the tornadoes were spread. they covered a great deal of land across the midwest. about 30 tornadoes known to have touched down. spanning six states. one lone tornado, at least what we think of one lone tornado took a path through four states, covering 250 miles of countryside, including here where i am in western kentucky. according to nbc news, as of this morning, 15 people are confirmed dead in kentucky, but state officials say the number is probably upward of 70. and the majority of those deaths are likely occurring or have likely occurred at the nearby candle factory. it's a place caused mayfield consumer products, it's about eight minutes from where i am right now. there were roughly 110 people working in that factory at time of the storm, at night. the factory, by the way, had been working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to meet christmas demand. only 40 of those 110 who were thought to have been in that building have been located so far. we'll be speaking to one of them later. yesterday on the show, we spoke to somebody who had been rescued from inside that factory and she was very worried that there would be a lot more people who may not have survived that. in the nearby city of bowling green, kentucky. the coroner's office has confirmed 12 storm-related fatalities. here's kentucky's democratic governor, andy bashir, reflecting on the devastation. >> that's hometown of dawson springs, population 2,700. they're going to lose a whole lot of people. one block from my grandparent's house. there's no house standing. there's no house standing. and we don't know where all of those people are. >> that's kentucky. let's talk about illinois now. in illinois, six workers were killed at an amazon warehouse in a town of edwardsville, illinois. it's basically a northeast suburb of st. louis. it's across the mississippi river from st. louis. the structure's roof was ripped off by high winds, causing the building to collapse. 45 people were rescued in that instance. in tennessee, there are four confirmed deaths, in addition to ten injured and dozens more wounded. 60 miles north of memphis, a tornado hit a nursing home in manette, arkansas, killing one person. another individual has died in arkansas because of storm-related injuries. and in missouri, governor mike parsons confirmed two fatalities as a result of these tornadoes. last night, even the president chimed in, addressing the people affected by the storms. >> we get through this, we're going to get through this together and the federal government is not going to walk away. this is one of those times where we aren't democrats or republicans. sounds like hyperbole, but it's real. we're all americans. we stand together as the united states of america. i say to all of the victims, you're in our prayers, and all of those first responders and emergency personnel and everyone helping their fellow americans that this is the right thing to do at the right time and we're going get through this. >> all right, i want to go to our drone now to show you a scene of where we are. this is our team here at nbc. wendy's actually next to me. we'll be talking to her in a second. take a look at the devastation around here. this is how tornadoes work, you may see an area of immense devastation and then outside of that area, no devastation at all. this is downtown mayfield. there are a lot of tornadoes that strike places that are not particularly populated, but there are 10,000 people in this town. of the places that were hit, this is one of the most populous. you can see the kind of damage we're talking about. in some cases, houses entirely flattened, cars entirely damaged. i want to bring you down here to ground level. there's no power around here, that's because power poles didn't just fall over, they completely snapped. there's nothing to put the power on. we've got bucket trucks, but there's a lot of stuff like that that they can't fix. you've see those poles have snapped, a boat here, a pickup truck here in front of a house. there was a shed and a lean-to, a carport. over here, a brick building. you can still see the roof's completely gone from that. trees toppled, cars mangled. that's the situation on the ground in mayfield. the old stone courthouse is damaged. the fire station is gone. they're looking more a replacement fire station right now. and emergency workers are dealing in this cold and in some cases they have not transferred over from what you call search and rescue into recovery, like they have done at the amazon factory in illinois. so they are still looking for survivors right now. but it is cold and it is getting hard to do that. i want to go to a couple of my colleagues who are koring this now, as you may have seen on the drone, wendy woolfolk is here with me in mayfield, kentucky. morgan chesky is in illinois where that amazon factory was. wendy, let me start with you. you've been looking around here in mayfield and getting a sense of what damage has been done. >> it's absolutely incredible what we have seen over the past 24 hours. a long, cold night here in mayfield. first responders from all over the region have been on the pile of rubble all night long, braving these temperatures and hoping to find more survivors. rescuers found 40 people, as we've mentioned, alive. there were 110 workers in that factory working the late shift when the tornado hit. as we've mentioned, busiest time of year as they are working up to the christmas holiday. but their efforts were more complicated