nbc's wendy joins us from there. it's good to talk to you again. what are you hearing from folks in these ongoing efforts to rescue as many people as possible? >> yasmin, good afternoon to you. good to speak to you again. it's incredible, the outpouring of help and support that you are hearing, and seeing people come out in the downtown area. wherever you look there seems to be destruction, and everywhere you turn there seems to be a story, and people sometimes think we are exaggerating that thing, but i'm not kidding you, you can walk one block and find a store yeah then walk another block and find somebody who has drove here, and we just spoke to somebody who drove from nashville that happened upon a law firm that was decimated by the storm, and started moving

things and cutting out wires, and it was incredible. you ask them why they are doing it? the community needed help. then we have another wife and husband, and that was his law firm completely destroyed in the storm and all they were trying to do today was to find any missing documents, any files or pictures. this was the town law firm. they are lucky they did have a vault, but they were trying to find anything that could be salvaged. two doors down, still downtown, right? a 70-year-old man, who rode out the storm and survived but his house destroyed as well. you can see the 2 x 4s, and the poster bed, and what he was worried was his two beloved cats, missy and ginger. >> we are finding a few pictures

and personal items. we were very fortunate in that they did have a vault built when they built the building, so hard copies under there, everything very important. >> it's heart wrenching, and it's happened before and it will happen again. at 70 i have to start over again. >> reporter: now another perspective, right? just behind me, about half a mile down this road is the candle factory that is flattened in this storm from friday, and there are still people pouring over all of that rubble trying to locate survivors. we know there were 110 people busy at work trying to fulfill christmas orders. you can see the satellite video. the before and after from that factory. we have confirmed -- nbc news has confirmed eight fatalities, 36 people still missing, two

rescued yesterday afternoon and are still in the hospital. again, there have been countless numbers of jurisdictions of emergency responders poring over that debris. yesterday, the kentucky governor said the only way will find a survivor, somebody else alive in this place, is a miracle. the coroner along with family and along with people who have grown up here and along with the entire nation, we are praying and hoping that that indeed occurs here. that's the latest from downtown mayfield, kentucky. yasmin, back to you. >> it looks like if you look at that before and after photo -- let's bring that up, guys, so folks can see the candle factory. it looks as if it has been put through a shredder from where it was before to where it is now.

it seems like most of the community is basically on the same path as them. as if most of the community has been put through that shredder, and so many lives lost. i am curious, in speaking with the 70-year-old man who said this has happened before and it's going to happen again, how did he ride it out? what was his experience? >> he said he was in the doorway, the inner most part of the house. it's not a large house, but he stood in the doorway hoping that was the most area that he could be shielded. he said he heard the storm coming, and he heard the winds, ducked, prayed and hoped for the best. you know what he said? he said it's hard to believe at 70 years old i am going to have to rebuild, but he's going to do it. >> where are folks like him staying now that their homes are

completely decimated and flattened? >> reporter: most of the people we have spoken to have a friend or family members in the area. again, a small town, everybody knows everybody, if you don't know that person, somebody you know does, and they are coming together and acting like a family and community, the way human beings should be, and 25 miles north as far as paducah, kentucky, they have power and hotels and running water. shelter is not that far away, and that's a good thing for these people. the forecast is for chilly temperatures in the next few days, so you don't want to ride out the storm -- i shouldn't say storm, you don't want to find yourself without shelter or sitting in your car because it is very cold here overnight. >> yeah, and then you think

about all of those thousands of people where their homes are intact but without electricity, without heat right now in many of the homes and when that will actually get turned back on is -- go ahead. >> reporter: sorry. sorry. it's not just the power, though. all of these power lines -- there's one right there, and it happens to be standing, and what i find very interesting, they have no water here either. no sewage. the town water tower, done. we're not just dealing without power, we're dealing without water, and that's going to be quite sometime before they can supply a community of 10,000 people again. >> just devastating. wendy, thank you for reporting from mayfield, kentucky. from there, i want to go about 100 miles from mayfield where we find the county judge executive

