united states of america. we need it and we are really grateful for it. 18 are still unidentified. of the ones that we know, the age range is 5 months to 86 years and six are younger than 18. >> it's just horrific. the national guard is on the ground working with state and local officials to find dozens of residents still not accounted for. while thousands of people who live and work in towns like may field and dawson springs brace for this long road ahead. >> we had no water within the city limits. all the power was cut just for safety reasons after everything fell. so there's no power within the city limits, and the natural gas has been turned off because of so many leaks. so we have no resources to that. >> i didn'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 it. we were under that. >> it was horrible. it was really, really -- i'm glad that i'm alive. it was something that i haven't been able to sleep just thinking what i'm going to do now. i've got no job, no car, no way to replace it. i don't know what to do now. it has been a rough day. >> the human disaster after more than 30 tornados hit at least six states over the weekend. the death tolls have been adjusted as more people are accounted for, now 78 people dead in all. 64 of them in kentucky alone. we expect to hear an update from the governor of illinois at this hour. let's go first to kentucky, and nbc's kathy park in hard hit mayfield. we're expecting to hear from officials very shortly. what is the latest? >> reporter: andrea, the devastation will just take your breath away. no matter which direction you look you have piles upon piles of rubble and debris. this is a semi that you're looking at, and it probably weighs thousands of pounds toppled over. this looks like the roof of a home. we're not sure exactly where it came from. this town of mayfield has a population of roughly 10,000 people, and it was in the direct path of the tornado. i want to show you over this way here, this used to be a post office, and there are only a handful of postal vehicles still left standing. there are just a handful of structures standing, barely hanging on. you have power lines scattered all across the roadways. it is just devastating, heartbreaking to hear some of the survival stories. they got a moment's notice before they had to hunker down in their homes. it's incredible that so many people were able to survive this tornado, but we have heard from the governor. he confirmed that the death toll is now at 64, and we're in the downtown area of mayfield right now, but about two miles from where we are standing is that candle factory, and we know eight people have lost their lives in that factory. 110 workers were inside that facility at the time when the tornado came roaring through. dozens of people were rescued, but several people are still unaccounted for. we had a chance to speak with the owner of that factory this weekend, and he said that they followed protocols. they warned their staff that the storm was coming, but he didn't want them to leave the building in the middle of this tornado outbreak. this is a busy time for them. this is the holiday season. they were working around the clock to meet the christmas deadline, but, andrea, i spoke with so many people, loved ones who were out there this weekend trying to track down their loved ones. one individual, his name is darrell johnson, his younger sister unfortunately is among the deceased, and it's been just heartbreaking to follow his story because for hours and hours he was trying to contact his sister on friday and wasn't able to get ahold of her, and then last night they learned of that devastating news. but i can tell you that this community is starting to pick up the pieces. they're starting to rebuild. you might hear some noise in the background. you have the generators running. you have the heavy machinery out here. you have volunteers coming from literally all across the state lending a helping hand, trying to help rebuild. trying to really get this community back on their feet, andrea. >> kathy park, it's really nature at its worst and human nature at its very, very best. it looks like a war zone and worse. joining me now is barry mcdonald, a member of mayfield's city council. mr. mcdonald, thank you for being with us. first of all, how are you? how are you doing and your family? >> we're fine, thanks for asking, andrea. it's day three, and it's full of new surprises, but we're moving forward. the cleanup is going -- moving really -- it's unbelievable the amount of equipment that has been brought in and just got to take every day with positive steps and that's what's happening so far. >> do people have water? are they bringing in water, or is the water system still intact? what about sewage and other things that have been destroyed in the infrastructure? >> yes, of course the infrastructure, the power poles, the power service is totally down. i'm standing about a quarter mile from one of the major tanks, the water tanks, but the water did come back on last night for most of the city, i think, at least in my area of town, the west end, which is wonderful. i also have seen power poles going up down west broadway at some point, so that's a positive sign. that's just what we've got to do is just keep moving forward with the infrastructure and cleanup. >> it's such a disaster. at least you're not having rain or other kind of bad weather in the aftermath of this as you start with the cleanup. what do you need from the rest of us and the federal government? what can all of us do? >> right, i mean, obviously the government -- we're here, interview there with the governor and he was i believe -- so we've got all -- i believe. and pictures don't do it