♪ >> announcer: this is the "cbs overnight news." >> good evening. we begin tonight with this. scores of people remain unaccounted for tonight with dwindling hope of finding them alive after tornadoes cut a swath of destruction across at least six states, the vicious centerpiece was a monstrous supercell that carved an hours' long 250-mile path from eastern arkansas to western kentucky. over 100 people are feared dead, at least 80 of them from kentucky. cbs' david begnaud is in the devastated town of mayfield.

i know that a lot of times the pictures and the video just don't do these stories any justice. david? >> reporter: good evening. the police said tonight they're getting a lot of calls like this. will you go check on my relative, see if they're okay? i'm worried about them. i haven't heard from them. land lines aren't working. cell service is spotty. we don't know for sure how many people have died and how many people are missing. because of all of that, tonight they are still doing what they're calling a search-and-rescue operation. today in mayfield, kentucky, crews with heavy machinery were powered up, clearing piles of debris in downtown. right near the center of town, we caught this 360-degree view showing what businesses looked like before the tornado and what the landscape looks like now. >> the good lord heard our prayers. he kept us alive. >> reporter: but so many others were not as fortunate. the largest loss of life could be here at the mayfield consumer products candle factory. about 110 people were on the job friday night when the tornado

obliterated the plant. 40 people were rescued, but the search for survivors continues. >> i closed my eyes and all i see is people hollering and screaming for help. so i'm not doing good at all. >> reporter: troy probst is the candle company's ceo. >> it took a direct hit and it was totally leveled. the fact that anyone survived that is a miracle to me. and i'm hoping and praying for more miracles. >> reporter: 75 miles to the northeast in dawson springs, kentucky, there is drone video that shows an eerily similar view. decimated homes an businesses. cleanup will be a long process. after more than 30 tornadoes ripped through six states from arkansas all the way up to illinois. cbs news correspondent mola lenghi is in edwardsville, illinois. >> reporter: about 45 employees were able to make it out of this amazon facility after a tornado ripped through this building topping a 40-foot-tall and 150 long wall.

in the process killing six people. at this point this is still an active scene. first responders are still searching, but at this point everyone appears to be accounted for. back here in mayfield, kentucky, candle factory worker richard padilla of puerto rico struggles just to stand. he is still in so much pain after being hit with debris. >> when i was there under the all the stuff that i was going to die. so i thought if i can survive, my life definitely will have to be better. >> reporter: three of richard's coworkers tearfully told us their story of how they were able to get out and escape with their lives. you'll hear more of that interview tomorrow on "cbs mornings." jericka? >> david begnaud, thank you for your reporting. i know the mayor said all they can ask for is prayers. just over 500 miles east in the city of bowling green is cbs' lilia luciano. lilia, i know today you met with survivors who were actually able

to return to what is left of their home. >> reporter: good evening. i've been talking to local authorities and they say this is still very much a search-and-rescue mission. and just as we're talking, i'm seeing some volunteers bring their own dogs to assist in the search-and-rescue efforts. as for survivors, there is still about 10 people missing, by the way. survivors are coming to find just pure heartbreak. imagine your life shattered to pieces after this. >> it breaks my heart knowing we have nothing. he has nothing no more. >> reporter: shane king and haley reagan returned with their 4-month-old son corbin to what's left of their bowling green home. the family left five minutes before the tornado struck, packing winds of up to 150 miles per hour. so you didn't know if it was in front or behind you? >> huh-uh. we don't even know if we were going to make to it the shelter. >> reporter: even 11 people were killed and more than 600 homes and businesses destroyed in the city. >> we've got a tornado on the ground, folks. >> reporter: for these new

parents, their lives were saved, but everything else was lost. >> i've been to afghanistan. i've been shot at. they tried to blow me up. this is the one thing that's hurt me the worst. >> reporter: the couple found their son's diapers and some essentials. >> there is my breast milk. >> reporter: along with some irreplaceable keepsakes. >> all of the stuff they gave you at the hospital when he was born. >> his footprint. >> we were able to find that. >> reporter: and shane, a marine corps veteran -- >> these are your boots? >> yeah. >> reporter: found a few small treasures of his own. >> those served me for four years. those remind me of the good times and the bad times i had. >> reporter: haley said shane was her hero for serving. now for saving their family. do you know where you're headed? >> we've already had plenty of help, and we're, you know, gracious for that. and we're hoping to get more so we can get back on our feet. >> reporter: it's been so moving to see this community come together in what feels like a

