we want to begin with jim cantore. he's in tuscaloosa, alabama. jim, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the winds with this powerful tornado probably in excess of 200 miles an hour, were enough to not only knock down the tree, but peel the bark off it behind me, the these winds have left thousands of people homeless tonight. this is the moment one of the massive tornadoes ripped through tuscaloosa. student chris england could hardly catch his breath as the funnel approached. just one of many that touched down in states across the south overnight. buildings flattened, cars tossed around like toys, entire communities gone. at least 195 lives lost in alabama, 36 in tuscaloosa alone. >> we have neighborhoods that have basically been removed from the map. we have businesses that will no longer be able to engage in commerce. >> reporter: those who rode out the storm like college student justin johnson, realize they're lucky to be alive. >> i went outside, opened the door, and just start crying. that's the only thing you could do. >> reporter

jim cantore in arkadelphia, arkansas. jim, we hope you and your team stay as safe as possible as we go on into the night covering all of this. >>> now we turn to news from overseas, to the rapidly deteriorating crisis in syria, with the bloody government crackdown on protesters escalating there. the u.s. state department is telling american citizens now to leave the country. others are wondering how long the u.s. can stay out of the fray. our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell, reports tonight on what may be another no-win situation for america. >> reporter: human rights groups say hundreds of protesters have been killed in the last few days. some gunned down in the streets. and today more than 2,000 security police reportedly fanned out across a damascus suburb. but this is what syrian government tv showed tonight. a funeral, it claimed of 15 soldiers killed by demonstrators. in daraa the situation is desperate, says al jazeera's rula amin, one of the few reporters in syria. >> anyone who dares to get on

and tuscaloosa, alabama, is where the weather channel's jim cantore begins our coverage tonight. jim? >> reporter: good evening, lester. so much destruction across much of alabama, scenes like this where trees have been uprooted by the wind, just pushed over, sitting on top of this house right here. amazing, one tree down, another left standing. but you don't have to look too far to see tarps on rooftops and power poles just snapped in half. this same storm system has just shifted to the east and north tonight, continues to cause tornadic destruction. >> that's a tornado, man. >> reporter: as a huge tornado swept through raleigh, north carolina, the storm was captured by an amateur photographer. the destructive winds damaged homes and businesses and destroyed a lowe's store in nearby sanford. the tornado was so massive that it sent debris falling miles from where it struck. at least 150 tornadoes have been reported in the last three days, and counting. by far the biggest outbreak this spring. in sandy springs, georgia, the cleanup began from severe winds that battered the town ove

jim cantore with us from tuscaloosa, alabama. a state still in the thick of it. jim, what is it about this system? such. compact energy. a single cell surviving hundreds of miles still very, very strong? >> that same storm that eric showed us in his package in clinton, mississippi, is the same storm that affected news tuscaloosa in the last hour and within five miles of the campus of university of alabama we've had structural damage and damage to homes. those are the situations that set up for that. this has been an amazing day. a fifth of the year's tornado so far have occurred in this day alone and we're not done. we saw the long night ahead of us including 45,000 people at talladega speedway in tents and no way to get away. a dangerous situation and a long night ahead of us. >> we'll keep an eye on it. jim, thanks, as always. >>> to politics now in washington. prescribe's re-election campaign got under way last night with three separate fundraisers in his hometown of chicago during one of those events, a microphone he assumed was off was, instead, left on and

back to you. >> jim cantore.bill karins is here now with a look at where the storm is heading next now. >> oklahoma, arkansas, alabama, missssissippi, tell the people the carolinas to take this storm seriously. tornado watches. conditions are favorable in this rly morning hours for tornadoes. heading up to the charlotte area. north florida in the day today. later this afternoon, the threat. this looks to be a good threat. the area in red, a strong risk of tornadoes and severe weather from norfolk, virginia beach, wilmington, myrtle beach, keep an eye to the skies to make sure you have plans in case a tornado heads your way. >>> let's get over to melissa francis at the newsdesk with the latest on our top stories. good morning. >> good morning, everyone. we begin in washington where the house passed republican paul ryan's 2012 budget plan on friday. the plan cuts $6 trillion from the deficit over the next decade partly by raising the eligibility age of medicare recipients. it's expected, though, to fail in the sena

