>> here's a look at where the governor is talking about, mayfield kentucky in the western part of the state. it's got a population of about 10,000 people. the governor believes 50 people are dead. that number could rise between 70 and 100 statewide. that candle factory, 110 people were inside at the time it was hit. many people no doubt working the second shift. the governor believes dozens could have perished in that building alone. take a look at what this tornado did to the area here, we see cars mangled, just tossed around here, picked up by those strong winds and flung. other cars you see they are really just completely together in a mangled pile of metal, hard to even see exactly what we're looking at here. one of the things that made the storm so dangerous is that the tornados hit when it was dark out. and the governor says people were given advanced warning but also called this a storm unlike anything they've ever seen. unfortunately, it wasn't just kentucky. take a look at the map on your screen. five of these states you see on your screen had tornado warnings at some point overnight, and the storm left at least 300,000 homes and businesses across these states without power, a number, by the way, that is still rising. search and rescue operations have begun and will continue throughout the day, in edwardsville, illinois, in st. louis, storms ripped part of a roof off an amazon facility trapping people inside. at least one person has died and we just got an update from the police chief less than 15 minutes ago. >> we had a significant weather event that occurred down in our enterprise zone. one of our amazon warehouses experienced a major structural damage. we are at this time able to confirm that we have more than one fatality. >> and we're keeping a close eye also on the situation in arkansas. we know at least one person is dead after a tornado hit a nursing home in that state. at least five others were seriously hurt. we are staying on top of this devastaing breaking news this morning with nbc news meteorologist bill karins and nbc's stephanie stanton. bill, you have the latest on exactly where these tornados touched down. >> yeah, good morning. the fact that we are going to compare this to one of the worst tornados in u.s. history, that being the tri-state tornado going all the way back in 1925, that tornado is considered worst one we've ever had where it killed over 695 people. this one was similar to that one that it was on the ground for a very long time. you was tracking it on social media for maybe four, four and a half hours if you want to go through my twitter account, you can just see how crazy and dramatic the whole four hours was. we know we had eight different localities, cities that went under tornado emergencies. tornado emergencies, you may have heard of like you get a tornado warning. your phone goes off, it says tornado warning, tornado possibly located if blank location. the next level up from that is what we call tornado emergencies. that's when we know we have a very strong, powerful tornado that's on the ground and about to go through a city. in other words, the weather service is telling people in those cities, you are about to get hit by an extremely dangerous tornado. get to your safe room, get underground. maybe we get that for one town occasionally or one city, but the fact this was on the ground for so long, there were eight different cities along the way. you're going to hear a lot about mayfield today. that's where you saw those cars that were pictured by storm chaser brett adler, he was one of the first storm chasers to get in there. it was roughly about 40 minutes that went by. we can see on radar that the tornado was approaching mayfield. we knew they were going to get hit. tornado emergency was issued. the storm went through, and then we get what we call a debris signature on the radar. the tornado went through the town, and it was so powerful, it sucked the debris, which can be leaves, branches, trees, if it hits structures, which we know it did. the crumbled roofs, the walls. it sucks all of that up into the storm itself, and it was indicated it sucked this stuff up 20 to 30,000 feet into the air. i mean, it was like all the meteorologists on social media, we were all like -- we couldn't believe it. it was -- we knew how bad it was. and then we went about 40 to 60 minutes, and we heard nothing. there was a pin dropping coming out of mayfield, kentucky, and when we had that happen we know that all the emergency communications have been wiped out. we know how bad it was going to be because there was nothing. it was scary because we -- you know, the fact that we couldn't even get any -- no facebook pictures, no twitter pictures, no storm chasers, cell phone communications were down. people listening to the scanners for the police and fire departments out in mayfield, there was nothing even coming cross on the scanners. so the first storm chasers that did get in there said that they were getting in there assisting, trying to go door to door to help rescue people to see if they could save people. there's still people probably trapped at this hour this morning. this roughly occurred at about 10:00 p.m. right there, i believe, you're looking at the pictures -- i guess you can correct me if i'm wrong here, that possibly is mayfield, but i can't even tell what structure that is. we get to the point now where we're looking at, you know, how strong was this tornado? you know, we have two ways of indicating that. one is the national weather service goes out. they look at these