the path of destruction is massive. stretching from texas to virginia. and the severe weather threat is still not over. we have reporters all over the region. but first let's go to that hardest-hit state of indiana, where the governor has just finished a tour of the devastation. at least 14 people there died. joining me right now live by phone from the town of marysville, jeff petrowski. a storm chaser who helped children get out of a school that was severely damaged by the tornado. jeff, describe the scene for me as that storm was approaching. >> reporter: that's right. we're in marysville now. we've arrived here about an hour ago and did a survey. the south end of town sustained the most heavy damage. the governor just left here moments ago heading across indiana doing additional damage

surveys with a team of people. the military has also moved in with search and rescue vehicles. in the south side of town in my live stream you can see there's four to five homes -- farms that had heavy damage and are gone. the tornado here was about 200 yards wide and it tracked through the city on the southeast side. everybody has been accounted for. most people are -- we do not have any injuries, just a couple injuries, no fatalities but marked damage on the south side of town. >> you're talking to us at the same time you're live streaming these images for us and in these images we are seeing people walking around. are these residents that are surveying the damage or are these first responders who are there to help, volunteers? >> reporter: both. we have a lot of local people here that are people walking down the streets that are local residents and family members. a lot of these people's farms have been here for a while, many generations.

one family here on the south side of town, they have been here about three generations. their entire farm is gone, which is lost in the view right now. there's a lot of family members helping pick up the pieces and just trying to get all their belongings loaded into trucks and vehicles in containers. that's what's happening here at marysville here at this time. >> jeff, were most of the people there hunkered down, prepared, ready for a storm coming their way? >> reporter: yes, most of the people here heard the warning, knew it was coming. a lot of the local residents told me because it hit in mid-afternoon, a lot of people were at work and not at their house and they said that's fortunate because the houses got hit the worst, people were not home in. most of the residents were not in their homes when the tornado hit about 3:00, 3:00 in the afternoon. >> as we look at the images, it looks like virtually every house is wiped out. some houses like the one we're looking at right now seemed to suffer a little less damage than

others. so how wide was the swath of destruction there? was it one twister or more than one? >> reporter: it's about 200 yards wide on the southeast side of marysville here. but the damage is actually worse between marysville and back to i-65 where the tornado crossed and hit the school there. in between the two cities, so an eight, ten-mile road, the damage is actually worse west of marysville back closer to the henryville area. that's the area that has heavy damage. there's actually a lot of homes destroyed between the two communities. so the actually damage is worse southwest of here on a road coming over here. we saw brick homes totally gone. a lot of homes west of here that are 100% gone. there's nothing left. about 30 structures between here and henryville. >> and this is a mostly farm community? >> that's correct. >> all right, jeff petrowski,

thanks so much for that view of marysville, indiana, devastated. we can see it from that live stream imagery that jeff is also able to convey to us while he's talking. so the threat of severe weather, guess what, it's still not over. right now there are new tornado warnings and watches in parts of the south. cnn's bonnie snyder is live in the weather center with more on this. this is an extraordinary system that already cut through some 15 or so states? >> that's right. 17 million people affected and it's carrying over into saturday. right now the tornado warning we are watching, let's take a look. we still have one tornado warning in southeast georgia that we're monitoring as well. you can see it just down in this region north of the florida border. this is really part of the same storm system that was working its way across thomasville so it will impact communities like waycross. it doesn't necessarily mean a tornado was confirmed, but when you have that rotation in the thunderstorm, remember, that can turn into a funnel cloud. if it touches down on anything,

then we'll see it become a tornado. so take cover now. now, the risk for tornados continues through the afternoon. this tornado watch box you see that includes parts of florida, including panama city, valdosta, georgia, this goes until 2:00 today so we have time for the threat to continue. it's possible it may get extended because these thunderstorms are holding up as they travel very rapidly to the northeast. we're also tracking more severe weather into south carolina. we had a tornado warning earlier just for the southeastern south carolina. that has expired. but we're still seeing some strong thunderstorms in and around this region and then back out, as i mentioned, coming in from the west along the florida panhandle. i also have another update for you in terms of the severe weather. when we put the numbers together, what we experienced yesterday on friday. numbers are up. so now yesterday we originally thought we had 95 reports of tornados. now we have 97 reports of tornados. this doesn't mean we have confirmed tornados, we'll get that data from the national