parade of volunteers bringing food, water, even containers where people can place their few keepsakes that they found. now people who survived can stay in shelters and a few other places for now, but there is still no word as for what the plan long-term for these hundreds of families that have lost their homes. jericka? >> geez. thank you, liliana. president biden returned to the white house today after spending the weekend at his delaware home. the president has said federal aid to the tornado-devastated states is on its way, and he plans to visit, but he will wait until his presence doesn't hinder relief efforts. there is a lot more news ahead on this "cbs overnight news." most americans plan to keep their holiday plans despite a covid surge because they're confident they're protected. but there is cause for concern as cbs' mark strassmann reports.

>> reporter: call it thanksgiving's covid hangover. average number of cases up 37% from last week. hospitalizations rising in at least 42 states. deaths up almost 30%. by next weekend, the cdc predicts up to another million americans could be infected with december's biggest covid worry still ahead. christmas. a cbs news poll says that over the holiday season, despite the threat from both strains, two-thirds of americans still plan to gather with friends and families. more than half will travel by car or dine in a restaurant. just one in five say they've canceled plans because of omicron. annie that suddenly feels vulnerable. the inflation rate is up almost 7% if this time last year, the highest annual increase in almost 40 years. everything is up since last year. home price, grocery, gas, which

leaves covid america comes to terms with a different kind of sticker shock. mark strassmann, cbs news, grand rapids, michigan. there is a lot more news ahead on the "cbs overnight news." clerk: hello, how can i? sore throat pain? ♪honey lemon♪ try vicks vapocool drops. in honey lemon chill. for fast-acting sore throat relief. wooo vaporize sore throat pain with vicks vapocool drops. don't settle for products that give you a sort-of white smile. try crest whitening emulsions...

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♪ >> announcer: this is the "cbs overnight news." >> i'm jericka duncan in new york. thank you so much for staying with us. with the holidays fast approaching, health officials are bracing for a new spike in covid cases linked to the quickly spreading omicron variant. early research shows the mutation to be less deadly than prior variant, but it's also more highly transmissible and less susceptible to vaccines. president biden has tightened restrictions for international travel evers, and nations around the world are attacking the pandemic in different ways, especially in asia. elizabeth palmer reports from seoul, south korea.

we suited up to individual the covid ward, which has been operating at capacity for weeks. do you know where you caught covid? like most people, he isn't sure where he picked up the virus, but he has had only one vaccination, which as we all know is not enough. one nurse in pull ppe works inside the isolation zone with the patients. others watch around the clock on video monitors. the unprecedented surge in infection has people spooked. even though more than 90% of adults in korea are fully vaccinated. >> masks. >> reporter: dr. jerome kim is director of the international vaccine institute. >> we're seeing now very high rates of vaccination not only in

east asia, but southeast asia as well. and all of these things bode well in the long-term. >> reporter: still, long lines form outside public testing stations. everyone always wears a mask. and the government has reimposed quarantine for travelers. but nothing like china, which has taken the hardest line. it's virtually impossible for foreigners to get in. while the government, as it did recently in inner mongolia, sticks to its zero covid policy. armers of workers lock down whole neighborhoods to catch every single case. thailand has taken the opposite approach. its airports, even with omicron on the march, are still busy. travelers arrive into bangkok, once the world's most visited city, have to be tested and screened these days, but they are still welcome as they come

with desperately tourist dollars. it's becoming clear that booster shots will be key in managing an omicron outbreak. so asian governments are now pivoting to that, but it's a tall order with so many people. for example, here in south korea, only 10% of those who need booster shots have had them. elizabeth palmer, seoul. nasa will soon be one step closer to getting a deeper look into the mysteries of the universe. a giant telescope is set to be launched into space next wedn wednesday. david pogue explains why it's so important. >> the hubbell space telescope, our window on the universe. >> reporter: in 1990, nasa launched the hubbell space telescope. it had faced years of delays and cost overruns, but it proved the existence of black holes, calculated the age of the universe, and delivered