pictures, and they have a scale and a grade where they can tell, you know, how much the trees were ripped apart. if there's only a foundation left. that's when we know we were dealing with an ef-5 tornado, which is the highest category. and look at the white van just sitting in the middle of that wreckage, whatever this building or structure was. you know, lynn, i'm just going to go out and say this is mayfield, kentucky. my guess is this was that candle factory, if they're saying the structure collapsed and there was people in it. it was 10:00 p.m. at night. obviously we don't know the details of this business, you know, how many workers were there on a friday night at around 10:00 p.m., if it was like shift work or overnight, if it was a 24-hour facility. obviously people were in there. they said there were people that were trapped. imagine just trying to survive what went through that. there's also numerous pictures on social media of the courthouse in downtown mayfield, the top portion of the building was ripped off. that's kind of only the -- the only real images that we've seen coming out of the mayfield area. i did hear some reports that structures have been ripped off their concrete slabs and that the only thing was left was that. we're thinking this could have been like an ef-4 tornado. and on top of all of this, i mean, this is december. this is two weeks before christmas, so unheard of. you know, we can get december tornados, but to get them in kentucky in december, at one point last night we had a tornado on the south shore of lake michigan of all places, but this one specific storm and i guess i can reference and kind of go to the weather maps here just to show you a little more of this storm. it actually formed in kentucky, so the one famous tornado that killed almost 700 people was called the tri-state tornado for obvious reasons. it was on the ground for over 200 miles. it went through three different states. their likely going to call this the quad state tornado. it started in arkansas, it went through the boot of missouri. the director can take this map full. all the little red icons here are where the tornado was reported and where it hit on the ground. you can kind of follow the path. this loop goes from 5:00 p.m. to midnight, and it started just to the east of there, northeastern portions of arkansas. that's where the first reports were of the nursing home that had collapsed. we know we had one fatality there. they had about 66 patients in bed. they had them all out in the parking lot after it went through. then it went through a little section of tennessee and then it went through kentucky for roughly two to three hours before it weakened before it headed to the louisville area. the way it works is the national weather service will go out there during the next couple of days. they'll have aerial shots. there will literally be a tornado scar on the earth from this it was so powerful. they'll let us know if it was one continuous tornado. it doesn't make any difference whatsoever, the damage is done. the rescues are ongoing, i would expect the death toll unfortunately with a powerful tornado like this it will just go up during the day. it wasn't just mayfield, we are going to know first what happened in the cities and bigger towns. mayfield's about 10,000. i know dawson springs, that's about 4 to 5,000 people. we'll find out in the days ahead if this was one tornado on the ground for an extraordinary period of time or not. but this is going to be one of the worst tornado outbreaks we've had in a long time in this country, and a lot of people are going to need help right before the holidays. >> so tragic. we want you to stay around: stick around for us, we're going to come back to you. i want to bring in nbc news correspondent stephanie stanton who's been following latest. stephanie, the governor of kentucky says the true extent of the damage and defr station won't be known until day break. that's still about an hour from now. >> reporter: good morning to you, lindsey. devastation really can't begin to describe what resident s of kentucky and the surrounding states are seeing right now, are feeling right now. as you said, as day break begins here on the east coast and in the midwest, people are going to awake to just utter devastation. i've been following social media. i've been looking at twitter, and i've been seeing a lot of people tweeting out people saying one woman tweeted out that her entire part of the town of mayfield, kentucky was gone. and you know, bill was just talking about mayfield, kentucky, that is one of the hardest hit areas by this tornado or this string of tornados. we just don't know at this point. what we do know is that the death toll is pretty significant according to the governor, and they do expect that death toll to rise. let's talk about that candle factory because that was one of the hardest hit structures. we understand that there were about 110 people working in this candle factory when it took a direct hit. at least a dozen fatalities there in that candle factory according to officials. again, that death toll expected to rise throughout the state of kentucky and the other surrounding areas. and forgive me if i look down. i am still sort of processing information as it is coming in. just the sheer emotion of this alone can't begin to describe how these people must be feeling, and as bill mentioned, ahead of the holiday season. what also struck me about this and i find unprecedented is the time of year that this happened. a good friend of mine is a tornado chaser and a