and not nato. >> lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, thank you for joining us. he's the author of "right matters," former security director for eastern europe and a fellow at the johns hopkins school of advanced international studies. all right. we'll bring you another update on the devastation in kentucky and other states after severe tornadoes. another hour of "velshi" begins right now. >> it's saturday, december 1st -- december 11th, i'm sorry. i'm ali velshi. a devastating series of tornados and tornadic thunderstorms touched down overnight in at least five states in the midwest, arkansas, missouri, kentucky and tennessee, 32 tornadoes are believed to have touched down and people dead in kentucky alone and the figure might be closer to 100.

andy beshear is holding a news conference at 11:00 a.m. eastern and four tornadoes hit his state including one that stayed on the ground for 200 miles. scores of structures have been destroyed and a mass casualty event were declared in a ken tucky candle fact reeb. this drone vid why shows the total devastation in that plant in the town of mayfield has been, quote, devastated. the following audio came from inside that building and we should warn you, it's upsetting. [ screaming ] >> okay. i don't know who's watching -- we got hit by a hurricane. i'm at work in mayfield, and we are trapped. please, you all, get us some help. we are at the candle factory in mayfield. please. please. in arkansas, one person is dead

and five seriously injured after an apparent tornado hit a nursing home. early reports say at least two people have died and multiple people were injured at an amazon distribution center in edwardsville, illinois, after a 100-foot portion of of a wall collapsed. joining me is storm chaser michael gordon who was on the ground in kentucky. i was listening to you earlier this morning before the sun came up. you were worried about the sun coming up because you'd see the devastation you believed to be the case and after talking to a state trooper an hour ago, it's really bad. >> yeah. it's -- now that -- i mean, i can kind of give you a little head's up view of what it looks like behind me. >> wow. what part of this did you see, michael? >> this?

i was not here for the tornado as it went through. i was down in car uthersville, missouri and then i drove up through here. >> i mean, you've covered a lot of ground and so did the storm. one of these 32 storms touched down and there might be more and it was on the ground for more than 200 miles and bill karins our meteorologist was telling us these thing his a great deal of power in them, but people who don't experience tornadoes don't understand is how much more power they tend to pack than a comparable hurricane. >> yeah. no, i've been in multiple hurricanes, multiple tornados and this one -- this damage is surpasses all of the storms that i've been in. it's hard to see just on the ground, but i was just flying my drone and you will see a lot of other drone footage out there,

but it goes from the candle factory through mayfield right through the center of town and levels everything until it gets right to about center of mayfield and then some of the destruction weakened and then again it strengthened after that and kept on its path, but yes, everything here is sad to see families. i just went by a family -- actually, it was back over behind me here. they were -- you know, he's coming back to one of his businesses -- well, he said that he started as a young boy and it's all gone. so it's -- the damage is -- heart wrenching.

>> it's true, even the shot that you're in right now it's amazing to see the damage around you. i was speaking to a state trooper who said there are active rescues under way. mayfield doesn't have power or most of mayfield doesn't have power right now, but there are active rescues under way and there are people who continue to be trapped and have called in for rescues and they're hoping to see more rescue than recovery today. >> yeah. i was just -- i just came from -- i'm trying to get away from the wind, but yes, i just came from the candle factory and yes, there were multiple rescues under way. now that the light is -- people can see, i think the rescues will go a lot smoother. as you can see, i've got my hat on. i think temperatures have dropped. i think -- i haven't looked, but i think they're pushing below 50 and then with this windchill it's starting to get pretty

chilly out here. >> what have you seen since you got there in terms of the arrival of ems and rescue? we know that the governor has declared the equivalent of a state of emergency. we know that we are expecting very shortly about federal help coming in. they do have the resources. i do know that fidukah has a center, and by the way, you're right. the temperature is starting to -- it's starting to cool down there so not having power is going to be a problem. >> yeah, no, i was just thinking that when i grabbed my hat and grabbed my gloves. going back to the ems, that was one of the first things i noticed when i pulled into here last night was probably about 30 minutes after the tornado hit

was the -- it was ems in every direction. it was lake they almost have it under control. yes, they didn't have it, you know what i'm saying? but they were acting -- i guess, it was very professional and the helpers and the volunteers. i mean, everything -- i was, like, i was very surprised. >> right. >> compared to some of the other events that i've been in. >> right. >> it was very -- it seemed very organized to me. >> by the way, your observation about the weather is pretty clear. it has dropped more than 12 degrees in the last hour. you are now in the 50-degree range, but the interesting thing is it is not going to warm up with the rest of the day and with each hour it will get colder during the rest of the day and we will end up at