where 12 people have been confirmed now deceased. thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. i know you are probably pretty busy considering what you are dealing with in the aftermath of this incredible storm that we have seen in your area. how are folks dealing with the loss of life and having to eventually pick up and rebuild? >> well, thank you for having us on your program today. our community, like many other communities across the state have rallied together, we have a lot of support, first responders, health care professionals, i should say, have all done a great job, trying to make things run as smoothly as possible. our community was a small community, a population of about 31,000 in our county, and the community that was probably hit the hardest by the tornado, and

the outlying areas here just out of our communities like mill port that was hit and devastated. we have a total of 12 deaths in our county today, and some of them were my friends, and it's a small community, and that's the case here, but the community has rallied together and worked hard to get things moving in the right direction as much as possible. >> who were they, curtis? tell me about your friends you lost? >> the names have not been released yet because some kin may not have been notified, for example, one of the people that was killed, he and i had gone to eat not too terribly long ago, we had gone out for dinner and just spent sometime talking and he has been a friend of mine for a number of years, and then suddenly and unexpectedly he's gone. i know some of the other folks that lost their lives in this

tornado -- because of this tornado as well. we have millions of dollars of property damage. the tornado that came through, as i understand it, was the same that hit mayfield and then came over austin springs, and then there was a swath that appeared to be a mile wide. it was very unforgiving. i am 58 years old. i have been in public service for the past 11 years, and in my life i have never seen a catastrophic event that you could compare to this in our community. >> how was your experience? where were you? >> i was at home and i live on the other end of the county, and i have a son and daughter-in-law and two grandchildren that live here, and once i found out the tornado was headed here, i was

concerned, not only as a father or father-in-law or grandfather, but as a public servant who has constituents in this area. as soon as the tornado went through, my dispatcher contacted me and told me we had multiple people trapped in our homes, and i went to the community that was about 30 minutes from my residence. when i got here, there were law enforcement entities and first responders all on scene working together, and more importantly i saw people stand in the pouring rain and walking down the streets in the pouring rain, just trying to assist their neighbors. there was a great outpouring of love and support, and we have continued to have that. we have had a lot of items donated and monies donated, and we are appreciative that we live in the kind of community where people care about each other,

and there's a lot of empathy and concern, but a lot of heartbreak also. >> are you getting the help you need from the federal agencies? >> we are. the governor called me yesterday morning and told me that we would get whatever assistance we needed from him and from the state. they have been very good to help us. we also received -- i received a call from our state representatives, and then we had congress, senator mitch mcconnell's office, senator rand paul's office reached out to me offering assistance. as we move forward we will probably be reaching out to those folks to get all of the help that we can get because we will need it here. the national guard came on site this morning, and i think that was about 10:00. they have been doing some point control and helping us to provide some security in our community. we have not had much of a problem with looting at all,

thankfully, but we have the national guard here to help with that point control and even with cleanup. we are fortunate and grateful. >> curtis mcgee, i am thankful that your family is okay, and your daughter and son-in-law and grandkids, your entire family that may have been affected, i am thankful they are doing okay, but i am sorry for the loss of your friend and the loss in your community as a whole and i know you need the thoughts and prayers of this entire country. we wanted to remind you we are awaiting a news conference, and we want to have that live when it starts. we want to turn to other news as well. from washington, as we await the january 6th report from mark

meadows, he defied the subpoenas and is suing investigators in an attempt to withhold critical information under the guise of executive privilege. bring us up-to-date on what we can expect from this report? >> we expect the contempt report to come out any minute now, and that's because they have to give mark meadows 24 hours before that vote to hold him in contempt, and i am checking my phone to make sure we do not miss it during this hit. it will include some of the back and forth they have had to deal with with mark meadows, and they have been going at this for him for months now. he was in the first wave of a dozen or so subpoenas of high profile individuals back at the -- in october, i should say.

