what is that building in front of the stands that's completely demolished? >> it's the field house. it's the weightlifting room for the football team and some other teams. >> and the baseball diamond, i mean, that looks like a pretty extensive athletic field for a high school, no? >> it's a pretty nice stadium, baseball field for sure. >> what about the school proper? we're seeing the athletic fields here. what is -- what are the academic buildings? have they suffered damage, or did this bypass them? >> outside there was some minor damage. then where the cars drop the kids off or the bus riders get dropped off, the overhang was completely removed, and it looks like some of the roof has been damaged as well. >> some of the roof. so it looks like the athletic fields kind of got the brunt of it here. were there any students there?

were there any practices going on? i imagine we're lucky this was happening on a sunday evening. >> there was no one in the football or baseball facilities, but the basketball gym, it looked like the girls were having practice in there. whenever we were outside, we heard a girl say, where's my truck? i thought she was kidding that her truck was missing, but when i looked at the baseball field, there was a truck upside down. >> so that's her truck in the picture we're looking at right now that's flipped over? >> yes, ma'am. >> oh, my goodness. and the basketball area where these girls were practicing, that was bypassed by the tornado? >> yes, it looks like it went straight through the baseball field and then over the student parking lot. the light poles and other things were ripped up. then it hit the football facilities. >> so where are you right now? >> i'm at a friend's apartment. >> what kind of damage have you

seen in the area aside from the school? >> there's tons of trees down, power lines are all over the place. i haven't seen a lot of the buildings that have been damaged, but i heard our college, the university of southern mississippi, a lot of that college has been damaged in ways. some dorms have been destroyed. the windows have been smashed out, it seems. >> and that must be a concern, obviously, because there would be a number of students who would be there. >> ma'am? >> is that right, you would expect there would be a number of students? do you know -- if we're talking about dorms, that would be a major concern. >> yeah, but we have mardi gras break right now. a lot of them have gone home. >> that is very fortunate, randy. tell me, you actually -- you are a worship minister, is that

right, at a church? >> yes, ma'am. >> do you know if your church is going to be doing anything -- is it too early to say, i imagine, that you'll be trying to help out a lot of people? no power, no supplies. >> during katrina, our church went out and aided a lot of people, so i imagine that whatever needs be met, our church is going to try to achieve those to reach those people. >> okay, randy. thank you so much. randy wright there in hattiesburg, mississippi. we appreciate you talking with us, and we've been seeing some of the photos that you have been putting out on twitter. so as randy was saying, oak grove high school there in hattiesburg hattiesburg, it appears part of the high school was hit. that would be the athletic fields. the baseball area you're looking at now where a car has actually been sent there out on to the baseball diond.

also, the football field. a pretty large stadium they have there. the field house there, the weight room, the workout room for the players completely demolished. however, it does appear that a large portion of the high school, the academic buildings have survived with maybe just some minimal damage, some roof damage, as we heard randy say there. that's not the case that he's hearing or trying to get a handle on this, that nearby the university of southern miss has suffered significant damage. we're trying to get a sense of the buildings there and whether they were damaged. we heard randy say, and we'll be double checking on this, that because students do have a break right now, that may just really be a god send because a lot of them may have gone home. we certainly do hope that's the case as we try to get an assessment of the damage. but again, we're following severe weather, not just in mississippi, but in the south. this is a tornado that you're watching right now that touched

down there in hattiesburg and also west of hattiesburg, right, tom? is that correct? >> yes. >> you're also keeping your eye on alabama. >> yeah, and i think we may have another possible tornado. if you live in the town of millrie, alabama, you have to seek shelter now. let me start with a broad picture and we'll work our way into that community. here's the line we've been watching. we're getting reports south of montgomery, alabama, that some of the thunderstorms are producing some wind damage. not due to tornadoes, but we are getting wind damage. if we break this down, i want to go back to what we have as far as some of the warnings are concerned. we have about five of them now, tornado warnings, in effect. the good news is hattiesburg is in the clear. they're into brief rainfall. my concern, of course, was this thunderstorm cell that was making its way across the mississippi and alabama border into southwestern areas. this is thomasville. if you live in this area to the southwest of this, this thunderstorm here has been really producing some problems. i want to show you what we call