weather service as they do their storm surveys and they have a lot of work ahead of them with all the states impacted. but hundreds of reports of damaging wind and strong hail, over 400 reports of that. that tallies us up to 700, almost 1,000 reports of severe weather yesterday. what a day it was. i'm sure we'll have more reports coming in today, because the threat of severe weather still exists for parts of florida, georgia and the carolinas. >> and as people take your advice on hunkering down, taking cover as you just mentioned, you spend at least one entire chapter in your new book on tornados and what you should do to prepare for, what you do after it's passed through. so let's one more time if you could, explain to people who might be in florida or north carolina, what should they do if they hear that a warning or a watch is in effect? >> well in, my book, "extreme weather" i talk a lot about tornados because they impact every state in the country you can have a tornado. now we are under the gun and in severe weather season. the first thing you want to have is this right here and have it at home. this is a noaa weather radio.

this weather radio, you want to make sure you have batteries in it, it's turned on and programmed to your county. put it by your bedside. if you're under a tornado watch and going to sleep, you want to have this turned on because an alarm will go off. it will alert you, wake you up and give you the notice there's a tornado warning. then what do you do? you take cover in the most interior room of your home. if you have a basement, that's ideal. grab a mattress, blanket to cover yourself. also i just want to mention don't forget your pets, take them with you into a safe spot. >> okay. so the key there, programming it to your county so you're not hearing alerts in all of the surrounding counties and not staying up all night paranoid about what's going to happen next. thanks so much, bonnie schneider. your new book "extreme weather," very timely. in small towns like henryville, indiana, the full extent of some of the damage may not even be known until search and rescue crews finish their work. that's where our chris welch is this morning. chris, give me an idea of what they're going to find when they

get there. >> reporter: well, fred, we've seen widespread damage all over this region, but here in henryville, this is one of the hardest hit areas. i'm actually standing right in the middle of town and this is henryville high school or what was henryville high school and attached to it, henryville elementary schools. about 1400 students total go to the school. all of them made it out unharmed. the vast majority of them were given a warning about 20 minutes before the storm came through. they saw the report. they dismissed the students early. the high school students drove home. they were actually driving a few of the elementary students home when the bus driver saw a storm and said you know what, doesn't look safe, drove them back to the school, got them inside. they hunkered down and came out totally up harmed. but that bus that was carrying those students that went back to that school is now sitting right here. it was parked in the parking lot of the high school, just at the same time yesterday, but it flew across the road, across the pavement into this diner.

it even blew off its own chassis and went into the diner. now, there were no students on the bus obviously at the time so they're thankful for that. obviously, though, not everyone in this region was so lucky. the stories will be told for a long time. >> they say it sounds like a freight train coming through, they mean it. >> reporter: from tennessee to alabama to right here in indiana, towns woke up saturday to a dramatically different landscape than the day before. one altered by a widespread tornado outbreak. >> the temperatures before the tornado were fluctuating probably 20 degrees from each other and would change in a split of a second. and then the hail was probably baseball or tennis size. >> reporter: this round of tornados comes on the heels of another band of storms this week that devastated towns like harrisburg, illinois. one storm chaser said the outbreak so early in the season could be a warning of what's to come. >> it's telling you that we're going to have a lot more active violent outbreaks. we're not even in peak season

until may, so this is just a precursor of what's coming. >> reporter: but here in henryville, they're likely not thinking that far ahead. instead, trying to comprehend how their lives drastically changed in just one day. >> i'm just thankful that we're all -- we all survived this. like i said, material things can be replaced, the house can be replaced. we've got a place to stay, you know, warmth, food, you know, we don't have to worry about that. >> reporter: now, fred, get this, just a short time after this tornado came through henryville, an infant, a toddler no more than 2 years old, was found in a field in salem, indiana. that's about a dozen miles away from henryville. no one knows exactly how it got there or exactly where it came from, but the story of media reports said the baby was found in the field, was airlifted to the hospital and remains in critical condition. they have identified the baby but not released the name to us, but they have identified that