freezing tonight. this is a major problem as stephanie was saying earlier. at least we don't have a blizzard or a storm, and it is late for tornadoes in the region and it will be all ofly cold and with that damage you're witnessing around you and a piece of the highway is blocked off because of the line across it which means we're not talking about power the next day. no. definitely not. >> i can look around and, yeah, it's going to take some -- i'll bet you it takes a few weeks. i just -- -- i can just, there's nothing, no holes are left and it's like they just snapped them up. >> yeah. >> the other thing down here now the temperature's dropping, but the wind's blowing 15, 20 miles

an hour, too, so you have that windchill. >> it's another difference with hurricanes, the degree to which pulls and large, structural things look like they've gone through a shredder in the tornado and it's not like they've fallen over and lift them up and put the lines back. a tornado literally shreds things and you've shown us a little picture of it and your aerial photos and other pictures that you've seen of that factory. it's not things that collapsed and it's torn apart. the description of what vehicles look like and houses look like after a powerful tornado, it's very different after a hurricane. they look like they've been put through compactors and shshg redders. >> yeah. it's crazy, and i went through homes early, early this morning and it's not just a hurricane

that blows the wall in. it throws old trees through metal and sticking in. it just takes it and like you said shreds it. a hurricane is sustained wind. >> blows around. >> yeah. and the, like, when i was talking about the power lines and stuff, yes, it's a pole whereas during a hurricane most of the poles just tip over. >> we are glad you are documenting it because it will help us understand in the future better prepare for them. dealing with tornadoes is an evolving science. michael gordon is on the spot. he is a storm chaser. he's in mayfield, kentucky, where as you see there's extensive damage and there are many people who have lost their lives and the search and rescue continues. i want to go to msnbc

correspondent, stephanie stanton. what have you got? >> i am struck by that storm chaser and the emotion in his voice. this is someone that does this professionally and you saw him struggling how to find words and how to think and how to feel, and that is so telling. that really puts it into perspective and looking at all of the pictures, too, that are coming in and all of the video. you really can't put it into words. it is complete and utter deaf station in some cases and what these people, what these survivors of this tornado will be, and for the next days, weeks, months, it will be extremely difficult and challenging. we're seeing some come now and when you see the tornadoes poos through and maybe you see one house that wasn't damaged that much and then you see houses

reduced rubble, so you will have to have communities who will have it rely on one another. maybe they'll have christmas press enters and that is the least of their worries, of course, but these are just the little things that you think about and when it all adds up it is just so devastating and that is why the red cross is mobilizing and they're asking for done eggs and they are sending crews to the region as they often do during these disasters. the cdc is offering many tips on their website for folks on how to deal with what comes next, the aftermath. there are so many hazards that they'll have to deal with, safe food, water, shelter and even power lines and staying away from power lines and making sure they don't deal with gas lines and there are those hazards and potential fires and there are so many different things affecting that region right now and it is heartbreaking to stand back and

watch it especially growing up in the midwest, ali. i've dealt with tornadoes. fortunately, i haven't had to live through one that created damage like, that but as a kid, we had to run down to the basement many times. this is just so heartbreaking and i know we have crewses did, and we are looking forward to them getting on the ground and bringing us the latest from there. >> it is an important note that people that live in when we think of tornado alley or places where tornadoes happen and thought what to do, not everybody lives in a situation where they have a room you can go to in your own home. sometimes they're central to a community, village or town that are known as a shelter and sometimes you can't get there fast enough. in some cases you see houses destroyed and there's no place to seek shelter when a tornado of this power comes along.

>> exactly. not everyone had a basement to run to. that is absolutely correct. people, they know what to do and they go to the interior of the homes when they can if they don't have basements and it is always a wild card and you never really know and one thing you're talking about to, say the debris that is piled up and the people that did go to the basement and are they sitting in a tiny safehouse under a mountain of debris? how long will rescuers get to them and how long will that take? >> there are all of these nuances that people don't realize and it really is extremely challenging. these people are in for a very difficult time ahead, ali. >> a very difficult time. it is cold as we spoke to our storm chaser michael gordon about. it's dropping. the temperature is dropping. during of the course of the day you expect as the sun light comes up, it will get hotter and it will drop 12 degrees in mayfield and it will get colder and down to freezing tonight. you've said it from places that