reflectivity here. doppler radar showing you exactly what we have as far as -- it's actually not coming on here. let me see if we can get this here. as far as showing you what the winds can do with this, many times you'll see this on the local level. i don't know if we can get this pulled up here for you. there we go. the old saying is -- well, i just lost that. reflectivity basically is showing around the millry area that we have circulation. reflectivity on doppler radar is when green and red get under the bed. that's the best way to explain it on the simplest terms. this is in the southwest areas of alabama. if i want to run through a few of the counties still under warnings for you. of course, out of jackson, mississippi, the national weather service there. southern jones county for another ten minutes. also in mississippi is wayne county. that's until 7:30 central time. then of course we get into

alabama where we have but ler county, monroe county, wilcox county and clark county. here's the image i wanted to show you again. it's the winds. it's not just showingout amou i amount of rainfall, but when you have circulations, when you have an area coming toward the doppler radar, this is our circulation. moments ago this system was actually just to the east of millry and has made its way to the east-northeast. you can see this is just one of several areas of concern. the better news is that on a greater picture here, we're starting to see some of these lose their purge. that's what we want to see as far as some of the thunderstorms kind of, you know, get themselves rained out. they lose their intensity. it doesn't mean the threat is over because we're finding these thunderstorms move very quickly toward the east at about 50 miles per hour. so with these thunderstorms continuing to move, the threat is going to be in georgia in the next couple of hours. here's the radar picture.

numerous lightning strikes. one to two inches of rain per hour. atlanta is going to be into rainfall. i don't think you going to see the threat for real severe weather, although the rain will be heavy. montgomery, alabama, just south of you is a big concern as well. as we get in a little closer, you can see the tornado watches that remain in effect. earlier i mentioned i wouldn't be surprised if the national weather service extended the next tornado watch box towards the east and the northeast, that would include the montgomery, alabama, metropolitan area. this is close enough. the good news is that we're seeing the back edge start to lose its punch. it's just a couple thunderstorm cells that are moving toward montgomery. we're not through with this just yet. >> okay, tom. thank you very much. we have new video of the tornado hitting hattiesburg. we'll be coming back to tom as well as we get those maps sorted out. this is new video. i want to let you hear the storm as it's obviously quickly

approaching here. >> this is hattiesburg, mississippi. my name is ronald grant. check this out. it's happening rights outside my hotel. look at that. look at all that damage, dude. oh, snap. oh! >> holy -- yeah! oh, my god. i've never seen a tornado before in my life.

>> you are watching some new video in to us from hattiesburg, mississippi, as well as new pictures here from some of the downed power lines. i do want to tell you since we have been talking about the university of southern miss because it suffered some significant damage, as we understand it, looking on the website, officials there at the university have said there's a state of emergency on campus, but the good news is there's nono injuries reported. we've heard the kids are actually on break. we're going to check on that. university police have said there's a state of emergency. they're telling students if they're not on campus to not return until further notice. at this point, they say the damage is confirmed to, it appears, a handful, maybe four

buildings. jazz station, their performing arts center, the alumni house, among others. we'll be certainly trying to get a sense of what the damage is there. we're following severe weather throughout the south. obviously, you see it here in mississippi. this is where these dramatic pictures are coming in. we've got i think at least at this point two different youtube videos from hattiesburg, mississippi, showing this tornado on the ground there. we spoke with a storm chaser who said that he actually picked up the storm in marion county, which is next door to forest county, which is where hattiesburg is, and that there were reports of injuries and structure damage there, as you can imagine looking at that tornado tracking along the ground. it tracked for several miles along the ground. we were told by the storm chaser. and it came into forest county in hattiesburg, specifically western hattiesburg. we've been told by emergency management officials there are a number of subdivisions that may

have suffered damage. we spoke with someone actually a couple blocks from the university of southern miss, who said that just a couple blocks from her there was tremendous damage but so far she hasn't seen any of her -- she's staying with a relative. the expectation from officials we're told is that there are injuries, there are people that are trapped. at this point, you have ems, fire, police department, and they are moving through the area trying to get a sense of the damage. the struggle here as we go to tom, our cnn meteorologist, is that night has fallen. it's been now a couple of hours, i think, since the storm has passed. so they're dealing with downed power lines, not having power. this is a tremendous effort, as we understand. there are emergency responders coming from all these different