baby, thankfully. it's just another reminder of the severity of this storm and what mother nature can do. >> oh, my goodness, found a dozen miles away from what's believed to be that child's home? >> reporter: that's right. yeah, they haven't given specific details on where the child was from. you know, we don't know if the child was from henryville or not or whether it was from henry -- or, excuse me, from salem where the child was found. either way, it was found in a field by itself. >> oh, my goodness, all right. we're hoping the best for that baby. chris welch, thanks so much. the south also got hard hit. 13 deaths are reported in kentucky. one in alabama. no fatalities are being reported in neighboring tennessee, but dozens of people there are hurt and there's extensive damage. rob marciano is in tennessee and is joining us right now on the phone. rob, describe for us what you're seeing there. >> reporter: well, it's a frantic cleanup today. a little bit more relaxed than

yesterday. they only got a couple of hours in yesterday because as you know once this twister came through around 1:00 p.m., they only had two or three hours before the next round of severe weather started hitting the area, so they didn't really get their hands into it as far as cleaning up as much as they could. with thousands of trees down and hundreds of power poles and power lines, the job at hand is quite severe. you mentioned injuries. nearly 30 injuries being reported. some of those serious, but thankfully no fatalities. and cleaning up around this area, the reason i'm on the phone, we've been forced to move our satellite truck because this is a different landscape than that of indiana or other parts of the midwest, which is much flatter. we're down here in a valley. we've got the appalachian mountains to our east, a plateau to our west and things can get pretty tight in neighborhoods. the larger equipment that needs to get in there to clean up some of the big debris needed to get through, including power companies and their cherry

buckets. so we -- cherry pickers. so we got out of there and the good news is today is a calmer day. it's a warmer day, and folks have had time to digest what happened and to start to get their hands dirty in the cleanup efforts. everyone we've talked to, they're certainly very, very grateful that they didn't suffer any fatalities here. >> but 29 injured. thanks so much for that, rob marciano in ooltewah, tennessee. north carolina also suffered serious damage and many of the homes there reduced to splinters. joining me right now is andrew dowd from our affiliate wsoc in east mecklenburg county, north carolina, which is right near charlotte. so give me an idea there, andrew, of what is being reported. was it indeed a tornado? >> reporter: yeah, within the last half hour we actually learned that the national weather service has in fact confirmed it was a tornado that touched down. we're not sure just how severe it was yet, but we want to show

you a live picture of what's going on right now. you can see behind me charlotte mecklenburg police officers are currently monitoring who comes in and out of the subdivision, one of two along this stretch of road on plaza road extension that were affected by that tornado last night. as we push past that police car, you can actually see a tree resting on top of a car. that's just one example of a much wider path of destruction. we want to show you some video taken from our helicopter earlier this morning. you can see several houses were either damaged or completely destroyed, houses ripped off of some, cars flipped over at others. we've been speaking to several people who had incredible stories of survival, some incredibly lucky. one family said they were actually on the second floor of their house and the majority of the damage was done on the first floor. in fact their daughter, they said, was on their way to their house and the room in their house that suffered the most damage is where she would have been sleeping. about 30 minutes later, she just

happened to be running late. we know that 89 houses in this area have been damaged, eight suffering major damage, three have been completely destroyed. we also know that charlotte mayor anthony fox has asked for federal assistance. fred. >> all right, thanks so much, andrew. a lot of cleanup, a lot of damage and certainly a lot of lives turned upside down. thanks so much, andrew dowd. let's talk about politics straight ahead. republican presidential candidates are on a delegate hunt in washington state. we'll have a live report coming up next. no. it's truck month! no. it's truck month! no. it's chevy truck month! definitely that one, boss. solid. let's try the other one again. ♪ chevy truck month ♪ no. it's truck month! ♪ truck month ♪ no. truck month! no. it's chevy truck month. yeah. [ male announcer ] it's chevy truck month.

