survivorsre in there now. >> i survived this. honey, listen, i'm humbling and i'm forever grateful. >> the head of fema and secretary of homeland security both headed to kentucky to help in the recovery effort. the death toll there expected to rise. this event is the worst, most devastating, most deadly tornado event in kentucky's history. >> a so-called quad-state tornado that was on the ground for hundreds of miles could set new records. that and the time of year have people asking how much did this have to do with climate change? >> we all know everything is moreow intense when the climates warming, everything, and obviously it has some impact here. plus in washington, we could just be hourssh away from seein the contempt report for mark meadows. what we could look from the commercial committee owes vote tomorrow. good morning. it is sunday, december 12th. i'm lindsey reiser. in the central u.s. recovery efforts from the devastating tornadoes continue today. in kentucky alone, officials say more than 70 people are dead with the death poll expected to exceed 100. one tornado touched down and may have stayed down for 227 miles, the longest tornado path in u.s. history according the kentucky governor andy beshear. one of the hardest hit areas in the state, may field, where this candle factory took a direct hit. at least 110 were inside at the ten, 40 have been rescued. the governor saying last night it would be a miracle if anyone else was found alive. at thisou hour, at least 14 peoe have died across four other states. our crews are spread out across the affected communities. nbc's wendy wol folk is in main field, more chan chesky is in more gansville and ali velshi is on the ground in may field as well. ali, i know you got there yesterday after your show. what have you seen so far? >> reporter: kind of remarkable, lindsey. tornado destruction is not like hurricanes. it hits these isolated places. so ten minutes from here there will be no damage. there's no power anywhere around us in may field. we're due south of paducah. we're in southwestern kentucky. take s a look at this, this cit hall over the area. trees completely stripped. this is poll, we're talking about power being down. in a tornado nay snapped. these are household goods, a boat over there, a laundry basket. this is the kind of destruction you see around us. gao f you go a couple streets over and you see virtually no damage at all. but the powerma is out. it's 23 degrees by the way. it's really cold. there's frost all over the place. this is about a 20-degree drop from when this storm hit on friday night into saturday morning. that's a massive problem. what i've seen around here is heavy equipment trucks, those buckets that carry workers up so they can fix power lines. you can't put power lines up when everything is down. we already know what we think is a predicted death toll of 70. andy beshear says possibly more than 100. in the candle factory the whole rooffa collapsed. we spoke yesterday with someone who had been inps there. he said it was inconceivable there weren't more people trapped in rethere. the search and rescue efforts continue here in may field. they continue to be search and rescue efforts, not recovery, meaning they're still looking for people who could be trapped alive. there are a lot of people unaccounted for. we have all sorts of help in here. fema has been activated here. we've got the national guard in and around kentucky. there areen other sites in kentucky that have been hit like arkansas and illinois. but the bottom line is the search continues, and it is desperate right now because of, the temperature. you hearder from the president. he's spoken to the governor of kentucky two times already in the last 24 hours and keeps on saying, whatever you need, we will send. the federal government stands ready to help. right nowad it's a matter of finding the people who might be buried under the rubble. >> i remember your interview with the survivor of the candle factory. she said they were digging through the drywall trying to get out. 20 degrees in places where there is no power, just devastating. >> wendy, you've been at the candle factory as well. what you've seen has also been very profound to you. describe what you're seeing and hearing. >> reporter: lindsey, good morning to you again. the waiting is starting to weigh on people. rescue workers from across the state have been on what's left of the candle factory all night long despite freezing and below freezing temperatures. sadly no in numbers to report. 40 people, as we mentioned, rescued. but 110 people were in that factory working 24/7, seven days a week and three shifts a day. this is the busiest season of the year in this run-up to christmas.p governor andy beshear says it will take a miracle for anyone else to be found alive. they're not giving up hope. as ali mentioned, the coroner still calling this a rescue and recovery mission. i spent the entire day at the candle vaktry yesterday. this is the first day i've come to the downtown area. those pictures don't begin to describe the scope and magnitude of the damage here. i have covered hanes, blizzards, out in the middle of a polar vortex. i can tell you in person i've never seen anything like this. i grew up in texas so i understand what tornadoes can do. iha will give you one note, a piece of hope we learned this morning. the mayor of l may field was talking about the american flag that was found outside fire station number 1. to remind you, fire station number 1 was the first people called on fridayhe night when ts storm hit. it was devastated. they had to extricate those firefighters from that station just to get them to the candle factory. this morning she told us, when she went out, she saw the flag, they were folding it up, very ceremoniously, they've handed it to her. she's determined to put that flag back upsh in this town whe they rebuild