you've experienced these tornadoes, the power outages are not fixable and they're not like a hurricane where they go away and you get these cherry picker trucks and they're up in a few days. the poles are gone. they're destroyed and they're not fallen where they can put them back up and put those lines back up. they're gone. so the idea that it is cold, that it is december is pretty serious. stephanie, thank you. i want to go back to bill karins. it is december. this is an unusual time for tornadoes like this to be hitting. >> extremely rare, and in this portion of the country where we have kentucky, it just doesn't happen and occasionally yes, we can get them in the north florida panhandle and maybe louisiana, alabama, mississippi, possibly arkansas, but this is one of the strongest, late year

tornado outbreaks we've ever seen and it could likely go down as one of the top ten deadliest tornado outbreaks we've ever seen in this country. i'm watching these pictures and we're desperately trying to get these videos cleared, ali. even while i'm talking, ali. go on my twitter account and look at what we will follow. he had a drone and we're just in the works and getting that all done. i don't know if this town of mayfield is going to be the same. it went through the downtown area and it's not just the factory. just a quick glance i'd say a quarter of the town, people won't be able to liver in the structures they were living in before, not to mention all of the people in town that probably worked at the factory that doesn't even exist anymore and their jobs don't exist anymore. greensberg, kansas comes to

mind. it was a town that was wiped out from an ef-5 tornado, population was roughly a thousand people or so and the town was gone and they rebuilt it green and there are stories about that seeing these pictures from this town of mayfield, kentucky, it just makes you wonder how they're going to rebuild and how they're going to survive. sometimes we talk about this like mexico, florida when michael made landfall as a category 5 hurricane there and we were just saying how does this town ever rebuild? will the town exist after this? this is the type of narrative we're going to have out of mayfield. i haven't heard anything yet about the high school or the elementary schools, but from the pictures i've seen, it will be tough to live in this town for a while. >> the relocation of a lot of people -- >> yeah. again, you know, tornadoes sometimes hit less populated

areas. this is 30 miles from paducah, about 20 miles from paducah, about 30 minutes where they have two medical certains and two hours from nashville. so it's not close to a bunch of stuff. we talked to a state trooper who got -- i'm trying to get a confirmation on whether that's happened and i suspect with this multi-state incident the emergency declarations will be on the way and fema will be put into place through the course of today if they haven't deployed already, but these images, these images that we've got on the screen i want you to help with us this because, bill, 90% of the stuff we do together and 95% of it is hurricanes. we're looking at cars that look like they've been crushed and it was one of those lots where they compact cars.

that's what a tornado does and although you have some stuff, you have some stuff, but those pictures tell you, what does take to cross the car? >> it is maybe an ef-2. when you look at video and you don't know what you're looking at we are talking about the enhanced fujita scale. that's a scale that tells us how strong tornadoes are. i'm watching this video with you and some things are more obvious than others and i can't tell you if this was a car dealership or a workplace that had vehicles parked that just got tossed. every which way, there are different directions and cars that are upright and cars underneath cars, it's amazing. >> and then, ali, we're a national newscast and question than people in washington, d.c., and people in fema are watching this, and there need to be fema

trailers that are getting on trucks that are getting shipped to this area. this is a town of 10,000 people. so even if a quarter of the town people can't live there anymore, we're talking, we need housing for two to 3,000 pem. they need to be securing for the holidays for people and fema trailers, it will get cold very quickly and we'll be talking about snow and ice in this portion of the country and it makes cleanup so much more difficult and in hurricane season it's still warm after the hurricane goes through so people that don't have power it's not quite as bad. you don't have power, you don't have gas and a way to heat your house that's a whole different ball game. we'll have to relocate thous of people and we need to save lives and that's what first responders have been hit haft night is that the picture needs to come and support the lives of these

people. >> before i checked because he told me it's gotten very cold and very windy and cold and i looked it up and it was a 12-degree drop in the last couple of hours and it's just going to get colder all day and into the night and he was talking about the power infrastructure which you and i talk about after storms. it's not easy after a hurricane because there is a lot of devastation and power lines down. in mayfield, the polls are ripped out and the infrastructure to get power to people is not there. it's not a couple of day, vent before people get their power back in december. >> i covered on this last and i was finishing up these photographics and one of the questions i always get is how much notice did the people have and that's the job of the national weather service. there are local national weather service offices that cover where you live. the paducah office covers this area. they issued a tornado warning.

the tornado warning for mayfield went up at 9:05 p.m. we upon the town was hit about 9:30. they had a 25 minutes' notice to where the storm will come through and that's a tornado emergency. it means you the possibility to be hit pie a tornado. them they issued they minutes before they hit a tornado emergency. what happened was a chaser saw this light, and saw this wedge on the ground and they say listen, it's about to go through the town and they can escalate it to another level and they call it a tornado emergency. you are already under the warning. the emergency means you are about to have a life-threatening event hit you guaranteed. there's no maybe it hits.