that's going to be there. they will include documents and e-mails they were able to get from mark meadows before he said this week that he was not cooperating anymore, and bennie thompson, the chairman of the committee actually brought to life in a letter telling mark meadows lawyer that the committee will move to hold their client in contempt of congress, and that former vice president mike pence and president trump had to eject the certification process. we can also expect the committee to move forward with this vote tomorrow night. the house, by the way, already saying they may take a full vote as early as tuesday. >> so let's talk about some of the defenses that mark meadows and his attorneys have been leveling, one of which we

expected which was executive privilege. it was also leveraged by steve bannon. however, mark meadows, former chief of staff doesn't hold water there the defense of executive privilege? >> it's a much closer call in this instance because meadows is working inside of the white house with all of this is going on. yasmin, here's the decision point. executive privilege is meant to be construed very broadly in order to protect the ability of a sitting president among other things to get unqualified advice from those around him. so it's typically seen in a very expansive way. the question is, does it extend as far as meadows wants to make it go. does it extend, for example, to campaigning. it doesn't do that, it's meant for the business of the presidency. does it extend in the plans of a

insurrection, and i would not think it extends that far. meadows has asserted the view that these documents are not privilege limbed and now it's difficult to say he won't testify against them because there's no reason to believe that the testimony should be under the privilege if the documents themselves aren't. >> here's the thing, joyce. i pose this question the last hour, which is how is this committee going to glean the information they need when it comes to the january 6th investigation, if each of these folks is resisting testimony, folks that were integral to that administration being so far steve bannon, mark meadows, clarke -- we could go on with the names of the folks that are refusing to testify. >> this is a problem that you always face as an investigator. it's not unique to what is going on with the committee. very often, though, the answer

is that there are other witnesses who are willing to talk to you. we know the january 6th committee, i think the last estimate is that there are over 300 witnesses. for instance, mark short is cooperating with the committee, and more importantly staffers and people that worked with these key figures, folks that overheard their conversations and saw their documents are testifying and producing materials to the committee. at some point these folks will have to face whether they want to be on the bus or under it, because the committee is clearly driving for the truth. it becomes increasingly risky to be an outlier who is not cooperating. >> thank you. we are awaiting a news conference from the kentucky governor, andy brashear on the tornadoes. he will be joined by the fema

administrator, and we will bring that to you as soon as it gets started. there's the governor now. let's take a listen. >> good afternoon, everybody. this is kentucky's most devastating tornado event in our history. we have lost far too many of our brothers and sisters. the damage is devastating. an entire blocks -- more than one block with nothing standing. to the people of america, there's no lens big enough to show you the extent of the damage here in grace county or in kentucky. nothing that was standing in the direct line of this tornado is still standing. we currently have 18 counties with damage. as of this morning we had between 36 and 50,000

kentuckians without power, and i will say that is improving. mayfield, where we are today, dawson springs, my dad's hometown, and bremnen were hit hard. bowling green sustained extensive damage. this will be the longest tornado certainly in u.s. history from the point where it touched down to where it finally picked back up. over 220 miles, 200 of them are in our state and our people have suffered from it. it was joined by at least three other tornadoes here in kentucky, and i believe now maybe many more have been living this real time. while i was at the state's emergency operation center receiving reports in real time, western kentucky and its people

were at ground zero. 40 hours in, here's where i think we are. first, we're grateful. we are grateful to our first responders who were there all through the evening out in the storm itself showing incredible heroism. they are still at work. we are grateful for all the help that we received from other cities and other states. help from the federal government that has come in so many different forms. we are grateful for the outpouring of love. it's the best way i can describe it, from all over the country, and from all walks of life. i want to thank everybody for standing with the people of kentucky. we feel it. in fact, one of our biggest challenges right now is organizing the amount of people that want to help, want to donate and want to voluntary. you know what? that's the best challenge that any of us could ask for. we declared our state of emergency in advance of midnight

before the storm hit. that's the state state of emergency. we have now been granted the immediate federal state of emergency, and we are grateful to homeland security and fema and president biden himself. the national guard has been deployed. we have over 300 guardsmen that are active. they are out in our communities. they are doing everything from going door to door, and many in of the communities they don't have doors anymore, they go to rubble to rubble searching for survivors, and otherwise to have certainty for families that we can advise them of their loss, and they are doing debris removal and law capacity where needed. our transportation cabinet has been out hundreds of kentucky

workers, and every large truck we can find. let me tell you, today in mayfield, we even started moving debris out. when you think 40 hours in, that's a testimony to the people and the workers here and also the workers at that cabinet. division of forestry is assisting with tree removal. we have asked and received assistance from all over the state, and from the federal government including help in search and rescue from federal teams as well as other state teams, and for supplies, especially drinking water and generators, we are now working on getting enough water for the hospitals here to operate on a daily basis until service is restored. we launched the team western kentucky relief fund, wky relief fund. 18,031 donations, over $2.3