counties around hattiesburg to try to help out. >> the command centers are going to be set up, triage units as they go door to door. forgive me, please. i'm with our sister network cnn international. i was covering the weather in china. we ran over here at the last minute. this is all coming together in the last hour. the number of warnings we have are starting to get whittled down somewhat. that's very good news. as far as damage is concerned, right now this is really the only area that we're getting reports from. that's in the hattiesburg area. we've had some reports of damage south of montgomery, alabama. the line you can see, the amount of lightning strikes with this. flooding is a big concern. tornado watches have not been extended. now, that's a plus. as the storm systems -- as these individual cells race eastward at a good 50 miles per hour, you would think the national weather service while they're looking at circulation in these cells may extend that. that's originally what i expected to happen. that has no occurred just yet which is a positive sign.

it doesn't mean we're in the clear just yet. a couple storm systems we are watching, hattiesburg is mentioned. i think you're in the clear of any severe weather. doesn't mean you're not going to have the rainfall. that's going to cause a problem for first responders. mainly because of the downed power lines. it's going to be a slow process and a long night. notice from around monroeville northward, we have a couple cells of big concern. one, two, three, four, five -- we have six tornado warnings still in effect. only one county in mississippi. most of them are in alabama. thomasville, alabama. we've got a thunderstorm cell that's probably still a good 35, 40 miles to your southwest. it's got its eyes on your area. let's hope it rains itself out before it moves into your region. that's the largest cell we're watching right now. a little concerning. >> very concerning as we watch this threat sort of move through the south. of course, we're looking at the aftermath of the storm in hattiesbu hattiesburg, mississippi, there in southern mississippi. we have some new youtube video

that has just come in. these are extraordinary pictures showing this tornado tracking along the ground as we understand that it did for several miles in this area. let's listen to that. >> that is a tornado. holy -- holy -- yeah! oh, my god! i've never seen a tornado before in my life.

>> let's go now to a professor at university of southern mississippi. i understand your home was hit. is that right? what kind of damage have you suffered, and were you away from your house at the time? >> no, i was home. we took refuge, me and the dogs, in a safe place. the house got hit pretty good. the porches are peeled off. all the trees are gone. just kind of uprooted. they're kind of laying on the house and the cars and that kind of stuff. >> the trees are laying on the house? is that right? >> yeah, yeah. some of the house is -- i'm in a neighborhood just east of the university of southern mississippi. we got hit pretty good. i haven't seen anything beyond the block from me because we can't get out of here. houses down the street are

completely roofless. >> if you were able to take refuge with your dog, you obviously got a little bit of notice to take refuge. where did you take refuge? >> yeah, yeah. just in the house in a smaller room, a closet. just waited it out. it was pretty quick. >> what was it like? describe it. >> oh, it was just like you hear tornadoes described. it was very loud, very quick. you know, the buildings are shaking. you can tell the trees are flying by. it was pretty quick. >> are your neighbors okay? >> well, as far as i know. we all kind of climbed out, and everyone was checking on everyone. it looks like as far as i know, at least, no one in the immediate neighborhood was hurt. again, i don't have any knowledge of what's happened beyond a block from here. >> sure. so what are you a professor of at southern miss? >> i'm a professor of geography. >> all right. well, that's certainly -- this may at least touch upon your

expertise, i would say. but can you give me a sense -- someone told me the students are away on a mardi gras break. is that right? >> yeah, our students get a break for monday and tuesday of mardi gras holiday. so university is probably pretty empty right now. that's probably a good thing. >> that is a god send, i would have to say. i understand -- i'm looking at the university website. it says that damage has been confirmed to jazz station, the performing arts center, the alumni house and elam arms, which is vacant. what is the jazz station? >> it's a former fire station that belong tos to the music department. >> and the performing arts center i imagine is a much larger building? >> it's a much larger version of the same thing. >> the alumni house and elam arms, are those adjacent to

those other buildings? >> elam arms is across the street from the first two buildings. it's a dorm that's actually empty right now. no concern there. >> i have to say, you sound remarkably calm for someone who just went through a tornado. how are you feeling? >> it's interesting. this is exactly like walking out of the house after katrina. it's the exact same scene. the trees are laying on everything. you know, a lot of projects to do. the garden survived, so i feel all right about that. >> a lot of projects to do and the garden survived. i'm amazed at your attitude. can you describe -- >> give me a few days. >> i know. maybe you're still in shock from all of it. when you say the porches were peeled off of the house, what is there -- is there internal damage to your house? >> yeah, there's a few trees that hit the roof and damaged, you know, the walls. the house is leaking right now from trees falling on the roof.

