ben russ well affiliate kxas. thank you very much for that report.ck in with you a little bit later. again, we are following breaking news out of the town of west texas. it's about 20 miles from waco. a small community that this evening suffered a very big tragedy. a massive fertilizer plant explosion. early estimates are that hundreds have been injured and that there are fatalities. at this time we do not have a number. we also don't know about the potential causes of this. of course, a fertilizer plant contains a number of elements that could lead to an explosion like this, but we don't have any specific information as to what led to this particular tragedy. at this time we are learning some information about the resources being provided to the state. governor rick perry says, this is a quote, "we have mobilized state resources to help local authorities. we have also learned that the obama administration has been briefed on everything that's happening and they are continuing to monitor this to see what resources may be necessary through fema." they

we have our reporter on the ground, from kxas, ben russell, watching this for us. ben, what's the latest? >> reporter: richard, i can tell you the latest is the update. i heard you speaking about a short time ago from the waco police department. that's the largest city to the south of here. the latest update as far as what they're doing. what they're doing is still going, we're told, door-to-door, in the area impacted by this, what is perhaps a five-block area around this fertilizer plant, trying to make sure they haven't missed anyone. anyone who may have survived the situation, perhaps someone who may not have survived the situation. they want to know exactly who may be out there. this is the area. we're across the highway. about a mile or so from where the situation happened. what happened recently. you see the stacks of water and toiletries. there's people from the community showing up at this early hour or late hour for those who have not gone to bed. they're bringing the supplies for first responders, for all of these untold numbers of people who likely do no

. >>> cell phone videos submitted to kxas shows the fireball, the blast ripping through the west fertilizernt in west texas. >> it was on fire prior to the explosion. it was fully engulfed when i arrived. >> firefighters were on the scene as well as ems when the explosion occurred. >> i have no idea how many ems may be hurt z a blast so strong, many thought it was an earthquake. >> massive, just like iraq, just like the murray building in oklahoma city, same kind of explosion. you can imagine what kind of damage we are looking at there. >> it rattled everything in the house. it took my breath away. >> 75 buildings including homes, a middle school and nursing home damaged or destroyed. >> there are homes leveled. there are businesses leveled. there is massive

. >>> this comes to us from kxas in dallas ft. worth where one couple overycame their darkest ever. one of the nation's full transplant patients was married in the same spot where he wasser is veerly injured in 2008. weems met jamie nash after her own nearly fatal crash in 2010. the couple say they plan to put their painful past behind them. >> so much in common. they can relate to each other. >> love it. i'm richard lui. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. >>> leading the news in "the l.a. times," charged egyptian satirist remains irreverent. >>> and in "the wall street journal," towns see banks cut back branches after years of growth, financial institutions closing thousands of outposts as more customers start to embrace online and mobile banking. >>> time for an early look as some of the stories we'll be following throughout the day here on nbc. prosecutors expected to announce their decision on whether to seek the death penalty for james holmes, the man accused in last year's colorado movie theater massacre. nbc's leeanne gregg is li

sources tell local nbc station kxas an assault rifle was used to kill the mcclellands. authorities say today security will be tightened. >> there will be v

cell phone videos submitted to kxas shows the fireball, the blast ripping through the west fertilizer plant in texas. >> the plant was on fire prior to the explosion. it was fully engulfed when i arrived. >> firefighters were on the scene as well as ems when the explosion occurred. >> i had no idea how many ems people may be hurt. >> a blast so strong many thought it was an earthquake. >> massive, just like iraq, just like the murray building in oklahoma city, same kind. hydrous exploded. so you can imagine what kind of damage we are looking at there. >> it rattled everything in the house. it took my bret away. >> reporter: 75 buildings, including homes, a middle school and nursing home damage or destroyed. >> there are homes leveled, businesses leveled, massive devastation in the downtown west area. >> we have a lot of people still trapped in houses but that's dangerous

multiple times, she was shot only once by an assault rifle, sources are telling our local station kxasthan that officials are being very careful to not speculate on a motive. obviously, local officials say this is a very brazen attack and they say that it appears it could be connected to that assistant d.a. that was murdered two months ago. but again, nothing definite so far. there is also questions being raised about whether all of this is connected to that murder of the prison chief in colorado, tom clements. the suspect in that case was killed recently in north texas and a police shootout. he was part of a white supremacist group. why is that important? in december, the texas department.department of public safety put out a bulletin that the aryan brotherhood of texas might be planning retaliation against public official because of indictments handed down in houston. that is all speculation at this point. officials tell pete williams so far, they have not been able to find any solid connection among all of those murders. right now, there is a lot of questions here in texas, not clea

kxas did an interview with williams tuesday, three days after he allowed police investigating the murderso test him for gun residue. >> i've cooperated with law enforcement. i certainly wish them the best in bringing justice for this -- just incredibly egregious act. >> reporter: eric williams lives in this house a mile away from the courthouse where the prosecutors worked. authorities say they are not describing him as a suspect, not describing him as a person of interest. but one law enforcement official briefed on the progress of the investigation says he is an angle they are looking at. williams' lawyer told me over the phone his client is innocent, that he's a diabetic who cannot even walk very well now. authorities do say he passed some tests looking for the gun residue. for now, the investigation into the murders goes on. in a county still living in fear. gary tuchman, cnn, kaufman, texas. >> the fear that gary spoke of has already played out in a federal prosecutor's decision to pullot out of a racketeering case, the aryan brother hood of texas. jay heilmann citing security concer

. >> cell phone video submitted to nbc affiliate kxas shows the fireball, the blast ripping through the west fertilizer plant in is texas. >> it was fully engulfed when i arrived. >> firefighters were on the scene as well as ems when the explosion occurred. >> i have to idea how many ems people may be hurt. >> a blast so strong, many thought it was an earthquake. >> massive, just like iraq, just like the murray building in oklahoma city. same kind, anhydrous exploded. you can imagine what kind of damage we're looking at there. >> 75 buildings, including homes, a middle school and nursing home damaged or destroyed. >> we're going house to house, business to business, and we're seeing quite a bit of devastation in that area. >> we've got a lot of people still trapped in houses, but that's dangerous material. that's hazardous material. we can't get to them. >> a triage center was established at a local high school, but later evacuated for fear of a second explosion. >> right now, we have tremendous amount of injuries, probably over a hundred injuries at this time. >> fires by the blast bur