million, every penny of which will come to help our families here. expenses and grants we are rolling out are going to be for funeral assistance. the first thing we have to do is grieve together and we will do that before we rebuild together. today we can also announce that our state parks are open, to help families that have lost their homes, and we're taking them in, we're trying to guarantee everybody a two-week stay so they are not worried about tomorrow, but they can worry about finding their relatives and making sure their kids have enough to eat. we have opened lake barkley and that's in this region, barron river and rough river which can help the people of bowling green, and autobahn which can help the folks in mulenburg county. we have 104 adults and two kids at penny rile, and dawson

springs, that's a town that is half leveled. it's open to first responders and volunteers as well. let me thank all of them, every single one for what they are doing. they have helped us clear roads and ultimately even knocked on doors where they stand to check on people. we want to thank the rest of the country for your attention, help and for your prayers. we have needed them and we are still hoping as we move forward for miracles, to find more people and to have a lower death count than what we expect. i wish i understood why we have gotten hit with the pandemic, a historic ice storm, flooding and now the worst tornado in our history all in a span of 19 months. what i do know is that in kentucky we are good people. we care about one another. that's why people are out in the storm helping their neighbors or

people they don't know. that's why other counties, you can look on peoples' shirts, they were here and here immediately trying to help. that's why we opened 13 shelters but only have six open anymore because we take each other into our homes. we will grieve together, and we will dig out and clean up together, and we will rebuild and move forward together. we will get through this. we will get through this together, because that's what we do. we are blessed today to have both, the secretary for u.s. department of homeland security, and the head administrator for federal emergency management agency known as fema with us, less than 40 hours after this event began. federal government has been there every step of the way, even helping us to know what we can ask for and saying yes. i want to thank all of them.

that starts with the president that called me three times yesterday alone. i believe we will hear from congressman comber here in a minute, and i heard from senator mcconnell, and we are very pleased with the response. we want you to keep it up, and we want to thank you southeast much. first we will hear from secretary of the u.s. department for homeland security. mr. secretary, we can't thank you enough for being here for our people. >> thank you very much, governor. fema administrator, dean kriswell and i and our teams visited the candle site today, and we had the opportunity to thank some of those members. i saw on site a backpack that was left behind and a pair of

shoes. it represents the tragedy that this tornado has wreaked on this area of kentucky. we learned of a telephone that was recovered, a cell phone that recorded 27 missed messages. we have lost fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and others, but as the governor so powerfully stated, we will get through this, we will grieve together but we will also recover together. and that is why we in the federal government are here today. i want to make it perfectly clear that we are here physically today, but we will be here tomorrow and the days, weeks and months ahead, until the recovery is complete. i want to express our tremendous

thanks and admiration of the governor for his leadership of the people of kentucky. in a time like this, it's a time to come together and that is, indeed, what we have done, federal, state and local personnel of all walks in response to the needs of the people. we also visited a fire station and saw first responders who, themselves, are survivors of the disaster, and placed their own needs behind and continue to respond to the needs of others. i want to pay special thanks to the first responders and to all of those here in this area who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the well-being of others. we met with the mayor of

mayfield and heard her expression of resolve and commitment to the recovery. one of the things we learned over the years about disasters is the need to lean forward and move personnel and resources very early, and that's indeed what we have done. fema has deployed its incident management assistance teams to kentucky to help lead the federal effort on the ground. damage assessment teams, search and rescue experts and additional staff are standing at the ready to support the rescue operations. fema is helping deliver food, water, shelter, power and all necessary aid to local communities. upon receiving the requests yesterday from the governor, president biden approved an emergency declaration for kentucky giving this

commonwealth and its local emergency responders needed resources for this response including direct federal assistance from dhs, from the department of homeland security, fema and the rest of the federal family. as the president told the country yesterday, whatever is needed here in kentucky and across any community affected by this tragic event, the federal government will do everything we can, everything in our power to help. now, let me turn it over to fema administrator, dean kreuz well. just to all of the people of kentucky, my heart goes out to each and every one of you that has experienced tragic events from these tornadoes.