justice, when you see it you want to help. there is -- there is donation address. the amount of equipment that has been brought in is just -- is just fabulous. that's been a big help to us. >> well, we just want to thank you so much for taking the time. i know how -- quantity even imagine how difficult this is, frankly, for you, and thanks for touching base. i know that there's a briefing underway about what they were to do with the candle factory, so we're going to go to that now. thank you so much, barry mcdonald. let's hear the briefing. >> brief period where we quickly run out of equipment, personnel, and any resources needed for this scale of rescue operations. very quickly after that, through the emergency operation center, we began to spin up to the next level, state level response. we got a very fast response, and from that response it spun up to the federal level, and that's where you're going to hear reports from jody and those that are here now with us currently. and without that effort, we couldn't have -- we couldn't be where we're at. i'm amazed at how quickly it seems slow to respond, but with this type of devastation, it's crazy to me how quickly these key players have been put into place and the resources that have been flooding into our small town to mitigate the situation. it's overwhelming, and we're very proud of our state, our area, our region, and our response. with that, i want to turn it back over to jody, and he'll have a bit more. >> all right, so the state of kentucky has an emergency management request process. i was notified about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning into saturday morning from director from the state emergency management to ask if we could put a team together from louisville to come down and help here locally. obviously the same storm was tracking towards the city of louisville. it did miss us, but, you know, we could not send a team until we had confirmation that the same storm wasn't going to affect here in the city of louisville or any surrounding area that we may have responded to there. so we put a team together, we got authorization from the mayor of louisville, and we headed down this way with a group of four individuals to see what we could do. we also had rescue technicians from the fired. when we arrived at the emergency operation center to offer our services and they sent us here on site. we arrived on site. with the help of local officials, i can't say enough about the rescue efforts that were going on before we got here. you know, they rescued people, they got them transported to hospitals. a lot of those rescues were very difficult. we can't get into the specifics of those, but again, my hat's off to the local responders and the local rescue companies from paducah that responded as well and handled a lot of technical pieces of those rescue operations that were going on. we arrived on site. we identified, you know, a group meeting together with local incident management and commanders on site. we're dealing with a situation that we could not handle even with the responders that we had coming. so again, state emergency -- system that we've got in place requested federal emergency management team, and you'll hear the task force talk about their response here shortly. >> and we've been listening to emergency management officials in mayfield, and as you can imagine, the combination of generators, winds, and poor audio must be very difficult. we will recap all of this for you in a bit. i want to bring in right now michael man, the penn state professor of atmospheric science and author of "the new climate war." thank you for being with us. let's talk about this historic storm, the context, just how severe these were, how surprising they were, and how warmer temperatures may or may not have contributed to it. >> yeah, thanks, andrea. normally i'd say it's good to be with you, but unfortunately this is a tragedy that we've seen unfold, and some of the stories that you folks covered earlier just heartbreaking. so what we can say is that we have a very warm planet right now. the gulf of mexico is very warm. it means there's a lot more warmth and moisture because the warmer the ocean, the more moisture that comes off of it, and that moisture and heat have been streaming into the southern half of the united states. we had temperatures in the 70s and 80s fahrenheit over the last week in a large part of the midsection of the country. and so that heat, that moisture provides the energy, the fuel, the turbulent that allows large thunderstorms to form and large squall lines like we saw with this storm. that's one of the ingredients that you need for a tornado. you need all of that moist energy in the atmosphere, that turbulence and instability that allows you to build large thunderstorms, but you also need spin in the atmosphere, and that happens when you come into contact with the jet stream, and so all that warm moist air is coming into contact with the jet stream. the jet stream is putting spin into the atmosphere. that's the other ingredient. and you put those together, you get the sorts of huge outbreaks that we saw and the trend is very clear. if you look at the data, there is a trend towards these larger outbreaks, these larger tornado outbreaks. there is a trend towards more intense tornados and the one that struck mayfield, kentucky, there were winds measured of 300 miles per hour. there was debris that made it 30,000 feet up into the atmosphere. it was a very strong storm. the official ratings haven't come in yet. and so all of these factors are being exacerbated by climate change. >> and you just mentioned 35,000 feet up. i mean, that's where airplanes fly, so it's just unimaginable the