begin this hour, with the rising death toll from the tornado outbreak that has ripped across much of the south and midwest just minutes ago, officials in illinois confirmed for more storm related deaths, the overall death toll over the last 24 hours now jumps to 21 lives lost more than 50. tornadoes have been reported in seven states. in the south and the midwest. the state of emergency now blankets, much of arkansas and the national guard is rolling into devastated communities. there are reports of at least a dozen tornadoes touching down in the state. these images are of the hard hit town of wynne, arkansas, and that s where we find cnn s derek van dam. jim i was just talking to my crew a moment ago, and the scene behind us reminds us of being on the set of a major blockbuster movie. i mean, just look at what we have with this destruction coming out of wynne, arkansas, that is a church steeple that was blown off by this tornado. look at the incredible damage in front of tha
That building just in front of us here. we have electrical poles, light poles, trees completely snapped off. behind us. we ve got the win high school. um i managed to capture a very powerful moment when a gentleman was walking through the parking lot with an american flag draped over his shoulders, and he told me that he had found it several 100 yards behind this structure, the high school and it had been blown off of the flagpoles there, so he wanted to hoist it back up in a sign of unity. and in a sign of determination that wynne arkansas will rebuild, they will stand tall through this devastation. look at this building behind me a business you can see the x is there that is from the first responders going to door to door to confirm that there are no people trapped inside and we ve got the familiar sounds of a disaster zone. the sounds of chainsaws the sounds of ah sirens coming