meteorologist so he does this, and it's always in the springtime. the fact that they've had this type of tornado, these types of storms here in december is unprecedented. and as bill said, we are going to learn more about that. talking about the town of mayfield, home to about 10,000 people, we saw buildings that were left without their roofs. we saw trees uprooted, storefronts, glass shattered, that courthouse, bill mentioned that. that was built in 1888. that was devastated with the tower sheered off the building, the roof literally lifted off. i want to move over to edwardsville, illinois, that's about 30 mails east of st. louis. that is where that amazon warehouse, part of that building was essentially collapsed when that also took a direct hit from a tornado. it is unclear at this point how many people were inside. we heard just a short time ago that there was at least one fatality. from what i'm seeing on social media, they do expect that to grow as officials are desperately trying to get people who may be trapped in that warehouse, that amazon warehouse out of the dedebris. as you may know, lindsey, this is not an easy task. they have to painstakingly go through that debris bit by bit and try to search for survivors first. that is just a daunting task at this hour. i want to move over to arkansas now. we have at least one nursing home that was struck by a tornado. there are reports that monett manors, what that nursing home is called in arkansas. that was struck by a tornado. we understand that there was at least one fatality there. 20 people were trapped inside according to officials as that building collapsed, and we understand that that nursing home has about 86 beds. there were reports that another nursing home about 20 miles away in the town of truman was badly damaged. so far no reports of injuries coming from that as well. when you think about the multitude of states here that have been impacted by this. we also understand that thousands at last report i heard 180,000 people were without power in multiple states. more than 55,000 people in the state of kentucky without power alone. so this is just incredible, and you know, we are starting to just now see these images coming across social media. and i was also listening to the scanners, lindsey, and you know, that is quite emotional. when you listen to the scanners, you know, you're hearing what's happening in realtime. you know, it was rescue after rescue after rescue. officials no doubt are extremely overwhelmed. we are continuing to watch it of course here in the state of florida and will all across the nation as all eyes are on the midsection of the country as folks there have some pretty tough days ahead of them. >> certainly, yeah, the sheer scope of the devastation and the emotion of the timing of it all too, stephanie, it's hard to wrap your minds around. stephanie, we appreciate it. for more on this, we are joined now on the phone by kentucky state trooper sarah burgess who's in graves county, that's where mayfield is located. trooper burgess, thank you for joining us on such a somber morning. >> absolutely. >> what can you tell us now? i know the sun hasn't risen right now where you are. what have you seen in terms of the scope of the damage? >> right now it is very widespread. we have emergency crews at numerous locations and the calls continue to come in for help as people find new damage and new scenarios that arise as the morning light starts coming in. we do have about an hour before actual sunrise. >> and trooper burgess, what can you tell us about this candle factory that's there in mayfield where 110 people were inside at the time where it took a direct hit from this tornado? >> yes, the candle factory was operational at the time of the storm. my understanding is that the roof originally collapsed and there was a secondary collapse after the initial hit, and there were like you said, approximately 110 employees there working at the time. there's still several crews on scene of that incident trying to go through the rubble and locate as many as we can, determine the severity of that particular location. >> trooper what areas have you been to so far, and can you describe what you're seeing in your own words, what you saw with your own eyes. >> just simply the sheer building completely collapsed, homes destroyed, the court square just gone. the courthouse itself as you all spoke about earlier, the clock tower and the roof ripped right off of the courthouse. >> and trooper, right now what do you think contributed? obviously we know that the storms have been incredibly powerful. we heard the one that hit the western part of your state was on the ground for 227 miles. obviously that would create just a ton of havoc, but do you think also the severity here was partially due to the fact that it was dark out when the storm hit? >> oh, absolutely. and of course people were in their beds. many were likely -- definitely being a nighttime incident impacted the tragedy. >> i want to go ahead and listen to somebody who was inside that candle factory at the time when that roof collapsed. trooper stay with us one second. let's listen. >> okay, i don't know who's watching. we got hit by a hurricane. i'm at work in mayfield, and we are trapped, please, you all get us some help. we're at the candle factory in mayfield. please, please. >> all right, everybody, sorry, we should have let you know that that would be disturbing audio there hearing people inside who were trapped, who were crying for help. it's devastating. it sends a chill up your spine, the suffering