist, saturday night we had an advent walk, ended up with refreshments and all of us, the members of the three denominations said we got to do this again, first time we done it. now, just speaking with my minister and said thank goodness we had that to remember and we will do that again, not in the same sanctuaries but it will happen. >> reporter: it was incredible, i spoke to people today who went to the sanctuary and still had their fellowship. thank you as you rebuild your beautiful town. >> thank you for telling our story, we appreciate you being here. >> reporter: we'll promise to tell it. tracy mary elder on how people in this community are rallying together in the face of tragedy. and a sunday morning shocker. veteran chris wallace quitting fox and heading right on over here to cnn and we sure do welcome him. >> i want to try something new to go beyond politics to all the things i'm interested in. i'm ready for a new adventure and i hope you'll check it out. ...with kay. ♪ ♪ what a pain in the a— —alice? 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>> reporter: faith gets us through difficult times. this morning, we follow the plan that there are scriptures for each part of the year and we're in the part of how do you preach about joy in face of a disaster like this? we ended up making the service out to be exactly what it already was. joy is a choice, it's intentional. happiness means that the things around you are causing that happiness. joy allows you to be happy, to have a good outlook even in the middle of a crisis or disaster. and when everybody came together to read scripture, to sing the songs of our faith, together with friends and family, our area bishop was able to come in. we had representative from disaster relief at district and congress level and member from relief letting us know we were ready to pivot from sanctioning to serving hood and that begins now. >> reporter: so many kentuckiens out here cleaning up already. >> yes, the amount of debris moved already is gargantuan and a testament to the city of mayfield, the people from the county. grays county filled with wonderful people and in the city here, have folks who are willing to help, reach out and make a difference in peoples' lives. i've made a practice all throughout the day as people go through offering meals or runni running excavators made the practice of asking who they are and where they're from and thanking them. >> reporter: it's amazing to see the resilience in the face of such devastation. this is not running them down. thank you so much, really appreciate it, reverend joey reed. cnn covering the illinois amazon warehouse collapse. you just spoke to the mother of one of those victims? >> reporter: i'm sure you seen it there. it isn't until you speak to the families and loved ones affected of those lost, until you see the whole picture emerge. the six workers died in a partial collapse here, and such is the case for the coat family, took my colleagues and i into their home tonight, so that we can learn a little bit more about their 29-year-old son clayton, at just 29, served the country honorably in the navy, came back to illinois, worked in a job alongside his father, a contractor for amazon, and that's why he was in the shipping center when the storm flew through the area, heavily damaging that structure. his mom, carla, had an opportunity to sit down with describes how that night was. picked up the phone quickly, spoke to her son, urged him to seek shelter and then they never spoke again. she jumped in the car, drove about 20 miles to that facility and not until the early mornings yesterday the coroner's office found a body of what they believe was in fact her son so tonight, obviously stuck with a mother's grief but at the same time, there is something that gives her solace and comfort. that is that phonecall she had with her son. she overheard him urging his colleagues and coworkers to seek shelter, thinking not about himself but about others. >> in my heart, i know he went to try to warn other people to get where they needed to be and between his military training and just who he was, he would have done that. no matter whether, you know, he was told to or not. so that's the only thing i can hold on to is that i feel like he must have been trying to help someone else. >> reporter: and through the tears, she still brings a smile to her face remembering that her son, remembering him not only as kind and caring but also as quirky and really, the importance of having these conversations with those individuals who lost loved ones, especially, for example, here in illinois, the damage was just isolated to that one warehouse, but that the emotional devastation that tornado left behind, you can compare it to what you're seeing in kentucky. >> reporter: yeah, i think the emotional damage is so important to talk about as well and something that folks here and where you are in illinois will be dealing with that for a long time. thank you so much. well the fema chief says powerful storms like the one that brought all this destruction are becoming the, quote, new normal. what climate scientists are saying, when we come back. the biggest accomplishment, the sale of a business, or an important event for their family. for them, it's the first and only time. we have seen this literally thousands of times, in thousands of iterations. ♪ ♪ i am vince lumia, head of field management at morgan stanley. whether that's retirement, paying for their children's college education, or their son or daughter getting married, our financial advisors need to make sure that they are making objective decisions, every step along the way. every time you hit a milestone, an anniversary, a life event, the emotions will run high. making sure that you have somebody, a team of individuals that have seen it before, have seen every circumstance and seen every challenge, and have your back when you need it most, is one of the most valuable things a financial advisor could provide to a family. i am vince lumia and we are morgan stanley. this is your home. this is your family room slash gym. the guest bedroom slash music studio. the daybed slash dog bed. the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash classroom. and this is the basement slash panic room. maybe what your family needs is a vacation home slash vacation home. find yours on the vrbo app. ♪ it's our holiday savings event on the sleep number 360® smart bed. what if i sleep hot? 