miles over 4 of those states. homes have been completely leveled. cars have been strewn about in this shocking new drone video from bowling green, kentucky. the state's governor, andy beshear, saying it was the most devastating tornado event in the state's history and most likely the deadliest as well. the city of mayfield, kentucky, seemed to take one of the hardest hits. this harrowing video is of what was a candle factory in the city. but the roof collapsed from the storm, resulting in mass casualties there. the number, still unknown. beshear got emotional talking about what he had seen there earlier today. >> i just came from there. we're going to lose a lot of lives in that facility. and i pray that there will be another rescue. i pray there will be another one or two, but it's a very dire situation at this point. >> in illinois, multiple injuries and at least two deaths have been reported after a 100-foot wall partially collapsed in an amazon facility in edwardsville. authorities estimate there were about 50 people in that facility at the time of the tornado. and then in tennessee, video showing widespread damage across the city of kingston springs. there have been at least three confirmed deaths so far there. power outages are also widespread across the impacted states with tennessee reporting more than 120,000 outages, kentucky, more than 75,000. president biden will, in fact, deliver remarks on the storms in the next hour from wilmington, delaware. we will bring that to you live when, in fact, it happens. but i do want to start on the ground there. in kentucky, in one of the hardest hit areas, kathy park in mayfield outside that candle factory that was completely leveled. the governor saying the likelihood of lives that have been lost, incredibly high. kathy, talk to me about what you have been seeing on the ground there so far. >> reporter: yasmin, so, the candle factory that you are referring to is right over my shoulder. this is the closest that we can get, and we are told from the local coroner that 40 people are still unaccounted for. right now, it's a recovery and rescue mission. i asked him, is he hopeful there potentially could be survivors? he is hopeful. you might notice some activity behind me. you have different law enforcement agencies. this is a staging area for them, and you have a lot of heavy machinery that has been brought into the area. they are chroming through the rubble right now in hopes of finding more survivors. another big headline that we are following here on the ground, yasmin, a lot of family members are coming to this location because they are trying to locate their loved ones. they're frustrated. they want answers because they're saying that they're getting the run around. the coroner is saying that they're directing families to a local church in town. they're hoping to get a little bit more information, perhaps share more answers, possibly reunite them with their family members. still a very fluid situation, a very active situation. the damage here is just extensive. we got into town maybe about an hour or so ago. the moment you drive in, you see toppled trees, cars that have just been thrown across the other side of town. this is just really a preview of the damage. there is insulation scattered just about everywhere. you might see some of these trees right behind me. if you take a closer look, that's metal tangled in the limbs. we're told four tornados crossed through the state. one stayed on the ground for more than 200 miles. obviously, there is still a lot to be sorted out as far as just the extent of the damage here on the ground. obviously, you've seen probably the aerials of this community. this is the vantage point that we have right now, and it really is jaw-dropping to see the damage, and it's heartbreaking to hear the families, their stories as they try to connect with those loved ones. >> yeah, we're looking at some of those aerial images. it looks like a war zone, just completely obliterated, some areas of that city with those emergency vehicles surrounding it. i can't imagine the work that they have ahead and the families having to pick up the pieces. have you had an opportunity to speak to anybody that has lived through these tornados, that lived through last night, and what their experience was, now returning to seeing their city now leveled? >> reporter: you know, we just got to the scene, but obviously, getting here, we were hearing a lot of the stories just relayed to our colleagues here at nbc. there are survivors. one woman in particular even livestreamed on facebook as she was escaping just her harrowing ordeal. i mean, she mentioned having debris which was five feet on top of her at the time when the tornado ripped through. i mean, it's her 40th birthday today, and she's just lucky to be alive. she said it was probably the scariest thing that she had ever gone through. that's one storyline. but then the other storyline are those family members still trying to locate those loved ones. once again, 40 people still unaccounted for. this is a rescue and recovery operation right now, but like i said, officials here on the ground are hopeful they will find more survivors. yasmin? >> what is, kathy, just quickly, i know you do have a lot of kind of news gathering to do, wanted to talk to folks there, but what is the official plan in trying to rescue folks, help folks find loved ones, figure out where they're going to go, where they're going to live? i know there's a lot of people that don't have electricity right now. but some people don't have homes. to sleep in tonight. >> reporter: exactly. yeah. and you know what? i think right now, they're