you have had an outpouring of support from these other communities, but i want you to know your nation is praying for you and for all the tragedy you have indoored. going out there not going maybe what their families were going through or their homes and making sure that they are taking care of their communities. our first responders across the nation are amazing to me at how they are so available to go out and put themselves in harms way to make sure others are safe. so from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much. and the neighbors, we have heard incredible stories of neighbors helping neighbors, and you are also first responders and thank you for the effort you have put in to make sure your neighbors are safe. we did have an opportunity today

to be able to visit a couple areas that have been impacted. we were able to tour graves county and marshall county as well as visit the candle factory, and as you heard the governor say, me, myself and the rest of the nation we have been watching this and seeing the pictures of this, but standing there, standing in these communities, you don't get that feeling from a picture. when you stand in one direction and look and see all of the devastation, and then just turn to your right and all of the devastation around you, you can't understand how this has impacted these communities until you are there, which is why it's so important to be here and see it for myself so we can make sure that we are providing the right level of assistance to help with your response and your ongoing recovery. we had the opportunity just a few moments ago to hear from the county executives where the governor brought them together to hear the impacts they are having and some of their short falls.

you have heard before that housing will be a tremendous need as we continue to go forward. power, water, fuel, all of these things to help the community start their rebuilding process. because housing, we know, is going to be such a tremendous need, we are sending in one of our housing experts that will be here tomorrow to begin the strategy of how we will be able to help with the long-term housing needs and the recovery of these communities. part of that is we also did receive a request from the governor just moments ago, too, for a major disaster declaration. as you heard the president approved an emergency declaration yesterday that allowed us to move resources and start with the initial response efforts, but the emergency declaration will help individuals. you can find the type of assistance that will be available once the declaration is available. it's also going to allow us to help with the long-term repair of all of the critical infrastructure that has been damaged by this storm.

again, go to disasterassistance.gov. you will find out what more information will be available. also, the communication is bad and we will send in the disaster survivor assistance teams, so if you see somebody walking around with a fema shirt or jacket on and you have a question, pull them aside. they can help you register for assistance if you need to. they should be on the ground starting tomorrow, and going into those communities that have been the most impacted. just to close, fema is just one part of the team. this disaster declaration will allow us to bring our entire fema family together, and that will be through the duration of the recovery, and governor you have my commitment that you will

get everything you need to help you face this long recovery effort. thank you. >> i want to thank the secretary and the administrator. this is the fastest emergency declaration that i have ever heard of. they had resources on the way even before it was processed. it's everything that we could request. it also reminded me of our police chief here. he's doing a great job in mayfield, having to survey his own officers today to see whose homes were standing and who needed help? can you imagine that, working two straight days helping people when your home is not even standing. that's what we got people doing. i also said earlier, we want to thank at&t that got to two communities, their cell towers back up and they were having

trouble communicating, and the second one just came up online. next i want to introduce our director of kentucky emergency management, mr. dawson. >> thank you, governor. so just a few brief comments. first of all, again, our hearts go out to you and to the families of those who have been lost. a tragic event that will rank among one of kentucky's worst disasters. thank you to secretary may oerbgious. seeing who is present only hours after the event is priceless. thank you so much. our regional administrator, we probably speak most often once a week. she's the administrator.

raise your hand. she's the administrator for eight states. she has been nothing more than exceptional in processing this disaster. as was indicated, assistance was on the way before we had the first declaration. i just received an e-mail not two minutes ago that advised that our expedited application will be signed by the governor and then be forwarded and i hope to have news that the governor can share shortly after that. thank you for the quick response. some of the things that we have on the ground now, we have talked about. we have the federal use team, the major search and rescue team. we requested several more to assist in other areas of our impacted counties, and that's in the works. the overhead team that manages

the disaster with us, they are already in the eoc working. we have an assistance organization, and comments about the long-term housing, thank you, because that's what is going to be primary in this disaster. that team will be here and integrate with our staff and we will draft a man to move forward bringing new housing into construction, and setting expectations -- folks, this does not happen overnight but the process is starting immediately. john, are you here? john is my counterpart in the fema process. john is our federal coordinating officer. he was here for the ice storm and for the flooding event three weeks after that, so he's no stranger to what we need here in kentucky and we will working this disaster with us, too. i will end by telling a short story on our tour today, we met with a lady by the name of jenna adams who is a council person