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> all right. damage from the storms has extended all the way into georgia. dozens of homes damaged

overnight and parts of the state were under a tornado watch until 5:00 this morning. reporter jennifer mayerle is in dallas, georgia. jennifer, tell me about the damage at that area. >> reporter: we're here at poole elementary school, the only school that received some damage. just take a look. you can see that the roof came completely off. it is off the entire front of the building. it actually extends about six different classrooms. i'm going to walk you in and show you what one of those classrooms looks like. just take a look here. with the roof coming off, you can actually see all the way up to the sky and actually the blue sky here today. you can see how the roof came off and the tiles just fell in, causing a lot of rain damage to this classroom. you can just see the desks are just soaked, the floor is actually just quite a mess and actually even on the walls some of the artwork has just begun to kind of smear down. you can see how the rain took it down. even on the side all the way into that classroom, there's the

computer, the projector and the tv. everything that they have in here is just really water logged and soaked. and beyond this wall there's two -- there's another classroom where the wall completely caved in but the classroom is okay and didn't have any damage. but just take a look here. i mean this is the kind of water that we're talking about. everything is just soaked and water logged in here. the good thing about it is that no students were here at the time we talked to the principal as well as the superintendent of the schools here, and they said they are just so thankful this happened at 9:30 at night instead of 9:30 in the morning when students could have been here in class. they did tell me, though, that when they do tornado drills, the kids actually go to the interior halls. there's four wings and they all line up in there. even though there's damage to the front of the building, damage to the back side of the school, those four wings are completely fine, so they said they are thankful to know that had this actually -- that had students actually been here at the time, they would have been okay, they would have been safe.

but again, a lot of damage in this area. homes around this school here also damaged. we're hearing as many as 40 homes have damage as well as the airport. of course we'll keep bringing you live pictures from here, but for now back to you. >> thanks so much, jennifer. appreciate that out of dallas, georgia. of course we'll keep you posted on the storm damage and new storm threats as well for today. meantime let's talk politics right now. in less than an hour, washington state kicks off its republican presidential caucuses. 40 delegates are up for grabs. cnn political reporter shannon travis is joining us now from lakewood, washington. quite the buzz of excitement there, shannon? >> reporter: there's a lot of buzz of excitement, fred. let me just start by telling you what the chairman of the republican party here in washington state told me yesterday. he said that normally none of the presidential candidates come here, fred, because washington's primary caucus systems used to be well after super tuesday and by then the nominee was pretty

much picked but obviously this year is a special case. he said that washington state used to be like the ugly sister invited to the dance but now it's like the princess. now, another thing that kirby wilbur, the washington gop chairman told me, is that he predicts that this race will come down between ron paul and mitt romney. now, why? why is the chairman handicapping the race essentially? he said that rick santorum and newt gingrich don't have the infrastructure here. that's really interesting, because all four of the candidates in recent days have all campaigned here for the 40 delegates at stake in washington. i want to show you what's going on. you've got a lot of caucus goers gathering already. bob brown, the man in charge of this particular caucus site, one of 450 caucus sites across washington today, he tells me that potentially between 500 and 600 people might actually be showing up here. we did a little hand count on our own. we're estimating maybe just over

100 but, again, the day is still young, fred. >> oh, my goodness. and then, you know, right around the corner is super tuesday. ten states and lots of delegates up for grabs there. that really is the place where many of the candidates are concentrating their efforts. >> reporter: absolutely. this is almost like the coronation to the ball on tuesday, fred. as you mentioned, super tuesday, ten states, 419 dilelegates up r grab. ohio, places like ohio. a lot of these candidates of been crisscrossing racking up a lot of frequent flier miles i'm sure, but crisscrossing the country because that's going to be really key. there's a lot of delegates at stake in this hunt that they need to win this nomination. so the four candidates that have been coming here to washington state have obviously been playing up that they want to win in washington, but they have been looking ahead to tuesday, fred. >> but clearly nothing being fine granted there with the candidates spending a little time in washington state today where that caucusing is taking

place. thanks so much, shannon travis coming to us from lakewood there. a program note, both newt gingrich and ron paul will be guests on cnn's "state of the union" tomorrow morning. then join me every sunday afternoon at 4:00 eastern time for a special hour dedicated to the presidential contenders in this 2012 election. and then just three days, super tuesday, march 6, 12:00 eastern time wolf blitzer and cnn's political team will be hosting a new program, the cnn election round table. it's a live insider chat about the day's implications for the presidential race. go to cnn.com/roundtable for more on that come super tuesday. actress nicollette sheridan is suing desperate housewives for wrongful termination. she says it all started over a slap. our legal guys weigh in after this.

