minutes. at least eight co-workers did not sur vooi. a similar scene 160 miles away in illinois where the roof and walls of an amazon factory crashed down. six people there were killed. take a look at this side by side image showing a nursing home in northeastern arkansas. residents were not able to evacuate before the building was hit. amazingly you one perhap was killed there. i want to get to the scene on the ground where we find dasha burns in kentucky. dasha, talk us through what you see on the ground there 48 hours after the storm. >> reporter: yeah. good morning. 11 people have died here in bowling green. what i'm hear aing from residents is every time the sun comes up they see this and get hit all over again. this where i'm standing right now used to be a garage. the woman that lives here said it was filled with her children's toys. it was just lifted up and gone now. scattered all over the neighborhood. if you look behind me here there used to be an auto zone here and a mexican restaurant. the businesses completely leveled. we know right now at least 500 homes have been damaged. and at least 100 businesses. if you walk with me this way here the extent of the devastating. you see this home destroyed. the debris still piled up. there have been so many clean-up efforts but the task is daunting. the people that i have been speaking with have been accounting just harrowing stories of hiding in crawl spaces. hiding in closets with their children. the woman whose garage was destroyed said she called her mom in bosnia and hear the kids screaming on the other line and wanted one more word with her mother. hear from another resident we talked to. she was hiding in a crawl space with her disabled daughter. take a listen. >> i thought we were going to die. >> reporter: oh my god. >> i thought this was it. it was so fast. it was just over. immediate calm when it was over. we sit there and i said what do we do? i said we survived. >> reporter: yasmin, a hardest thing to watch walking around here i run into residents standing taking a quiet moment and just looking around, taking it all in and everyone says the hardest part is the home where they lived for decades many of them. it will never be the same. >> talk to me about that having covered storms not unlike this one myself i think you're so accurate to describe the aftermath. right? the calm after the storm i should say when they have to come back and survey all that they have lost, the belongings gone. happy to have the lives intact for so many but for others everything obliterated. how are they dealing? >> reporter: they're in a state of shock. they're completely shaken up and trying to pick up the pieces. what's amazing the huge flood of people who have come here to help and this morning as early as 5:00, 6:00 a.m. you can see folks trying to watch up a roof back there. there are people from all over the state here and people from out of the state here bringing food and water and bringing chain saws, the trucks. we met folks from a tree removal company that said we are here to do everything that we can. but like i said it's a daunting task. you can just see how much work there is to be done. i think as i said every time the sun comes up people are struck by what's missing and how long it will take to bring any of it back. >> incredible images. we appreciate reporting on this. from bowling green i want to go to mayfield in kentucky where we find jose diaz-balart standing by for us. we have been talking about the candle factory there. folks there making candles for christmases. one of the happiest times of years now having lost their lives. people missing. give us a sense of what you see on the ground, jose. >> reporter: utter devastation. it is difficult to describe the magnitude of the disaster and of the destruction. sometimes we say it looks like a bomb went off. this looks like an area that was carpet bombed by airplanes. miles and miles and miles of devastation. i'm in downtown and this was a steakhouse. a popular steakhouse. this town of 10,000 people. this is -- you see this repeated over and over and over again. i was just speaking with a gentleman here who's been in the area for 20 years. originally from guatemala. a lot of central americans made this area their home. they opened a bodega five months ago with the entire life savings. he wasn't there. his friend was. he, his wife, two children and his brother and they were in front of one little wall. it's a little wall that is made of plywood and pieces of wood. like this. as a matter of fact this is stronger than the structure that we were just at. in one little wall they survived he says by the grace of god. they look now to start over again. there are thousands of people, thousands of people that have been working here, contributing to this economy and are in many cases invisible for many things. they don't know how to reach out for help. they don't know who can help them. they have been working in the tobacco fields. they worked in the place of candles. and in little bodegas and shops and construction sites in this town. many are privileged to be alive and face an uncertain future which is the reality for many thousands of people. >> you make a good point and something i think about lately in seeing this destruction. there are lives that have been lost. possibly people income earners for a family. the family that you were talking about how are they going to make money