because of mayfield's main fire station and its emergency services hub were both destroyed in the storm, as well. but listen to what the mayor said just a short time ago that gives us all hope when they found fire station number one's flag. >> the american flag from our fire station number one was damaged in the rubble across the street from the bank. i got the flag, i walked across the street, i picked up the flag, and i handed it to our firefighters, who immediately began to fold it in such that ceremonial, beautiful pattern. and i thought, you know, here we are standing in this rubble, and one of the most important things to us is being so tenderly taken care of. that flag is now safely in my care and we will fly that flag ceremoniously when we recover. >> reporter: we have heard from many survivors of this collapse and i can attest that this community, as well as this nation, ali, is praying for more miraculous stories. as you mentioned, the coroner is saying that this is still a rescue and recovery mission. so everyone is hoping and praying that daylight today will bring more good news. >> reporter: yeah. and daylight has just come upon us. of course, we are still within the window of being able to find people who need to be rescued, who might be trapped in air pockets under buildings, so these rescues continue and they are active right now. wendy, you and i will stay close throughout the course of the day. morgan, you are in illinois, what's the status of the situation and the rescues, or at this point, i guess the recovery where you are. >> reporter: yeah, ali, good morning. and we're certainly within that window of time where rescues could happen, however, we did hear from officials yesterday who said after surveying the extent of the damage at this amazon warehouse not too far behind me, they say that it's so extensive, they don't believe that anyone could have survived it at this point in time. and that is, of course, tragic news. unfortunately, they don't have a firm number of how many people were inside that building when this tornado struck late friday. we do know that they were able to rescue 45 people outside of the building. that death toll rising to six last night. but this was a far different type of tornado than what you have seen the damage in mayfield. this was a smaller tornado under the cover of darkness. it came very quickly. this was the extent of the damage, that really took the brunt of it here in the edwardsville area. but despite that, this was a massive warehouse building, ali. the roof caved in, a wall caved in, and when you look at that building, it essentially sheared off to one side. that made for a nightmare experience for many of the workers who had to endure that moment there, caught inside. i heard from one delivery driver who rode out the storm inside his ban. he pulled up to the scene. ali, he looked at the place where he typically goes in and checks in for his job day-to-day, it was gone. and they were fortunately able to usher some of those employees into a nearby tornado shelter. keep in mind, this was just one of the more than 30 tornadoes that struck this entire region. there was a very real fear on friday night that even though there had been one tornado here, there could have been another. so at this point in time, according to officials, they say that these efforts are ongoing to search for any signs of life, but unfortunately, they don't believe there are any survivors. ali? >> morgan, thank you for that. we'll stay close to you on that. morgan chesky in illinois just outside of st. louis. and wendy woolfolk with me in mayfield, kentucky. i mean, by the way, talking about being in your fan. you can see around us, the fact that when these trees come down, you can see the number they do on cars. a vehicle is not a particularly safe place to be in a tornado. i'm joined now by barry mcdonald, a city council official here in mayfield. first of all, i think the whole nation's thoughts are with you when they see this destruction. you are missing a lot of members of your community. we believe there are people who have not been recovered from that candle factory. what do you know? >> i don't knee whole lot about the candle factory, but i'm sure, as you said, 70 plus fatalities or plus or minus and the recovery effort still goes on. so you've just got to keep those people in our thoughts and prayers and hope there are additional rescues made right now. >> it is so cold right now, it is so hard to imagine, what's happening in terms of rescue attempts, how is this working? we know we spoke to a state trooper earlier yesterday who said, phone calls are coming in from people who are trapped or they know that people might be trapped and they haven't heard from them. what's the status of that? >> it's just ongoing. you see more people coming in, trying to help. we see local law enforcement from all over the region is here. so they're lending a great deal of support to the rescue efforts and as you said, you showed what destruction there is. communication is tough, yesterday, the traffic got a little hairy. so just getting around, but everybody is doing a great job in a tough situation. >> and we are standing in the middle of -- when you say "a tough situation," this is a small town. it's 10,000 people. and we're in the heart of it right now, literally the heart of it. and the destruction around here. you've seen tornadoes before. tornados are not entirely foreign to this part of the country. >> no. this is like