>> wow. >> that was only three minutes before it went through mayfield. you know, regardless they still had 25 minutes that a tornado was possible. at three minutes before it hit they knew it would devastate their town and that's the difference between a tornado emergency. some people have been asking what's going to happen and are we still under a threat today? we do have a tornado watch and strong storms between birmingham and huntsville, but ali, nothing like what happened overnight. we that's where we have the devastation and as you mentioned there's not a lot of huge cities and not a lot of huge media. >> and the damage area. >> yes. >> we are seeing bits of vid why coming in from different places including arkansas. we spoke to a reporter outside of st. louis in southern illinois and we just happen to be in a place where we have a lot of video of it in mayfield.

i'll stick close to you as i always do in times like this. meteorologist bill karins. i want to bring in key ana parsons perez. she was stuck in the candle company. we have been looking at images of that factory and we spoke to a state trooper who are still conducting questions. where were you and what happened? >> well, we were towards the back in case someone marched there and they took attendance and we were right there waiting andal are all of a sudden i could hear revel belling if be, and everybody started moving in and as they moved in then we kind of all spread out from the

middle and they were, like, get down! get down, and at some point the lights went out and we did a rock back and forth thing and then -- boom. >> wow. >> it collapsed on us. >> what happened to you when it collapsed? what happened? the roof came down? did it hit people around you? what was the situation. >> oh, we were completely trapped underneath there. we were completely -- where i was at it was kind of like an angle -- let's see, okay, like an angle and i was kind of back here and there was a lot of people out in this way, but we were all pinned up against each other and where i was my legs were like i put my feet together not saying indian style and it was a very awkward position and in the middle of me i was pinned down by a water fountain, and so as people were traying to get us out and i'm, like, can you all get this off of me can you all get this off of me.

he said kiana there's an air conditioner right there, we can't move it. >> how did you get out? how did those things trapping people and trapping you get pretold me to cover my eyes and cover my face and i had had on a hoodie and we started bear agree breaking and pulling up the debris ask kind of digging ourselves up from the bottom. >> what was is the me, and we were all packed together, but once they start to fed one out then the orths move, and people can also help us to get out. >> i don't know whether you're running on a dren line rid now or what, if i'd have the energy

last night, that sounded an emergency. >> god's mercy. i didn't think i was going to make it because of where i was and i was so afraid that -- so when the search and rescue people came they had gotten everybody out. i was one of the last people in that particular area, and so i was just so afraid. they're not going to get me out. i'm going to die on my birthday. what is that? and so -- the guy, i think either gary or nate. those are the two names they remember and they said we'll get you out of there kiana. if you can get this air conditioner to move and i can move my leg i can stay under here for hours and i'll be okay because my legs, i couldn't feel my legs. >> oh, my god. >> he said kiana there's about five feet worth of debris on top of you. >> how are your legs now?

how are you feeling now? >> my legs are sore. i will be going to the doctor. i have some bruises from the air-conditioning unit and at some point something hit me on my head whenny we first went down i got hit in the head so my head hurts, so i am going to go to the e.r. and the doctor and urgent care just to make sure that there's nothing. i just wanted to get home because my clothes were soaking wet, and them the water was still raping, but once i start opening up and there was a whole lot of -- they were worried about me, dreeing and stressed. ? and when your home and your family didn't get hit. >> no. i live in paducah, kentucky, maybe 45 minutes from mayfield and paducah was fine, but mayfield, if you look

mayfield -- pray for mayfield. >> that's what the trooper told me. let me ask you something because you mentioned paducah. it's a major center and it's got good health care and on the ohio river due north of mayfield. is it common that people liver in paducah or the outskirts of paducah and work in mayfield? i know mayfield's got some factories. >> very common. mayfield has pilgrim's which is a chicken factory, they have the camera factory, and i think a couple of other factories. >> i'm not from illinois, my granddad was back here, and we have transportation and busses and vans that take people back and forth to work, so yeah. >> kiana, i am so sorry for what you went through, but i'm glad you and i talked. there do appear to be rescues rnd way, do you know if that's

the case if there are people in the factory? >> i believe there are. i can't see there isn't and people lost consciousness and they did send out an email for everyone that worked there to check in to help with the attendance because even the people that took attendance, where are the attendance sheets at because everything collapsed. >> is attendance a normal thing or was that a tornado protocol. >> no they check attendance every night. >> got it, so that was happening anyway. what are the protocols and have you ever been at work when they said there was a tornado coming and we have to do something. >> listen, i've only been working at the candle factory for a little over a month and i took this job because i graduated my college with my bachelor's this year and i've been having a hard time finding