debris was thrown up and we can only imagine what happens when it comes down again. let's talk about the climate change ingredient in here, and there have been reports that tornado alley is going to be moving east as climate change, global warming affects our country. >> yeah, that's right. there are large scale changes in atmospheric circulation that tend to redistribute that warmth and moisture, and the jet stream is changing. we know that as well. and those changing characteristics, if you put them together -- and there are scientists who have done that -- they've taken into account the projected increase in the warm, moist air, the projected changes in the sheer in the atmosphere that gives you that spin, and what they find, particularly in the winter months we can expect an increase in the factors that generate these huge tornado outbreaks in the south central united states and increasingly in the eastern united states as well. >> and we've learned by hard lessons how to change construction, the japanese have learned this as well and other places around the world to deal with earthquakes and to deal with, you know, hurricanes. look at new orleans coming back from death and destruction. what do we need to learn about how to build better in the southeast, let's say and the midwest? >> you need to pass build back better because that bill has climate provisions that will address this problem at its core, which is the warming of the planet due to carbon pollution, fossil fuel burning. so that's most important. we can prevent this from getting worse if we act on climate now. that having been said as you allude to, some of these impacts are now baked in. we are going to need to deal with this. that means greater resiliency. that means adaptive measures to help deal with the impacts of these destructive storms. so it's really both. it's adapting to the changes that we're already forced to deal with and preventing it most importantly from getting worse by acting on climate. >> michael mann, as always we really appreciate your expertise. thanks. as we try to get our heads and arms and hearts around this incredible disaster. and illinois is another state hit hard by the tornados. six people died at an amazon workplace, warehouse that took a direct hit from a really fast twister on friday night. first responders rescuing 45 others from the wreckage. nearly half the building was destroyed despite the 11 inch thick concrete walls. nbc news correspondent morgan chesky joins us from nearby that warehouse in edwardsville, illinois. just how much warning did they get there? >> reporter: i had a chance to speak to an amazon representative earlier today, and they tell me that the sequence of event started around 8:00 friday night. that's when the tornado sirens started to go off in the area. there had been the threat of severe weather, but hearing that sound made it all too real. it was at that point that managers inside this warehouse, which is about 100 yards from where i'm standing, you can't see any of it at this point in time, because as you can see from this video, the majority of one side is all gone. those workers were escorted to at least one area inside that building, andrea that had been labeled a shelter in place spot. now, to be clear this is not a basement. this is not a safe room per se. it was a reinforced spot inside that building that in theory would protect you should severe weather or even a tornado strike. there were two groups, though, of employees. one on the north side of this warehouse, one on the south side. it was that group on the south side that found themselves right in the path of that now ef-3 categorized tornado when it struck, and it's that group that we believe those six deaths came from. and right now we know that the process here officials say, you can see that the names and ages of those individuals who were killed over the weekend, they were released by authorities. they want to make it clear, they don't believe anyone else is still missing inside that pile of debris where that building once stood. and as of right now, a long cleanup is underway. andrea. >> and in terms of warning, morgan, so there was no way to tell people to go home or cancel the night shift or anything like that, correct? >> reporter: i did have a chance to speak to amazon, they tell me that typically when they have severe weather alerts come in, they have everyone shelter in place there inside the building, and there has been discussion over potential phone policies, a potential phone ban being in effect. that's not the casement i had a heartbreaking conversation with the mother of one of the victims, 29-year-old clayton coe. she made a phone call around 8:00 when those sirens went off, telling her son clayton who had been working here about one year. hey, be careful. seek shelter if you can. she told me that he responded, yeah, mom, i'm going to be okay. let me make sure others can get to shelter, and it was a heartbreaking moment when she came here with her husband later that night and had to hear firsthand from authorities that her son was one of the six who had passed inside that building. andrea. >> oh, so, so sad, just one of the heroes and was another victim. thank you so much, morgan chesky in illinois. and rapid surge, breakthrough covid cases are rising as the nation hits a grim new milestone today. that's next. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on msnbc. siness owners prosper during their most 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. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom ♪ ♪ for me and you ♪ ♪ and i think to myself ♪ ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ a rich life is about more than just money. that's why at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner so you can build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. mom, hurry! our show's gonna start soon! vanguard. i promised i wouldn't miss the show and mommy always keeps her promises. oh, no! seriously? hmm! it's not the same if she's not here. oh. -what the. oh my goodness! i don't suppose you can sing, can you? ♪ the snow's comin' down ♪ -mommy? ♪ i'm watching it fall ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 today marks a grim milestone in the fight against covid as the death toll has now risen to more than 800,000 lives lost to the deadly virus. the fight is far from over with 40 states seeing a rise in covid cases straining hospitals across the nation. joining us now is dr. michael osterholm, director for the infectious disease research and policy at the university of minnesota. so good to see you. we need some reassurance or at least some straight talk, and we know you're the guy who always has straight talk. so we're seeing a new mask mandate go into effect in new york, that we had anticipated, but no philadelphia is going to require proof of vaccination to enter restaurants or bars starting january 3rd. do we need to see more of these mitigation efforts going into place as clearly i'm assuming this is still the delta virus that we're seeing, but maybe omicron is beginning to be a factor, i don't know, in the hospitalizations. >> yes, well, andrea you're right on the mark with this. we're actually seeing the tale of two cities. one is the delta, and one is omicron, and at this point delta is what is really causing us the challenges in terms of the severe illness hospitalization. if you look right now, you can see the entire great lake states are starting to really pick up, even though the upper midwest and the far northeast was already lit up. but now that's starting to spread southward, and so all these locations are going to be hit hard by delta. the trillion dollar question is what will omicron do when it arrives and starts to spread more widely, which we believe it will. there we may be seeing milder illnesses, and while it's too early to say that for certain, that is something we can possibly anticipate, which would obviously be good news. >> you know, i was on a family zoom last night, and one of our cousins in idaho reporting idaho has just been devastated by it. the lockdown there, so now what we're seeing you're saying is also the upper midwest, my family's in new hampshire, which is getting hard hit. >> right, you know, it's been a real challenge for us because minnesota, michigan, wisconsin, maine, new hampshire have all been in a surge roughly for the last three to four months, and this is very similar to what we have seen in the united kingdom. unlike what we've seen, for example, in india where we had a very, very rapid increase in cases late spring, early summer, but then case numbers dropped right back down to baseline within six to eight weeks. that's what we've seen in the south and particularly in the southern sun belt states this summer. what we don't know is what's going to happen with the southern great lake states. you can see how the case numbers are increasing there. we could be in for a rough few weeks ahead of us here, and again, it's going to be what does omicron do and how is that going to spread, and that's the real question. >> and as you've been pointing out, the cdc is now reporting that the firsthandful of omicron cases in the u.s. have mostly been mild. what kind of symptoms are we seeing there? >> we are talking about a milder illness. a lot of the people infected were younger, healthy, and they also had been previously vaccinated. the challenge we have is what will happen when it gets into those 65 years of age and older. as you've heard today, literally one out of every 100 individuals in this country has died from covid in the last year and a half. that's a sad, sad comment. what we don't understand is how omicron will function in that group. i can tell you this, though, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine. if you help yourself be protected against delta by getting vaccinated and getting your booster, you will also provide a great safety margin in terms of whether you'll get severely ill with omicron. it's the same message. we don't have to do anything different to protect ourselves against omicron than we are in trying to protect ourselves against delta. >> and the booster is the key factor there clearly. we've had a lot of breakthrough cases. you've got high levels of cases at least in places like new hampshire and vermont, which were high vaccination places. yet, dr. fauci just pointed out that 60,000 americans are still not vaccinated at all. >> yep. that's a very important point, but then again, we also may have up to 100 million individuals who have not received their booster that are eligible to receive it right now. we have seen a number of breakthroughs with the delta variant that have resulted in severe infections including deaths, and so we want both. please get your first doses, please get your booster, and just remember one thing, you cannot run out the game clock on this virus. it will find you if you are not vaccinated or have immunity from previous infection, and right now that's why our intensive care units around the country are so overwhelmed because people who have not gotten vaccinated largely are the ones that are still seeing so much of the serious illness. >> dr. michael osterholm, as always, thank you so much, sir. coming up, marked for contempt, the january 6th committee set to vote on recommending charges against a former member of congress, former president trump's white house chief of staff mark meadows. this is andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. l reports on msnbc nurse mariyam sabo knows a moment this pure... ...demands a lotion this pure. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. ♪ well the sun is shining and the grass is green ♪ ♪ i'm way ahead of schedule with my trusty team ♪ ♪ there's heather on the hedges ♪ ♪ and kenny on the koi ♪ ♪ and 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lasts all day! new downy light, available in four naturally-inspired scents. and we have breaking news, in a photo opportunity right now with emergency management officials, the president said that he intends at least to go to kentucky on wednesday. we'll have more on that in a moment. meanwhile, senator joe manchin confirming that he will speak to the president later today. he's apparently on his way to the white house, as negotiates over the build back better bill continue and hit some roadblocks including major news also from the information into the january 6th committee. the former trump chief of staff mark meadows facing a criminal contempt vote tonight by that committee for his refusal to testify the the panel making the case with new revelations overnight, including that meadow sent an email on january 5th saying that the national guard would be present to protect pro-trump people in the lead up to the attack. and a powerpoint partly titled "election fraud" that meadows has already turned over when he was at least cooperating before he changed his mind and that includes confirmation from a retired army colonel who circulated a version of the proposal telling "the washington post" today that he spoke to meadows at least eight times on the eve of january 6th. and joining us now former u.s. attorney and law professor, barbara mcquade, "washington post" white house bureau chief ashley parker, and lonnie chen who oversees domestic policy at stanford university. the build back better bill was supposed to be, according to chuck schumer passed by christmas, but right now according to a lot of reporting, joe manchin asked the republicans to ask for another cbo score on it, and they came back with if you factor in inflation and also not sun setting a lot of these provisions but renewing them, yeah, i guess renewing them, that it would cost $3 trillion, twice as much. so manchin now has been singing signaling now he's opposed. >> senator manchin, not just because he has concerns about things that are actually in the bill, you know, some of the specifics on the substance, and then he has broader concerns about the cost of this bill, especially in light of inflations. so you summed that up very well. the problem for the white house is president biden is someone as a former senator who never really likes and has made clear, he never really likes to drop the hammer, to do that sort of all right, here's the moment you're with us or against us and apply that pressure and with someone like senator manchin who comes from -- who is not in cycle and more than that comes from a state that former president trump won by just about 40 points, even the threat of something like president biden showing up in west virginia and holding a huge rally to pressure him, manchin is basically impervious to those sorts of pressures. the only option this white house has is to try to work with senator manchin to give him as much of what they can to try to get them on board without alienating that very narrow coalition of democrats that include very progressive members and very modern members. >> and i want to switch gears for a moment with you, ashley because meadows' attorney now says he is not breaking any laws claiming executive privilege. how does this criminal contempt threat at all change the calculus? >> well, meadows is very much this entire time tried to have it both ways. remember, he was originally not participating. then he agreed he would participate, and even sit for a deposition. and even in that moment, people were skeptical that he was going to be as forthcoming as the committee would expect him to be. then his political and personal situation changed. he had a book come out. he expected former president trump to love it. in fact, it infuriated former president trump, and so then in the midst of that, meadows changed his mind again and said, actually, you know what, i'm not going to sit. so that's kind of where we find ourselves. >> barbara mcquade, what about executive privilege and mark meadows? clearly he's not a steve bannon who wasn't even in the white house for several years. he was the chief of staff. doesn't get any closer to the president of the united states, but having once contributed these, you know, these notes and then they've gotten confirmation from other sources, how does he still assert privilege? and doesn't he have to come in and at least do it in person? >> absolutely right, andrea. the report that the committee issued last night, 51 pages goes to in great detail to make its case as to why mark meadows is appropriately to be held in criminal contempt. it shows how he has shared already some things, they've demonstrated the kinds of questions they want to ask him including about meetings with third-parties that would not be subject to executive privilege under any circumstances. they point out that neither president biden nor even president trump have asserted executive privilege with regard to mark meadows' testimony. and so this claim of executive privilege seems like as ashley has said, more of a stall tactic than a genuine assertion. and so they're going forward with criminal contempt recommendations. i don't know if this is to force him to the table or to punish him, but i do think that that