that those people are going through. trooper, what kind of help is on the way right now? you mentioned crews are still on the ground. we know the governor is going to be headed to mayfield when it's safe to do so, when it's light out. what kind of help is on the way for these people? >> yes, we have emergency crews from every surrounding agency has sent personnel to us, from every surrounding county and town that had anybody available to assist. we have worked together to create crews for the incidents. the governor has deployed the national guard and they are on their way. they should be arriving pretty soon if they haven't arrived already. i personally have not seen them arrive yet. they were supposed to be here approximately 6:00 a.m. they should be here soon if they're not already. we do have all of our local agencies. >> water trucks are on the way, national guardsmen as well, and trooper, as we just heard that incredibly frightening, scary video of people who were trapped inside that building, you obviously have a connection to this community with the state. i understand that you're in go mode right now, but what kind of emotions are you feeling as this is happening right where you are? >> it's definitely tough to see this happen to your friends and family and your local community. our post serves 11 counties, but graves county actually houses our facility, so this is our home. >> trooper, is there anything else that you would like our viewers to know? >> just for the citizens that are in the area that are not harmed, if you are safe, please remain where you're at so we can get to those that do need our assistance. >> all right, trooper burgess there on the ground in graves county, kentucky, we appreciate your time and our thoughts, our prayers are with you and your community at this time. >> thank you, ma'am, we sure appreciate that. >> we're going to have much more on the other side of the break on this detective -- devastating news in kentucky. include ago storm chaser who witnessed one of these detective tornados firsthand. that's next. tornados firsthand that's 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in a cadillac, tradition is yours to define. so visit a cadillac showroom, and start celebrating today. ♪ ♪ ♪ when you have nausea, ♪ so visit a cadillac showroom, and start celebrating today. ♪ heartburn, ingestion, upset stomach... ♪ ♪ diarrheaaaa.♪ try pepto bismol with a powerful coating action. for fast and soothing relief. pepto bismol for fast relief when you need it most. we are back with our top story this morning, breaking overnight, there are at least 50 deaths, at least 50 people have died after a series of tornados ripped through kentucky and several other states. just overnight late friday evening into this morning. we know that the death toll just in kentucky alone is expected to rise to 70 to 100. the full extent of the damage won't be known or understood until day break, which isn't until about 8:00 a.m. eastern time, which is 7:00 a.m. their local time. want to bring in now michael gordon who's been following this story on the ground from missouri specifically i believe caruthersville is how we pronounce it. you can correct me if i'm wrong. that's the southern part of the state. we're going to show you some video you took of one of the storms and kind of tell us what you saw. >> well, i watched the storm for a while on the radar and moved back trying to stay out of the rain, and started to see it started moving more easterly and not northeasterly. as it was going north for a while and then switched and started moving more east, and i caught it on i-55 there right near caruthersville. when i saw it on radar, it wasn't looking like it was as large as it really was after it passed my truck. that was something that when i rolled my window down, you could feel the pressure just drop as it was sucking everything, that tornado was sucking everything it could off the ground. you could feel the -- i mean, the intensity, the noise, you were seeing power flashes just thinking what that thing, what that tornado was actually doing as i could only see it in the dark. it was, you know, gut wrenching to see it just keep moving, and then to learn it's tracked over 200 some miles and has destroyed many, many cities. one of them's mayfield. i'm actually sitting here in mayfield next to the candle factory, and everywhere throughout mayfield is a destruction. i have not seen damage like this, as i'm sitting here it's actually becoming light. you're being able to start to see the tree limbs and stuff that aren't on the trees no more. pretty much trees just chopped off, debris really -- if i stepped out of my truck right now, i'd be walking on debris. that's how much debris has been scattered across this whole area. it's -- i'm praying for all the families. i mean, this -- i will say one thing, the first responders on this i have never seen first responders like this act as fast as they have. i mean, hundreds of ems, i mean there are ambulances from 100 miles from -- everybody's here, and it's pretty cool to see that. everyone's working together. all of -- even, you know, just volunteers, when i pulled into mayfield there was lines of people ready to volunteer. it was pretty neat to see that, and it just -- >> michael, we're going to take some of this video that we're watching, and i'm going to ask you to rearrange your camera position so you can show us. don't get out of your truck, don't put yourself in a dangerous situation. if you can, with your camera that you're talking to us now kind of show us