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killing off her character. let's bring in our legal guys, avery friedman in cleveland, good to see you, and richard herman, a new york criminal defense attorney and law professor joining us from las vegas. good to see you as well. >> hi, fred. >> so nicollette sheridan actually slapped her lawyer in court to kind of demonstrate how she claims the show creator, mark cherry, hit her during a rehearsal. and so, avery, this is not a case about assault, however, it's about wrongful termination. so what is being established by the sheridan camp here? >> well, miss sheridan considered the dope slap by mark cherry, the executive producer, as a form of sexual harassment. so she complained to the hr department and she claims that as a consequence of her complaint, that she was retaliated against, and that retaliation took the form of killing her character off the show. as a result, she is claiming she

has lost millions of dollars. she's off the show, but it relates to her complaint, and that's the -- that's why this case is really a rip snorter. it really is very dramatic, because as you said, she really unloaded on her lawyer. i mean it wasn't a dope slap, it was wham, and the whole jury reacted to it. >> but can that back fire? should they have been just acting? because this really is going to be a case about he said/she said, but now kind of her playing out in a real way slapping of her attorney, i wonder if that will back fire and make her look like she's the aggressor and not mr. cherry, as she is trying to establish? >> desperation by her. there were other witnesses that saw this, fred. if they come into court and say the slap was nowhere near the severity demonstrated in court, she's going to lose all credibility. but worse than that, fred, i don't think her case really has any legs to stand on. her termination from the series

took place five months after the alleged contact, and there's evidence to show that they were planning on terminating her before the alleged slap. so i think her case is going nowhere. she's getting her name in headlights. that's what she wanted. she's getting it. but i don't believe it's going to go anywhere. >> so she wants $6 million. she used to get $175,000 an episode and she wants to claim some of those losses. i'm sure we'll be talking about this again. now let's talk about the case of andrew breitbart. he died this week but there is a defamation lawsuit that might continue involving the former usda employee, sherri sherod. so might she still be able to pursue that case against the estate? >> absolutely, fred. that's what happens, the estate stands in his shoes and she can continue the case. the problem for miss sherrod,

because she's a public figure, the burden of proof on her will be to prove actual malice, actual intent. it's difficult to prove. her damages are minimal at best. i think her reputation has been enhanced by this whole incident and therefore i suspect that she's going to dismiss this case in the near future. >> really? but avery, would it be difficult to establish because she's also pursuing breitbart's aide, larry o'connor, so he will have to testify as well or he at least will be challenge ed as well by she and her attorney. >> well, that depends on one thing. there is an appeal pending in the u.s. district court of appeals and it claims that the sherrod case is what's called a slap suit. that means it's phony, that it's just brought to make trouble, there really is no defamation.

and that, both o'connor and breitbart's lawsuit was based on the freedom of press and freedom of speech, so it may never even get to trial if a three-judge panel in the district of columbia says it's a slap suit. if it does, she doesn't really have to show damages because it's defamation per se and it's district of columbia jurors. i've been there, i know what that's like. there's danger all around so we have to find out what happens in the court of appeals first. >> and people -- just to remind a lot of people, breitbart is accused of using and kind of distorting a video to represent sherri sherrod making her out to be a racist and that is at the heart of this defamation suit so we'll see how it plays out. avery and richard, always good to see you. thanks so much. we have to cut it short this time. instead of seeing you later in this hour, because of all the storms. we look forward to seeing you next week. thanks so much, have a great

weekend. >> be safe. >> bye bye. >> thank you. in fact we've got new images that are coming out of the storms that swept through maybe 15 states since yesterday. it has been an extraordinary system that has unfolded. we'll be sharing some of those images with you and more eyewitness accounts after this.

checking today's top stories, rescue crews are searching for survivors after tornados ripped across the south and midwest. more than 30 people were killed. most of the fatalities were in kentucky and indiana. national guard troops have been deployed to wiped-out communities to provide aid and security. tornado watches are posted at this hour in south carolina, georgia and florida. a mass shooting takes place outside an arizona nightclub and today 13 people are recovering from wounds. police say two people are in serious condition. and family and friends are saying goodbye today at a funeral for 16-year-old daniel parmertor. he's one of three students killed in the high school shooting in chardon, ohio. two other students were

hospitalized, another was grazed by gunfire. bp says it will pay nearly $8 billion to settle claims related to the worst oil spill in u.s. history. a group representing the plaintiffs said the amount will, quote, fully compensate the victims. the three-month-long spill happened after an explosion on the deepwater horizon oil rig operated by bp. 11 people were killed in that explosion. and home prices are the lowest in a decade. should you buy, sell or rent?