still kind of sorting that out. we just happened to run into the coroner, who dropped into this area because obviously a lot of family members want answers. he said family members should go to a local church in town, but there aren't a lot of facilities that are operating, that are even open. i mean, obviously, this community has been totally decimated. we haven't been able to get further into town. they're putting up barricades right now, obviously for safety reasons. but right now, we have law enforcement agencies. we have national guard members here as well, trying to assist this community as they try to kind of pick up the pieces. yasmin? >> all right, kathy, appreciate you being on the ground for us there as always. thank you. i want to bring in lucas, a reporter with the courier journal out of louisville. lucas, thank you for joining us on this. the community, as we were talking to kathy there, completely decimated, some of the photos in your newspaper telling the story of what took place. just communities flattened, really. what are you hearing from folks on the ground there about the extent of this devastation? >> thank you for having me on. i wish it was under more appropriate circumstances or better circumstances. but i mean, the photos speak for themselves. the videos speak for themselves. it's a devastating scene. a lot of people lost a lot of things. and you know, a lot of these communities are not, you know -- this isn't a big city. a lot of these people did not have a lot, and a lot of these people have a long way to go to recover. i mean, people lost their homes. people lost their businesses. in bowling green, i know a lot of warehouses and a lot of factories there were completely devastated. that's a college community too that they have to kind of recover from. but i mean, you see the videos right there and the photos. it's devastating. there's no other way of putting it. >> do you know, lucas, what the plan is for folks to help them in the days and nights to come? i was just speaking to kathy, obviously, and there are folks without electricity, hundreds of thousands of them. across five or six states at this point because these tornados. but on top of that, there are people that do not have anywhere to sleep tonight. there are long lines at grocery stores, obviously, for food and for gas as well. do you know of any plans to help house folks in the days to come? >> yeah, i know that this mayfield, at one point, relocated people to the high school. i think i've heard that they had -- they didn't have utilities there so they have been relocating them. it's a big -- there's a lot up in the air right now. the state at one point was asking people, you know, if you don't need to be out, hunker down and stay home, and let us kind of figure this out. but there's a lot up in the air right now. governor beshear and state senators and congress representatives have reached out to the biden administration and the white house for more, you know, assistance in this area. but i mean, right now, it's hard enough just getting into town. it's a disaster. >> so, you're in louisville. is that correct? >> i am. yes. yeah, louisville was -- >> how far is that from mayfield? >> it's probably about a four-hour drive. i have some family there. i still do. so, i spent plenty of time out there. i mean, these images, i can't look away from them. but it's about a four-hour drive. bowling green, which was hit hard too, is about two hours away. the storm passed all the way through western kentucky and kind of let up a little bit in central kentucky. i believe it was breckenridge county. i mean, louisville and these areas, a lot of people have been without power for a lot of the day. the storm, of course, still hit this area. there were gusty winds that hit this area, but most of the damage has been on the western side of the state, and i know that's been an issue for some people, just mobilizing and getting out there today because it's not, you know, a lot of these places, kentucky is a long state. a lot of these places appear in eastern kentucky, it's going to take you a while to get to the other side. they have had a lot of work to do today and a lot of work to do in the days ahead. >> you say you have family in mayfield. have you been in touch with them throughout the day? >> i have not personally. i did not -- i have an aunt out there, my aunt amy, who she's all right. i've heard she's good. but i got up at 4:00 or so this morning and i knew that it would be difficult to get in touch with her, but she is all right. i know i've heard from a lot of people. my email address has been in a lot of articles we've written and i've heard from people. i heard from a lady in dallas earlier who said, hey, i haven't been able to get in touch with family in fulton, kentucky. have you heard anything from them? i've gotten several emails like that and all the utilities down, the lack of communication, it makes it even scarier. but thankfully, i have heard from my family members out there. and we are in good shape, which is very good, but we got lucky. a lot of people didn't get as lucky. so, a lot of -- >> that's the tough part of the aftermath. that's the tough part of the aftermath of a lot of these major storms, obviously, i've never seen anything as devastating as this, but having covered hurricanes myself, i mean, you go into some of these areas, there's obviously no cell service, there's no way to connect with folks outside of the perimeter of your town, of your city, to tell them that you're okay or on top of that to seek help. hey, just quickly before i let you go, do you think folks were caught off guard with this