the third tornado we've in the in the last ten years. the other two weren't obviously near this devastation. the worst thing i remember living in this community was 13 years ago, we had an ice storm and some rees that looked like this, but the devastation of this tornado is just -- you can't really grasp it. it's kind of leaves you numb when you first see the effects. >> and we're looking at this aerial photo to give people a sense of what it is. but i think that's true, you can't grasp fichbt seep it, if it's not there. i often zreeb it as looking as if things have been put through a scleder. you cannot imagine the power that brought this, that wreaked this destruction. >> no, ali, you really can't. and you think, well, when's it going to end? and as you drive across the community through town, it's just so vast. they talk about the path of the tornado being a mile wide. it's every bit of that. >> typically when you see tornadoes, you see a narrow swath through which it takes its path. this is not narrow. this is incredible. for those who did not have their homes destroyed, we're still pretty much without power. >> i think we have some tba issues. murray, they don't have any power. i was over there yesterday for a few minutes. so it's not just mayfield that's dealing with power issues. our whole infrastructure, water, sewer, maybe we're making some headway possibly on the water, i heard. that would be great. >> i did see vehicles coming in, heavy equipment vehicles coming in. we've seen power trucks coming in, but again, you've got polls that are down. and there might be transmission line problems as well. it's truly remarkable to see the zafgs that we are in the midst of. this is mayfield, kentucky, you're looking at. barry, thank you. i know you have a lot of work to do, but our thoughts are with you and the rest of the town here. >> people have reached out very well. >> thank you, sir. i'll be speaking to a roorp from the kentucky state police in just a few moments to find out exactly what these rescue missions looking like and how they're coordinating all the help that's going on here. hour live coverage is going to continue here on msnbc. i am in mayfield, kentucky. we'll be back right after this yy we'll be back right after this ever notice how stiff clothes can feel rough on your skin? it's because they rub against you creating friction. and your clothes rub against you all day. for softer clothes that are gentle on your skin, try downy free & gentle. just pour into the rinse dispenser and downy will soften your clothes without dyes or perfumes. the towel washed with downy is softer, fluffier, and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle. recognized by the national psoriasis foundation and national eczema association. - 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. er. the windows start breaking, dogs flying through the air. i didn't know what to do. falls feel like they were caving in. it was very scary. >> it hurts to see the residents hurt and sad and upset. >> hopefully, there is more survivors, they're in there now, working and trying to recover debris and move everything out. >> to know that i survived this, honey, listen, it's humbling. and i'm forever grateful. >> reporter: the tough part about covering tornadoes and natural disasters like this is you see this. this is the immediate aftermath. people have obviously not come back to their homes of the destruction. some people have, but this is what you see. these are people's personal belongings. there's a trailer here, a boat over here, somebody's pickup truck. a shed appears to have completely come down here. you can see trees down all over the place. right behind that truck, there's an actual house. behind all the debris, everything that's piled up is somebody's house, somebody's home, somebody's car, there are destroyed cars all over here. but there isn't just an aftermath, this is an active scene. there are still people that may be trapped inside their home. i want to bring in a member of the kentucky state police. we appreciate you being here. you and i were talking, you come from around here, sergeant -- is it lieutenant patterson? >> yes, it is. >> you live about two miles away from here, but you have grown up in the area? >> yes. this is something you never want to see. you think that when you live in an area, it will look the same way your entire life and you can come back when you're old and it will be the same. this town will never look like it did before. >> and you've seen tornadoes in the region before, but this is amazing, because we're actually downtown. we're in the center of a fairly large town, it's 10,000 people. we are literally one block off the main streets. >> yes, i've spent -- i was commenting earlier, i think i've mowed the yard in this building up here before for one of the tenants. you wouldn't know that that's the same place. this is usually a bustling area. i guess it's sunday now. i kind of lose count, but yesterday would have been just a normal busy saturday. and pretty active downtown. and it's just tragic that -- what we're seeing here now. >> give me the scope of this. we're missing a fire station. the courthouse is destroyed. there's a church here where things are gone. and then these homes are destroyed. what else is going on? i know you guys were even going door-to-door, trying to find people? >> right. so, really, yesterday, once the sun started to rise, our first obstacle was to try to get to places to confirm that