this to the may field she knows. we have a long road ahead of us, but still holding up hope for good news. >> we want to go over to morgan chesky in edwardsville. at least six people have died there at that ma'amson facility. >> reporter: good morning. officials are saying this recovery effort is still on going. they had a press conference yesterday evening in which they said they'reev searching for an signs of life as they comb through that debris outside this massive warehouse north of edwardsville here. this is a building that essentially took abu direct hit from this tornado. this was not the quad state tornado that hit mayfield. it was one of the more than 30 others that sprung up across this entire region late friday night. we know there were about 45 people inside when the tornado struck. they didna have first responder able to converge on the scene within minutes and get the majority of thoseet people out. as you mentioned, the death toll has now increased to six. officials saying they're digging through that debris painstakingly searching for signs of life. after surveying the damage they don't believe there are any survivors at this time, yet they have not given up. i want to give you a chance to hear from an amazon delivery driver who actually rode out the storm inside the truck and pulled up to the building when he first witnessed the damage. take a listen. >> it's pretty much still like disbelief because some of the people that is in there, checked in there, you talk to them or you could have dealt with them. me knowing faces, i'm not too well of knowing faces. people that was missing, you just don't know who was still in there or who had passed. a lot of disbelief or you're not really taking it in. >> reporter: that sentiment shared by many people who have seen the damage here. this was a building about the size of a football field, built with steel, concrete, the side of it completely sheared off. that roof and wall collapsed. that's what caused the majority of the deaths and injuries in this case. in the meantime today, the search continues. authorities saying tight-lipped, only sharing details as they find them at press conferences throughout the day. we'll send it back to you. >> everybody stick around after this show to watch velshi from 8:00 to 10:00 eastern this morning. stories of survival and neighbors helping neighbors are now coming to light. one man survived the storm in kentucky by hiding with his kids in the bathroom. we want to warn you, some of the photos we're going to show you of their injuries are tough to look ieat. this was in dawson springs, kentucky, about an hour outside of mayfield. you're looking at a map of where everything is. joining us is the man who made it out with his kids. douglas coons in dawson springs. you're still inaw the hospital, right? >> yeah, i'm actually sitting up here right now with my little boy that's about to get another ct span to make sure the small that was blooding is not getting any worse. >> wey so appreciate you joini us from the hospital, and i'm curious how everybody else is doing. first, you're in this situation with your kids. take me back there. keeping them alive is your priority. how did you do that? >> it was a lot of luck honestly. me and my wife actually were at our house. where our house actual didn't get hit by the tornado. my oldest boy was at my mother-in-law's house. we went over to try to be in her house because it was an actual house. so we felt like it would be stronger. we all just cooped up in the bathroom. we put my two boys in the bathtub, put pillows on top of them.n we sat down beside the bathtub and put pillows on top of us. we had our 2-month-old baby in the car seat, left in that thinking it would be more protection. we even had our dog in there with us. it was just thcrazy. it's the most traumatic thing i've ever been through. i felt like i was helpless in protecting my kids against it. it just picked us up and just threw a us around and landed usn the othered side of the neighbos house, all just scattered out. whenever it finally subsided a little bit and i looked up, my 4-year-old little boy was just standing there screaming for daddy. i'm going to get teary-eyed. he had a big cut on his head and it was bleeding. so i hurried up and got him, wrapped my shirt around his head, got him inside, got my wife inside, made sure she wasn't dying and went and found my oldest little boy. that's who i came across next. i got him picked up. he was trapped underneath some stuff. i got the stuff moved off his legs. he's autistic, so he had no clue what was going on. he was just laying there moaning, so i didn't know what the extent of the damage was with him. i got inside the house. we were just going in the neighbor's house that was barely still standing. it was just ail way to get out the rain and the wind, because after going through something like that, whenever the wind blows, your first instinct is it's coming back even though it's not. after i got him inside, i went and found my mother-in-law. when i found her, she was trapped, her legs were trapped underneath some debris. that's when i heard my 2-month-old crying. sorry. that's when i heard my the-month-old crying. so i asked my mother-in-law, i was like are you okay. she said i can't breathe very good, but i think i'm going to get my i'baby. i said, can i go get my baby. she was like, yeah, go get her. i went and found her. she wasn't underneath anything. she was laying where i couldn't see the car seat. ir got the car seat picked up and ran her inside, and then i tried calling my wife down for just a split second because she was in a pretty big state of panic. i was like you have to calm down for these kids. so i ran back outside, and i tried getting my mother-in-law picked up, but it was just more than my little frame could do. so i hollered at a guy and he helped me get her picked up. i got