report demonstrates that he was really at the heart of the storm here and has a lot of information that could be valuable to the committee. >> there's a lot of foot dragging as well, legal foot dragging. they're trying to stretch it out. we're still waiting to see about when former president trump will actually apply to appeal to the supreme court for, you know, to overturn the ruling of the appeals court ruling. he does have to release -- the archives has to release his records. so lonnie, i guess they think they can stretch it out to the midterms until maybe there's a congressional, you know, changeover. what do you -- do you think they're going to get to the bottom of this? they're saying there are going to be public hearings, exten sifr hearings this summer. >> i'm not sure stretching it out is the optimal solution, really. look, the reality is that every day there's conversation about what happened that day and the role of different members of the trump administration in what happened that day. these are not things that i think frarngly republicans wish to be talking about going into a midterm election cycle. it may work to mr. meadows personal advantage to string this out. it does not work to the advantage of republicans throughout the country who are seeking victories in 2022 in the midterm election cycle in competitive house districts, in competitive senate races across the country. i think the reality is that stringing it out is probably not the strategy that they would prefer, and there is the broader question, of course, of what additional information is left to be disclosed. all of the information that we've seen disclosed so far does not paint a flattering picture at all of what was going on in the administration during and leading up to january 6th. >> lonnie chen, barbara mcquade, and ashley parker. thanks to you. in illinois, governor j.b. pritzker is updating people on the recovery efforts in his state. let's listen. >> through the night in service to their community. members of the community stepped up to give care and comfort, to provide food or counsel, to be there for their neighbor. we may never know all of their names, but we know their character, and they made a difference. my administration is committed to standing with edwardsville and all of the surrounding communities in every aspect of immediate recovery as well as on the road to rebuilding. yesterday i authorized a state disaster proclamation for madison county as well as all storm impacted counties to facilitate these efforts as well as the pursuit of additional federal resources. we are working directly with the white house and with fema to ensure access to federal resources for this community, and as local entities work to secure federal reimbursements and recovery dollars, we will assist every step of the way. iema continues to work directly with local officials to actively monitor storm's impacts throughout the state and especially in central illinois. at this point i'm pleased to report that power is fully restored in madison county and throughout illinois where communities had power outages due to the storm. to those who experienced home damage, we will pursue all available resources to help you recover. we're also joined today by the edwardsville community foundation. already the foundation and other nonprofits have been on the ground at every step of the response this weekend, and for that i am truly grateful. i want to help spread the word. the foundation stands ready to help survivors of families and those out of work through the holidays and beyond, and i want to make sure that all of you know and i've asked the media to let people know that if they want to contribute to the efforts here online, they can contribute to edwards villecommunityfoundation.org. six individuals clocked in on friday and they never came home. an additional person is still receiving medical treatment. we are ensuring that there is a full understanding of what happened to these individuals in their final moments. and while we cannot prevent natural disasters, we can strive to prevent future tragedies and ensure that all illinoisans make it home safe at the end of their shift. please join me in a moment of silence and a moment of prayer for the injured and for those who are lost in this terrible tragedy. >> and during this moment of silence, we should point out a really important update here that osha, the federal organization that oversees worker safety has opened an investigation into that amazon warehouse collapse in edwardsville, illinois. osha has had compliance officers at the complex since saturday and they're providing assistance. they have six months to complete its investigation, issue citations, and propose monetary penalties. let's go back to this briefing. >> on saturday we activated our relief fund, and it is open and accepting gifts as governor pritzker said, you can make your gift at edwardsvillecommunityfoundation. org. and we are working swiftly and diligently to in our defined processes to have a thoughtful and impactful and equitable response to meet the needs of our community at this tragic time. i do not have anything else to add. i'll hand it back to governor pritzker. >> thank you. >> i'm happy to take any questions from members of the media. yes, sir. >> governor, is there any sort of investigation into the plant to look into engineering of the building, structural -- >> already there's been an effort to determine some of the challenges, the structural, if there were any structural issues, what exactly the storm's trajectory was coming in and affecting the various piece of the building. so that is -- has already begun and is ongoing. >> the local official's incident