what you're seeing in mayfield. i'm also going to ask you because you did make the 90 minute drive from caruthersville to mayfield where this tornado -- it's about 90 miles between. we know the tornado stayed on the ground for 227 miles, and we know it was dark and you were relying on those flashes to see exactly the storm, but put this in perspective for us. you're in a dangerous line of work here where you follow some of these, and talk to us about your own feelings and thoughts. i mean, is this unlike anything you've seen and how big do you think -- how wide do you think this tornado could have been? >> this has been one of my top tornados. it's wide after it passed my truck, i believe it was probably right around a mile, a mile wide, but i think once it passed caruthersville as i saw on radar, it grew and grew and grew and got stronger. it's like it started down by jonesboro and just exponentially grew. once it came across missouri and into tennessee and then into kentucky, the power was just, like i said, exponentially growing. seeing what this storm has done devastation-wise is a -- i mean, it's almost light out now, and i think people don't really understand -- i've drove all around mayfield area, and i don't think everybody knows what the devastation is right now. it's pretty sad. >> are you seeing right now, michael, when you're outside the candle factory, are you seeing people actively being rescued from there? what is it that you're seeing and looking at? >> let me see if i can do this here because i'm on my computer, but if you look behind me, you'll have ems, you can't really see down there. >> okay. it's kind of hard to explain, but earlier this morning there was ems personnel all over this area. as you see, they've went and helped other areas, but like i said, when i get out of my truck and you just look and it's hard to see because it's still dark, but it turned -- i'm in a john deere parking lot, and it literally turned tractors over, and we're not talking little tractors. we're talking tractors that are used in large fields, you know, probably 20, 30,000 pound tractors, and they are tipped over. i don't know. i don't even like looking outside my truck as it's getting light because there's nothing left. if you want me to describe that picture that was taken with that drone, once you walk over that hill, it's pretty much a building that's flat. it's just a pile of -- it'd be like somebody taking a dump truck of dirt and say that is -- and it's just like a big pile of debris. >> michael. >> there's nothing -- the emergency personnel are fine picking in through all that debris doing their best to find the survivors and anyone else that's in that, and it's -- i don't even like walking over there. >> i understand. i appreciate you showing us. we want you to stay safe, and we know you're surrounded by debris, and i can hear the emotion in your voice. michael gordon there for us on the ground in mayfield, who also took some just incredible video of the tornado in southern missouri, video that i want to show meteorologist bill karins, so bill, you're back with us, and if we can show that video and kind of watch it together, you're more of the trained eye here. what is it that you pick up and glean from this video? >> the ef-4s and ef-5s, there's a tornado scale it goes from 0 to 5, 4 and 5 are the strongest. about 1% of tornados are these ef-4 and ef-5s. 95% are ef-1s that do a little damage. this is what we call a wedge tornado or a stove pipe. it's kind of hard to tell exactly, but this was an ef-4 or ef-5. it's just a massive tornado that was on the ground reportedly for four hours over 250 miles. we don't know if it was continuously on the ground, maybe it lifted occasionally and dropped back down. we won't know that later today or maybe even tomorrow, but when the lightning illuminates it, it's as scary as it gets. we know that this one, you can see there it just kind of looks like a wedge coming out of the lowering of the cloud. there in the background it kind of looks more like a stove pipe. it does change over time. but when you see that and you know that that went through that town and you can see what's left of that factory, i mean, i'm just trying to think of, you know, our reporter on the ground there, i apologize, i didn't catch her name earlier. she was saying over 100 people were in that factory. you see what it looks like. you can see that white van located in the middle of that factory. i mean, obviously it was a second shift, night shift people, people that kissed their families and children good night as they went to work their overnight shift at a candle factory. you think at that time of the year maybe they're cranking stuff out for the holidays. maybe they're in over production mode. that's just horrendous. this is central time so you know, these are people that went to work, kissed their kids good night. the kids went to bed and some of these kids and families are waking up to this right now. >> and bill what kind of -- we know there was some advanced warning there in mayfield, obviously people were still inside the candle factory. what do we know about the warnings for people on the ground? >> sometimes we'll have cases that it was like wow, we didn't know this was coming. the tornado came out of the blue. we had no warning. we've all seen interviews like that. this was on the ground for almost three hours before it hit mayfield. i've been working on an image here. weather 6, i'll actually show you. the first tornado warning for this storm was right around 5:40, if you want to throw