going forward? where are the children going to go to school now? looking ahead. what resources do they have? >> reporter: they don't have any resources and many of them and luis was telling me about this and we're actually going to have more of my conversation with luis in the next hour but he was telling me a lot of folks working here are what we know as essential workers in this pandemic. they have been working to clean up the hospitals and in the tobacco fields and they don't have documents and so they are now living in a process of almost like a double fear. fear of what occurred here and now the fear of how do they go forward now when they have no documents, no access to any federal help? and quite frankly, they don't know where to turn. but on the other hand they tell me. [ speaking spanish ] where there's life there's hope. they're together. as a matter of fact later today i will go to luis' house. he has three other families that have been here and survived but the homes did not and looking out for each other. that's as far as the help network is right now and a lot of people like that. >> so good. where there's life there's hope. we can all find inspiration from what and incredibly sad moment. jose, just -- please. go. >> reporter: look at this. just look at this. this was a solid structure of the steakhouse in town. and you see bricks and you see 2 x 4s. the chairs of the restaurant. the little bodega which is literally a block from where i am right now. there was no concrete. there was no brick. it was plywood and shingle and as a matter of fact, take a look. look. you see that roof over there? on that cement structure? right behind it is the bodega. i'll take you there here today but there's nothing left except that one little bit of wall. that saved five people's lives. >> miracle. jose, i do know that you have some more work to do before you get going on your show and jose is going to be live at 10:00 a.m. from mayfield doing incredible coverage of the aftermath of this storm. is there still hope in the community to find people alive? is there still people missing? they haven't transitioned to a recovery mission as of yet. >> reporter: there's always hope. yasmin, there's always hope. but as the hours progress and the hours become days that hope diminishes but never extinguished. there is hope. look. people know. people know that as time passes the odds get worse. but there's still a lot of hope here. >> jose, is there anything still standing there? >> reporter: here? very little. some structures. there's some structures, concrete structures. the church. the police station. an apartment block over there behind the debris that held. held. that's a -- it held because it's solid concrete and bricks. so they held but some don't have roofs. you know? it is so add. tornados almost like it's a pounding, one resident told me he felt the room was shaking up and down, side to side. he said everything was flying up and down. moving side to side. we were just hoping that the structure would hold. the roof did not but it is that 360 pounding that even if it was for 50 secs just brought a lot of things down and the fact that there are -- people survived it is extraordinary. our prayers are that people unaccounted for alive. >> yeah. >> reporter: there's always hope. >> just devastating. jose diaz-balart. again, folks, jose will be life 10:00 hour here on msnbc. dasha burns in kentucky. thank you. >> thank you. want to go to jenna adams from the mayfield city council. >> you have a call from -- >> how are you doing? how are you holding up? >> well, you know, like he was saying, excuse me, there's always hope. the sun is up and shining and we are going to make it. >> we are going to make it. we always do but for -- jenna, i think for us, for reporter that is come to cities after devastation we are saddened, devastated for the destruction in your town but for you this is personal. this is your home. your neighbor's homes. the friend's homes. how's that for you? >> you're exactly right. and you know, it is just very sad. it's very sad. but we have the thought process that we're okay. and buildings can be replaced. the really sad part to me and to a lot of people is we lost a lot of beautiful, beautiful historic buildings. we lost four of our churching that were just absolutely gorgeous buildings. the courthouse which is 100 and i don't know 50 years old. something like that. was heavily damaged. i was at may field electric and water until 2:00 in the morning trying to just get all the technology out. the laptops, the ipads, all that to relocate those. city hall is severely damaged. i think that picture you are showing right now is about half a block from city hall. like right behind it. there's just devastation everywhere. everywhere. it is just so sad. but you know, mayfield, whenever there's a crisis, mayfield comes together and outside people come in to help and we got through the ice storm in '09 which was very devastating and we can get through this. it's going to take time but we will come through it. >> it's always incredible for me to see how americans rise up in crisis and come together at the worst of times, in the best of times. >> yes. >> what was it like for you in that storm, your experience? >> we actually, my husband and i, were at my daughter and son-in-law's house in their basement. we heard the wind, of course, and everything. we were in the basement so we were safe