for the mayor, and she was so significant in speaking about what kentuckians do with other kentuckians. she went home and had to deal with her wash in the washing machine that was going to ruin because the power was out, and she was dealing with the aftermath of some recovery issues, and she talked about what neighbors are doing -- we saw it for ourselves as we have all done in the past two days, so i want to end with thanking you, thank you for your efforts. thank you for kentuckians being kentuckians and doing what we do. thank you. >> i also want to thank kentucky's federal delegation. every single member of that delegation has pushed hard successfully for the steps that we need. they have been supportive even when we have been out of communication sometimes. we have the congressman from this very region, and i know he

has been right here with all of our people, and that's congressman james comber. >> i want to thank the governor for his quick response. his response with emergency management, with the national guard and state police, i want to thank secretary and the fema director for coming here immediately. this is going to be an effort that will take local, state and federal cooperation. we are going to have it. we pledged that. we had a meeting prior to this press conference with the local and elected officials in the county's most adversely affected in west kentucky. we already spoke about the immediate needs of power and water restoration, getting utilities back and communications back. i think everybody is going to be working together. this is not going to happen overnight. this is going to be a very long process, but in speaking with every local resident in this community and the other communities adversely affected,

they all will quickly say we are going to rebuild and come back. that's what you have here in this part of kentucky, in west kentucky, people that have a sense of community pride. they want to rebuild. we're going to be there cooperating on the state, federal and, of course, the local levels. thank you. >> thank you. >> next up we have the national guard, which has been so critical these last 18, 19 months in so many different ways. we call on them to do so much. most recently they were helping to staff our overrun hospitals at a time when we desperately needed help. every community they are in, the morale picks up and we know they are there and we are going to make it. here's the general to give us an update. >> thank you, sir. currently the kentucky national guard has slightly over 300 soldiers and airmen on duty.

they are operating in the state, and we are searching search and rescue, rap clearance and providing air support and airlifts. we continue to anticipate the needs and we continue to process requests from the kentucky operations center. as always we are always proud to serve to serve the commune wealth and the kentuckians. >> finally, we have a very special person. the first person i gave a hug to when i got on scene. mayor here in mayfield is kathy onan, and i got to talk to her when we were standing outside the candle factory. these are all our people, but these are all neighbors of hers that she serves every day.

mayor, we are with you and we love you. >> thank you so much, governor. as the mayor of this tightly knit small western kentucky town, one of the greatest sights i have is the first responders run to disasters. 40 hours after the greatest disaster to ever hit kentucky and especially my hometown, i know because they are here standing behind me that my state government and my federal government are running toward that disaster with us. they came to us. i didn't call them, they called me. that shows me how miraculous of a situation exists in the commonwealth and within our

federal government. when the sun rose over western kentucky in mayfield, the morning after this horrid disaster, i walked out of the fire station of our city government complex, our city hall was destroyed, our fire station was destroyed. i don't think there's a payne of glass in any vehicle or building that is not shattered. i walked across the street to where there was so much rubble, and i said of the city, it looked like match sticks. i did cry, and i have tried not to cry a lot but i did cry, i had to have a moment. i looked across and in the rubble of that bank i saw the flag of the united states that had just recently flown at that fire station. so i walked across the street and i moved bricks aside and i

took that flag and standing just over to the right of me were two of our first responders. i went to them and handed it to them and immediately those two men began to fold it with the most respect. they had been up all night, they were tired and they were dirty, and they began to fold it as gently and as beautifully as i have ever seen. i have had that flag with me in my position and it's safely at my home, and it will always hold a place of respect on that city government complex, however it may look in the future, and it will be there, but i know that in the future we will raise another flag which represents everything that has happened here, all the efforts of everyone, and i look forward to that day when we raise that flag of hope and security over that fire station once again. i want to thank the media, also.