people may be there. because there were people that were from outside of here calling in saying, hey, i have my cousin or my aunt, or my uncle are there. can you go check on them? when it was dark and we didn't know what was happening on the scene, we had to let that time pass. so we spent the better part of yesterday, going from house to house or what used to be a house and right to locate people. >> what is the status of locating people right now? >> it's still ongoing and it's going to be ongoing for some time. it's hard to account for the people that were here, that left, you know, because, i mean -- >> because there had been warnings. some people -- >> yeah, the warnings, i thought, were very adequate. so a lot of people left to get to some safety. and after it happened, i'm sure they left and probably are not wanting to come back until it's safe. it's going to take some time to figure out, to account for the ones that are safe, that left before we had a chance to make contact with them. >> the governor says the official numbers versus what he thinks it's going to be, there's a big, big spread. what do you know about that? is that likely that people they're looking for at the candle factory or trying to account for? >> the assumption is that the gross amount of life lost is going to be at the candle factory, just because there was a large group of people there. you know, we hate to -- i don't like throwing numbers on something until we know for sure, because that's people's families that are wanting to know. you know, unfortunately, the loss of life is going to be catastrophic. it's going to be more than one or two, we already know that. and we just hope that the numbers that we've seen don't get any higher. >> we have an issue with this cold. this is a hard thing, because the power is not here, and we were just describing how this infrastructure, on which the power goes. after a hurricane sometimes, you can cut some trees down and put the wires back up, but the polls are gone in some cases. is there some estimate as to how -- you know, how long it could be before people get power? and what do they do in the meantime? >> the best thing you can do is, you know, try to -- if you can get to a place that has power, there are areas, you know, not too far outside of town that have power. get to those places to keep your family safe, if you have pets, get those pets to safety. our job is to make sure that if you have to leave your home, that we're going to keep your property secure. unfortunately, there are people that try to take advantage of these situations. we have a pretty good contingent of law enforcement around here, have been all night, just to safeguard the area, while the other responders and emergency workers can do their job. >> lieutenant patterson, thanks for the work that you're doing and thanks to all of your colleagues for the work that they're doing. some rough days ahead for you. >> thank you. >> we'll take a quick break right now and follow another big story. if you remember, this sunday one year ago was the day in which the vaccines rolled out. so while we are dealing with this disaster, there's another disaster that might have a more hopeful outcome. i'm going to talk to dr. peter hotez who was with me on that day one year ago when we come back. and of course, our live coverage of the situation here in kentucky will continue. rage of the situation here in kentucky will continue ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from 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operation smile, or go to operationsmile.org. just $30 a month can help volunteer surgeons and nurses provide free surgeries to waiting children. you'll give a child a chance to smile, to come out of the shadows and shine. please call now. thousands of children are waiting for surgery, living lives of isolation and loneliness, waiting for someone to help them, someone like you. a surgery that takes as little as 45 minutes, and your act of love can change a child's life forever. i'm ali velshi in mayfield, kentucky. this country has dealt with a lot of tragedy in the last couple of years, and as we're in this tragedy of this quad state tornado that we're covering and the loss of life, there's another tragedy that may have a more hopeful ending. the end of that tragedy began a year ago on on december the 13th, which is actually tomorrow, but last year, it fell on a sunday. on that sunday one year ago, on this show, we were live when the first trucks with vaccines started rolling out of the factories, of the plants in which they were made and i was joined by a few of my colleagues, ellison barber, dr. peter hotez who had kept us informed throughout the course of the pandemic. here's a little of what it looked like a year ago. >> we begin this morning with important breaking news on the fight against covid-19. this was scene just minutes ago at the pfizer plant. in fact, this is live now at the pfizer plant in portage, michigan. the first fda-authorized covid-19 vaccine is right now being loaded up. it will soon be at hospitals across the country. the minute a truck moves, i want to see that. i want to be with you in watching this history unfold. >> i'm really excited that this vaccine is rolling out. i think it's going to be the first of four or five, maybe even six vaccines, maybe ours will be one of them. >> it appears that the first truck, a fedex truck hads left or is leaving as we speak. it has pulled out of the pfizer facility in