>> yeah? >> the carport is gone. it's laying on the car, i think. it's hard to tell. >> both of your cars are gone, as i understand it? >> yeah, i think so. >> oh, my goodness. sir, you are amazingly calm. >> i'll get a new car. >> i guess that is the truth. you know, the important thing is that you are fine and also that your dogs are fine as well, since you took refuge with them. obviously the most very important things in your life are pet and family members. professor, thanks for talking to us. he's a professor of geography at the university of southern miss. let's go now to our meteorologist in the cnn weather center. what are we seeing here as we monitor the severe weather? >> we have another tornado. it's been confirmed. this is the town of winchester. this is reflectivity on doppler radar showing circulation of the winds. in between the communities of

waynesboro and winchester. to give you an idea of the speed of this system, it is now between coffeeville and frankville, and it's moving and racing to the east. if you live in the winchester area or to the east, to the northeast, you must seek shelter right now. grab the kids, the pets, whatever you have to do. if you're in a mobile home, if you have time, if you're well to the east, definitely try to seek more sturdy shelter. again, winchester, mississippi, this is the state line. of course, this is the cell berp concerned about. this one doesn't seem to have the power it did earlier near millry. we're going to continue to watch this as it continues to develop. the warnings -- the number of warnings we have are starting to break away a little bit and that's good news. our number is it is whittling down. we have four now still in

effect. of course, we're going to continue to keep you posted on this one. thomasville, alabama. the thunderstorm right here is the strongest of all of these. as we monitor the national weather service, we're going to pass the information along to you. there are still tornado warnings in mississippi. that would be wayne county. that's for another ten minutes. in alabama, it is butler county, monroe county, clark county. the number we had, as many as eight tornado warnings as one time. now we're down to four. the other warnings we're starting to see get issued are severe thunderstorm warnings on the edge of your screen. that's a good sign too. maybe losing a little bit of energy right now as we've lost the daylight. it's going to be a long evening, even for the threat and the fear that if one does pop up, of course we're in darkness now. that's why we're here and going to continue to keep you updated. >> of course, darkness which is

hindering any sort of assessment of the damage. just to kind of keep this straight, tom, we've obviously got this tornado, which we're looking at right now, video of this in hattiesburg. there was a tornado spotted in winchester, mississippi, that you were talking about earlier. that urgent tornado threat in millry, alabama, and the threat in thomasville, alabama, we don't know if that materialized into tornadoes, right? >> we know it's been confirmed by officials there, emergency personnel. we have not had any reports of damage, with the exception of south of montgomery. >> so they have confirmed there was a tornado. >> yes, they have. >> okay. so obviously this is a situation spanning -- the weather system spanning a number of states, but we're looking at tornadoes on the ground in alabama and mississippi. the dramatic pictures we're seeing coming to us from hattiesburg, mississippi. downed power lines. you can see it in some of these

new photos coming in as night is falling here. this is making it tremendously difficult for emergency crews. we've spoken to people who are in subdivisions that are very close to the university of southern miss, which suffered significant damage, although the lucky thing here is that students actually have a break tomorrow and on tuesday, so a lot of them took this long four-day weekend and got out of town. also, a high school, oak grove high school was hit. at least part of it was hit. it's a sunday, so most of the kids weren't there. we understand there was some -- the girls basketball team was having a practice. in a way, it was opportune considering the situation there at the college and at the high school. we're going to continue monitoring this. this is developing. we have new pictures coming in. we have new video coming in of this tornado coming through hattiesburg, mississippi. we'll bring that to you when we

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that is a tornado.

