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down for a one-on-one just ahead. plus sources telling nbc news that senate democrats are preparing to miss next week s deadline to pass the president s sweeping social spending bill. in fact, a vote could slide all the way into march. so a lot going on. good afternoon, i m chris jansing at msnbc world headquarters in new york. we begin with mike memoli traveling with the president in dawson springs, kentucky. allison barber is there where she s been in touch with survivors. and nbc s gabe guiterrez in mayfield, kentucky. let s start with allison. as we await president biden s arrival there in dawson springs, you ve been on the ground, you ve looked for yourself, seen the destruction, seen the scale of the need, what is the president going to see and experience when he gets there? reporter: he s going to see homes like this one. this belonged to a woman named shauna. you could see a lot of her children s things here. what remains of christmas wrapping paper. she was ....
name was not yet been released. the age range has gotten even harder. it ranges now from 2 months to 98 years of the kentuckians that we have lost. some didn t get an opportunity to experience this life. twelve of the 74 are children. and there unquestionably more people unaccounted for, but multiple local and federal search i couldn t see continue. utility companies are continuing to repair the outages. three water systems have limited operation work is being done to remove debris and replace the traffic signals. i tell you what, it feels pretty good to not just be pushing this stuff out of the way but to be loading it up and taking it out of town. there s something therapeutic about taking chaos and destruction and death and getting it out of some of those areas. blood donations are still needed. in response to requests from community for blood donation information, the red cross has provided more than 40 blood products to hospitals in kentucky. red cross remains in t ....
local family-owned manufacturer of candles. but, boris, as you re saying, we re still waiting to hear. now, we are seeing daylight out. we know that rescue teams are on the ground right now. they re not only assessing the damage, but they re trying to see if there s anyone inside who may need help. and right now, amara, we want to get to someone on the scene. michael gordon, he is a storm chaser who is in mayfield right now. he s at that candle factory where search and rescue operations are under way. and as we look behind you, michael, it looks like an enormous debris field that is several feet high and maybe a couple hundred yards wide. what are you seeing there right now. yeah, i believe i think there s upwards of 12 probably 12 feast debris, and, yes, it spans the full length of that factory, which i don t know exactly how long it is, but, yeah, it s just a pile of rubble. everything i mean, every corner of the yard even, surrounding this factory, has debr ....
and arkansas. in kentucky, early reports indicate one tornado may have stayed on the ground for more than 200 miles causing widespread destruction. this is all that is left of a candle factory in the town of mayfield. more than 100 people were working inside when the tornado hit. while an official death toll has not been determined, governor andy brashear said 50 people are likely dead in his state of kentucky. the state deployed the national guard to heart hit areas. in arkansas, at least one person was killed, dozened injured after a tornado rimmed through a nursing home. in illinois, a tornado cut through an amazon warehouse. please are describing it as a quote-unquote utter disaster. two people are confirmed dead. watches for northern eastern portions of mississippi, northern alabama and eastern tennessee. cnn meteorologist allison chinchar joins us now, allison. that s right, it s been a very destructive past 24 hours. over 30 tornado reports, 150 severe wind rep ....
meanwhile, tributes pouring in for bob dole, a tighttan of u.s politics passed away. in honolulu, viscitizens wa answer after water made them sick. representative omar, warning that republicans are tracking, quote, bigotry. in just a few hours, brand new covid testing requirements will go into effect for anyone coming into the united states, that includes u.s. citizens. it s part of an effort to curb the spread of the new and possibly more transmissible omicron variant. these new rules that start at midnight mean that all inbound international travelers to the u.s. must have a negative covid-19 test within one day of travel. nonu.s. citizens must also show proof of vaccination. cnn, nadia, why isn t the u.s. requiring domestic travelers to test if it s this big of a concern item? yeah, that is something many biden administration officials were asked today, trying to figure out limiting the spread of covid-19 and preventing this winter surge. we ve known that the ....