all right, we're in an economic recovery, so what does that mean if you're looking for a home. in this week's smart is the new

rich, christine romans takes a look at whether you should buy, sell or rent in this housing market. >> reporter: are we finally seeing the bottom in the housing market? let's get right to the bottom of it. mike aubry is a realtor and host of hgtv's real estate intervention. mike, would you say it's time to buy, sell or rent in this housing market? >> unequivocally you must buy right now. we're never going to see prices as cheap as they are and we're never going to see mortgage money as cheap as you can get it. you've got to buy. >> but we've been thinking this for a few months now, years now, that home prices couldn't go lower and they keep going lower. that's the big fear. if you buy a house right now, it could be less expensive in one or two years. >> well, you know what, i think it depends on who the buyer is, christine. if you're an investor and you're someone who is savvy and out in the marketplace, i think that you may have a different viewpoint than someone who is looking to buy a house that they intend to live in. if you intend to live in a house right now, you're going to get a

mortgage interest rate deduction on that house. what you're going to do is cut your nose off to spite your face. say the market continues to drop through the end of 2012, which it may very well. i know mortgage rates aren't going any cheaper than they are right now. when you talk about the gift that keepgs on taking, even a quarter point mortgage interest, you're going to end up paying more even if you pay 20 or 30,000 less for the house you need. >> to get that you need money in the bank, money to put down and a pretty good credit score and a house that you can sell already. you can't have a house that you can't get rid of. but you're right, mortgage rates have never been so low. i'm christine romans with this week's "smart is the new rich." we'll have much more on the tornados that swept through nine states. our viewers are sharing their dramatic storm stories. more on that next. in america, we believe in a future

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let's get back to our top story this afternoon. 97 reports of tornados sweeping through nine states. some of the most powerful images and vivid accounts are actually coming from you. cnn ireporters. josh levs has been going through all of those reports for us. give us an idea what people are saying and seeing. >> fred, they have been coming in throughout the day. we're getting them from all sorts of stricken regions. zoom in on this first picture, which is one of our ireports that i want to tell you about.

this comes to us from branson, missouri. this is a good example of one picture showing you a lot. you can feel the sheer force of the storms when you see something like that. that big tree split, clear damage to the home. some major damage to the car there too. something else we're getting which i'm finding interesting is more and more of our ireporters are sending us photos of what the storms looked like first coming through. this is a shot that we got from an ireporter in kentucky and it goes all the way down into there. there's another one i want to jump over to that's very similar coming out of nashville. this is an ireport that we just received a few minutes ago. if you see up here, all of this is what the sky looked like to some people that were in nashville at the time it was coming through. that comes from randy. he said as soon as it went through, what was left behind is incredibly heavy hail. which leads us to this first video i want to show you. take a look here.

that second photo i was showing you just now was in nashville and this video is from another ireporter in nashville. this one is from ted briggs. this is some of the hail that was coming down as the storm was passing through. i've been seeing some closeups of what some of these pieces of hail look like of the we're about to see it in this video. at least as large as golf balls. in some cases, even bigger. and they have been obviously taking a pounding and bringing a lot of damage along with them. we're going to get closeup here. i want you to see them in his hand and those aren't some of the largest. these are just some of the pictures and videos coming in. now, by far the most popular video among our ireports today is one that tells a great deal about what the tornados look like to some people in this country. take a look at this. now, let me tell you what we're seeing here.

this is out of indiana and this was taken by ireporter chad hinton. he was looking out just a couple of miles and he says he was looking out toward henryville and that is the area, one of the major areas we've been showing you today that experienced so much damage, so much destruction. he had been told go ahead and drive home. he was among the people who did drive home. look at how huge that tornado is. you can see what it looked like to him. when you see all this, it might make you want to reach out and help some of the people who were impacted by the storms. we have a way you can do that. we havy screen here. go to cnn.com/impactyourworld. i've linked it up to my facebook and twitter pages. you can always reach out and help people any time in the coming days. we'll see a lot more images throughout today and in the coming days. it makes a lot of people want to reach out and help. >> people generally want to help and people very much welcome that. thanks so much, josh levs.