holy [ bleep ]. >> there is severe weather in the south right now. dangerous weather heading for southwestern alabama as we speak. that is a tornado that hit the ground in hattiesburg, mississippi. we have obviously confirmed that. you were watching it. this is something that happened a little over two hours ago. of course, the aftermath is just beginning there on the ground. from what we've seen, the damage is extensive there in hattiesbu hattiesburg, especially on the campus of southern mississippi university. the good news is the campus is actually deserted this weekend for mardi gras holiday. students have monday and tuesday off, so many of them took long weekends. that's not the case for the subdivision of houses right next door. we spoke with someone who informswas in a home, took shelter as a tornado rolled over the top of the house. both of his cars damaged. he walked out of his house and said his neighbors appear to be

fine. of course, there's concern other people may be trapped. there's heavy damage as well at oak grove high school. it's actually where brett favre is the offensive coordinator for the football team. at least three people are reported hurt. so far, we are working our sources to learn if there are more people injured. let's bring in our meteorologist here with the details of some of the other areas that we're keeping our eye on. >> if you were with us five minutes ago, we talked about across the state line into m still dealing with one in mississippi near winchester. if you're with us, this reflectivity showing us the winds. we now have confirmation by emergency personnel and management that we have damage near the down of clara. also -- first of all, let me mention in clara, reports of home damage near highway 63. we have trees that are down. also, about six miles just to

the southeast of waynesboro. this is the same cell that made its way to the winchester area. it's moving at 40 miles per hour. we have two confirmed reports of damage. the clara area southwest of waynesboro. i suspect we're going to have reports of damage as we continue to track these systems and people are able to get out when all is clear and find out what exactly is the problem and what these tornadoes have been producing. the threat is not over. we still have four tornado warnings in effect. we'll keep you posted on that. mainly now the concern is going to go across the border into alabama. thomasville, we've been mentioning you for some time. pretty good thunderstorm cell that continues to march your way at about 45 miles per hour. >> and tom, it's pretty amazing because a lot of the pictures we have been seeing, the video, and the photos are coming to us from social media. that includes twitter, facebook,

i-reports. josh has been combing through social media. i know we have some new photos we haven't seen before. >> i'm going to show you some now. i want all of you to know the pictures are starting to trickle in. we don't just grab them and show them to you. in the wake of ever disaster, there are some fake ones out there. we confirm that they're real and then we show them to you. we've gotten an i-report here that comes from inside hattiesburg. it's pretty striking. this is from a man who wassing looking out from where he lives inside his development across a tennis court. i was just speaking with him. his name is eddie. he tells me you could see the tornado right there. it was about within a quarter mile of his house. he just sent us this video. it's just popped into us. you'll be able to see some of the movements on this tornado. he was staying safe. he felt safe inside his home. this was not a situation in which he was going through any danger. we don't want anyone to go to

any danger. he told me when we were on the phone that he could see this tornado picking up debris as it moved along, including large pieces of debris. of course, you can't see that clearly, so he couldn't quite tell what it was. he said he heard the loud sounds of it coming along. he says it was moving in a direction away from his home, which is one reason he felt safe staying there by his window and getting these photos. obviously, we want to encourage you to send those images as they come in if you can do so safely. we've been talking about the images we're seeing on twitter. this is from randy and the band, which is a really striking picture from the university campus. we're getting information from the university itself about some of the buildings that have been damaged, and it does square with what we're seeing here, including an alumni house that's been damaged. i want to let you know, this is really important as people are in this situation, facing potential difficult

circumstances in the wake of a tornado. authorities very frequently encourage people to please use social media if you're in a position to do so to let your family know you're okay. they don't want the phone lines clogged up. what happens is everyone starts getting calls from everyone around the country who loves them, and that's great, but those phone lines are needed for emergency phone calls. the encouragement is to use social media if you can. also, if for any reason you lose power where you are, be sure to check twitter and facebook. when i get off the air here, i'm going to be sending out really important twitter handles you can follow that will be providing you information from emergency officials inside mississippi and throughout the region. that way if you lose power but still have your phone, you're still able to get online in some way through your phone, you can get information from that. go ahead and send those pictures, those videos, those stories to cnn i-report if you can do so safely. we'll be here throughout the night. >> and it is something you have to consider following storms like this, josh.

