ro barbie nadeau joins us from rome. the video is gut wrenching to see. a number of buildings collapsed, a number of residents are missing. what have you learned? reporter: it is a devastating event. they ve got at least seven people still missing. this is a small town, a close-knit community on the island of sicily, not far from the seaside. people were ready for the holidays there. everybody s gathering, everybody s happy. and this devastating explosion kind of late in the evening, it has really shocked the community. we ve left hand learning there are about 50 people left homeless. they can t go back to their homes because of damage. we ve seen some incredible footage of the damage to the homes near where this explosion took place. and they re blaming a gas leak, but they don t know yet what set it off. it could have been some sort of movement of the soil. it s a highly seismic area. but the mayor had called out for
everybody knows everybody, everybody knows who s home, everybody knows if you ve got visitors or friends over. they have a good idea of what might be missing. it is devastating because everybody knows everybody. these are very tight-knit communities. it s devastating for the community ahead of the holidays like this. sicily has, as all italy, been dealing with covid, lockdowns. this year they were thinking maybe they could have something of a celebration, and now this. horrific timing, horrific scenes from that disaster zone there in sicily. barbie nadeau, thank you for your reporting. when we come back, we talk with a man who helped revive new orleans after hurricane katrina. what he says the government needs to do now to help the tornado victims before it s too late. the white house moves to approve assistance for the affected communities, but why president joe biden wants to wait before he pays them a visit. vazalore.