tornado? did they have ample heads-up that something was headed their way and it was going to be as devastating as it was? >> there were reports earlier in the day that some severe weather might be coming, and there was a tornado chance, i know, the courier journal reported about it earlier in the day, and you know, there was -- it was known that a storm was coming in town, but i mean, you -- you look at these images. i don't think anybody expected it to be like this. i don't think anybody expected 150-mile-an-hour winds and so it -- obviously, it exceeded expectations. there was a bit of a warning, but this is worse than anything anybody could have imagined. >> yeah. might be the worst we've seen in this nation's history and especially in that state's history. lucas, we appreciate you, and we appreciate you joining us on this. please stay in touch with us as the days progress, as the hours progress, really, if you hear from more folks in that area, definitely reach out to us, let us know. we want to know how folks are doing, if people are safe, and what they have had to experience in the hours leading up to this thing. thank you, lucas, for now. appreciate it. >> absolutely. >> i want to bring in meteorologist michelle grossman, who was tracking this storm for us in the lead-up to this tornado and now obviously kind of trying to make sense of the devastation. michelle, talk us through some of what you were seeing leading up to this storm and then obviously now -- i know they're trying to understand if this was one storm, if this was -- >> oh, you know what? i think we just lost yasmin so i'm going to go ahead and talk. leading up to the storm on thursday, we got word from the storm prediction center that we are at enhanced risk for severe weather so we sent that out there, that alert was out on thursday. friday it was bumped up to a moderate risk. that's one of the highest levels that comes from the storm prediction center. so that was alerted on friday. and that's where we really took note of some strong storms that are going to come through, and what happens with these storms is, we know we have the ingredients, we know they're going to move through, we just don't know where it's going to hit. so, this is what happened here. this is a tornado outbreak. you can see they really blossomed. 36 tornado reports. that doesn't really mean 36 tornados, it means 36 tornado reports, meaning the tornados, as they go through towns and cities, you get the reports of these tornados, so it's going to take a long time to figure out how many went through, how long it went through and that's going to be sorted out over the next several days. but that's what it looked like over the past 24 hours. now, in terms of that super cell that went through mayfield, the devastating super cell, it tracked 230 miles so it started in arkansas, right around 5:20, that's when that thunderstorm blos smed. in terms of mayfield, where we had that first tornado warning at 5:50 p.m., the sun was setting, we knew we had that threat for nocturnal tornados and that final one was issued at 1:30. we tracked the devastation for hours and hours and we saw those velocities being returned where we're looking at winds of 250 miles so in terms of this particular cell that went through mayfield, we'll just go take you through the timeline. so, three hours before it went through, there was a tornado watch issued, so then your alerts are kind of put up like okay, we're going to get strong storms. at 9:05, we had a tornado warning. what that means is we have an observed tornado or we have a radar indicated tornado, so we knew there was a tornado nearby at 9:05. now, this is interesting and unusual. and good. at 9:27, we had a tornado emergency, and that means that we have a life-threatening weather event that's moving our way, and that was three minutes before it moved through the town of mayfield. so, as we go throughout the next couple days, yasmin, we're going to watch how long it tracked, did it stay on the ground that long, is it an ef-4, ef-5. survey teams are going to look through everything and that's where we're really going to be able to determine all the information. >> hey, i don't know if you can answer this, michelle. i'm sure you can, actually. but what was the kind of atmosphere to create a perfect storm like this? such devastation that we have really never seen. >> yeah. so, from a meteorology standpoint this is how i would describe it. it was devastating, it was historical. from a human aspect, it was so sad, it was overnight workers going into this candle factory without their loved ones, losing their lives so it was unusual for the time of year in december, typically, we see storms or tornados in spring, maybe late fall, october, november. but we don't see them to this magnitude. so 1% of all tornados are either an ef-4 or ef-5. speculation, i think it's going to be an ef-4, could be 5, but really high end of the scale, so that doesn't typically happen anyway. so you have that time of month. you have the time of year. and you have the time of day. and then you also had the location. so, it was so far north. we weren't talking texas or florida outbreak. it was as far north as the ohio valley and we're usually talking about snow at that point, yasmin. >> michelle grossman, thank you. we're going to be checking with you throughout the two hours ahead. thank you for now. and thank you for picking up there as i went to bars momentarily. i want to bring in craig fugate, former fema administrator and chief resilience officer at one concern. thanks for joining us on this. i know you're going to be sticking with us throughout the two hours ahead. we