employment and everybody knows the candle factory hires almost on the spot and it was supposed to be a little something to get me through christmas and through the new year and make sure my kids were taken care of and caught up with bills and things like that, so i haven't experienced anything like this before and this job or any other job that i've worked. it was the most frightening thing i've ever experienced. i tried to stay calm. for the most part i stayed calm, but i lost it there for a while and i couldn't feel lie legs and the sense of hopelessness, and especially because they started pulling people out, and they were thinner and i'm not thin, let's just say that and i was worried that they wouldn't be able to finagle my body to get me out, but i am so grateful that gary and nate and they had an amazing group of people there that were helping us and once i got out. i told you i was under five feet of debris so i had to climb up

that five feet and we were walking across beams and all types of stuff because that was the only way we could get out. so i had to walk across all type of things to get out, and i'm grateful. i turned 40 today and this will probably be the most memorable birthday ever and i am grateful that this is the gift that keeps on giving and i'm very grateful. >> they say life begins at 40. that statement means something entirely different for you and you've been given another go at life on your 40th birthday. kiana, i did not expect to be spending your birthday with you or knowing you, but happy birthday. celebrate, give thanks for where you are and i'm so grateful that you and i talked. we are praying for all those people in there and anybody who is worried about losing hope because they think they won't find them, they're going to have people like you who found them and got them out and then we're going to be talking to you. >> working hard. >> you're in paducah so you can

get health care and make sure that you get checked out and everything is okay. >> thank you. >> she's a mayfield consumer products employee at the candle factory there. >> we continue to await kentucky governor andy beshear's news conference currently set for 11:00 a.m. eastern. he has asked the white house for an emergency declaration and we'll find out if that has happened. we'll be back in just a minute. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin.

want to save on your home internet? xfinity is proud to support no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. the emergency broadband benefit program. for a limited time, you may be eligible to qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service through this program. that's right! you could qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service and equipment. for even more value, switch to xfinity mobile, and you could pay as little as $15 a month for wireless. click, call, or visit a store to learn more.

we're going to stay on top of the story in kentucky and through the midwest where 32 tornadoes have known to have touched down overnight. we are staying very close to that story. we've got people on the way there to cover it including me. i'll be heading there rate after the show and we have with christmas and new year's around the corner, the u.s. is experiencing yet another spike in covid cases. 39 states and the district of columbia have seen some kind of increase in cases over the last

two weeks. the country is averaging 121,000 new cases a day. that's an increase of about 27% from the period before that. reported deaths are up 12% to an average of about 1,275 deaths a day over the last 14 days. several states including indiana, new hampshire, new york and maine have actually called in the national guard to assist at hospitals and nursing homes that are reaching the brink and all of this while the omicron variant continues to pick up steam in the united states. health officials say that almost all of the deadly cases in the u.s. are still due to the delta variant which remains the dominant strain in this country. joining me now is dr. francis collins, the outgoing director at the national assistant since the pandemic began. that sort of thing was in short supply so i'm glad to see you again, sir. thank you for being with us. i was hoping for a more

celebratory conversation with you as you leave, but this thing is persistent. it just sticks with us and at some juncture, we have to decide we'll keep going with our preventative measures. >> absolutely. anybody who thinks we can kind of shrug this one off, it's not letting us do that. this is a wiley virus and certainly what's happening right now as you just outlined with delta is on the upswing again and we have to double down on being careful about those things like wearing a mask when you are indoors with other people and if you're not vaccinated yet which is still the case for almost 60 million people and there's enough data to convince anybody that you want to do this to protect yourself and then boosters, ali. when you look at evidence that boosters do really give your immune system a chance to resist delta and also very new data from the uk almost resist

omicron. give yourself a christmas present, get that booster. >> one year ago today if you and i were tuking and we knew a vaccine was coming and it's this weekend that we got a vaccine and a free vaccine that saves your life. at some juncture, i've been talking to people who say we'll live with this virus forever and it's just going to be with us, but there is no reason for that to be the case. this is now becoming a choice. >> absolutely. with science has been just amazingly responsive to the worst pandemic in more than a century and yet somehow, we haven't figured out how to take full advantage of that. we could be in a much better place right now if we had 90% or 95% of the population vaccinated and people getting the booster and somehow we missed that opportunity and delta is taking full advantage of that and people who were buying every day and unvaccinated and unnecessary

