captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to "today" on a saturday morning. i'm lester holt reporting from henryville, indiana, a town that was it lutterly devastated by friday's storms. >> i'm amy robach inside studio 1a. here's what we know. 31 dead, 14 in indiana, 14 in kentucky and three in ohio. that number is expected to rise today. authorities say it's difficult to determine how many people are missing as searchers struggle with the lack of electricity in many areas. >> reporter: more than 85 tornados were reported on friday. it was the second time in a week that storms swept across parts of the nation's midsection. ten states were under some kind of weather threat. the hardest hit areas are in southern indiana, kentucky, ohio, tennessee, and northern alabama. now, in terms of size, this storm system was enormous. we watched it building all day. it stretched from the gulf coast to the great lakes. it was so side that an estimated 34 million people were at risk for severe weather. that's according to the national weather service, amy. >> and, lester, you were just in harrisburg, illinois. and i know you arrived in henryville about an hour ago. can you describe where you are and what you've about seen? >> reporter: we're about 30 minutes or so from louisville, kentucky. and like so many of these tornado scenes, you know, it just happens upon you. you're driving, everything looks normal, and suddenly you realize the trees are all leveled, the buildings are all down. this is the henryville junior/senior high school. the left side is actually the elementary school. that part was built only about a year ago to tornado standards. you see the buses here in the parking lot? what they had done was realizing storms were approaching, they emptied out the school. they shut the school down early and sent the children home. there was no tonigrnado reportet that point but they sent children home knowing it was on the way. they decided to bring the kids back and got them inside to safety, and you can see what's left of the bus. we'll tell you more about that story later on. of course, this is one town among many in several states hit by that onslaught of storms that marched through the midsection yesterday. nbc's tom costello is in chelsea, indiana. he's got more from there. tom, good morning. >> reporter: hi, lester. good morning do you. by point of reference we're 30 midnights north of louisville, straight up highway 62. this was a gentleman shed, a family's shed. back there is the home. that's not where the home used to be. it used to bo about 100 yards that way behind the cameraman. what happened is the mother and daughter were gone yesterday afternoon. the husband was here alone. he saw this massive storm coming. estimates of 150-mile-per-hour winds, maybe an ef-4. he saw this thing coming, realized he could not possibly survive it by staying here, got in his truck, and he started driving. he managed to get away. unfortunately three family members just across the road, they were not so lucky. this is all that's left of henryvillhenr henryvilhenr henryville high school. this indiana town 20 miles north of louisville, kentucky, saw some of the worst of it as a string of powerful storms ripped a path of destruction from northern indiana to southern alabama. the kids got out of school only 15 minutes before the winds ripped it apart. >> we got on the buses and started heading to my house, and the tornado was following us. luckily this woman was so generous to let us stay in her basement. >> the clarke county sheriff's office describes marrierieysvil gone. this is what it looked like after flattening harvest, alabama. a tornado hit there ten months ago. >> we just got in in january, moved back into the house and getting ready to move that mobile home. it picked it up, turned it around, and slammed it into the house. >> reporter: west liberty, kentucky, didn't have that much time to recover. this is the second deadly storm to hit the town in just 48 hours. in the thick of the storm, hail pelted cars coming down so furiously that they had to pull off the road. power lines and trees are down everywhere, blocking roads and trapping victims of the storms in the middle of the wreckage and keeping rescuers out. for people in this part of the country, it's hard to imagine that so much could be lost and so much damage could be done in just a few short hours. it's hard. it's just hard on everybody. everything's gone, you know. everything's just gone. >> reporter: here's the headline in the morning paper. it just says it all "terrible tragedy" here in southern indiana. again in this area, chelsea, four people dead. lester, just as we were running the tape record, the sunrise kind of broke over the horizon here and i said to my cameraman, it's just everywhere. the devastation is everywhere. and i'm just now getting a good look at it now that the sunrise is coming up, but throughout this entire farm region, trees are ripped to shreds, homes are gone. it is just a terrible scene. back to you. >> reporter: and as you were talking, i had the same realization. i got here a short time ago. you're right. as we look around, we'll be showing more of this, it is unbelievable. the weather channel's jim cantore is also here in henryville in front of what was a brand-new elementary school. jim, good morning to you. >> reporter: yeah, good morning, lester. it's hard to believe the same devastation that you and tom are looking at may stretch for 80 miles. this is very similar to the t e types of tornados we had on april 27 of last year and mother nature decided to start in march this year. look at this. you see this house behind me. moved 50 yards, torn right off its foundation. there's debris everywhere, especially trees, pieces of homes. here's the elementary school that you guys are all talking about. you can see the classrooms ripped apart here. this isn't just wood. brick, metal framing just twisted like licorice. 