appreciate that. thank you ahead of time. give me, first, your reaction to what we've been seeing, the devastation, the complete destruction on the ground right now. >> yeah, unfortunately, i've seen tornados like this, but i haven't seen them in december. i think that's a first thing we're looking at. the other thing is these were nighttime tornados. even when we talk about the joplin tornados, the f-5 that hit in missouri, those occurred during the day when people were outside, able to see the storms, deal with it. at night, you can't see the storms, and as we saw, with, you know, late-night workers, people at home, these tornados were just devastating. it is a loss of life scenario. i mean, particularly when the weather service puts out a tornado emergency, that means is tornado is likely to be life-threatening and imminent and threatening your community. >> just quickly, craig, do you get a sense that people were pretty much caught off guard because of the fact that this was a december tornado, not necessarily something we were expecting? >> well, i think there's a lot of things going on. one is, the national weather service storm prediction center was identifying this, had put out that this was increasing risk of tornados, and was amplifying in their statements the risk of nighttime tornados. but in today's world, i think it got buried in all the other news, and i think that's something we need to go back and as we're communicating risk, how do we elevate these up so we get through the noise of everything else going on to get people to understand, there is a significant nighttime tornado risk for these areas. >> got it. all right, craig fugate, thank you. again, want to remind folks, you're going to be sticking around with us throughout the two hours ahead, so thank you for that as we walk through the devastation we're seeing on the ground in kentucky and the surrounding areas as well from these devastating tornados overnight. our breaking coverage, everybody, of these tornados continuing with reaction from the white house, but first a powerpoint presentation to overthrow an election. details on dozens of pages outlining, quote, unquote, options for january 6th. we'll be right back. sfloechl nuary 6th. we'll be right back. sfloechl we're making the fagioli! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ this looks great. awesome. alright. thank you! what... what recipe did you use? 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xfinity is proud to support the emergency broadband benefit program. for a limited time, you may be eligible to qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service through this program. that's right! you could qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service and equipment. for even more value, switch to xfinity mobile, and you could pay as little as $15 a month for wireless. click, call, or visit a store to learn more. welcome back. another shocking twist in the january 6th investigation now places a retired u.s. army colonel at the center of efforts to overturn the 2020 election. "the washington post" reporting phil waldro fl, who circulated a proposal to challenge the election results, visited the white house many times after joe biden's victory, and during those visits, he allegedly spoke with former white house chief of staff, mark meadows. quote, between eight and ten separate times, worked alongside trump's legal team and even briefed several members of congress on the eve of the insurrection about how to stop the election's certification. with me now are nbc's julia tsirkin on capitol hill and maya wylie. welcome to you both. julie, let me start with you. wrap this up for us. talk us through this latest news being reported by "the washington post" when it comes to colonel waldron. >> reporter: yeah, yasmin, we've reached out to colonel waldron, i haven't heard back from him. we're also out to the former chief of staff himself but this is that 38-page powerpoint presentation unlike any other powerpoint you or i have ever seen, i'm sure, in class or anywhere else and it outlines all the ways that former vice president mike pence would have stopped the election certification from happening on january 6th. it includes options like president trump declaring a national emergency to stop that from happening, and the "washington post" is reporting that waldron personally spoke to meadows about this powerpoint. now, where did we first learn about the existence of this powerpoint presentation? it was actually in a letter that bennie thompson, the chairman of the january 6th select panel, sent to mark meadows' lawyer, telling him that the panel was going to vote to hold mark meadows in contempt of congress for failing to comply with his subpoena, for failing to appear for his deposition. we know that mark meadows was complying with the committee, at least a few times, exchanging emails, exchanging documents, including this powerpoint presentation. you see a part of it on your screen there. well, mark meadows' lawyer, of course, saying he received this presentation in an email. now we're learning that could be from phil waldron who was, by the way, a part of the arizona audits. he presented to the senate there. they ultimately decided not to hire him, because he was too controversial. he sort of been this figure in the last couple of months or so since the election of 2020 that sort of circulated in these election fraud claims. he's spoken to former officials, "the washington post" reports here, but let's listen to congressman raskin, a member of the committee, to my league, garrett haake, because he still thinks this week was a big win for