michigan. the united postal service, u.p.s. is moving off the premise now. those two trucks, ellison barber was saying, have in excess of 100,000 boxes of vaccines. >> one woman who was speaking to one of our colleagues, she cried as she talked about seeing this moment. >> it is a big deal. it is momentous, important, and -- but it's the beginning of the end and the end is some distance away. that was a year ago on this sunday. tomorrow is the actual anniversary, but that was when the first vaccines rolled out. and with me that morning, ellison barber, who is also covering this tragedy. but dr. peter hotez was with us. peter, i wanted you back here for two reasons. one is you and i talk very regularly about the state of this virus and how we deal with it. but that was a very, very big deal. and it is important, while we're not done with covid yet, to remember that milestone. that was something that people said would have taken four or five or more years and it was a hell of a scientific breakthrough and it's the work that people like you did in years before that we were able to get that vaccine out so fast and it remains so effective. >> absolutely, ali. it was a whole year. it seems like yesterday, but we've learned so much since these vaccines. and for me the greatest tragedy has been this aggression against vaccines that we've seen play out across the country, and a lot of it coming from political extremism on the far right. who would have imagined that at the cpac conference, the members of the u.s. congress would say that vaccines are nothing more than instruments of political control. first they'll vaccinate you and then they'll take away your guns and your bibles. so we've ever only reached 60% of the u.s. population fully vaccinated. and, you know, as great as this accomplishment is scientifically, the vaccines are only as good as those that get into people's arms. of course, and now the new numbers are we've lost 150,000 unvaccinated americans since june 1, despite the widespread availability of vaccines. and i don't even know what you call it. it's not misinformation or disinformation, it's the -- it's a form of mass self-immolation. it's this incredible aimpression from the far right that has killed so many americans. and how we fix that, and we've learned a couple of other things. the durability of the vaccines maybe not as strong as we had hoped, necessitating boosters and there's some new numbers now against the omicron variant that virus neutralizing antibodies declined precipitously. and of course, despite the widespread availability of vaccines in the united states, we've totally failed to vaccinate the southern hemisphere. the african continent remains entirely unvaccinated or 6 to 7%. similar situations in latin america and southeast asia. we never shaped a global pan for vaccinating the world. so mixed feelings, great excitement for scientific achievements, but great sadness at the same time. >> but the distinction, peter, is that it now is a matter of choice. we can actually make that choice or do what need to be done, if more people need to be convince ordinary there are better methodologies for convincing people about the efficacy of the vaccine, at least that choice existed. prior to a year ago, that choice didn't exist. there was no vaccine, there was no option. >> that's absolutely right. i got that pfizer biontech vaccine, i got three doses, and who knows, it likely saved my life and saved the lives of my loved ones and colleagues, and that's something we have to be deeply grateful about, but now we have to figure out how to close these horrible gaps in the united states, because of vaccine refusal and vaccine defiance, and globally, because we've not made enough of these vaccines and our vaccine will be released soon for emergency use in india. that's pending, and we're very excited about that making a contribution. so still a lot of work to do at the same time. >> peter, thanks for being with us. you and i have spent the better part now of two years almost talking about this and you've been very, very helpful to our viewers and to the nation. dr. peter hotez, who is truly one of the smartest people around when it comes to these vaccines. we appreciate you being with us again. i want to bring you back here to mayfield, kentucky, and take a look at what's going on. i think we may have a drone up there that can give us a shot of this devastation, now that the sun has risen to the disagree that it has. unfortunately, it's not like it looks better than it did yesterday. it's a little cleaner because there have been crews out moving debris around so cars can get around, but this is mayfield, kentucky, it's the downtown of mayfield, kentucky. this tornado or series of tornadoes was huge. more than 32 touched down across a series of six states. one of them or a family of them, it will take us a little while to figure it out, traveled for more than 200 miles. this one here in mayfield looked to be well over a mile wide. this is unusually large and an unusual length of rack for a tornado to take. take a look at kind of damage that we're looking at roup. i am joined here by representative james comer. he is a representative from illinois's first district. he was with us on the phone yesterday. first of all, thank you for taking time to see us this morning. you brought us a lot of misinformation yesterday about the fact that fema was on its way, that help was being coordinated. what do you know this morning? >> i know that people is