30 minutes before that tornado, there were kids in that classroom. you can't even imagine what that must have been like certainly for ones that were taking refuge in the school down below. it's very much a breaking story. much, much search and rescue has to be done. rural towns and roads haven't been gotten to. you can see why. piles of debris everywhere you look. winds with this will probably be 170 to 200-plus miles per hour, and we haven't gotten to potentially some of the worst damage yet. 95 tornadoes right now. if that stands, this will not only top the wofrlt outbreak ever in march history of the united states, but it will equal the march average of todays by one day. back to you. >> reporter: it is stunning, isn't it? jim cantore, thanks. henryville's high school as we heard suffered extensive damage. we have the principal, the superintendent of the west park school and troy albert who's the principal of the junior high school. at what point did you order the kids out of school? >> well, the tornado warning had not hit just about the time we had the dismissal. we had some conversation with the school here and told them it looked good, it looked like it was going to be a while before it hit, thought we could get the children home. they actually got them out, i think, about ten minutes earlier than planned. got most of the kids on buses an got them out. >> you mentioned the buses. before we continue, i want to let folks know here. we see buses wrecked. some of the buses returned with the kids, correct? >> yes. they saw the storm clouds or saw tornadoes forming and returned to school. there were very few students left in school, though these gentlemen can tell it much better than i can. there were very few students left in school, and what students were there, they got them in interior office spaces and they weathered the storm. >> reporter: i want to show very quickly. we have a bus across the lot that blew from this parking lot probably 400, 500 feet. that's how strong it was. dr. riggs, you were inside. >> we were in our office core. we had about 40 of us in three small offices. basically, you know, we're lying on the floor in the office, and there was like a decompression. it felt almost like your skin was going to be peeled off your face and your ears popped. of course, people were a little upset. some of the children were upset. and then the sound hit, and that was when the tornado hit the building, and it was just crash, bang, break. everything you could imagine. >> reporter: you knew the school was breaking up around you. >> we knew the school was going up around us. and then the ceilings began to kind of fall apart and there was like a dust in there for probably about a minute. and then it did stop. and we know -- we knew at that point, praise god, we were fine. >> reporter: and, troy, you were in another part of the school with another group of students. how were you guys doing? >> we were in the same situation, but it seemed to be a little bit more calm, just because they were listening and following instructions. we had the 11 students that were on the bus that is in the building over here. >> reporter: the bus that we see embedded in a building, you had kids -- >> there were 11 students that i held the door open, got them inside with their bus driver, the bus driver did an excellent job of getting them there. basically what we did was go into our storm situation, and we had guests in the building and other workers, and we got everybody secured. and then i made a call to the staff, if there's any staff in tilde bein the building, you need to get to a safe area now. >> reporter: any injuries to the kids or staff? >> none. none. >> everybody is safe. not an injury, one. >> reporter: i can only imagine the scene afterward. frightened children, parents wanting to get to their kids. how did you get them reunited. >> basically we got the kids to the community center after there was a second round of hail. we had baseball-sized hail that was very interesting on what was left of the roof also as far as sound. after that came through, wejts down to the local community center, where we were able to reunite parents and children. we had a lot of kids that would have been here late anyway because of the day care facility we have on campus as well also. >> reporter: i'm sure the parents are glad for what you did with the students and everyone is safe. amazing stories like this, we're going to hear a lot more certainly as we continue throughout the day. >> all right, lester. thanks so much. unfortunately the damage continues for many residents in harvest, alabama. friday's storm is a terrible case of deja vu. nearly one year ago the town was ripped apart by a strong tornado. friday's storm damaged nearly 200 homes. the weather channel's mike seidel is there this morning. good morning, mike. >> reporter: and good morning, amy. a big difference this time around. it was a much weaker tornado and the huntsville times says it all "damage but no deaths in the aftermath." they're thanking their lucky stars. only injuries and those folks are out of the hospital and at home. no fa tilts. last year, an ef-5 with winds 100 miles or higher came through and destroyed the town. there was a mobile home last year. it was blown to smithereens. it was left back there. yesterday morning, the first tornado of the almost 100 preliminary counted yesterday touched down here and blew the other mobile home the owner put back on the foundation and it's back wrapped around the tree. take a look over here. i talked to the homeowner, kevin moss. he got it reconstructed. his siding got ripped off and the circuit breaker box. big difference this year also is the fact that this tornado was an ef-2 on the fujita scale, winds estimate at 125 miles an hour. it was on the ground for about 14 miles and 19 minutes. two tornados in this area, two miles north of huntsville, alabama. all in all, alabama did very well in this outbreak compared to last april 27th. amy, this morning, they're happy to feel the cool weather. temperatures around the mid-40s. >> for more on the path of this storm and what's behind all of these tornadoes, we turn to bill karins. bill? >> good morning, amy. there's two questions. one is why did we get such a bad tornado event so early in the season. one of the things to blame is that typically this time of year, we've had snow on the ground throughout the ohio valley. we didn't have that. we didn't have much of a winter. so there was nothing to stop ul f the warm air surging out of the south. we had record-high temperatures in the 80s and mid-80s. in tennessee, mid-80s. in kentucky we had cold air behind the storm. we had the storm system and the record temperatures. what you really need to get the tornadoes is the winds or the jets fly to spin the thunderstorms, and that's what we had yesterday. it was just all the ingredients came together for like an april or may-type tornado outbreak. we're done with the tornados right now. we could have an isolated