weather 6 maps up. you see where jonesboro, arkansas, is located up there. right around searcy is the beginning of this storm. that's around 5:40 p.m. central time. the first tornado warning came out. we then tracked that super cell to mayfield, tornado warnings with it the whole entire time. that's at 9:30 p.m., i paused this radar, and you can see mayfield located right there. what we call this is we call this a super cell thunderstorm, and it has a well defined hook echo. that area right where mayfield is that kind of juts out, you can see the darker reds to the north of it. that's usually what we call like the hail shaft. in this case that was probably some debris being picked up by the radar also. that little hook right near mayfield, that's right where the tornado was located. it's well defined signature that tells us on radar that there's a tornado so the tornado emergency was issued well in time. the problem that you have with these ef-4, ef-5 tornados is that sometimes even if that candle factory did have a shelter room and all the workers, they knew it was coming, i'm sure the tornado sirens were going off, their phones were going off, tornado emergency, tornado heading for mayfield, i'm sure they all got to the safest possible spot they could in that candle factory. they knew this was coming, but when you have an ef-4, ef-5 and winds 150 to 200 miles an hour, sometimes that's not good enough, unless you have an underground, you know, bomb shelter type or tornado shelter type location. we'll find out in the days ahead what kind of shelter that they had in this factory. you know, sometimes it just doesn't matter. you know, you're told get to the interior room of your house. get as many walls in between you and the tornado as possible. you know, get in your bathtub and put a mattress over your heads to protect you and your families if possible. all those are good, but sometimes if it's 200 miles per hour winds that slams into your house or your building like this, it doesn't make a difference. sometimes some of these are unsurvivable. i'm sure hopefully we'll have these amazing stories of rescues and you know, people that did survive this, and again, we're showing you this mayfield, kentucky, damage because that's where -- that's the video we have at this point. that's where the storm chasers went. as i said before, we had eight different locations that had tornado emergencies last night. it was not just mayfield. so we know that there's other towns that were hit. maybe not as bad as this one, lindsey, but we know other ones. and just so people that have been watching us, i don't want to ignore what's also going on. this line of storms hasn't ended: just to quickly update people, we still have tornado watches that are out. we haven't had any tornados that have been reported but northern alabama from birmingham to huntsville, the line in between nashville and knoxville. damaging winds are still possible with this, maybe an isolated tornado, but the worst of it is over with. we still have about 16 million people in the slight risk for storms for the rest of this morning through columbus and northern alabama. the worst of this has happened. we're not going to see anything close to what we witnessed last night. it was about 32 tornado reports and it looks like one of those super cell thunderstorms produced most of those tornados. maybe it could have been one tornado on the ground for four hours. it's almost certain that this will end up being one of our top ten deadliest tornado days yesterday in our country's history. >> it's hard to wrap your mind around everything you're saying, bill karins. we appreciate it. as bill just mentioned, it's not just mayfield kentucky unfortunately that was hit. coming up next we're going to talk to the mayor of monett, arkansas, a nursing home there was targeted and we know at least one person 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[ gasps ] there's nothing rosita can't do. i can't do this. she's afraid. can i try? no, no, no, porsha wait! ♪ this girl is on fire ♪ this is probably for the best. but i wrote this part for you. time to show the world what you're really made of. ♪ she's walking on fire ♪ all right, welcome back, everybody. we are continuing to follow breaking news overnight of the devastation right now in the central part of the u.s. several states hit overnight by tornados. most of the damage and destruction looks to be centered around mayfield, kentucky, but we know there are other states that were also damaged. there was an amazon factory in illinois where part of the roof was ripped off and people were trapped, and then we also know there was a nursing home in monett, arkansas, in which at least one person has died, at least five other people are hurt. i want to bring in the mayor right now of monett, arkansas, bob blankenship. thank you for joining us on such a somber morning and ask how you and your family are doing. >> my family was blessed. thank you for your concern, but my family was blessed. we missed the devastation. we could hear it. we can see some damage in our area where we live, but nothing of any magnitude that hit the monette manner nursing facility in monette. we emerged from our shelters not knowing what to see and getting my first call that -- we call it the manor was hit. everything was focused towards that. we had other damages, other homes were destroyed, but thank the good lord that we have a warning system that everyone has ample time and there's plenty of facilities living in a tornado belt area as i call it to get to a safe place