some people, they'll start hearing rumors about maybe what some of the damage is. four buildings at the university were damaged. the lucky thing is the students appear to be gone. >> most of them are gone. damage has been confirmed. it worked out most students are gone. >> josh, thank you. he mentioned we've been getting photos from randy and the band on twitter. that's randy wright. he's actually a worship minister at a baptist church there in hattiesburg. we spoke with him a short time ago. he was describing these photos to us. you're looking at a car there in

the middle of a baseball diamond at oak grove high school. this is a high school in hattiesburg. brett favre is the offensive coordinator there. because he actually lives nearby and went to the university of southern miss, so that's a role he's serving there in retirement. but what we heard from randy -- and this is the story behind that car right there. he said that even though students were practice iing -- there was tremendous damage on the football team and baseball diamond. the girls basketball team was practicing. he heard one of the girls come out and say, where's my car? she wasn't kidding. that was her car in the middle of the baseball field. you're dealing with a tremendous number of vehicles that have been flipped over, that have been strewn about like they're toys. of course, the damage as well to the structures in the area. we're still trying to get a sense of just what the extent of the -- the damage obviously

appears tremendous. but we're trying to get a sense of what some of the injuries are. so far, we have confirmed that there are three injuries. as emergency crews are making their way to homes and we've spoke within people who are living on street where is the storm, where the tornado came right through. they say they've been checking on their neighbors but haven't been able -- they hear the psi n sire sirens, but because the roads are so blocks from pieces of debris, from roofs, trees, that are strewn about on these roads, emergency services are going through that pain staking process of trying to get to homes, see if people are trapped or injured, which are very real concerns. we expect to be hearing some reports of that. we're following this as we have new video coming in here of this tornado coming through hattiesburg, mississippi, about two hours ago. we'll continue to follow this and brung you new details after the break. [ nurse ] i'm a hospice nurse.

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[ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. that is a tornado. holy [ bleep ]. holy [ bleep ]. >> we're following severe weather in the south, and a tornado that tracked along the

ground for several miles near and in the city of hattiesburg, mississippi. roofs off, cars overturned, power lines down. there are some reports of people injured. that number no doubt will grow. there are concerns about people trapped. we've been talking with some people who went through this tornado, including one person who the tornado went right over his house. he was able to walk out unscathed. his house not the same, of course. we also spoke with a storm chaser, john sibley, who not only watched the tornado as it hit, but he followed it as it tracked several miles along the ground. take a listen. >> were you able to see this tornado? >> yes, i was. i picked up the originally as the storm came out of marion county. there were reports of injuries as well as structures being destroyed. the central part of the county, i pretty much picked it up about five miles to the west of

western hattiesburg. the storm basically continued parallel east of 98 -- excuse me, paralleled 98 to the east. once we were across i-59, it turned more towards the north, tracking east-northeast. at that point, it crossed highway 98 or what used to be highway 98, where it changes to hardy street. it struck the university of southern mississippi head on. there is significant damage to the campus as well as surrounding structures. i had tweeted out a picture of a large wedge tornado that crossed the road in front of me. the win dose on the south side of the building are blown in. the win dodows on the north sid are blown in. >> we have been looking at a picture of a high school, which

we now know is oak grove high school. thankfully it's a sunday. that's obviously the good news here. but what can you tell us -- i don't know, can you see our air, john? >> unfortunately, i can't. from what i can tell you from what the fire chief has told me, the high school did receive a significant direct hit. the good news is because it was sunday at 5:00, no one was on the campus. >> so talk to me a little bit about the impact that this is having in the area, even places that weren't directly hit by this. you're looking at a tremendous loss of power as well. >> yes, there's a significant loss of property in the area. to my left, i'm sitting here in a quick stop gas station. the pumps were destroyed. they're completely knocked over. crews came out and immediately shut those off. the roof is gone.