you guys probably don't hear that very much. i want to thank you because you are telling our story. i guess every mayor feels the same way, but we are special here, we are tightly knit, as i said at the beginning, and we may squabble and disagree, but this is what we do, we come together and we work to build. thank you so much for building with us. >> i'll take some questions? we'll open it up to questions. just let us know who your question is for. >> reporter: can you tell us about anybody that has been pulled out of the candle factory alive since the first press conference? >> we are still getting information in from the candle factory. the owner has been in contact and believes he has different

information and we are trying to verify it. if so -- if so it may be a better situation and the miracle we were hoping for. but since 3:30 yesterday, we have not made another live rescue. >> reporter: governor, can you give us hard numbers, anything, the number of people in the factory that are missing and the number of people rescued? >> the numbers we had we were talking about yesterday are still the numbers that we have. again, the company right now says it has different information, and until we can verify it, we are still where we were yesterday. >> reporter: can you tell us what that was? >> there were 110 or so people within the facility. originally there were 40 rescues, and then they are still trying to make contact with different individuals to determine exactly how bad it is. i am praying that maybe original estimates of those we lost were wrong, and if so it's going to

be -- it's going to be pretty wonderful. but it's way too early. >> reporter: the estimate in terms of size of the number of homes and businesses -- >> we will have over 1,000 homes that are just gone. gone. that assessment will take sometime, but i don't think we will have seen damage at this scale ever. yeah? >> reporter: i just talked to some folks that can't get their medicine because their homes are in a pile of rubble. what should i tell them? >> grace county responders -- >> we are setting up at the grace county fair grounds. fedex -- >> so we're dropping water at the fair grounds here. we were having all of the packages delivered there from different groups. michael? >> governor, there's a mobile

pharmacy on the way to assist. >> and there's a mobile pharmacy on the way to assist. >> reporter: one more question. >> sure. >> as you look ahead to rebuilding, and i know right now you are still just trying to save lives and assess everything, but when you look to rebuild in a way to make sure there are more safety structures in place in the event more tornadoes -- >> every time we rebuild we want to be more resilient. we don't want to see this ever happen again, and with that, when it's all said and done, we may evaluate the power of this tornado. i think it's hard to build a structure that can ultimately hold up to it. whether these structures have been brick or wood or steel, some of these even metal buildings, they are gone. when this tornado hit, it didn't take a roof off, which is what we have seen in the past, but it exploded the whole house. people, animals, the rest, just

gone. yes, we need to rebuild and be more resilient. yes, there were a lot of warnings, but this thing is so powerful that i don't think -- i don't think there's any blame. we are just people together trying to move forward. >> is the latest figure you have for the number of people that were killed in this disaster and the number of people injured. >> we don't have a firm number of injuries. we know that a hospital here, i believe, saw at least 80 people in the first eight hours. bowling green's hospital significant, too. again, on the death count, we know that we're going to have at least four counties in double digits. i think the best that we can hope for would be the 50. but i think it's going to be significantly worse than that. remember, we're still finding bodies. we've got cadaver dogs in towns

that they shouldn't have to be in. >> earlier you guys talked about this a little bit, but ballpark, how many people might be without a home? >> thousands. thousands of people without homes. we don't have an exact number of houses because right now we're trying to count people and that's where we have our main focus. >> how many confirmed deaths are there at this point? >> let me get the number. i get the reports in on what we've seen but they're not confirmed until the person is fully identified and the family is notified. do we -- you have the confirmed number, michael? >> we do not. as is the normal progress, the kentucky health department certifies that. >> best case scenario, best case scenario we're at 50 that we thought we had earlier. i'm not optimistic for the best case scenario, but i'm certainly going to hope for it. i know we're over ten in warren

county. we're over ten and growing in hopkins county. we have significant loss here. we're over ten in muehlenberg in a town 100 and something people. i think we're at 3 to 5 in caldwell and so those numbers are going to continue to grow as we're able to go house to house and home to home. >> governor, you and i -- to see this get the attention the state has gotten on a global scale from this. what do you hope people think about seeing kentucky in the news and the resiliency of -- >> first, we're grateful for the outpouring of support, of attention, of prayers from this country and from the world. it's all we could ask for, and it's just pure love. one country united worried about us. what i hope they see is that we also love one another. we are good people that care

about one another. we open our homes. we open our businesses. as people get power on, they're reaching out to everybody else to invite them in. the number of emergency responders or just volunteers. my dad is from dawson springs, not far from madisonville. the number of volunteers when i was there yesterday is truly special. so i hope they see a state that cares about one another. it's willing to grieve with one another, too, but is strong enough to rebuild. >> governor, do you have any idea, when some of the families of the factory workers will be get something answers? we've talked to dozens who say they turned over -- >> the families are notified after an individual is fully identified or others. i think as we see --