and probably saved a lot of injuries and a lot of deaths. but that facility being a facility that those are bed patients, it's hard to do anything that you can take care of them. but we're so blessed, even though we're somber this morning over the death of some friends, loved ones of people in our area, it hurts, but at the same time we can be thankful for no more damage and no more injuries and no more death than we had. so at the last count i had, we had two deaths and over 25 injuries. teams work very diligently to get the people out that were entrapped in that. >> mayors, are those numbers just from the nursing home or is that from monette in general, which is in the northeast part of your state? >> that is just monette manor, that is the nursing home. >> you just gave us an update here, at least two people have died and 25 people are hurt from that nursing home in monette, was it a direct hit from a tornado? was the building hit by debris? what more do we know about what happened? >> no, it was a direct hit, and i mean from years of seeing this, they're going to say it's probably an f-3. the building is totally demolished. it was a 48-bed facility, and then all of the equipment that they have to take care of it, it's a pretty good-sized building, but it's just -- everything's gone. i mean, most -- a lot of the walls are standing, outer walls are standing, but all the roof is gone, and the windows are all gone. debris is scattered everywhere, but the rooms, it's just devastated how it turned the beds upside down and it's just -- all you can say we're just blessed that there wasn't serious injuries or more deaths than we had. >> mayor, the details are so hard to hear, especially as we're watching the video here and you're telling us the outer walls are standing, the roof is gone. that is what we're seeing there. mayor, you said that you and your family, you heard the storm. your home thankfully didn't take a direct hit. talk to me about how far away you are from monette manor, at this nursing home and what it sounded like to you. >> the city of monette is just a small farming community in northeast arkansas. population less than 1,600, so it's a pretty close-knit group of farm belt area, people who work together. we got our early warnings, thank goodness for our nation having the -- that system in place, and our local people having systems in place, but we were warned earlier yesterday morning that there was a possibility of this coing through our area. this happened so many times in my life time living in this part of the country, but you can -- you can just -- about 20 minutes when it reaches our county, the way we do in northeast arkansas, when they tell -- put our county, which is craighead county under a warning, then my police department, when i say my police department, the city police department has a -- can activate all of our in the area. so they give everybody a good 15 to 20 minutes to find a shelter somewhere. my family, my wife and i, were in our shelter. you could hear the wind. you could hear the rain hitting on the vent. i thought at one time i thought it was hail. now i know it was debris hitting outside and all of a sudden quietness. i've always heard that story. it sounds like a train. it most definitely does. i thought there it is. that's what i heard people talk about and it was gone. so, we waited a few minutes and we came out to see what was left and we were thankful our home was spared. a few things blown around, but everything else was in good shape. to hear what happened at the manor, then everything, all the wheels started rolling to start taking care of that. >> mayor, we are glad your home was spared and your family is all right. what do you need? what does your community or the people living in monette manor and their families? what is it your community needs right now? >> at this point, i've been receiving calls this morning that relief teams are coming in with showers and coming in with feeding trailers. we need right now just to let our people work and to allow the people who have the things that we need as far as we're still without electricity. i have no idea when that will come back. we just need people that are sight seers to stay clear. we will, the people in our area and outskirts area that are trained in this to come in and get set up and get established at that. our county is good at helping the other facilities such as churches that have the rescue equipment and that type of stuff. that's what we need. we need people to let the people work and let us try to mend and heal and try to rebuild. we will rebuild. >> all right. mayor blankenship, so sorry about what is happening in your community and the nursing home in monette. we appreciate your time. thank you, sir. >> thank you. have a good day. >> we know monette was not the only place hit by tornadoes. we are tracking damages in mayfield and in illinois with the amazon facility. i'll pull up a statement. this is from amazon. the area where this happened. amazon saying our thoughts, prayers and sympathies are with the victims and loved ones and everyone impacted. this is a devastating tragedy for the amazon family and focus is on supporting employees and partners. this took place in evansville, illinois where one person died. part of the roof ripped off the amazon facility trapping some people inside. i want to go back to nbc news correspondent stephanie stanton. stephanie, we talked about devastation in mayfield and monette and evansville. it's a lot to take in. >> reporter: it really is, lindsey. i have been on my phone