on the ground, fema is going to all of those spots today. they're starting out in frankfort, in the state capitol. they've already communicated with all of the local elected officials and emergency management people. so the federal government is set to go and hopefully we can begin the process of rebuilding. >> and we know that the president talk to the governor apparently a couple of times yesterday and the governor said, as did the president, that they're coordinating with the senators, with the members of congress, the mayors, the heads of the county here. there does seem to be a good amount of coordination. in the end, though, this is a disaster the sorts of which this state has never seen before. >> we've never seen anything like this. we have had tornadoes before. we have had tornados that stretched through the whole entire length of the state, but the width of this tornado, to be able to take out an entire town. and there are four more smaller towns just like mayfield that have been completely wiped out. and this morning, i must admit, it looks worse than it did yesterday. just yesterday, it's the initial shock and this morning, it starts to sink in and the devastation is just unimaginable. and so many homes have been destroyed. so many businesses. and rural america has been struggling for a long time, economically. and smaller tax base. so it's going to be a long haul to recovery, but we're going to do it. this town has pride. all of these little communities have a sense of pride. they want to rebuild and get their lives back to normal. >> what do you know right now about the status of search and rescue? >> they're not giving up. there are still rural parts of of these counties that people may not have gotten to yet. you don't know the extent. there are a lot of rural cabins and rural farmhouses that just aren't on the ground. they're way off gravel roads and things like that, so using drones and things like that to see if they can identify any homes that may not have been searched yet, with respect to the candle factory. they're still searching, there are still a few people unaccounted for. but i think they learned late yesterday afternoon that some of those people who were unaccounted for had just left after the tornado hit the building to go check their families. >> that would be great news. the power's out here. it's cold, it's a little warmer than it was, but in the 20s overnight. what do you think is happening with restoration of power? >> when i was coming in, i met so many crews that are coming in to repair the poles, but just within the city limit of mayfield, there were 155 poles that were destroyed. they can't be repaired. metal poles, wooden poles, and it's like that all over western kentucky. it could take 20 days to get the power back, but we've got crews from five states so far that have rolled into kentucky and they were working yesterday afternoon through the night, they're up this morning. so it's going to take a while. >> that is the one good piece of news when you're traveling to these things. even this morning, you see that incoming of these convoys of cherry picking trucks, electrical trucks. they're staged at motels and hotels around the place. it is the only one thing that comes out of these disasters that we actually see that we can come together a little bit. is everybody coordinating properly at all levels of goth here? >> they are. all the areas have reached out, in areas that were not affected by the tornado and they were wanting contact information with whoever's in charge of coordinating the reconstruction of all the poles. they're on their way. some of them are already here. i understand that there are people from other states, too, that are en route now. so it's just -- this brings out the good when you see that your fellow colleagues want to come together in the electric world and try to repair and restore electricity, because as you mentioned, it dropped 40 degrees over a 24-hour period. >> when the tornado first hit, it did not feel nearly this cold and it suddenly has gotten very cold. congressman, thanks for your time. we appreciate it. we'll continue this conversation and hopefully you and i get a chance to talk about things on days that are better than that. >> thanks for covering this. >> thank you, sir. congressman james comer. we have talked about the fact that this storm has hit several states and hit tennessee as well. i want to go to reporter ryan breslin who's standing by in tennessee. we have not talked a lot about this, ryan. what's the situation where you are? >> reporter: hey, good morning to you, ali. we are about 30 minutes west of tennessee in a town called kingston springs. this area got hit pretty bad, about 200 to 300 estimated homes have damage. and this is the typical scene that you're seeing in kingston springs, power lines along the road, luckily, work crews worked all day yesterday working on those trees, cutting them out and getting them out of the area. take a look at this home behind me here. you can see the roof or the front of that roof down there. that's what a lot of the homes down this road, it's sneed road, look like this morning and yesterday morning. we can't actually get down the road because of the power lines that are across from us, but that's an electrical worker tat is assessing some of the damage right now, trying to get the transformer down this morning and hopefully get some of the power lines out of the roads and all the electricity off. of course, this