>> a lot there from a lot of different folks. i want to bring you up to date on what we're hearing and how we can drill down and help out that community, obviously. drill down on what they need most. we heard from the governor andy beshear there followed by secretary mayorkas. the fema administrator. we also heard from congressman james comer. the national guard, talking about the 300 soldiers and airmen on the ground assisting throughout the state of kentucky. we also heard from the mayor of mayfield. it's her community that was the hardest hit walking around the community knowing the folks, the lives that have been lost. many of the reporters there trying to drill down on the

number of fatalities that we're seeing throughout the state of kentucky. seems as if the governor doesn't have an exact number especially at that candle facility in which it seems like there were a lot of lives lost. still trying to account for some people that are missing. so we're going to try to get those numbers up for you. but best case scenario, the governor telling us in the state of kentucky, 50 lives lost but he believes it's going to be a heck of a lot more. i believe we have sound from the governor back now. let's take a listen in. >> -- staging grounds. it's a special place that is just as important in the midst of this. i know in these communities without power, obviously we won't have school tomorrow and that work -- word is going to be getting out, mayor? >> i just had one thing. sorry to interrupt you. to answer the previous question. if families are still seeking information about loved ones

they are missing, they can go to -- ministries. >> his house ministries in mayfield for those people trying to find. it's going to take time to get the school systems back up and functional and in some areas it's going to happen faster than others. 18 counties. we've got some primarily intact but need power, need phone service and will want to be back in schools quickly as we can get that. for others, like here and like dawson, it's going to take some more time. >> you mentioned yesterday a little bit this, but can you give more insight into the employees in the candle factory when the tornado hit. were some given the option to leave? what was communicated to them about what options they had in terms of -- >> right now i'm not aware of what was communicated to the individuals in the factory. i do know, based on accounts of those who have gotten out and then also where we found people who haven't, that it appears most were sheltering in the place that they were told to shelter. we've heard some accounts or i

have of moving to that area. i hope that area was as safe as it could be but this thing got hit directly by the strongest tornado we could have possibly imagined. >> were they sheltering in the same place? >> there say portion that i believe that they are trained to go to. and we do think many people, maybe even most people, were able to get to that point. but again, this information is coming from some who made it out from what we see there. we'll learn more on that as the days go forward. our operation right now is recovery. >> governor, what's your initial reaction of being in dawson springs, two places that are special to you. >> i'm emotional after two days. this is a place that -- dawson is a place where i would go and sit on my grandparents' front

porch. about two weeks a year, one at christmas and one at the barbecue festival. they would all sing -- they'd tell me not to sing -- and that same porch i went to check on their house. and their house is still there, but one block up and left or right is just gone. just flattened. and again, for folks that can only see the image. you stand in the midst of this and everything you see, everything, right, left, forward, backwards, it's gone. and you can see for maybe even miles that you previously couldn't. and so it hurts. but i know it doesn't hurt me nearly as much as the people who live here and know whose house that is that's not there anymore. >> [ inaudible ]. >> so electricity is coming on in some places faster than others. it depends on the damage. i know marshall county is coming up a little bit faster.

here in grays county, it's a work in progress. it really depends on how many lines are down, how significantly. it appears that work is really moving. on the water side, it depends on what exactly has been damaged and what it takes to operate it. i know they believe they're able to get the pumps back going and marshall county, i think water is being restored. again, it's community by community and what it's going to take. >> can you confirm that last night into today, you said there hasn't been a rescue since saturday at 3:30. have more bodies been pulled, recovery bodies you just cannot say how many last night into today? >> i think we are still trying to get the most accurate information. we expect there to be a

significant death toll. we're checking on new information coming in from the company and hope to have a clearer picture on that. there have been multiple bodies but just the wreckage is extensive as we continue to try to get through it. >> [ inaudible ]. >> we have the national weather service here that could answer any questions. >> good afternoon. my name is christine from the warning coordination. and mr. steve eddie, our meteorologist in charge at the national weather service in paducah. for the last two days we've had several teams out surveying the damage. of course, it spans a good number of miles. a lot of ground to cover,