and hit about three blocks from our house. it missed by about three blocks so we were just incredibly thankful, grateful. you know? for that. that we didn't have any damage. we had some limbs but everybody's already pitching in. fema has been here. tennessee valley authority is here for the utilities. we lost 500,000 gallon water tank supplying the water to mayfield and the water treatment plant was destroyed so really the first order of business is to try to restore water to the residents. we're still in the very early stages of form nating plans and getting everything organized. it is going to be a while. but we'll get it done. >> at what point does the conversation move to figuring out where people will live long term and where kids go to school? >> well, school here has been kind of on and off. zoom and in person because of covid, of course. so the kids are kind of used to going to school at home on the i pads. you know? so i think that probably is going to be continued. a lot of the schools are still intact. some of them did have some damage i think. i've not really sure on the school situation as far as damage. my daughter actually is with the housing authority, and she went saturday door to door and helped -- she made arrangements for buses to come and pick the folks up and the families up and relocate them to temporary shelters. they are working on that. fema is here. they're very good about helping organize housing and things of that nature so i'm seeing that picture out flag line. we always have a flag flying somewhere no matter what in mayfield. we're a proud community and like i said we come out of things like this before and we'll come out of this. >> jenna adams, i thank you for you time. it is a tough time watching the devastation. there is another day beyond this and you will recover and so thankful you are going okay and the help you provide your community. thank you. >> thank you so much. about three hours north to edwardsville, illinois, where a tornado ripped through an amazon facility bringing part of the roof crashing down and find nbc's morgan chesky. great to see you this morning. thank you for joining us. give us the latest on that building and the people that were inside. >> reporter: yeah. absolutely brutal past 48 hours for everyone impacted by the tornado that's an ef-3. the warehouse is still standing. the one ajace ent is not. causing the concrete walls about 40 feet high to fall in. and the roof as well. this is a section of that building that you are looking at right now. the tornado absolutely demolished cutting essentially right through the southern edge of the building. amazon tells us there were two groups of employees inside that went to the north and the south. the group on the south took the brunt of the storm. the death tell is now six. one 29-year-old clay coe. i spoke to his mother yesterday. he was a navy veteran. spoke to his about 30 minutes before the tornado moved in and she said what's no devastating is he shared the exact same job with his dad. take a listen. >> dad's son essentially have the same job. >> worked at the same building, the same shift. they just worked opposite days of the week. every wednesday they work together. if my son wasn't there my husband would have been. >> reporter: does that weigh on you? >> yes. i feel like i would have lost one or the other no matter what. >> reporter: incredible -- incredibly emotion moment. only thing she knows about clay's final moments is getting off the phone he said he would make sure other people got to shelter. we do know that as of this moment authorities don't believe anyone is missing inside the rubble here but still going through it carefully just in case. yasmin? >> how's amazon responding? helping the families whose lives were lost especially. >> reporter: of course. i spoke to a representative yesterday and donated $1 million to an edwardsville charity to go straight to those impacted by this tornado. they have also pledged to ensure they have support services as needed for any employees here and the families of those victims. the spokeswoman saying over the weekend a tough blow for the amazon family here and of course it comes at a tough time. this is the holiday season. they were busy that evening. delivery drivers had just finished up the day's work and coming back to the plant when they were given a shelter in place order. a drive said pulling up to the building after the tornado struck he was ushered into a safe place and looked where he checked in every day. it was gone. yasmin? >> can't imagine being that mother or wife. her son or her husband. just an awful reality. morgan, thank you. as we enter day three of the aftermath this drone video of mayfield, kentucky, showing how much the communities were destroyed and how much work to rebuild. want to bring in the person who shot that video. storm chaser brandan and with us bill cairns to talk about the unusual and seasonable storms. brandan, you were on the ground and saw the buildings leveled. you saw this tornado from a distance. talk me through what you saw and witnessed. >> i started the night in arkansas and when it crossed interstate 95 just before the mississippi river in missouri right across the arkansas line there the tornado came across 300 yads on the interstate. didn't appear to be too damaging at the time. nothing like the intensity we saw later on. getting up into kentucky particularly mayfield pulling