her inside. i don't know. i went around to each of them and tried to make sure i had all the i bleeding stopped. and then i started working on trying to figure out how to get us out of there because that house was about to cave in on itself. it was pretty traumatic. >> absolutely.tt douglas, we're going to show somee' of the pictures that we told everybody would be hard to see. this is the rmt of what you went through. you and your middle son are in the hospital right now. how is everyone doing today? >> today my wife, my 2-month-old baby and my oldest, bentley, they're all -- and my mother-in-law, they're all at my actual house, and they're all doing pretty good. we're having issues with the generator right thnow. she just messaged me and said it died again on us, and we don't have power yet. so my actual house didn't get destroyed. but my mother-in-law's house is completely gone. myou mother-in-law has nothing left, absolutely nothing left. other than luthat, we're all alive, and we're all thankful to be alive. i know it would be selfish of me to sit here and think there's other families just there in dawson springs and all across all the other states that got affected by this that didn't get affected worse than my family did. i'm super grateful that it wasn't asul bad as what it was r us. w i just hope everybody is sending prayers and everybody is in our proiiers that had to go through this. >> it's emotional seeing those pictures of your kids, your little boy there laying in the bed,in your little baby with bruises as well. i know your mother-in-law's house is completely gone. what do you do now? what do you do in terms of where yourn family is going to sleep and what youoi guys are going t do and how you're going to move forward? >> well, like i said, my actual house where i actually live, me and myly wife live, it didn't g destrode by the tornado. it was my mother-in-law's house that got destroyed. what we're going to do -- right now it's hard for me to really assess the situation because i'm up b here in the hospital, so there's not much i can really dl right now about all that. hopefully we'll get to go home this afternoon, and whenever i get home, hopefully i can come up with a game plan and get it all figured out and figure out what we're going to do about my mother-in-law's house. she has to have a place to live. she can stay with us as long as she needs to. i don't know. i just feel so bad for everybody's families. what can you do in that situation other than ask for help? >> douglas, you and your family have been drive-through something so traumatic. we wish you guys the very best as well as to your mother-in-law and your kids and hope you do get to leave that hospital today, and keep us posted on how you guys are doing. >> we'll do. thanks. >> thank you. well, the recovery effort continuesry today. president biden assured those impacted by the series of catastrophic tornadoes that the federal government will be there for them. >> i want to emphasize what i told all the governors. the federal government will do everything, everything it can possibly do to help. >> so in keeping with that promise, the president has approved an emergencyre declaration for kentucky whichg allows federal resources to flow into the state. fema has already been destroyed, working to provide temporary housing, assess damage. look at these satellite images showing just how devastated these areas are. this is the candle factory in may i field, kentucky. this is before. we'll wait until it goes into the after. it was veryo quick. this is the nursing home in arkansas, where one resident died and five are hurt. this is the before, and that's the after. so you can see just the devastation here, nothing left where buildings once were. for morebu on the federal government's response, we are now joined by former fema administrator craig fugate, currently the chief resilience officer at one concern. craig, thanks for being with us this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> you have unfortunately seen a lot of weather disasters over the course w of your career. how does this compare? >> unfortunately we've seen these types of tornadoes. we haven't seen them in december. that's a bitn of a different thing. joplin, tuscaloosa. it's unfortunate but is something fema is experienced at. we knowex with tornadoes the immediate search t and rescue, e next question you ask is where do people stay. i think we go back to what the gentleman was doing. he knewma what to do to keep hi family safe, get in the bathroom, get low. they were able to survive the storm. now we need to focus on how do we rebuild, get the power up. his home is okay. a lot of this will be getting power back up to the areas that can take power and look at what can be done for the people that lost their homes. that's where fema's programs for temporary housing, giving people vouchers to get in hotels and motels, short-term shelters and start looking at the long-term housing needs for these people so the communities can start rebuilding. >> what's the first thing that fema director will do when she gets there today. what else will she do? >> i know deanne. she worked with me when i was at fema. i tell you, one of the first things you do when you go in, youth listen. you listen to the governor and localrn officials. what you want to hear is what they're asking for and make sure your resources are addressing that. what you want to make sure is there's no gaps or any differences between what they are trying to do and what yours team is doing. the first thing you do is listen to thosedo officials to make su you've got the proper match. as the president said, deanne has got the resources of the federal government. her job is going in there to make sure there's no gaps in what the local and state officials need in this response. >> craig, we heard douglas and what hisrd family has been