our friend, weather channel meteorologist jim cantore, who has been here covering this, has been kind enough to join us. you and i were talking earlier. is it fair to say, at the center of this storm, at the center of hurricanes like katrina, it's the most energy mother nature can produce on the planet? >> i think it is. when you look at the biggest tornadoes out there, the ef-4s and ef-5s, winds upwards of 200 miles an hour, which we feel this is, we're talking rare kinds of numbers. that makes up .4% of all the tornadoes. we have about 1,300 a year. >> you get stopped everywhere you go every day on the subject of weather, and i sometimes do, and wherever you go, whenever you hear people talking, you know what i'm going to say, "it didn't used to be like this. what's going on? what are we doing to cause this?" it seems newly virulent and violent all across the country. >> when you go back, you look for evidence of something. sometimes the most obvious things don't hit you until they're right there in front of your face. if we have a warmer earth, and the purpose of the jetstream is t

that is where we find the weather channel's jim cantore. jim, i was looking at your report earlier. there's a lot of snow coming down. what's it look like right now? >> reporter: yeah, richard, we kind of got a little leftover snow now. so it's taking a bit of a break. we're kind of making this a monthly occurrence. we did this in december, january, you and i, february, march, and now april. as long as we don't do it in may, that's a pretty good thing. you've got to love the strong april sun. look at this. here's a car obviously which is dark, so it's going to absorb the radiation. we haven't brushed off this snow. just kind of did it on its own because of the melting. here's a silver car, and the snow is sticking on this car. both cars have been here since early this morning. one of the great things about this time of year is cool temperatures for new england. this is, believe it or not, maple syrup somebody brought down to me. you can see how nice and thick it is. they've had a great run with the sap, and it takes about 40 gallons of that sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. now

jim cantore's live for us in concord, new hampshire. jim, come on, man. >> it's april. >> dude -- you know what's really bad? when it happens in may, okay? just saying. from new england. >> just saying. >> that's the april fool's joke. trust me. beautiful shot though. looks like a postcard around here. >> sure. >> here lies the problem, it's a heavy, wet snow. it's got a ton of water in it. that means it's going to cause trees and powerlines to come down. talk about high water content snow, oh, yeah. that's a lot of water. the good news is that the snow hasn't come down that intense, so the roads are going pretty good. even though it's april and it's snowing out, that sun is strong enough to be absorbed, if you will, by the darker surface features. this is the scientist in me. as a result, it's helping to melt the snow. so the fact it's not coming down that intensely or the fact we've got this april sun, which is getting strong now, that's helping to keep the roads clear. 30,000 without power. >> one serious meteorological question r for

the weather channel's jim cantore is up in concorde, new hampshire. it's coming down, jim. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. yes, do you believe it? a quarter of the year is over and we're back into winter. what makes this so hard is we've already tasted those 70-degree days but it is an absolutely beautiful sight, the capital of new hampshire here in concord. the trees are all flocked. there lies the problem because of the fact that you've got a very heavy, wet snow as would typically be the case, about 32 degrees with this snow coming down, so that weight is going to mean power outages as we go on in time. you can kind of bend over here, grab some of the snow and you can see the kind of water content that we have in this. there's a lot of water in through here and occasionally it just makes its way on out of that snow. that's not the case there but believe me there is a lot of water and weight to this snow sticking to everything. we're expecting as much as a foot across the mountains. the storm will become a windy one, too, and once the wind kicks in the weight of

jim cantore is in tuscaloosa with the details. a continues to be in a certain much and rescue operation. probably will be all day. they are actually believe there are still survival -- survivors in some of the rubble. not to mention that they have a lot of clean-up to do around here as you can imagine with a half-mile wide path of absolute devastation. this youtube video captures the massive tornado as it ripped through tuscaloosa, ground zero from wednesday's massive and deadly tornado outbreak that raged through the south. more than a dozen lives lost in this city alone. and the mayor says that number is expected to go higher. >> stephanie and i along with our city council offer our sincere condolences to the families of those who have lost lives. >> reporter: at the university of alabama here, chris england could hardly catch his breath as he videotaped the massive tornado ripping through his town. >> reporter: just the size and how massive it was was just, you know, unbelievable. >> reporter: the entire state of alabama was hit