there's actually a toyota tundra sitting in the middle of the road. the windows have been blown out. the telephone pole that was on the other side of the street is now on top of the tundra. the driver has been transported to a local hospital. we're also hearing from fire officials that already people still trapped from refrid eped tors -- refrigerators and appliances. there's currently rescue efforts to free several people that are trapped from having trees fall on them. >> what time did this come through, john? >> this tornado came through just after 5:00 p.m. because it's later in the year, it wasn't dark early, unlike mobile back around christmas where it got dark at 5:00. the sun was down here about 5:45. you could definitely see the

tornado all the way through for about five miles all directions. >> so how long -- do you have a sense of how long you've been -- just a range. i'm not asking you to be scientific about it, necessarily. but how many minutes this may have been on the ground. >> it was on the ground from where we picked it up in marion county. that was about 45 minutes before it got to hattiesburg. they had significant warnings. the national weather service in jackson, i have to give them a round of applause. they have warning after warning letting people know that this was a large tornado that was going through their area. also, the local police and fire department were out watching traffic to try and stop traffic. if someone was on their phone or just not paying attention, they would have driven right into it. >> how much warning did people in the area get that this was heading their way, john?

do you know? >> i would say there was a significant warning because the psirens in hattiesburg were goig off. the campus sirens were telling everyone there was a tornado emergency, seek shelter immediately. >> now, you are a storm chaser, so you go after these things. i'm sure you've seen a number of tornadoes. how does this one compare to some of the ones that you have seen? in particular, how rare is it to be near a populated area like we see in the pictures that we're looking at? >> it's not really that rare. the tornadoes really don't pick where they're going to go. when the tornado hit downtown mobile on christmas day, there were tornadoes in the northern part of the caounty, in the southern part of the county, and then it went through the southern part of the county, which is where mobile is. also, 2008, you have the tornado that hit atlanta. i storm chased that one.

that was actually about midway through my storm chasing career. but there's really no discretion. the tornadoes don't really pick, let's go for this city or let's go for this town. it's just a coin toss. i will say this is one of the larger tornadoes i've seen for the south. you generally don't have large hail and destructive tornadoes here in the south, especially south of i-20. you see that more in the north georgia mountains. for there to be this large of a tornado come through southern mississippi and according to the radar continue to track into alabama, the national weather service is going to be picking the scientific data apart for sure. >> this is maybe -- this is perhaps an extraordinary event that we are watching unfold here on some youtube video posted by

someone in hattiesburg, mississippi. do you have a sense -- in your experience, what types -- this is what's going on as we know right now, john. we know there are emergency services, fire department, police, they will be going through some subdivisions. we understand there are a number that may be endangered here. what are they doing, and how are they even able to traverse the area? what are their obstacles? >> the obstacles they're having right now is the fire marshal is shutting off the gas to all the businesses. they're also going through -- starting off with the local residences. there's also ems crews. i'm sure you can hear as another ambulance goes by. the damage from seeeast to west roughly five blocks, so about

three-quarters of a mile. i'm looking around trying to give you a better sense of what's going on. the rain, for the most part, as let up for the evening. you have signs down. you have power lines down. the power poles are snapped. there's debris all over the place. there are cars in the middle of the road. there are cars upside down. like i said, this toyota tundra in front of me has a power pole through it, and it's hung up on the center median. >> so we're talking there about a tornado that was on the ground in hattiesburg, mississippi. this was less than three hours ago. the aftermath is very much in full effect right now there. let's get now to meteorologist tom. you're keeping your eye on alabama, next door to mississippi. >> it's still thomasville. there's only three tornado warnings now, which is very good news. we had as many as eight at one point. we put together the images of our doppler radar. we were able to put together an animation so you can see the

exact storm that produced that tornado in the hattiesburg area. here it is. if i can ask the director, please feel free to take this full. you're going to see in the center of the screen is hattiesburg. notice the circular bands. this is where the doppler radar is indicating circulation. it moves through the hattiesburg area. it doesn't tell you how long that tornado may have been on the ground. that's the data the national weather service will survey. that seam thunderstorm cell, if you follow it, i believe, is the same one that is giving us the damage we had in waynesboro and clara. again, this is a massive storm. let me show you what we have left as far as our tornado warnings are in effect. we have three. i mentioned thomasville. you're under the gun right now. you've got to seek shelter. it's mainly south of the community of thomasville. three tornado warnings in effect. we actually have four thunderstorm cells that are training. typically we'll find a massive