area is without customer, about 2,000 customers without power this morning in the middle tennessee area in general, we know of about 12,000 customers are without power. i want to tell you a story about one injury that we've seen and had here in kingston springs. we know there was a tailor on a woman, she was trying to leave as the tornado warnings were going off. the mobile home came off of its foundation and landed on her. first responders worked for about 20 minutes to get her out. she is in critical condition right now, but that is the only injury in this area. other than that, we know that four people were killed across tennessee from these storms. ali? >> and of course, we're going to learn more about these kinds of injuries or the rescues that we're seeing in all four of these states, all six of the states, really. ryan, thanks very much for your reporting on this. we appreciate it. here, you've been seeing pictures, we've been showing you drone pictures. yesterday, you saw pictures of the candle factor. we spoke to a woman yesterday who had been rescued from that candle factory. about 70 people have not been rescued or are not accounted for from that factory. it's where they are worried that most of the fatalities have come from. when we come back, i'll speak to the woman i spoke to yesterday who had escaped serious injury, kiana parsons perez is joining me right after this break. a parg me right after this break. heir important time of year. when you switch to t-mobile and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $1000. you can keep your phone. keep your number. and get your employees connected on the largest and fastest 5g network. plus, we give you $200 in facebook ads on us! so you can reach more customers, create more opportunities, and finish this year strong. visit your local t-mobile store today. the snapshot app from progressive rewards you for 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mayfield fire department. now, understand what he's saying there. they were walking over casualties at the candle factory to get to survivors. to pull survivors out. now, we do not have numbers that necessarily correspond to those casualties. in other words, there may have been people who died in those candle factories whose bodies have not been recovered. as of now, this is still a search and rescue, but the governor is saying, perhaps in excess of 70 people have died, and the majority of those are thought to be at the candle factory. yesterday at this time, we had had a recording of a call from inside the candle factory, from someone who had been trapped inside there. it was off of facebook live. they had transmitted this. the person who did it was key ana parsons perez. let's listen to what we got yesterday, before we spoke with her. >> y'all, please send us some help. somebody, please, send us some help. we are trapped. the wall is stuck on me. nobody can get to us. >> we subsequently talked to key ana parsons perez, who joins me now, who told us about her harrowing experience on her 40th birthday, by the way, is when it happened. kiana, thank you for being with us. before you and i had talked yesterday, you had gone to paducah, where there is adequate health care and you discussed that you felt a little bit injured. and we talked about you going to get checked up, you going to a hospital. i believe you did do that? >> yes, i did. i did. >> and are you okay? >> i'm okay. i have to follow up with my primary care physician, to make -- you know, in a couple of days. i have to follow up and do things like that. so, you know, we still don't know the extent of my injuries, though. >> you were talking me yesterday about the fact that when we said, we don't know that everybody has been rescued from that building, and you said, it's -- you know, it would be impossible. you couldn't conceive of the fact that there aren't people trapped in there, given what you experienced and what you saw. what you were saying is turning out to be true. the governor says that there are probably many people who remain trapped in there. tell me about what you understand from that. why did you think that was going to be the case? >> because the damage was so severe. i mean, you're there, you're able. i haven't been back there since i was rescued, but the damage is just so severe and there were so many of us and i'm sure -- you know, i was blessed where i was, there was a group of us, the way with everything the way the rubble and debris fell on us, we were still able to remain conscience. at this time, i'm sure people have lost consciousness and things like that. so i'm sure it's going to be very difficult to locate those people at this time and it breaks my heart. and i don't know. i guess a little bit of survivor's guilt, survivor's guilt, i feel some kind of way that, you know, i have survived, yesterday when i went to the hospital, i saw several of my coworkers there. several of my coworkers. of the bruising. there were some that were being transported to other hospitals that have more, um, more advanced hospitals and things in bigger cities. so, this whole thing is just -- i guess now i'm coming down off the adrenaline of it all and the reality of everything is really starting to settle in. it's kind of starting to get to me a little bit. >> yeah. i mean, obviously yesterday when you and i talked yesterday morning, this was still very, very fresh and current in your mind. now when you see this imagery, i will say rescuers always tell me at these