deaths and i'm thinking somehow we'll wake up to this and maybe this is the time as we see the cold weather coming and we see the threat of omicron, there's no more reason to be on the fence. >> but in your position in the national institutes of health, it's not something that you've really had to deal with in the past. the idea that in record time got a life-saving vaccine, you and i would have thought there's been some hesitance, because ultimately does this now become a role for your organization to figure this stufr out. hey, we have two problems and we have to build a vehicles which is an amazing scientific accomplishment and we have to overcome the mono sense about people who don't want to take it. >> i think it would blufrn the effectiveness of the science that we will put in record time forward, but i don't know if it will take it all by ourselves

and my heart goes out to those people who have been misled and many of whom are getting stuff from social media and not knowing what to think of it. in pack, everybody who actually knows the facts, make yourself an ambassador. go and talk to those who haven't yet taken advantage of vaccines or boosters. explain to them, there are good answers to this. go to the website called we can do this. it's going to answer questions that you are still wondering about if you're on the fence, but i don't think nih alone or cdc alone can do this. this distrust in the government and the distrust of science and we have to figure out another way to make decisions based on facts and evidence and not rumors and conspiracies. >> i'm with you on that. the fda issued emergency use authorization for astrazeneca's covid antibody treatment. long-term prevention of immunocompromised americans. this is a big issue. there are immunocompromised

people and if you're not think -- if you can think about anybody else when deciding to take this vaccine there are immunocompromised people who you are compromising further if you're not vaccinated and tell me about this astrazeneca is, and it's a big idea for those friends who area chemotherapy for treatmentor leukemia, those folks have tried to get an immune response and it doesn't work for them, the monoclonals last about six months and should provide some protection against getting infected, but what you said a minute ago it's right. it is only your decision whether you get vaccinated or not. that's just not the case. if you are more vaccinated so this is a love your neighbor moment and it's been all that way all along. come on, america.

we love our neighbors. we should not be just taking care of ourselves, but all of them. >> dr. collins, thank you for joining us. my conversations with you are never going to end. they're not destined to end and we'll have many even as you're leaving the national institutes of health. thanks and being so straightforward with our audience always. >> ali, thank you. you do a great job of getting the word out there. the booster, if you haven't already the new data helps protect against omicron. i'm pretty impressed with what i saw in the last 24 hours. >> from your lips to everyone's ears. thank you, sir. joining me republican james comer of kentucky and he represents western kentucky which include henderson, hopkins, paducah. good morning. i'm sorry about the circumstances under which we have to speak, but your areas that are hit places like paducah

where the emergency response is coming from and the hospital rooms are being used because of what happened overnight. >> yeah. it's bad in western kentucky. mayfield, kentucky is probably the worst, but there are plenty ever areas that were defer stated and we are getting reports of loss of life from at least three different counties thus far and it is just amazing to see the work that the first responders have been doing all night from the middle of the night until this present time as we speak. they're continuing to pull bodies out and we're having success stories of people that have been trapped all night that are being pulled out safely is just a terrible thing to witness, but it's really amazing to see these rural communities come together and that's what's happening rate now. >> we will hear from the governor at 11:00 a.m. eastern and we understand they're getting the necessary emergency

declarations and we know fema is under way and we know the national guard was there and we spoke to a state trooper and we spoke to a woman who was in the candle factory who was rescued and i even spoke to the storm chaser and they all said the same thing and the response actually seems pretty robust. they're out there and doing stuff, but you're up against some weather and you're up against places with power outages that are dropping very quickly. >> very quickly and the weather forecast is still bad. the power is out in most of those communities. we are getting calls from elected officials that desperately are seeking help. it will be a long cleanup and we are still obviously in the recovery mode, rescue mode so fema is on the way, and they've communicated with fema and mcconnell's office and they're aware of the situation and i'm en route to west kentucky now

that lives in mayfield where most of the damage was and they've been giving me updates and it's as bad as you can imagine and it's a terrible thing. this is a big agricultural area and i'm friends with a lot of the farmers in the area and they have pretty large equipment and they started rolling out long before the sun came up this morning with tractors and bringing heavy equipment to try to help. these people roll up their sleeves and help their neighbor and that's what's going on as we speak. what kind of help will they need from the state government and the state government. fema is rolling in and i assume housing and fixing the power grid is the biggest priority right now? >> the power grid is out in most of these communities. the sewer system was completely destroyed in mayfield, kentucky. we are still getting feedback on the water treatment plant and

any damage there fema will obviously come in with assistance and help. public housing has been destroyed and prior at housing has been prepared and the communities have prepared for this and we've had a lot of volunteer fire department people in this area that are well trained and capable as any emergency management people in any city in america, and i think the committee was prepared. you never expect to see something like this happen, but we'll need a lot of temporary housing and if we had the priority it would be hard to get the power back on. >> we have a lot of viewers that live in cities in the coastal areas and aren't as familiar with tornadoes as people who live in your part of the country are, but even by that standard this one's a big one. the damage that we are looking at on our screens and the mangled cars and the twisted cars and these factories