tornado or two in the areas of the panhandle of florida. we have damaging winds in the coastal areas of the carolinas, but this severe weather outbreak is over, and, amy, this looks like it will go down as the worst tornado outbreak in our area of the country. we head to politics. the gop has a lot on its plate. we're three days away from super tuesday and the fallout continues. the reverend al sharpton is the host of "politics nation" on msnbc. he joins us this morning. good morning. >> good morning. >> the contraception debate reached a fever pitch this week. both santorum and romney came out and spoke out against limbaugh's tactics, but is this something the republican party needs to deal with right now? >> yeah. they're going to have to deal with it, one, because they have really made rush limbaugh such a great part of the conservative movement. they've called him a great leader of the conservative movement. they had him as an honorary member of kochlk you can't have him as a major spokesman in your movement and then he says something as offensive and ma as this. then he's not even apologized. he's doubled down on this and has gone through a three-day tirade against this young lady that is offensive to everybody. >> well, then we have senator olympia snow from maine. she's a moderate republican. she says she's not going to seek a re-election due to what she calls a, quote, dysfunction and political modernization. >> that's become the question. the fact that you have people like senator snowe leading, the fact that you have this debate around contraception. we're not talking jobs now in the republican primary. super tuesday and the republican presidential nomination process is this tuesday. we're not talking jobs. we're not talk about how we rebuild infrastructure. we're talking contraception in 2012. and i think that it is that kind of polarized atmosphere that pushed everybody's buttons in politics that said, wait a minute, we need some adults to come in the room or i'm leaving. >> let's talk about super tuesday. the next contest before that is washington state. mitt romney looks like he's going to win that. is that going to give him enough momentum he needs come super tuesday? >> i think it will be just another caucus. but i think what will happen is all eyes will be on ohio, tennessee, the key states. >> ohio, ohio, ohio again. we know you're leading a march, reverend, this week to comet rate the historic civil rights march there in 1965. why is it important given especially the political environmental we're in right now? >> our civil rights organization is partnering with others because this year we're faced in 34 states voter i.d. laws where they're changing how people can vote. 5 million people according to the brennan institute may be disenfranchised. this is the first time since the '65 march in 47 years that a large segment of the country may lose its right to vote based on state voter i.d. or early voting being eliminated. we're marching not only to co commemorate but face the challenges. for five days we're going to bring the nation's attention that voting rights are at risk if many people particularly in black and brown communities. >> reverend al sharpton, we appreciate it. now let's get a check to the other top stories an for that we turn to tom llamas at the news desk. >> good morning. there's a standoff between a red cross convoy and the government. nbc's reporter joins us line from beirut. ayman? >> good morning, thomas. that's right. for the second day in a row, they're trying to enter that city of homs, particularly in the district. we understand from the international committee of the red cross, that convoy, a seven-truck convoy carrying 16 million tons of supplies left the capitol on friday morning. they made the two-hour journey under snowfall to the city of homs. once they got there, the government did not let them enter. some of the eyewitnesss there have described the area as catastrophic. the international community of red cross said it was going overnight to homs and stay there until they're able to get those supplies into the district. tom? thank you so much. the nationwide average for a gallon of gasoline is now $3.75. aaa said it went up again friday for the 24th day in a row. a month ago it was $3.45. gas is still down 9% from the record high of $4.11 in july of 2008. president obama says cleaner cars will bring down the price of gas, but general motors is suspending production of its chevy volt electric car for five weeks because of disappointing sales. even with the tletd of $5 in gasoline, many people can't justify the $41,000 price tag. prince harry has started a seven-day tour. he arrived last night in belize. they arrived to see the color street party 678 after that he travels to the bahamas, jamaica and brazil. they say it's good to be king, it's good to be prince also. bill karins is back with a check of the weather. >> just amazing stuff. what was different about this one, amy, is that this one was in a lot of rural areas. last year we had the joplin and birmingham and tuscaloosa. this one, small town, usa, is what was hit the hardest. we have damage in a lot of areas like tennessee and kentucky who were hit after dark last night. we'll give you those pictures as we get them. just amazing stuff. things are calming down. we have thunderstorms along the southeast that we have to deal with, but they should not beoun just fine. just a little wet in the northwest. that's a look at your national forecast. here's a look at the weather outside your window. >> i'm chuck bell. off to a cloudy and bit of a soggy start. temperatures in the mid to upper 40s right now. it's not terribly cold. we'll reach near 60 for a time today. a little light rain out there. northern fairfax, eastern loudoun county up into montgomery county, maryland. that's the last of the rain drops there. we should start to see the last of the drops out of the southern part of maryland by noon time if not sooner than that. and a little clearing. turning breezy later this afternoon. >> and these that's your weekend forecast. amy. still to come, the latest on the severe storm damage on hard hit indiana but first this is the severe storm damage on hard hit indiana but first this is "today" on nbc. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. still to come on "today," our expanded coverage from indiana continues with the aftermath of the tornadoes. plus, christy bringly's ex-husband had some harsh words for