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>> great to be with you , pamel, now not under these circumstances. this was one for the ages, one may say jgenerational, historic. words come to mind. as the surveys are done, nearly 250 mile path length, ratings ef-4, ef-5 in damage. i think the president, his remarks yesterday were almost spot-on. >> reporter: yeah, help us understand, because you just laid out just the historic nature of this, potentially one of the largest tornados on record. is this a result of climate change? can you say that definitively? help us better understand that. >> yeah, we can't say that definitively, you know, one singular weather event versus climate which is sort of the statistics of weather and i think the best analogy here is baseball, major league baseball during the steroids era. you could never say that one home run was solely due to steroids or climate change, but when you look at the season, the batting averages, number of home runs, tornados, it becomes pretty clear climate change is certainly having a role in these types of extreme weather events. >> reporter: and tornados aren't unheard of in december but certainly not common, especially tornados of this magnitude. should we expect to see an increase in tornados in the winter months as the world continues to warm sfwh. >> yeah the united states average for tornados is about 25 per year and when you look at what happened friday, with path lengths well into the hundreds of miles, this is not common, not anything we've seen before. the temperatures friday morning across a good chunk of southeast united states were in the 70s and 80s, looked a lot more like a late string type of severe weather event, certainly consistent with climate model projections what we expect later on in you know what, it's already here it seems. >> it sure did. professor victor vercini, fascinating discussion. thank you so much. up next, a corrections officer describes to me riding out the storm in a mayfield jail and honors a colleague who did not survive. stay with cnn, live from kentucky tonight. that helps you build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. it's the sparkle and shine sale. get 30% off everything. ♪ ♪ this is how we shine... at zales. the diamond store. ♪ you pour your heart into everything you do, which is a lot. so take care of that heart with lipton. because sippin' on unsweetened lipton can help support a healthy heart. lipton. stop chuggin'. start sippin'. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! 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if it's “i thought we said no gifts” season, it's walgreens season. i'm here in mayfield, kentucky, where we keep hearing these just incredible stories of survival. tonight i spoke to corporal c.j. roberts who road out the tornado in the graves county jail and he told me what that was like. >> biggest tornado i ever seen. we walked outside of the outside doors and it's, we didn't see the edge of it. all we saw was the front leaning edge on the lefthand side of it. we couldn't see down this way. and it lit up when it hit the substation like a blueish green, and that's when we really saw the, that edge of it, and it was, it looked very violent, from the split second we saw. just -- >> reporter: and you ran back inside, then when it hit the jail, what was that like? >> there was, there was a section. you could feel it in your ears, in your joints, and it was loud. you could hear pieces of the courthouse, debris, hitting the jail from, on the roof. then, all of a sudden, everything was done. >> reporter: what was going through your mind in that quick, few seconds that it came through? >> really, my main concern was making sure the other deputies and the inmates were safe so nothing really was going in my mind except for that and getting people under their bunks and getting the deputies inside one of our vestibule areas. >> reporter: last question, i know you lost a deputy for the jail. tell me about him and what you think people should know about him. >> pretty much, only thing we can really, i can really say about it, he was a great man. he loved his job and he did it for the inmates and for the betterment of the community. >> reporter: and our thanks to corporal cj roberts for sharing his story with me. so many people like him are grieving the loss of loved ones, colleagues, people they know. this is a small, close-knit community, 10,000 people, seems like everyone knows each other here. right now, still don't know a an official number for the death toll. it's very fluid, no official for those unaccounted for, we know yesterday, many who were thought unaccounted for have been located so a bit of good news here but so much heartbreak, but at the same time, resiliency too. i talked to so many people today just forging ahead, out here all day long, bit by bit, cleaning up the rubble, trying to rebuild their community, and it's been really inspiring to see that level of resilience. and i also caught up with a mayfield resident, charles sherrell, looking through rubble of stuff and it turns out the rubble was his home. he wore out the storm by sheltering in his bathtub. here is what he said. >> reporter: so this is your house. where is the bath tub? right in there. look at this. >> right there. >> reporter: look, right in there. and what were you thinking when? >> just praying. praying that, you know, that god will take care of me, my kids. >> reporter: where were your kids and the rest of your family? >> they were in another house couple blocks over, but they were okay. hardly did any damage there. >> reporter: you must be feeling really lucky. >> am i first cousin lives across the street, helped me out. because i couldn't see. >> reporter: so what was it that protected you though -- >> the wall of the house fell on the tub, but the house was right here. >> reporter: it was over there? >> the foundation shifted all the way. actually, it wasn't right here, this was the driveway. >> reporter: and you said it sounded like train tracks, like a train. >> like a train. i'm just thankful to be alive. thankful for my kids and family and thankful for the ones that did make it, and sorry for the ones that didn't make it. but yeah, that's where i was. >> reporter: i'm so sorry you're having to go through this. i can't imagine looking at -- >> only problem i really had, i guess, when tornado came through, it blew the pipes out, came close to drowning. >> reporter: wait, what happened? >> the water running, shooting into the