astonishing views of deep space. but now nasa has something 100 times more powerful, capable of sees stars so distant, their light has been traveling for nearly 14 billion years, since just after the big bang. it's the biggest most ambitious space observatory ever built, the james webb space telescope. >> it's got seven times the collecting area a mirror, which collects more right to see things that are either dimmer or further away. >> reporter: scott willoughby is the webb's program manager. he works for northrop grumman which nasa hired to do most of the design and construction. the webb will see a different kind of light than the hubbell did. the light from very distant, very old stars is infrared light. >> so we're designing an eye. like night vision goggles for the sky where we're going to find infrared out in the

universe. >> reporter: so this is the telescope? >> yeah, a teeny one. >> reporter: not actual size. >> reporter: the main mirror is made up of 18 hexagons. >> every one of these mirrors has a motor so we can move them in and out and we can adjust them. so in the end, they all look like one mirror segment to the universe. >> reporter: was it made golden for looks? >> it was not. that's a great question. for webb, gold reflects in infrared. the light goes from here to here to here, it goes in there and bounces off other mirrors and all treatments can see that light. >> reporter: now infrared is a form of heat. so any warmth from the sun on the earth would blind this telescope to distant starlight. the telescope can work only if it's super cold, like space itself. which we have to block out any shred of that sun by deploying a big sun shield. >> reporter: it has fire layers of material like mylar, each one the thickness of a human hair. >> reporter: so all of this is

to separate the thing into a cold side from the hot side. >> correct. that cold side, minus 400 the hot side about 200 degrees fahrenheit. sunlight will never touch these mirrors as they get on orbit. >> reporter: there is another way to keep a telescope cold too. >> we send it four times further away than the moon. we're one million miles away, and with that we can kept our optics colder. >> reporter: but you haven't even heard the hardest part. this telescope is three stories tall and as wide as a tennis court, too big to fit in any existing rocket. nasa's solution? fold it up like origami. >> this folds along here and here. those threefold back and those fold. like ears. this one, and this is actually stowed up and over. >> reporter: i have to say this is the part that worries me as a layperson. i mean, how complex is this

unfo unfolding process? >> it's good to be worried. they have single point failures. there is only one of them. webb has over 300. >> reporter: 300 things that have to go? >> correct. >> reporter: oohif even one of m fails, the webb becomes space junk. a million miles away is too far to send a repair mission. >> you test to greater extremes. if you have to be this cold and warm, we test like this. i it is going to be shaken like this, we shake like this. >> reporter: all that additional tests explains the telescope's 14 years of delays and its $9.7 billion price tag. >> every time we learned something, we had to repeat a series of tests. but all of that is because we have to learn on the ground. >> reporter: at this point, day ways from launch, how confident

are you? >> confidence is built to me out of did we do everything that we could possibly have done. i can confidently say we did everything that we needed to do. we took every piece of it, and we did the best we absolutely could. >> reporter: if all goes well, then by the summer of 2022, this machine will get down to its work, science. >> going to rewrite the textbooks. i think the science that's going to come out of this is mind-blowing. >> reporter: nasa's stephanie milam is one of the telescope's science officers. >> we're going see the first stars and galaxies and understand how the evolution of our universe actually started. we're going to be able to study the atmospheres of planets around other stars that we never had access to. >> reporter: most exciting of all, milam expects the web telescope to discover things we never even thought to look for, as the hubbell has done many times. >> there are going to be things we aren't prepared for, and

we'll have to figure out how to use the telescope in different ways and plan for the unexpected. >> reporter: after the scheduled launch on december 22 and, scott willoughby will have to wait 29 days to find out if the unfolding worked, and five months more for the telescope to calibrate and cool down so in the end it will take a half a year before you'll be reporting on some image that humans have never seen in our lives. >> reporter: and is that the point where you can finally sleep at night? >> yeah. i'll feel a lot better then. facing expensive vitamin c creams with dull results? olay brightens it up with new olay vitamin c. gives you two times brighter skin. hydrates better than the 100, 200, even $400 cream.