through. obviously after something like this, food, water, shelter, the immediate necessities have to be covered. but they have all been through something incredibly traumatic. is there mental health that's provided as well, counselors on the ground? >> the president's declared an emergency declaration. i assumege we're going to see me assistance coming from the federal government. one ofce the programs that fema brings with it is grants to the state for disaster mental health counseling. we know the trauma of this, especially for children, is c critical. we're going into the holiday season, but we also have to look at getting schools open again. any schools that have been impacted. all of these things that right now, the local officials are so focused on rescue. fema and the other teams have got to start thinking about where are we going to be in a week, two o weeks, a month from now. part of m that will be the ment health needs of these communities. >> such an important aspect. craig fugate, thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you. we'll be coming back to the devastating tornadoes' aftermath. other 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>> reporter: the short answer is the january 6th committee isn't buying mark meadows' about-face. he turned over this 38-page powerpoint presentation. it lays out options to how vice president mike pence could have objected to the certification of the results of the election, including things like president trump declaring a national emergency, among the bizarre things. the reason we learned of the existence is bennie thompson sent a letter to mark meadows' lawyer saying the committee planned to hold a contempt of congress vote for mark meadows tomorrow, on monday. in there he said, look, your client has cooperated in the past. what happened here? clearly the power play wasn't subject to executive privilege. why is his deposition then subject to executive privilege. his lawyer shot back saying mark meadows received this powerpoint presentation in an email that was floating around online. we don't know the extent and if he shared it. let's listen to what adam schiff said on msnbc about this. >> we're citing this and other information that we got from mr. meadows, documents, emails, text messages to show that he has already recognized these are not privileged materials. his lawyer has affirmed these are not privilege, making no claims of privilege here. so how do you then turn around and say, well, i can't talk about these things. >> reporter: we reached out to phillip wall dren to confirm what "the washington post" is reporting, that he spoke to meadows and other people in the white house about this powerpoint presentation. i want to turn your attention to something else that happened. on friday they issued a new batch of subpoenas for the first time showing a link possibly between president trump and rally organizers on the 5th and 6th. those rallies including stop the steal that led up to the insurrection. the committee definitely wants to learn more about that dlks. >> julie tsirkin, thank you so much. the jgt committee granted delays. joining us is former federal prosecutor glenn kirschner. good morning to you. how will the committee connect the dots between this powerpoint presentation that ended up in meadows' hands and the violence that occurred the very next day? >> some of these dots seem to connect themselves. the reporting that we're seeing about this former military officer, phil waldron who created a powerpoint presentation that somehow ended up in the hands of mark meadows titled "election fraud, foreign interference and options for january 6th." it really is pure anti-democratic fantasy. when we hear this man, phil waldron, met with mark meadows, the chief of staff to the president of the united states eight to ten times and apparently there was a meeting facilitated with donald trump himself. then we hear phil waldron is also working with rudy giuliani and john eastman, two lawyers that were assisting donald trump in exploring whether they could cancel joe biden's win and unconstitutionally install trump for a second term, these really are dots that feel like they connect themselves. now we have mark meadows on the eve of perhaps being voted in contempt and referred for criminal prosecution. so it does seem like the select committee's work is not only accelerating, but it's yielding important results when you have criminal indictments of somebody like steve bannon, former advisor to donald trump and now potentially donald trump's own chief of staff, and then importantly we heard from liz cheney, the vice chair of the how select committee that beginning in early january, we, the american people, are going to see a public presentation of all of the information that is now being curated by the house select committee in those behind doors depositions. hats off to the work that the house select committee has been doing. >> glenn, we've got a lot to cover. we know attorney general letitia james wants to depose trump in the civil investigation and the potential fraud with the trump organization. what kind of questions will be on the table and how do you dpoer see his legal team trying to avoid them. >> this is a real legal challenge for drum and his team. one of the things i expect tish james and her lawyers will do in a deposition is they will line up all of donald trump's public statements about how he ran his own organization, the trump organization. he sat atop that organization, it is his name sake. he bragged and boasted about how closely controlled every aspect of his company was. there was nothing that went on in his company that he didn't know about. we've also heard him say he knew more about the tax code, for example, that literally anybody else. so what you do is you play those statements for him and then pose the question. mr. trump, let's talk about what