commander, the fire chief as well as the local government. >> are there any federal agencies involved? >> and president biden, we're interrupting the governor's q & a because president biden has just met with homeland security and fema officials, and here is what he said to the pool in the oval office. >> and i asked for a detail briefing, in which they were able to see what they have found, and they shared with me what they learned, and we discussed how we can do more, especially so many of the people are facing immense, immense loss. we talked about about how we can accelerate and expand federal assistance to those in desperate need. we saw -- some of you have been there, and you've seen reporting on the television, you know, the devastation, you know, before and after. this is mayfield, kentucky. it's just devastating, and we've already approved an emergency declaration and a major disaster declaration in kentucky. i've spoken to the governor several times thus far. and this gives me the tools to provide everything that we can from the federal level from expert search and rescue teams to immediate and longer term help with housing and cleanup, a whole range of things, and i stand ready to do the same with the governor. as a matter of fact, i'm about to sign an emergency request from this -- from illinois, the governor of illinois. and you know, we've also asked fema and the key departments, federal resources the thing they most need are power, water, communication systems to get back to some sense of being able to communicate with one another as rapidly as they possibly can. and as i said, i intend to travel to kentucky on wednesday, and with each passing day, the human impact of this devastation is just the depth of the lawsuit are becoming more and more apparent. this is a town with a relatively low average income of under $20,000 a year. it's a town that has been wiped out, but it's not the only town. it's not the only town. that path you see moves all the way up well over 100 miles, and there's more than one route you can go. and so, you know, we also see destruction met with a lot of compassion, i'm told. everywhere they've gone they had people volunteering, talking, asking for that they not only get help but how they can give some help, and so we continue to pray for everyone in kentucky and the other states that are affected and particularly my heart goes out to the governor of kentucky who lost family himself. it's pretty rough stuff. and -- but we're going to get this done. we're going to be there as long as it takes to help, and the combination of state, federal, and volunteer organizations to do everything from not only clear the debris but provide necessary means to move, get schools reopened that homes are to be rebuilt, et cetera. so there's a lot, a lot that needs to be done, and it's mostly kentucky here, but not only kentucky. and so that's just -- i want to let you know that's what i was doing. i haven't decided where i'm going yet. we're working on what i indicated to the governor when we talked about this two days ago was that i don't want to be in the way. there's a lot going on. and the -- when the president shows up, there's a long tail to follow for a lot of folks. and i just don't want to do anything other than be value added. but i want you to know, that this administration has made it clear to every governor, whatever they need, when they need it, when they need it, make it known to me. it will get it to them as rapidly as we can. and that's what we're doing here in kentucky. we're going to have to go beyond what is available to the federal government. for example, we're able to fema can come up with up to $35,000 in housing restoration. well, not a lot of $35,000 homes. in the meantime, we can provide everything from hotel rooms and places where folks can live in the meantime, but there's a lot to be done, and we're just getting it underway, but we're going to work with all the governors to make sure that we can. yes. >> reporter: mr. president, what do you believe your -- can do for the people affected by this, and what is your concern about the longest-term problems? is it housing? what part are you worried about? >> what i worry about most is -- because i've been involved in responding to a lot of disasters as a senator and vice president and now as president just this year. the peace of mind of people being able to put their head on a pillow, lying down on a bed, being able to know that kids are going to be okay, and so with -- this is a narrow path. the devastation is just stunning. there's nothing left standing, basically. along the path that goes all the way through. let me ask you, show that other -- in terms of housing. because i think this is the best way to illustrate just how precise, the one that duos all the way -- goes all the way up. so if you take a look, why don't you point out where we are here. you take a look where mayfield and bowling green is, that's not, we're not talking about mayfield now, but all these yellow dots here, along the way, are residences. and they've been wiped out. they've been wiped out. commercial and government historical sites, and industrial sites. wiped out. would you mind putting the one back up for mayfield? take a look. mayfield sits in that -- where that square is on the left. well, look at all this. this is just -- the city of mayfield. residential, commercial, exempt government and historical agriculture, et cetera. just -- i mean, they're gone. some are already down there. it's devastating, and i worry, quite frankly, about -- how can i say it? the mental health of these people. you come home and you see that, if you made it, and if you lost someone in the meantime, you know, thank god