the committee. listen. >> everything is moving in our direction at this point. we're getting a really fine-grained image of what was taking place. all of it is becoming clearer to us. >> reporter: now, in addition to that powerpoint presentation, they've interviewed 300 witnesses, according to the vice chair, liz cheney, and have received thousands of pages of documents and are gearing up for another couple busy weeks as they subpoenaed another batch of folks just on friday which detailed some new information, including a meeting between the former president and his aides about those rallies on january 6th. yasmin? >> all right, maya, let's dig into some of julie's reporting here on this and try and figure this out in two minutes or so. as julie said, we know waldron spoke about, right, as she put it, with meadows, this powerpoint presentation. we know meadows had it in his inbox. we know that meadows has subsequently handed it over to the january 6th committee himself, despite the fact that he refuses to actually cooperate with the january 6th committee when it comes to actual testimony. we don't know who saw it. we don't know who saw this powerpoint presentation. we don't know who got eyes on it. we don't know how it was disseminated if in fact it left mark meadows' inbox. >> it's interesting. first of all, let's just acknowledge, yasmin, what's so important is this is just yet another piece, an astounding, historic, and disturbing powerpoint but just one additional document that shows the efforts and extremes to which trump loyalists and supporters are going in order to try to help him prevent a lawfully, constitutionally elected new president from taking office. because we already had john eastman's memorandum and there's an overlap in some of the arguments. i think it's interesting, mark meadows, one, and i say this and people won't be happy about it. this was a smart move from mark meadows personally in terms of a criminal contempt proceeding against him, because what he is going to say is, look, i'm cooperating. i'm turning things over. look at that memo i turned over. it is not relevant to the privilege claim of executive privilege because we didn't act on it. now, that's a pretty bold move for him, so that suggests that he feels fairly confident that the committee may not have any other evidence that shows him utilizing that memo in some way. but really, what's happening here, beyond this powerpoint, is the fact that we have members of congress, senate and house, deeply engaged in talking about and trying to figure out how to support then president donald trump to stay in office despite the election and despite the fact that bill barr, the attorney general appointed by donald trump, that for four years acted as his defender in chief, said, in early december, a month before john eastman's preparing his memo, before we see or hear about this powerpoint that's now emerged, that he's already said, there's no substantial evidence of any voter fraud. the department of justice is not going to take any action. and yet we have all this activity. so, what the subpoenas that julie so rightly mentions are so important because they go to who trump was talking to and what he knew january 4th, 5th, and 6th. >> i mean, there was proposals of military intervention, of course, the proposal of an intervention from then vice president pence. and we could go on when it comes to this powerpoint, but i think it also has a lot of folks looking ahead to the midterms and then subsequently 2024 and wondering what's going to happen. and how nervous it makes folks, looking at how this election was undermined. julie tsirkin, thank you. maya wylie, thank you as well. great to see you. coming up, everybody, more on what could become one of the most devastating natural disasters in u.s. history, the latest on the tornado damage report and stories of survival. e report and stories of survival >> this -- most memorable birthday ever and i'm grateful. this is the gift that keeps on giving, and i'm very grateful. this is the sound of nature breathing. and this is the sound of better breathing. fasenra is a different kind of asthma medication. it's not a steroid or inhaler. fasenra is an add-on treatment for asthma driven by eosinophils. it's one maintenance dose every 8 weeks. it helps prevent asthma attacks, improve breathing, and lower use of oral steroids. nearly 7 out of 10 adults with asthma may have elevated eosinophils. fasenra is designed to target and remove them. fasenra is not a rescue medication or for other eosinophilic conditions. fasenra may cause allergic reactions. get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. don't stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection or your asthma worsens. headache and sore throat may occur. this is the sound of fasenra. ask your doctor about fasenra. ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? 