was uncovered in an investigation of your organization. and remember, lindsey, his organization, the trump organization stands criminally indicted for a 15-year-long criminal scheme to defraud in the first degree by the prosecutors in new york and does his chief financial officer, allen weisselberg. i think the smart play for donald trump in a deposition and frankly what his lawyers will advise him to do is plead the fifth amendment against self-incrimination and not answer any questions. that puts him in a bit of a trick bag because, in a criminal case, if you plead the fifth, it can never be held against you. in a civil case, if you plead the fifth, it can be held against you because a trial jury in the civil trial will be instructed you pled the fifth and the jury can draw negative inferences against you and your case as a result. actually these walls are closing in on donald trump, albeit in a civil case because that's what tish james has brought against the trump organization. >> glenn kirschner, we always appreciate you waking up early an joining us. thanks so much. coming up, picking up the pieces. debris from destroyed buildings, twisted metal and downed power lines covering mayfield in kentucky. we'll go back on the ground next. even when you're not work. a plan that gives you the chance to grow your savings and create cash flow that lasts. along the way, we'll give you ways to be tax efficient. and you can start, stop or adjust your plan at any time without the unnecessary fees. we'll help you go from saving... to living. ♪ play all day ♪ my retirement plan with voya keeps me moving forward. to living. they guide me with achievable steps that give me confidence. this is my granddaughter...she's cute like her grandpa. voya doesn't just help me get to retirement... ...they're with me all the way through it. voya. be confident to and through retirement. 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ahhh! back to our top story and the devastating damage from the tornadoes that swept through the u.s. the site of the most destruction was a candle factory in mayfield. about 40 people have been rescued, but just as many remain unaccounted for. our nbc's kathy park is on the ground in mayfield. what are you learning about how that community is doing? >> reporter: hey, lindsey. folks in this community are waking up to another day of nightmares. every turn you make into mayfield and you see utter devastation. you see behind me a home completely leveled. metal hanging from limbs, power lines scattered all across this community. so thousands still obviously remain without power, but, as you mentioned, that candle factory which is just a short drive away from where we are right now saw some of the most devastation. 40 people were rescued from that factory, but dozens more are still unaccounted for. we spoke with darryl johnson and he is still holding out hope that he will find his younger sister. take a listen. >> she's all i got left, man. i lost my brother in 2016 to a murder. so i've got nieces -- she's it. she's it man. >> reporter: lindsey, it was just heartbreaking, crushing to hear from him and other members of his family. they were out all night looking for their loved one, going across the town, checking in with hospitals to see if she might be there. at last check we don't know if they were able to reunite with her. meanwhile, there are some incredible survivor stories. in fact, there was one woman who was trapped inside the factory for two hours and live streamed pleas for help. fortunately she was able to get out alive, coincidentally on her 40th birthday. she certainly has a new lease on life this morning. we also spoke with another group of workers. they were injured. they were crawling in the dark and crawling across a mountain of debris, but they were also able to make it out. it was just hard to hear their stories. they were saying they were hearing cries for help as they were trying to also find help and trying to get out after the tornado struck that factually. we know that there are emergency responders literally from neighboring jurisdictions all around here. i spoke with firefighters out here yesterday and they said they plan on being out here as long as they are needed. an interesting footnote they mentioned, they are literally working on the top, the roof of the candle factory looking for any survivors. we also saw canines helping with the ongoing search efforts. lindsey, this community, as you can see, just utter devastation. it will take months to rebuild. >> it's heartwarming to hear the stories of survival and people helping one another, but then you have those family members who are still looking for their loved ones. ka thigh park, thank you. here is what we know about this massive tornado. it traveled hundreds of miles for hours across four states. it could set a new record. it's almost unheard of in december. some are wondering whether change played a role. we're going to ask our scientist next. later this morning, jonathan capehart will speak live with kentucky governor andy beshear and get the latest on the recovery efforts from mayfield and bowling green. waaaay longer than detergent alone. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load. and enjoy fresher smelling laundry. if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks make sure you have downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters. shop online for downy unstopables, including our new, lighter scent. ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete! with 30 grams of protein. 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yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. yeah. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ this year we've seen wildfires on the west coast, heavy rain and flooding destroying homes in the east. experts say these extreme events are the result of climate change and global warming, adding fuel to disasters like this week's quad-state tornado which killed dozens of people and broke records at an unusual time of year for storms like this to strike. joining me right now is brenda, a senior climate scientist from the union of concerned scientists. officials say this weekend's tornado traveled something crazy, more than 200 miles over the course of two hours. it could set the record for the longest continuous tornado in american history. first off, how rare is it to see something not only of this magnitude, but at this time of year? >> it is remarkably rare to see a strong tornado strike as far north as illinois and kentucky in this time of early winter, very rare. yet we know that december was remarkably a mild winter about most of the united states, and we also know that warm, moist surface air was a factor in friday fueling and making these tornadoes more powerful. it's not the only factor, but it was one of the factors. >> parts of the country have been seeing unseasonably warm, maybe even record setting temperatures. it feels more like spring or fall rather than mid december. talk to me about how this weather could have fueled these horrific storms in the heartland. >> one thing we have noticed, the studies are looking since 1979 over the past four decades or so that the ef-1 or stronger tornadoes are shifting from traditional tornado alley eastward, basically east of the mississippi, especially much more frequency in these stronger tornadoes south of the ohio river and of these stronger tornadoes east of the appalachian. this is a great concern, because we're seeing not only that, but when tornadoes of strong occurrence occur, they tend to be these outbreaks of a cluster of tornadoes, that can be very dangerous. in other words, we have to start paying attention to tornadoes more in the shoulder season, such as springtime and now the later part of fall and early winter. especially when you have some warmer conditions, such as we have this mild winter. >> so we should expect then to see not only more of this kind of extreme weather this season, but in future years? >> well, what you have to watch out for is when those warm air masses are coming and you have a cold air mass, safe, from the arctic region coming through, some of the conditions for these strong storms lead to clashing of these types of weather fronts. and where these storms are occurring, when a tornado -- it's a very small phenomenon, very hard to get a handle of. it's not just the warm, moist air, which fuel greater power. you also have other conditions, such as vertical wind shear and a capping layer at the top that has to be warm, but not too warm and dry. so you need these ingredients and when they come together, if you have warmer, moist air at the surface in the mix, we're finding that it can be very dangerous and it's a time when you have to pay attention to weather forecasting in your area. >> i appreciate you explaining it in a way that i cansup. brenda, what do we need to do to prevent this from happening in the future? >> one thing we really need to do is start building more resilience into our regions that are experiencing more frequency of storms than they did maybe in the last century. and that means having safe places you can go that are stronger. building better warning systems. the national weather service has increased its enhanced fujita scale warning system. they have much better ways of tracking. also, we can have people be safer, get to safe places, and really don't go out and watch a tornado. watch it later on television or watch it on your phone while you're in a safe place. >> brenda, we'll have to leave it there. thanks for joining us. still to come, new data on how booster shots protect against omicron. plus, the rise in covid cases and deaths prompting some states to deploy the national guard and others like new york to impose a new mask mandate. toe knowing where you came from, it gives you a sense of “this is who i am”. oh my goodness... wow, look at all those! you get hungry for more and then you're just like, “wow, i'm learning about my family.” yeah, yep. which one, what'd you find? 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>> stephanie stanton, thank you so much. and thank you for watching msnbc reports. i'm lindsey reiser. i'll be back next weekend at 7:00 a.m. eastern. velshi who's live in mayfield, kentucky, starts right now. good morning. it is sunday, december the 12th. i'm ali velshi in mayfield, kentucky. this is ground zero of the series of tornadoes that hit on friday night into saturday morning. striking across six states. let me tell you a little bit about where we are right now. take a look at this drone video. this is what's left of mayfield, kentucky. immense devastation. homes, various structures reduced to rubble after what's being called a quad state tornado. this is a pretty rare set of december tornadoes, touching down, even though they're calling it quad state, in six states in a matter of four hours. dozens of people remain missing at this hour. this town is talking about its resilience. take a listen to its mayor, kathy stewart. >> right now what we need from people who are standing in this room and directly other people is just to pray for us. and we will be fine. it's going to take us a while. we will be fine. >> well, what took place in this town is being called one of the worst natural disasters that this country has ever witnessed. right now, hundreds of thousands of people in the region are without power. many of them without shelter. i'm going to show you some of that in just a couple of moments. let's just discuss the power. it was 23 degrees a couple of hours ago. it's now about 28 degrees here. so it's well below freezing, and there are no traffic lights, there are no street lights, and there is not power going to houses. there's gas lines damaged. it's a big