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culture by storm in the 60s. together with mickey, davy jones and peter torque, the monkees were a made for television band after they put this ad in variety, seeking four insane boys. nesmith was playing at the troubador in l.a. when a friend came in. >> i saw this ad in variety. i think you should go try out for it. so i did. >> reporter: as he told me in a 2016 interview for cbs sunday morning, he went to the audition in the same cap he'd wear for the show. nesmith was already a songwriter. his tune, different drum, would be linda ronstadt's breakout hit with the stone ponies. ♪ different drum ♪ >> reporter: with the monkees, nesmith would fight for control with the producer. >> you could hire any four guys. but you didn't. any four guys could do what you're doing. no, they couldn't have.

we brought the force of our character to it. >> reporter: the monkees first four al went to number one. >> it's like you guys aren't real. well, define your terms. ♪ >> reporter: you were a fake band that became a real band that wasn't really real? >> well, see, now you're off in the weeds with me. because i don't know the answer to that question, and mick doesn't know. and if peter says he does, he is lying. >> reporter: the series ended after just two seasons, and nesmith went on to form the first national band, a pioneering country rock group. he'd later experiment with some of the first music videos and produce the cult classic film "repo man." reruns meanwhile would keep introducing the monkees to new audiences. davy jones and peter torque died over the past decade.

this year nesmith joined a farewell tour, and less than a month ago played his final show with mickey dolans, now the monkees' last surviving member. >> t t was

finally this half hour, it's just about time to dig out that old santa costume. for some people, turning into st. nick comes naturally. and for others, there is always santa school. yes, santa school. ian lee got to sit in on a class in london. >> reporter: apparently old st. nick wasn't born to be santa. first he had to go to school. >> santa tim, can we have a ho ho ho? >> reporter: ho ho ho! >> reporter: class is in session where they learn the do's and just as important, the don't's. >> a bad santa says who are you? what's your name? where do you live? how old are you?

what do you want for christmas? >> reporter: if you want an authentic santa chuckle, here is a pro tip. >> tuck your thumbs in here and push your belly out and go ho ho ho! >> reporter: it's also important to remember who you're working with. the santa gig can pay more than a thousand dollars a day in the uk, but like in the u.s., kriss kringles are in short supply. >> of course, the world has changed since last year, and we would be foolish to ignore those changes. >> reporter: covid put the kibosh on seeing santa last year. so many made virtual visits to the north pole. but now he's coming to town. >> the belt is rather good. >> reporter: but how will santa stay safe and not deliver covid along with any presents? >> all our reindeers are jabbed. they're all very, very happy to do it. >> reporter: plus, the big guy visits at night when everyone is asleep.

so he can spread the magic of christmas while keeping his distance. ian lee, cbs news, london. >> that's the "overnight news" for this monday. reporting from the cbs broadcast center in new york city. i'm jericka duncan. this is cbs news flash. i'm elise preston in new york. president biden declared a major federal disaster in kentucky after several tornadoes ripped through the state. the declaration allows for federal funding to assist in the state's recovery. tornadoes touched down in a handful of other states. more than 100 people are feared dead. pfizer booster shots could offer significant protection agthe omicron variant. israeli researchers say a third recent dose boosted immunity 0f. and a new miss universe is india's harnaaz sandhu. she becomes the 70th woman to wear the miss universe crown, beating out nearly 80

contestants from around the world. miss usa, elle smith, placed in the top ten. for more news, download the cbs news app on your cell phone or connected tv. i'm elise preston, cbs news, new york. ." it's monday, december 13th, 2021. this is the "cbs morning news." >> this is kentucky's most devastating tornado event in our history. >> it looks like a war. i mean, it just looks like bombs went off. >> lost everything. >> historic tornado outbreak. the death toll continues to rise after rare december twisters invade the south and midwest. in hard-hit kentucky, hope after the governor said casualties may not be as bad as originally expected. we're on the ground in mayfield, kentucky.

well, good morning, and good