into town it was apparent something terrible happened. every block i turned getting worse. right downtown in the night and had enough light on the car to get an idea of what i was looking at in the morning but at first light shocked me. >> in all the storm chasing had you ever seen anything like this? >> yeah. it's -- i seen it a few times from tornadoes a few times. it's very rare that -- very rare. catastrophic every time it happens and, you know, you just -- i wish there's words to relay to people. fortunately a lot of people out for past tornados. imagine the worse parts and that's what it looks like. it is a -- earlier they said didn't look like a bomb for carpeted bombed. that is absolutely a perfect assessment of it. >> bill, let's talk about the historic nature. what is going on? every time with storm coverage, a hurricane or a tornado it just seems like it gets worse and we think is this the new normal? >> we thank people like brandon to tell us where the tornadoes were. lives were saved by brandon and national weather offices into this storm on the ground for like 200, 250 miles. tornado warned for 6 1/2 hours and seeing the damage that came in now and we are starting to get the storm surveys. the quad state one, the long one, haven't got that 0 foirm one and could be an ef-5. the last one we had was moore, oklahoma. back to 2013 since we had an ef-5. but most of those that occur ds are not in december. most are typically in the springtime. death toll is approaching the 40s and will go down as one of the deadliest tornadoes in kentucky hisz ri. may and march. the last time of an ef-5 in december you have to go back to the 1950s. we had two. the latest was in 1957. this will be incredibly rare this time of year to have a storm like this. with the climate connection, there's research done. we know that because it's warmer and humid. we are having october weather in december. shouldn't be a surprise to get severe weather outbreaks this time of year. we haven't had that connection. research is not a big enough sample size. don't know it's strzokker tornados with climate change. not yet. craig, let's talk about the emergency response considering climate change and the storms that we have been seeing over the last six months that seem to get worse. destruction awful to see. cities and towns levelled. lives lost. has fema adjusted its response? are they working to make sure they respond appropriately to the more extreme weather circumstances? >> the answer is yes. strategic plan they lay out that climate is a key factor. i like to say the climate's changed. we haven't. fema is making the changes. other thing is the leadership of fema isn't -- may be a political appointee but the administrator was leading the national team and responded in moore, oklahoma. she's been on the ground before and knows what needs to be done and fema is starting that process of moving to the future risk. >> bill, craig, brandon, thank you all for joining me on this. i appreciate it. we are staying on the story all hour long. communities holding out hope. we are going to talk to a survivor who live streamed as the tornado twisted through. the overnight report from the january 6 committee and an email from mark meadows saying the national guard would protect pro trump people. we'll be right back. at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner with access to financial advice, tools and a personalized plan that helps you build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. it's our holiday savings event on the sleep number 360® smart vanguard. bed. what if i sleep hot? 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does meadows have standing? >> they're trying to say at the time at least you could have made the argument and you could have. yasmin, but for biden's determination not to invoke the communications would be classic executive privilege stuff. not all of them, of course. a point is show up and invoke it question by question. the profile changed why the landscape changing under us day by day. the d.c. circuit held that a former president can't trump the determination -- sorry about that -- that biden already has made but that case isn't final yet. his attorney will say as of now the law is at least ambiguous enough you can't make a criminal referral. in fact if they had more time it might make it a stronger case. the documents that are in the report are really inculpatory. it's a crazy effort. different from saying not privileged. he is saying right now you can't say 100% until the case works the way through that there's no prif lenl for my client and that's enough to keep talking about a criminal referral. >> let's be clear here. he is closer to claim executive privilege than steve bannon was. >> as close as it gets. >> as former chief of staff for the former president. the committee laid out the questions. right? that they would want to ask meadows. talk me through those. >> reporter: they're trying to make the case as meadows and the attorney are arguing this is a wrong way to use a criminal referral they show why they're using it. meadows provided thousands of documents and text messaging they have questions about them. among the questions, did meadows preserve cell phone records and provide them to the national archives. we know that he was using a personal cell phone on january 6 and might not be in compliance and would n't see the records if the documents are