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>> well, we have teams out across the state and across the midwest, of course. priorities, obviously, are to make sure the people have a place to stay, have those immediate essential needs fulfilled right after the disaster, so for those areas that are impacted, where many people are without homes, we have shelters set up in the midwest here in missouri and arkansas. we have damage assessment teams going out across the area to determine exactly what the extent of the damage is and how many people are really in need. so at this point, in the earliest stages of it, it's a lot of assessing what is still needed out there and how many people will need help in the coming days. >> let's talk about shelter and communication, right, because having covered storms, not unlike this one, although this is probably some of the most devastating stuff we have seen, communication is fairly bad, likely, right? cell phones likely down. thousands -- hundreds of thousands of people without power, not necessarily knowing where to go. many people not having anywhere to sleep tonight. how is the red cross helping to communicate to people where to go, where to seek shelter now, how to get food, how to get clean water? i know there have been lines at grocery stores around the corner in many of these areas trying to stock up on food and gas. >> absolutely. well, if people are in need of a shelter, we recommend downloading our emergency app so you can find out where our shelters are. you can also go to our website and that is constantly updated with information for those individuals in those areas looking for shelter. we recommend that everyone who is in need of assistance remember they can contact the red cross at 1-800-red-cross at any time, 24/7, to reach out and let us know what assistance is needed in those areas. and obviously, stay tuned to local media in your community to find out the latest on where to go and what areas to stay away from because obviously, a lot of danger out there with power lines down and unexpected things, gas leaks that happen after a tornado situation like this. >> at this point, is the american red cross door knocking, obviously, with people not having access to internet, telephone lines, televisions? were you ready, were you prepared for a storm like this one? >> yes, we were in communication with local and state emergency management before the storms hit across the country, reaching out to make sure that plans are in place and they know that the red cross is there to assist the local communities and work with those local officials and last night, our teams here in missouri and arkansas were going out into the communities that were affected just to work with the local officials and determine exactly what needs were as far as the shelters were needed or what things might be needed today going forward. so, that's -- that requires us to obviously be in constant communication, constant planning with those local officials, which we do all the time. >> great. sharon watson, thank you. stay close enough any updates or information you'd like to share with us. we'd love to hear from you once again. but we know you're busy. president biden declaring a federal state of emergency in kentucky. the president expected to speak around 4:30 eastern or so. we're going to bring that to you live when it happens. i want to bring in, though, now, nbc's lauren egan, who's traveling with the president in wilmington, delaware. lauren, i know that the president has been on the phones this morning, speaking with the governors of the states most directly hit by these tornados, and then this 4:30 statement coming on the schedule about an hour or so ago, what are we expecting to hear from the president? >> reporter: that's right. we expect the president in about an hour from now to give a speech here in wilmington. we expect to learn more about the federal response to these really devastating storms when he speaks. in the meantime, we do know that he has been on the phone with the governors whose states were impacted by these tornados. he said that in those conversations, he asked those governors to let him know what type of resources they needed from the federal government. the white house said he also asked those governors to call him personally should they need any specific resources as they all start to implement their rescue and recovery plans right now. so far, we do know that the federal government has surged fema assistance to the states that have been impacted. they have sent fema personnel as well as essential goods such as water. now with that emergency declaration being approved for the state of kentucky, there will be even more fema resources that will be dedicated to that state in the coming hours here, yasmin. i do want to share with you just a little bit of what the president had to say on twitter this morning. about these storms. this can foreshadow what we might expect to hear from him at 4:30. he wrote, to lose a loved one in a storm like this is an unimaginable tragedy. he went on to say that he was working with the governors to ensure that they have what they need as the search for survivors continues. and the white house has also informed us, yasmin, that the president has been in ongoing briefings with fema throughout the day as we learn more about these storms. >> all right, again, want to remind folks, the president likely speaking around 4:30 p.m. eastern standard time, the second he gets up, we will bring it to you. lauren egan, thank you for now. our storm coverage continuing, everybody, throughout the hour ahead with the latest from the communities impacted and relief efforts under way. plus a supreme court ruling on texas's restrictive abortion law. we're going to break down a decision that is causing some confusion in the lone star state. we'll be right back. sfloech e star state. we'll be right back. sfloec nurse mariyam sabo knows a moment this pure... ...demands a lotion this pure. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. 