completely taken down and houses completely destroyed and the length of time this tornado was on the ground and the size of it and the power of it, this is a serious tornado. i don't know what your experience with tornadoes have been, but this has got to be one of the worst. >> this is the worst. we've had a series in kentucky and usually one is pretty bad where you have one that touches down on several places along the path, with you i don't ever remember a time when it hit so many densely populated areas. the city of mayfield is around den,000 people. it went right through downtown mayfield, the courthouse, destroyed the courthouse and several blocks of businesses and just now getting out to the rural areas and these rural houses and many have a century old. they've been completely destroyed and just got a call from hickman county which is on

the mississippi river and a family rode the storm out in the bathtub. the first responders got them and they did everything what they were trained to do and got in the bathtub during a tornado. unfortunately, there were people that weren't as fortunate and i just got a text and they're still continuing to pull bodies out of that candle factory in mayfield, kentucky, area. it's just a horrible, horrible story, but i can tell you there's no shortage of help from the local people and the first responders, local farmers, neighbors, everybody is pulling together, trying to save every possible life. >> congressman, our thoughts are with you and i appreciate that. i'll be heading toward you right after the show so perhaps i'll see you there in mayfield and we can update on this a little bit later today and tomorrow, but we

appreciate the time you've taken and our thoughts are with you and your constituents. representative comer. they talked about the recovery efforts moving forward. listen to what he had to say. >> this happened in the dead of night. it is in dozens of counties that either one of these four tornadoes touched down and/or we had real severe weather. i've been in our emergency operation center since about 1:00 a.m. real time and hearing the family trapped in the basement and the family that collapsed with so many individuals, my dad's hometown. i know we'll have multiple casualties there and wooe still trying to get family on the phone. morning will show us a whole lot more. at least one of our towns almost totally decimated, but we're strong. we're resilient. we will grieve, but we will rebuild. >> governor, help us to understand where the bulk of these fatalities may have been.

you talked about that candle factory in mayfield, and presumably people working overnight as we get closer to the holidays and is that where you think most of these fatalities and you said possibly a hundred may have we believe, e largest site, the largest place of loss. grace county which that's in and mayfield, the city, lost people in multiple locations. this was part of a tornado that was on the ground for more than 200 straight miles in kentucky, something we've never seen. we have loss of life in more than five kentucky counties. so this thing is like something we've never seen before. certainly that candle factory was a difficult place, dawson springs, kentucky, marshall county close by, warren county, bowling green, we've lost some

individuals too. so it's going to be a hard day all day, but i know that we will wrap our arms around those families and grieve together, and then we've we'll move forward. >> governor, can you give us a sense how much warning kentuckians had that this massive tornado was coming. >> we had a warning that a tornado was coming. we were going to have strong storms, but listen, we have strong storms a lot. in kentucky we flood 52 weeks a year, but we've never seen a tornado that touches down through four states, 227 plus miles, and goes through the very middle of multiple towns. so you can be prepared, people can know and it would still be absolutely devastating. >> all right, we're going to continue with our continuing storm coverage in just a moment. first a remarkable thing happened yesterday afternoon when the supreme court released opinions on two cases involving the law that was crafted by texas republicans to ban most

abortions in that state. the conservative republican appointed chief justice of the supreme court in a dissenting opinion joined the court's three liberals, warning his conservative colleagues that they risk undermining the constitution and their own role in our government with their majority opinion, allowing that abortion to stand. the federal government had sued texas over the abortion ban, but five conservatives, including the three judges appointed by the donald trump joined together against the three liberals and chief justice john roberts to allow the texas law to stand while it continues to get litigated in the lower courts despite the fact that, as chief justice points out in his opinion, quote, the clear purpose and actual effect of the texas law has been to nullify the supreme court's rulings. he's talking about previous rulings having to do with abortion in the supreme court which have caused people to believe that the right to abortion is established law in

the united states. now, in a separate ruling on a case brought by the texas abortion providers, the court did provide a narrow path for abortion providers to challenge the law. but in the meantime, women still can't seek abortions in texas after six weeks of pregnancy, which as you know is before many women even know they're pregnant. basically vigilantes from across the country -- you don't have to be from texas. anyone who wants to can still file suit against anyone who was in any way involved in helping a woman get an abortion past that point in texas, anybody. joining me now is nancy north, president and ceo of the center for reproductive rights which is representing the lead plaintiff in the current supreme court case challenging texas's law. good morning to you. last week justice sonia sotomayor said if the supreme court acts politically, meaning contrary to what the law is, but