turned over to the committee. what about protecting pro trump people and what can you tell us about text messaging encouraging republican lawmakers to send alternate electors to congress? this speaks to what was going on in the white house and the ways in which the people in the white house and close to the former president trying to overturn the election and central to the day of january 6. >> the vote happening this evening. thank you both. appreciate it. next, back to mayfield where rescue crews comb through the rubble of a candle factory. we'll talk to a survivor who live streamed from the factory as the tornado tore through the town. we'll be right back. with no sticky feeling. gold bond. champion your skin. if you're washing with the bargain brand, even when your clothes look clean, with no sticky feeling. there's extra dirt you can't see. watch this. that was in these clothes... ugh. but the clothes washed in tide- so much cleaner. if it's got to be clean it's got to be tide hygienic clean. no surprises in these clothes! couple more surprises. bye mom. my helpers abound, i'll need you today. our sleigh is now ready, let's get on our way. a mountain of toys to fulfill many wishes. must be carried across all roads and all bridges. and when everyone is smiling and having their fun i can turn my sleigh north because my job here is done. it's not magic that makes more holiday deliveries to homes in the us than anyone else, it's the hardworking people of the united states postal service. ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? 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(gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th to see my ancestors' photos was just breathtaking. wow, look at all those! what'd you find? lorraine banks, look, county of macomb, michigan? oh my goodness... this whole journey has been such a huge gift for our family. back now to the lead story. multiple tornadoes reported in at least eight states killing at least 49 people with the death toll expected to rise in the coming hour just the governor of kentucky saying it's been difficult to determine exactly how many people died because the destruction is just so widespread. as of now at least 35 people killed in that state including a 3-year-old child. tom llamas is in mayfield, kentucky and with us hays. tom, talk to us about what you have been seeing since you have been there. >> reporter: i want to say i understand what the governor is going through. this is incredible what you see here in mayfield, kentucky. piles of debris. every historical building is gone. it seems like every almost building is gone. there's nothing here. it is just bricks. it is concrete. it's wood. all completely shattered. all in a massive pile. the clean-up crews are out here. there's not much to salvage here. national guard troops are going door to door but as the governor said there's not a lot of doors to go to. they clear out buildings and making sure if there's a sign of life looking and listening and clear out the homes. it is getting loud here because the machinery that's here now to clean up the areas like the post office and strucks that are completely mangled and destroyed. you see cars, tractor trailers, anything to imagine that's a big piece of equipment thrown and tossed around. we think we are in control and get to a place like this and realize we are not in control. you really always learn something. i don't know what we learn from disaster. there's not a lot more that could have been done. you put out warning systems, tracking the storms is important but with a tornado as powerful as this, whatever is in the way is going to be gone. >> the governor saying yesterday going door to door and there aren't a lot of doors standing. rubble to rubble. just the idea of that, picturing that, it is just devastating to think. hayes, let's talk about the coverage beneficial to understand what's going on there. and covering bowling green from mayfield where tom is. talk to me about that community. what they need most. >> sure. thanks for having me, yasmin. bowling green is a couple hours from mayfield and not hit quite as totally. there's pockets that are totally destroyed. as i was driving to bowling green there's signs of destruction. and then you get to the city and some pockets of it are entirely leveled as you can see here. i talked to some people dejected. many people had very i would say positive attitudes picking up the pieces. probably the biggest thing people need and ways to donate and there's drives, blood drives and important to get supplies to towns affected and a biggest way to help now is a biggest way is to ask how can i help next week and next month because the destruction lasts for a long time. western kentucky needs support in the coming weeks and months. so if someone wants to help a good way to do so is set a reminder on the phone to check in next month. >> that's a hardest part of recovery. because we put the presence in areas like this and then the news cycle changes and we subsequently move on but people have to rebuild their lives. deal with the members of the life lost and not fair to them and need the help they can get. i want to read a piece from something you wrote, hayes. startling to me. there is a cruel randomness to tornadoes. one home is decimated and then not 50 yards away an apartment sits untouched. talk to me. for people not necessarily been through major natural