it doesn't seem like the numbers as quite as high as we anticipated, but they're high. you come home and you've lost your husband, wife, mother, father, children, something along the line, and what do you do? where do you go? it's not like if you're making $16,000 a year you get in a plane and head to your relative in washington. i'm being literal. that's what worries me most. the uncertainty, and it really is something that i've observed in every major disaster i watched and been on the ground to see. it just is -- you can see it in people's faces. so we just want them to know we're going to stay as long as it takes to help them, and there's three ways we can help. one is the federal agencies that are available. and that's already underway. and, for example, we're setting up in all these places, for example, there are going to be roughly how many disaster centers do you think we'll have in the state? >> it's going to be one place a citizen can go. there will be essentially -- what i said to the governors and it surprised me that they pleased me but surprised me they repeated it is that, for example, i told the governor of kentucky, i not only -- i'm not expecting you to know all you need. let us tell you what you can ask for that you haven't asked for. let us do our job. i mean, these large government agencies like the federal or state governments, it's hard for people to understand sometimes. let me go in and tell you what you can ask for. and so there is the federal government, the state government. there's also the nonprofits out there that have been, in fact, involved in all these disasters around the country. and they can provide help and assistance. right now, for example, i'm told, i hope i'm not misspeaking, that the school in mayfield is being used for shelter now. it didn't get wiped out, but it is not going to be able to be functional as a school soon. so how do you get these kids pack in school rooms? how do you get some semblance of normalcy again? and so we're working like the devil. i'm very pleased with the work that the fema director has done, and i know that homeland security has reached out to these folks. they know we're there. and i just want to make sure there is no sense on the part of anyone affected that they're not asking for anything they shouldn't ask for. ask and we'll find out. if we can't provide it through a government agency, we'll do our best to find private agencies that can help. from churches to private entities. a whole range. it's just -- it's like when i was walking through the neighborhoods in louisiana. to see the looks on people's faces, you go to the corner where there's houses that are gone. people standing in the yards crying. this was two days after the storm went through. it really is devastating. this is the united states of america. the thing that pleased me -- everyone in the staff came down there and at least today called me on the phone and said people are already helping each other. they're already asking how can i help, too? so that's what i worry most about. it's just getting some peace of mind and saying look, there is a way to get from here to there. it's disaster now, but there's a way to get there. we're going to do everything we can, and i'm sure i believe the congress will respond if there's extraordinary need. >> reporter: [ indiscernible ] >> no, i'm not going to make that argument with him about this. look, joe understands. joe has as much empathy and concern for those folks. he's been through some real disasters in west virginia. he understands. and the honest to god truth is we're discussing this. i've spent a lot of time on climate issues. and i said we have to be very careful. we can't say with absolute certainty that it was because of climate change, so i'm going to be talking with the environmental protection agency, and i'm going to talk with other agencies to determine. in fact, some of it has to do with el nino. there's a lot of things we don't know for certain. and i don't want to say anything that is not precisely true. what is certain, it is one of the worst tornado disasters we've had in the country, and the second thing that's certain is that it is unusual. it is unusual how it happened, how many places it touched down in the path. that's all i'm prepared to talk about right now. >> reporter: mr. president, this is all happening in the middle of a pandemic. how are you thinking about will these places need. >> reporter: more resources because they're also dealing with possibly a rise in cases, possibly hospitals being overloaded, things of that nature? >> yes. look, we have -- i have my -- the entire federal team not just the folks going in and making sure there's still people we're not leaving anybody still breathing under debris. that's the immediate, immediate urgent, urgent thing, and just to get the food, water to people who don't have it. there's no place to get it. so that's number one. but number two, there's a whole range of things including the virus. including the virus. and the hospitals. i've gotten a report but not the detail i need about the hospitals along the path of this tornado. but, you know, it's going to -- we're going to have to, i'm sure i'm going to be asked to -- asking my team to set up sites for booster shots and a whole range of things, and people still -- the worst part is their life has to go on as if nothing happened. because they've still got to take care of those needs from the other -- you're going to get in school to whether or not they're going to be able to collect an unemployment check. are they going to be -- all those issues. but one of those issues will be public health as it relates to

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