so in the florida keys, lots of concerns about the fragile coral reefs but not because of storms. one expert diver shows us how he is bringing back marine life. meet our cnn hero after the break. i'm serious, we compare our direct rates side by side to find you a great deal, even if it's not with us. [ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save, even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today. no mas pantalones! but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy,

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top stories straight ahead including the severe weather hitting parts of the south for the second straight day. tornado watches are in effect in south carolina, georgia and florida. the threat comes a day after a deadly tornado outbreak across parts of the south and midwest. we'll have one toddler's amazing story of survival straight ahead. but first, this week's cnn hero has watched the beauty of the sea disappear, and now he's working to bring life back to an underwater world in crisis. meet ken niedemyer. >> i grew up diving in the florida keys and it was just the most magical place. the coral reefs were so pretty, and i decided that's what i wanted to do for a living is dive on coral reefs. in an area where there's live coral, there's always more fish. reefs provide protection for our

coastal areas and recational opportunities for millions of people. over time i saw the coral reefs start to die. coral reefs worldwide are in decline. if they die completely, coastal communities would be bankrupt, tourism would be virtually gone. a billion people in the world will be impacted. i started thinking how can we fix this problem? >> my name is ken nedimyer and i grow and protect coral reefs. >> we developed a system that's simple and train others to do. >> we start with a piece this big and hang it on and after a year or two it becomes this big. then we cut it off and do it again. >> ken's coral nursery is one of the largest in the caribbean. it's ten times larger than the others in existence. >> in 2003 we originally planted six corals now but now there's over 3,000 growing in this area

alone. >> before i felt helpless watching it die. now i think there's hope. it's not too late, everybody can help. i see all those corals and all those fish. it's like this whole reef is coming back to life and making a difference is exciting. >> remember all of our heroes come from your nominations, so go to cnn knheroes.com to share your inspirational stories. speaking of the ocean and coast lines, popular destinations for spring break, if you're thinking of heading to mexico, some advice after the break. i'm good about washing my face.

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some international news now. more clarity on who is being blamed for burning korans at a nato base in afghanistan. five servicemen and an afghan translator, according to a nato official familiar with the investigations, intense protests over the burnings have left at least 39 people dead, including four american soldiers. in syria, activist groups say syrian soldiers have executed more than fort mill --

fort mill taer defectors today. also the bodies of american journalist marie colvin and a french photographer were turned over to western diplomats in syria. both were killed in shelling last week. a spring break trip to mexico should come with some precautions. rob marciano explains in this week's "on the go." >> many college students are about to head south of the border for spring break. but the u.s. state department has issued travel warnings for many states across mexico, including 14 states where they advise against non-essential travel. >> there is a lot of transnational criminal organization activity. the various drug cartels that operate in mexico. this makes travel, particularly in the border areas, extremely dangerous. >> the state department says avoid driving in mexico, especially at night.

>> i think most of spring break partiers might look at either cruising or flying into a destination like cancun or cabbo san lucas. these are generally safe once you're on the ground. >> we have found that the traditional tourist destinations and resorts are still by and large fairly safe. >> details for specific cities can be found at travel.state.gov where trips can be registered in their step program. >> that's a way whereby we can push out updated information to these students who are, as you know, very much into social media. we can communicate with them in that way. >> giving students a chance to relax on the go. all right, more on the storms coming up. a baby girl ended up alone in a field clinging to life after last night's storms. we'll tell you how she's doing after a remarkable rescue. [ male announcer ] if you were building the perfect laptop

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checking our top stories, the massive storm system that caused dozens of tornados is now

in the clieparolinas and florid. an indiana toddler is in critical condition today. rescuers found her alone in a field after yesterday's tornado outbreak. 20-month-old baby was flown to two local hospitals before being identified by a relative. a hospital spokesman says the girl is breathing with the help of a tube. and republican leaders are condemning conservative radio talk show host rush limbaugh after he called a law student who uses contraception a slut. sandra fluke testified before congress advocating that insurance companies cover birth control. president obama called fluke to support her, but limbaugh has not backed down from his comment. and in just a few minutes, washington state kicks off its republican presidential caucuses. 40 delegates there are at stake. the winner stands to gain momentum three days before the biggest contest yet, super tuesday. that's when ten states hold