events that they are so grateful for everyone who can get out, everyone who didn't perish in there. while that is something that you are processing right now, i'm sure the rescuers -- and you named a couple of them yesterday -- are so grateful for the people and the people like you who were able to get out. but you are feeling very differently today than you did yesterday. >> i feel quite differently. yesterday i still -- when i was talking, i had so much going on, i hadn't had much rest, and, as you know, yesterday was my birthday. so i decided to do a staycation here in paducah so i've been able to get some rest. i'm able to process things a little bit more, my mind. just really looking at the severity of what i survived, you know, what i went through. i said i was in there for about 2 1/2, maybe three hours, but then i hear that people are still there, it's heartbreaking. it's heartbreaking, and i wish that i could help them. i wish that we were all in the same section. when the debris fell, we were all -- most of us were all in the same area. it's like a t-shaped area. there was a hallway, a hallway that went to the bathrooms. it's a t-shaped area, and we were all there. but as the debris fell, i feel like it sectioned us off because it fell all kinds of ways. it fell, and it sectioned us off. and so those sections are hard to get to. and then also some of those sections, like where i was at, had other things that fell on them, like the air-conditioning unit and things like that. so those people have been hard to get to. even that night i spoke to some other people that were in there and they talked about how they were going to get out and how some people had to get out to let other people out. kind of had to say who was going to be the best person to get out first that would give everybody else a more probable -- to get out. and there was one woman that was out there. and my friend, she said could you get out? and she said, yeah, i could get out but i'm not leaving y'all. and my friend said, excuse my language, she said -- so you can tell them where we're at! she didn't want to leave, and that's understandable. but, at the same time, when you get out, you're going to be the best person to help to locate a crew. so didn't want to leave us. she said i'm not leaving y'all. and my girlfriend said if you don't go get them people and tell them where they're at. i believe that's one of the things that also helped us -- it was a group of about seven or eight of us who all got out over there. >> that's right. and rescuers will say for everybody that gets out, it's one less person they have to worry about or get out. so i for one am really glad that you're out. and i'm glad to speak to you. but i understand that you're feeling this hard because you called it heartbreaking, and that is really the best way to describe this, as we are surrounded in this destruction as we continue to see these search and rescues underway in this cold. heartbreaking is truly the case. you are unfortunately, kyanna, a piece of american history now because this is one of america's worst natural disasters. kyanna parsons-perez did survive the candle factory collapse in that tornado. thank you for joining us. our special coverage of the damage from these tornados across the midwest continues in just a moment. you're watching msnbc. hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ 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people who are homeless at the moment. you're seeing some of these homes that were around. and by the way, those who are not homeless are still without power. there's a power pole there behind me. that's probably one of the best surviving ones that i've seen. it's just leaning. but if you want to repair the power and the powerlines, and we've seen trucks coming around to do that, well, you can't repair it on a pole like that that's about to come down. most of them have fully, fully come down. you can see a communication tower behind that where the dish has been wrecked on top. that creates all sorts of problems with cell service around here. so you've got no power, you've got no heat. we've got gas problems. we've got water problems. obviously when you have water pipes damaged, there is the chance of infiltration of contaminants. they are still testing the water to see what can be had. some places around here within two miles of here, there's no destruction whatsoever. that's very different from a hurricane where you see a large area that's been completely destroyed. here you've got the center of town that has been completely destroyed. and the fire station doesn't exist anymore. there are -- they're starting from scratch here, but they can't even start rebuilding because they are still looking for survivors at that candle factory. the governor saying more than 70 people could have perished. our coverage continues here on msnbc, a new hour of "velshi" begins right now. good morning. it is sunday, december the 12th. i'm ali velshi in mayfield, kentucky. this is ground zero for the terror that we have seen on friday night and into saturday. this is a region that is hard hit by what the governor of kentucky has called the most devastating tornado strike in the state's history. let me just show you these before and after images, giving you a sense of the magnitude of the destruction. this rare set of twisters that arrived on friday night december, it's a little late for tornados, touching down in multiple states in a matter of four hours, reducing