tub, almost drowned, couldn't get out. >> reporter: then what happened? it just stopped? >> i got out of there. water up to here, and i couldn't see because it was so dark. had >> reporter: gosh. >> grabbed some shoes and stuff. >> charles sherill, it's just incredible speaking to some of these residents who barely survived the tornado, who lost their homes, and still today they are able to be so pulled together. he doesn't know what the future holds for him. he and his family, they're staying at a motel. you know, he needs important things like medicine. we walked up to him, and he at m first asked if we were fema. so many people here are desperate for help, and there are federal, state, local resources pouring in to help people like charles sherill and his family. now check out this story, a decades old family photo from a home here in kentucky found more than 150 miles away in indiana. it apparently was whipped up by the storms and found by katie postin, who said it was stuck to her car window. she posted the photo on her social media accounts in hopes of finding its owners, and was able to connect with cole swatswell from dawson springs, kentucky, who told her the photo belonged to his family. wow. how about that? and i just want to take a moment and welcome a new member of our cnn family. after nearly two decades at fox news, chris wallace announced his resignation effective immediately. and here's this morning's shocker. >> it may sound corny, but i feel we've built a community here. there's a lot you can do on sunday mornings. the fact you've chosen to spend this hour with us is something i cherish. but after 18 years, i have decided to leave fox. i want to try something new to go beyond politics to all the things i'm interested in. i'm ready for a new adventure, and i hope you'll check it out. >> and that new adventure is at cnn. cnn+, our new subscription streaming service that will launch within the next few months. wallace, of course, the son of legendary newsman mike wallace, will host a weekday show. and of course we all welcome him aboard. chris, we are so excited to have you. and coming up, we get set for a cnn special honoring all those who made a difference this year. vanessa yurkevich is on the red carpet, and she joins me next. because sippin' on unsweetened lipton can help support a healthy heart. lipton. stop chuggin'. start sippin'. [uplifting music playing] ♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ (man) so when in doubt, just say, "let me talk to my manager." next, carvana's 100% online shopping experience. oh, man. carvana lets people buy a car-- get this-- from their couch. oh, how disruptive. no salesman there to help me pick out the car i need. how does anyone find a car on this site without someone like us checking in? she's a beauty, huh? oh, golly! (laughter) i can help you find the color you want. that sounds nice. let me talk to my manager. (vo) buy your next car 100% online. with carvana. (naj) at fisher investments, our clients know we have their backs. (other money manager) how do your clients know that? (naj) because as a fiduciary, it's our responsibility to always put clients first. (other money manager) so you do it because you have to? (naj) no, we do it because it's the right thing to do. we help clients enjoy a comfortable retirement. 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(naj) one that we don't take lightly. it's why our fees are structured so we do better when our clients do better. fisher investments is clearly different. it's the sparkle and shine sale. get 30% off everything. ♪ ♪ this is how we shine... at zales. the diamond store. this is elodia. she's a recording artist. 1 of 10 million people that comcast has connected to affordable internet in the last 10 years. and this is emmanuel, a future recording artist, and one of the millions of students we're connecting throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities. in just moments, the 15th annual cnn heroes all-star tribute kicks off. cnn's vanessa yurkevich is live on the red carpet. hi, vanessa. >> hi, pam. well, the red carpet was just electric tonight. you had the ten cnn heroes making their way down, congratulating one another. celebrities just dazzling on the carpet tonight, who will be introducing those heroes in just moments. we caught up with one cnn hero, shirley raines. she started beauty 2 the streetz after the loss of her son. she wanted to find purpose. she said she's found that in helping the homeless on skid row in los angeles. >> we're not made to get people off the street. we're made to help people wake up in the morning and decide to fight while living on the streets. every time we go out and do hair and makeup and see the same people show up, it reminds me they're still here. they're still amongst the living and we're doing our job. we're helping them live right now in the moment. >> peting people where they are. >> meeting people where they're at and bringing beauty 2 to the streets. >> all ten of these cnn heroes, they're going to be receiving $10,000 to further their cause, their organizations. but the hero of the year will receive $100,000. that will go a long way for them. but all of these heroes tonight winners in our backs. pam. >> they certainly are inspiring. vanessa yurkevich, thank you so much. before we honor cnn's top heroes of the past year, a final word from here in kentucky where new heroes are already rising to the challenge in the aftermath of these tornadoes. in louisville, a water donation drive. the mayor tweeting this video of the university of louisville women's basketball team lending a hand before their game today. and in warren county, home to hard-hit bowling green, the principal of south warren middle posted these pictures of his school now packed with donations. he tweeted, overwhelmed by the love and generosity in our community. and the governor says the team western kentucky tornado relief fund has already received more than $2 million from about 18,000 separate donations. and we have more ways to donate to states affected. check out cnn.com/impact. the 15th annual cnn heroes all-star tribute hosted by anderson cooper and kelly ripa starts now. sorry, cnn news junkies, my cynical siblings and ironic in-laws, not tonight. this is that time of year where we show you in a futile gesture of desperation and optimism that we really are a wonderful world. so tonight it's about feeling good. yeah, puppies and kittens, rainbows and sunshine. those hope-fille