like so many monitoring twitter and watching to see if we can get any shred of information and i've been listening to the scanners. when you talk about the amazon plant there in edwardsville, illinois, that is 30 miles east of st. louis. that facility opened in 2016, we understand. it did take a direct hit. when you look at the video and pictures coming in, it is devastating. you can see looks like half the building is destroyed or just very heavily damaged when you saw the collapse. it looks like a piece of mangled metal. that is the challenge for these search and rescue crews. we understand one fatality has been confirmed. they believe there may be more people trapped inside. it is unclear how many people were working in the warehouse when it was struck by the tornado. again, these are some of the details that we are awaiting and some of the things we will find out as the morning and day goes on here. the devastation is really hard to describe. when you look at what we are seeing here as the pictures and videos come in and the personal stories come in, lindsey, like the mayor of monette talking about the nursing home there and talking about the devastation in his town, but mayfield, kentucky. it is almost hard to fathom and hard to understand, especially this time of year. it is december. we do not typically see these types of tornadoes. i grew up in the midwest. in the chicagoland area. you are familiar with that area as well, lindsey. we are used to the tornado drills and they are common practice. it isn't until you see something like this that is so devastating and it hits home. yes, these tornadoes are a real threat. we will continue to monitor social media and wait for more word from officials and we will bring it to you as we watch it from the ground. >> i did misname the town. it is edwardsville, illinois. thank you, stephanie. i want to go back to bill karins here. bill, you think the worst is over? >> yeah. this could be the worst tornado we had going back to moore, oklahoma. that was 2012, i believe, or 2013. we are not going to see anything like this the rest of the day. we may get isolated damage here and there. this was a big tornado that was on the ground for a long time. these long track nocturnal tornadoes scare meteorologists. where we are on the calendar. we have a lot of darkness. sun was setting in most locations. 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. last night. tornadoes at night. typically you don't get the warning you would during the daytime. i have to give some credit. i know storm chasers saved a lot of lives. storm chasers put themselves in very dangerous positions trying to track this tornado last night. the fact we have as many images of the tornado we have is incredible. it is not like western kentucky is flat. there are hilly areas. they only knew where the tornado was, a, based on radar on phones or laptops in the cars, and, b when the lightning would flash where the lightning illuminates the sky and we see the wedge or stove-pipe tornado was located. they were calling that into the national weather service. the weather service relaying to the emergency managers and towns and counties telling them this is where the tornado is. we did this for four hours last night. the first tornado warning went up at 5:45 p.m. in arkansas with this storm. the last one was at 1:45 central time in the morning. this one super cell thunderstorm went for six hours producing tornado warnings. you know, you see, obviously, we are showing you the pictures from mayfield, lindsey. our heart goes out to families whose lives will never been the same after this. >> bill, certainly, talking about the devastation and time of year and the fact so many people were working the overnight shift at the time. bill karins, we will let you know. for everybody who is still with us, we will stay with the images in mayfield right now as we recap the devastating news we are waking up to this morning. many tornadoes hitting the state of kentucky. at least four. one of the most devastating hitting the western part of the state in mayfield. this is drone video of the hardest hit areas which was a candle factory. 110 people were working inside at the time this hit when it was already dark out. we know the governor of kentucky believes at least 50 people have died in the building alone. that number could go up to 72. we are tracking damage in edwardsville, illinois. an amazon facility where one person died after part of the roof was ripped off and in monette, arkansas. 25 people are hurt and people dead after the nursing home was hit there. stay with msnbc. we will follow the latest. i'm lindsey reiser. "velshi" is next. good morning. it is saturday, december 11th. i'm ali velshi. we begin with breaking news. series of tornadoes and tornadic thunderstorms touched down overnight in at least five states in the south and midwest. arkansas, illinois, kentucky, missouri and tennessee. at least 32 tornadoes are believed to have touched down. some powerful. at least 50 people are believed to be dead in just kentucky alone. officials there say the final figure could be closer to 100 people dead. governor andy beshear says four tornadoes hit his state. including one which stayed on the ground and this is unbelievable for 200 miles. scores of structures, as you see on the screen, have been destroyed. a mass casualty event declared at the kentucky candle factory. the drone video shows the total devastation of the plant in the town of mayfield, kentucky. a town that governor beshear says has been devastated. the audio is from