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we'll hear the decision of that likely in the spring. it was argued, though, just about a week or so ago. >> i mean, i'm terrified. like a lot of people who are on the ground, trying to make sure that people have abortions every single day, we're all really, really nervous. texas clinics, people need abortions, they cannot depend on the government, and so what i would like to see is for you, mr. president, to come out and address this nation about this crisis. this is a healthcare crisis. i understand that there's absolutely a lot going on, right, you're talking about the tornados that are happening, but also, we need to make sure that people are able to get the healthcare that they need and that includes abortions. this is a moment to truly liberate abortion, and we need to see the president step up because he has currently turned his back on people who need abortions across this country. >> renee brown sherman, thank you. we'll be right back. enee brown you. we'll be right back. ever notice how stiff clothes can feel rough on your skin? 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♪♪ thanks! if it's “out decorating the neighbors” season, it's walgreens season. welcome back. let's go back to our breaking news about those deadly tornados stretching from arkansas to kansas. joining me now is dr. bhadelia. thank you for joining us on this. you're looking at the devastation there on the ground, think about the fact that we're inside of a pandemic. you already have hospitals there overwhelmed with staffing issues, of course, as well. what's your biggest worry now considering how we're hearing the high number of folks whose lives have been lost and many people injured? >> hey, yasmin, this is heart-wrenching, and as you said, the pandemic only complicates it. people should know that in winter, in the united states, hospitals are generally full because of respiratory viruses and not only are we in the middle of the pandemic but we're in an upward surge and many of the states that are affected right now, heavily affected, already have high hospitalization rates from covid. for example, indiana has 39 per hundred thousand hospitalization rate, one of the highest in the country. they talked about bringing in the national guard to help with the covid situation. kentucky is about 27. compare that to somewhere like massachusetts or connecticut, which are about half that, 15 per 100,000. and then what's complicated here, yasmin, is that logistics on the ground are likely to be quite complicated in trying to get patients where they need to go, because if hospitals are getting full, you need to triage patients, and if the roads are blocked, you know, electricity lines are down, that triage makes it even more difficult. the last, you know, just speaking of the fact that this is a respiratory virus, with hundreds of thousands of people who have lost power, many who have lost their homes, you're looking at shelters that are being set up and these are states, some of these states have about 50%, you know, vaccination rates, and so many people in an enclosed area, of course, the concern is there might be transmission of covid that might occur there as well. >> just a devastating scenario all the way around. dr. bhadelia, thank you. appreciate it. coming up in our next hour, the president set to address the deadly tornados that stretched across the country. that is coming up live and we'll bring it to you. we may also hear shortly from the kentucky governor as well. we'll be right back. cky governo well we'll be rig bhtack. instantly clear everyday congestion with vicks sinex saline. for fast drug free relief vicks sinex. instantly clear everyday congestion. and try vicks sinex children's saline. safe and gentle relief for children's noses. as a professional bull-rider i'm used to taking chances. but when it comes to my insurance i don't. i use liberty mutual, they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wooo, yeaa, woooooo and, by switching you could even save 665 dollars. hey tex, can someone else get a turn? 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[daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. - san francisco can have criminal justice reform and public safety. but district attorney chesa boudin is failing on both. - the safety of san francisco is dependent upon chesa being recalled as soon as possible. - i didn't support the newsom recall but this is different. - chesa takes a very radical perspective and approach to criminal justice reform, which is having a negative impact on communities of color. - i never in a million years thought that my son, let alone any six-year-old, would be gunned down in the streets of san francisco and not get any justice. - chesa's failure has resulted in increase in crime against asian americans. - the da's office is in complete turmoil at this point. - for chesa boudin to intervene in so many cases is both bad management and dangerous for the city of san francisco. - we are for criminal justice reform. chesa's not it. recall chesa boudin now. welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we are continuing our breaking news coverage of the deadly series of tornados that ripped through a huge swath of the country last night. any moment, we are expecting a live press conference with the kentucky governor, and in the next half hour, the president expected to deliver remarks on the storm from wilmington, delaware. we're going to bring you that live as well. but first, terrifying new video showing just how big one of at least 36 tornados was that crossed through kentucky, illinois, tennessee, arkansas, missouri, and mississippi. this video was taken in sacramento, kentucky, a little more than 100 miles northeast of mayfield, the city that was hardest hit by the storm. in the light of the day, by the way, the true destruction, it's extremely heartbreaking. homes torn apart, buildings completely destroyed. the president already approving an emergency