they act because politically they believe there should ban toned abortion, the supreme court will end up with a stench in which people think it's politicized. john roberts says this law was designed to work around established law in the supreme court, and if the supreme court goes along with that, it too will lose legitimacy. he cares if he undermine the law in this country. >> yesterday's opinion is both devastating because it has left the texas law in place. it's now been 101 days since the law has been in effect and is wreaking havoc in texas. most women can't get access to abortion because it uses this scheme to chill providers from providing care after six weeks. it's completely constitutional pre-viability after six weeks to get an abortion. and yet people in texas have either just given up trying to access abortion or they've had

to drive hundreds of miles. and there's a backup in other states where they're going. i mean, there's a six-week wait in louisiana for both people in louisiana and people coming from texas. so this supreme court decision, they absolutely abandoned their duty to protect the constitutional rights of citizens and allow this bounty-hunting law to go into effect. i want to point out they did give us an avenue against one set of defendants that the case can go forward. these are the -- these are the medical licensing, nursing licensing boards. so that's important so that the doctors don't -- nurses don't lose their licenses. but that doesn't stop these lawsuits from being filed against them under sb 8 for providing perfectly constitutionally protected abortions. it doesn't stop the chaos of these lawsuits anytime soon. >> let me ask you, what's the net effect? there are fewer people getting abortions in texas.

some people can't afford to do that. the abortion providers are now in a position where that's the information they have to get to people. they have to refer people to other states. you talked about the long waiting times to get an abortion in these other places. what's the net effect of this sb 8? is it the chill that it puts o on people who are either getting an abortion or providing one? or is it the actual logistics that stop people from getting an abortion? >> the problem is, because sb 8 says that a provider or the security guard at the clinic tore person that drove, friend, family member, uber car driver, any of those people who would help a woman get an abortion after six weeks could be subject to an unlimited number of lawsuits that could be throughout the state of texas, because you can file wherever you live in texas, and it can be from people outside the state of texas. there's a $10,000 minimum

bounty, plus you're paying the attorney's fees of the person who brought the lawsuits. i mean, it is just a financial exposure and an exposure of time and expense that the clinics have not been able to go forward and provide services. so it is this chilling effect, and it's, you know, absolutely outrageous. and the supreme court has turned its back now twice on getting that law enjoined, even though the district court in the u.s. government case had a very full opinion about why it should be blocked. so it's a travesty to the rule of law. what's important for people to know is this decision of the court -- people could do this in other areas. states could do this with other constitutional rights to nullify the supreme court's rulings on constitutional liberties. >> and one would argue because the federalist society and people who are responsible for appointing conservative justices

to the supreme court or at least putting their names forward have often said that they're institutionals. they don't like activist judges and things like that. the whole script has been turned upside down. >> it certainly has. when you have the chief justice of the united states saying that the court's integrity is on the line, making clear roe v. wade has been decided by the supreme court, and texas is just nullifying that decision, you have justice sotomayor talking about john calhoun, notoriously pushing this nullification in the 19th century around the issue of slavery. i mean, it's absolutely an upending of the rule of law. it is exactly activist judging. >> nancy, thank you for joining us. we still haven't had a discussion about the mississippi stuff.

abortion is going to be on the front boiler for a long time and things may change dramatically and it's important everyone understands that. she's the ceo for the center for reproductive rights. we're waiting for liftoff of the blue original rocket shepherd. this ten-minute suborbital mission will be amazon's third human space flight. but this one is the most crowded yet. four paying passengers and two guests, including the former nfl great michael strahan. the flight was originally scheduled for thursday, but high winds have delayed the launch. as of now it's actually still scheduled to happen. so when that blasts off -- you can see they're doing their final checks now. you can see the loading dock being pulled back, freeing up the rocket to take off. that's going to be happening very shortly. looks like we have a countdown of one minute, 43 seconds.

i think we got some audio from them. i don't actually know. we are t minus 1:23. what's happening right now in the final minute is that most checks have been done, but they do a final run-through with each of the divisions or documents. there's telemetry, weather, all the various components to getting this thing to work. they're doing final checks. this is the moment, really, up until launch time that anybody has the opportunity to say scrub this launch. but as you can see, that sky is pretty clear above it. that's one of the things they need because they got to be able to visually see the trajectory of the rocket as it goes up. these things have become a bit routine this last year. we've seen a few of these occurred. every one has occurred