. >> daughter of jim cantore of the weather channel. >> yes. >> carl? >> thanks, al.ome women sharing too much information about their pregnancies after this. [ male announcer ] in the event of a collision, the smartest thing you could do is cut the fuel supply... ♪ ...unlock the doors, and turn on the hazard lights. or better yet, get a car that automatically does it for you. ♪ ♪ it was a tough game out there today. i thought i was going to be it forever, but then it was dig deep time, and i brought it... and i struck like a cobra. that was a good tag. [ male announcer ] kids take play seriously. nourish it. quaker chewy -- the goodness of whole grains, no high fructose corn syrup and 25% less sugar than the leading sweet snacks. ♪ ♪ oh, do it ♪ oh, do it [ female announcer ] coffee is like life. it's better when you add your flavor. coffee-mate, from nestle. [ female announcer ] new aveeno living color hair care. the first active naturals formulas with lupine botanicals help protect color from fading for up to 40 washes. now color stays vibrant... everyday. [ female

offered by representative marsha blackmon and jim jordan, we have added $20 billion to get us to the $100 billion which we were originally promised. congressman cantor, along with 90 other house republicans voted against it. what's it going to take to get the message to these folks? while we are encouraged by leader cantor's recent new position on continuing resolution, we remain concerned with one of his earlier comments, and i quote, don't expect us to balance the budget if i time in the next decade, unquote. [crowd booing] >> we need to see a clear vision for how to save our country and give us a reason to make 2012 another monumental election year. we don't need our leaders to continue playing politics at the margin and destroying the enthusiasm of the electorate. the fact is the country is about to go belly up. all washington has to offer is the status quo. very soon the national debt will become so large, it can't be refinanced, let alone ever be repaid. when this happens, the nation will default, the dollar will collapse, financial system as we know it will be in meltdown. simply just unbelievable. we are risking an economic collapse, and all

offered by representative marsha blackmon and jim jordan, we have added $20 billion to get us to the $100 billion which we were originally promised. congressman cantor, along with 90 other house republicans voted against it. what's it going to take to get the message to these folks? while we are encouraged by leader cantor's recent new position on continuing resolution, we remain concerned with one of his earlier comments, and i quote, don't expect us to balance the budget if i time in the next decade, unquote. [crowd booing] >> we need to see a clear vision for how to save our country and give us a reason to make 2012 another monumental election year. we don't need our leaders to continue playing politics at the margin and destroying the enthusiasm of the electorate. the fact is the country is about to go belly up. all washington has to offer is the status quo. very soon the national debt will become so large, it can't be refinanced, let alone ever be repaid. when this happens, the nation will default, the dollar will collapse, financial system as we know it will be in meltdown. simply just unbelievable. we are risking an economic collapse, and all

offered by representative marsha blackmon and jim jordan, we have added $20 billion to get us to the $100 billion which we were originally promised. congressman cantor along with 90 other house republicans voted against it. what's it going to take to get the message to these folks? while we are encouraged by leader cantor's recent new position on continuing resolution, we remain concerned with one of his earlier comments, and i quote, don't expect us to balance the budget if i time in the next decade, unquote. [crowd booing] >> we need to see a clear vision for how to save our country and give us a reason to make 2012 another monumental election year. we don't need our eaders to continue playing politics at the margin and destroying the enthusiasm of the electorate. the fact is thcountry is about to go belly up. all washiton has to offer is the status quo. very soon the national debt will become so large, it can't be refinanced, let alone ever be repaid. when this happens, the nation will default, the dollar will collapse, financial system as we know it will be in meltdown. simply just unbelievable. we are risking an economic collapse, and all we ge