disasters like this the psychological ramifications. the consequences of that. >> the randomness struck me saturday. there's been a lot of loss. 12 deaths in warren county. while i was in that area there were homes multilevel homes that disapeefred. i talked to someone inside the home and he found himself in the backyard. there were people that lost story just the top story of the home or cars thrown into buildings. and some cases literally 50 yards away an apartment pretty much unblemished. no sign of a tornado at all. i think that is pretty hard to understand how that could happen. one is so bad and then the neighbor could be unhurt. a lot of people who were -- didn't have the home destroyed found refuge in a neighbors home during the storm but it is some places can be fine and some can be absolutely leveled. >> you doing okay, hayes? you and your family faring okay? >> i'm doing all right. yes, yes. my family is doing fine, thank you. >> glad to hear that. tom llamas, thank you for your reporting on this. also, hayes gardner, thank you, as well. so looking at satellite images of a candle factory in mayfield where tom is, before and after the tornado struck. more than 100 people were working inside at the time. our own kate snow talked to some of them. >> people were screaming, mark, help! i couldn't even get to them. >> i had a savior. i don't know who it was, but he lifted a concrete wall off of me. >> reporter: kianna parsons perez was also working on friday night. when the building came down, she went on facebook live to ask for help. and to tell people that she was still alive and kianna is joining me now. kianna, i am so happy you're with us, i am so happy you're doing okay, but man, that must have been such a harrowing, emotional experience. talk to me about what you went through. >> good morning. it definitely was. looking at those -- i know both of those people, and we haven't -- i haven't seen or spoken to a lot of my coworkers since this happened, so seeing them, i'm happy that they made it out and i'm happy to see them, but just knowing what we went through, it was completely indescribable. um, it happened so fast. and i was fortunate enough to be in a place where i was close, right by many of my coworkers and we were able to talk to each other and kind of support one another, give each other support. like you said, i went live to let people know that we were in there, because i called 911 to tell them what happened, and they said, we know, we're trying to get there. and it just didn't sound too reassuring. lying, they would be there anytime soon. and so my thought, and because i'm not originally from kentucky, so all of these towns are small to me. i'm from chicago. so it's like, all of these -- these people are too little. we've got to get somebody else -- we've got to get more people. and so, you know, i decided to go on live on facebook in hopes that other people would get it, other people would see what was going on, people would know. i don't think anybody knew what happened. i didn't know if they knew that we were hit. and i needed them to know, so that somebody could come, so they could send people to come and get us, because, i mean, look at -- we were under that. we were underneath that. you know, when i came, at one point, someone told me, ma'am, we're trying, but there's 5 feet of debris on you. 5 feet of debris. you know, so we had to climb up -- when we were rescued, we had to climb up and out to get out. because we couldn't get out from where we were. so it was -- it was just one of the most horrific things i've ever -- i never want to do it again. now that i'm experienced it, i'm okay. i never have to go through another tornado in my life. >> i think one of the most amazing things about your story that i heard was that in fact, it was your birthday on saturday, right? >> yes, ma'am. my 40th. >> happy birthday, kyanna, you made it 40 years. and hopefully 40, 50, 60, 70 more. but, you were in that factory, people were scared, and you were able to raise them up, to get them to celebrate you in a way to take their minds off of what was happening. >> i just thought that we didn't need to focus on what was going on, because the more you think about what is actually going on right now, the more hopeless we would get. you know, and so, i'm like, no, y'all sing happy birthday to me. we going to turn up. and so -- i have not watched any of my live since, so yesterday, even when i was at church, they said, girl, you were on there talking about tequila. i said, was i? oh, my god! oh, my god! did i really say that? but i was just, you know, just talking, just talking, trying to just -- just rambling, because i didn't want to think about where i was at, because the moment -- there was a moment when i started panicking. i don't think it was on the live, but it was when i stopped talking and i started thinking, you know, they say the idle mind is the devil's workshop. so when my mind went idle and i wasn't trying to talk to anybody else, i wasn't talking on live, i wasn't talking -- because i talked to my mom while i was there, i talked to my pastor, i talked to my sister, i talked to one of my friends here in paducah. and one of my coworkers, who was outside at the time when this happened. he was in a van and his van got thrown all over, and i had been calling him, because i knew he was outside, because i was thinking that the tornado had threw him to missouri or