rain cool the atmosphere enough to stabilize it so these thunderstorms can't produce these tornadoes. that's not occurring tonight. they're continuing to hold their strength. notice the orange box that's south of the tornado. that's a severe thunderstorm. these fwoirs are both in line to move in the thomasville area. after the first thunderstorm moves through the area, you've got another one right on its heels. we're going to continue to track all of these more toward the east. the good news, we're starting to see severe thunderstorm warnings get issues instead of tornado warnings. our numbers have gone from eight to three. again, the big concern is alabama in the thomasville area and those to the east, across the border of mississippi. i think it's the same thunderstorm that's produced all of this damage. that's a large swath of damage across mississippi into alabama. >> it is, tom. we'll be keeping an eye on that. thank you for that. let's go now on the phone to

sheriff billy mcgee, who's the sheriff of forest county, which is where hattiesburg is. sheriff, can you give us an update on the situation now that you're in the process of trying to assess the damage? >> we've had 10 to 15 individuals who were transported to the hospital. none of them were serious. no fatalities at this time. we're still finding people who are trapped in their homes. hit the youth of southern mississippi campus. it hit a town in the county known as pedal, mississippi. demolished several houses in that part of the county, then it went into the rural part of the county where they had less damage. most of the damage was done inside of the city limits of

hattiesburg and university of southern mississippi campus. the lowerer pa ee eer -- lower hattiesburg. >> sheriff, we've spoken with some people in tremendously damaged areas just a couple blocks from the university who say they checked on their neighbor, things appear to be fine. you're saying 10 to 15 people to the hospital, but nothing serious, and considering that this tornado hit the university on a long weekend while a lot of students are away, that it hit the high school and it's a sunday evening, so you didn't have students there. this is pretty fortuitous that it happened at this time, isn't it? >> we've been mighty lucky. we feel we've been blessed. >> how is this going to affect things in hattiesburg tomorrow?

how lasting do you think the damage is with power lines down, trees down? >> well, it's continued to rain throughout the night. we've got prediction for rain tomorrow and tuesday. except for emergency situations, i don't look for the power companies to be doing a lot with the rain as hard as it is until it breaks. i'm sure they'll try to make some connections to residences. there's quite a few homes without power at this point. quite a few trees on houses, on cars, that type of thing. >> how many jurisdictions do you have lending a hand here? i imagine that there are ems and fire and police coming from other counties to help out.

>> i talked to our provider, and he said most of what he has dealt with thus far are the walking wounded. he has not had anybody seriously wounded. i don't know if he's asked for help at this point. he's the only one i've talked to. the fire departments i've seen so far have been local fire departments with hattiesburg. the county right next to us was also hit, lamar county. >> and we will be trying to get a sense of what the damage is there as well. sheriff billy mcgee, as you put it, your community, they're blessed by i think the timing of this. we'll keep our fingers crossed right now as we can report so far that there are no fatalities. we obviously hope that continues to be the case. we're going to get a short break in. we'll be right back. there is no mass-produced human. every signature is unique, and every fingerprint unrepeatable.

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holy [ bleep ]. >> we are monitoring severe weather in the south. dangerous weather heading for southwestern alabama, or actually it's been sort of moving out of the area. we're definitely keeping our eye on alabama right now. this is the tornado that hit hattiesburg, mississippi. from what we've seen, the damage is extensive there, particularly on the campus of the university of southern mississippi. the good news is that the campus was actually deserted this weekend for a mardi gras holiday. heavy damage as well at oak grove high school where brett favre is the offensive coordinator for the football team there. he comes from a community nearby. so far, we've heard from the local sheriff, 10 to 15 people

injured but minor injuries. they've gone to the hospital. no reports of fatalitiefataliti. meteorologist chad myers here with details. chad, you're keeping your eye on alabama. >> i think it's still early to figure out that hattiesburg is really okay. this was a very large tornado. you could see that tornado on the ground for a very long time. we watched it on the radar for a long time as well. just rotating right through that west hattiesburg area and right along that oak grove road. it wasn't turning to the north. it was almost sliding directly from west to east across the city, just hoping it would finally get north of hattiesburg as it tried to make its way. finally a slight left turn as it made its way just north of west hattiesburg and missing the real populated area there of hattiesburg, mississippi, itself. but obviously, you know, southern miss really hit pretty hard there. i just couldn't believe it when i heard -- i think it was a pastor on the air. he told us live on the air that there were not very many people on cambe