something, so i was freaking out, because i didn't know where he was, and he ended up calling me, like, are you okay, and i'm like, oh, my god, i'm so glad you're okay, you know? and so, just -- but the times when i didn't talk to anybody was the time when i went into complete panic mode, so i just had to keep myself talking and keep -- kind of not think about what was going on at that time. >> your spirit, kyanna, is infectious. i can understand why people would celebrate you in spite of all that was going on around you. happy birthday. i'm so happy you made it to 40. and i hope you see 50, 60, 70 more. happy birthday, kyanna, and thank you for joining us on this monday morning. thank you so much. kyanna parsons-perez. so as we are dealing with the tornado recovery, we are still facing the pandemic. the u.s. surpassing 800,000 deaths this morning. a daunting number as americans head indoors to escape the cold and gather with family for the holidays. covid cases are up by double digits many more than 40 states across the country. hospitalizations are spiking, as well, with the "new york times" reporting a 23% increase nationwide in just the past two weeks, some states starting to put restrictions back into place. the governor of new york announcing an indoor mask mandate for all public places that do not require proof of vaccination, beginning today. this as the u.s. is bracing for impact of the omicron variant. it has been detected in at least 30 states, but a report from the cdc found cases have mostly been mild so far. joining me now, dr. kavita patel, nbc news medical contributor. doctor patel, great to see you this morning. we're dealing with this pandemic, just the idea that we've now lost 800,000 americans, it's astounding to me every single day, every single life that we continue to lose. on top of that now, we have this natural disaster in the middle of the country, hospitals overwhelmed. one of the lowest vaccination rates are in the state of kentucky. how are they going to be able to deal? >> yeah, yasmin, unfortunately, they weren't dealing well to begin with, because of rising rates. and a lot of the areas affected, especially in kentucky and the surrounding states are very rural, very low, kind of hospital and provider capacity in general, minus the pandemic, minus the natural disaster. now you add into that a tornado is one of the worst. we've dealt with disasters after hurricanes, but we can kind of anticipate some of those things. we can get patients dialized. with a tornado, it's so arbitrary, as you just heard from kyanna, you don't know what's going to happen next minute. this is, really unfortunately, a kind of triple threat, a natural disaster, a pandemic, and we're also seeing an uptick in flu cases and they mimic covid, so we're dealing with it on all fronts. >> what's your biggest worry? we've got about 60 seconds left. what's your biggest worry going into the holiday season, the uptick in cases we're seeing across this country and the omicron variant? >> the biggest worry i have is that people don't take getting boosters seriously and we have a lot more breakthrough cases that lead to hospitalizations, that could have been avoided with people gathering so closely indoors. and so i actually am all for an indoor mask mandate, if you can't tell if people around you are vaccinated. and that's simply, unfortunately where we are now. >> last question, i always ask you when you're on air with me, kavita, and that is, when are the littles going to be able to get vaccinated below the age of 5. >> that data should be forthcoming, the 2 to 5 age range. once pfizer releases that, the fda is able to look at that data package, pfizer has to submit an authorization, there's a process. but we're still hoping early january and february, so soon. so hold on tight. >> and are you optimistic about the omicron variant, considering the data we're seeing coming out of the uk so far, seeing that it's fairly mild in the cases? >> i am. i am. it doesn't mean that we're off the hook here, because it really does mean that we need to get people boosted. that's why, you know, we're changing -- it sounds like we're changing what we're saying, we're not. we just have more and more evidence that boosters matter. >> dr. kavita patel, thank you so much. we appreciate it. that wraps up the hour for me, everybody. i'm yasmin vassoughian. stay right here, because kentucky's governor is set to give an update any minute after the deadly storms. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage right now live from the devastation in mayfield, kentucky. good morning. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. 9:00 a.m. here in mayfield, kentucky. i'm jose diaz-balart. we are watching the kentucky state capitol in frankfort, where governor andy beshear is expected to hold another briefing at any minute. we will bring it to you as soon as it begins. but here in mayfield and other towns and cities, a desperate search for those still missing as people pick up the pieces after a rare december storm spawned powerful and deadly tornadoes. dozens are dead after more than 30 twisters touched down in at least five states, and that number will only rise. one tornado stayed on the ground for more than 200 miles. think about it. 200 miles. and here in this small city of roughly 10,000 people, there is utter destruction everywhere. and let's go

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