and that's where we begin tonight in raleigh, north carolina, and steve osunsami. steve? >> reporter: good evening, david. this is what's left of an auto dealership here in raleigh. the high winds were so strong, they destroyed the office, knocked over this tree on top of what was left of the office and then pushed this car into the hole left by the tree. these were deadly storms. at least 24 people were killed in this state alone. across the carolinas, this was a storm that showed little mercy. >> first tornado i've ever seen. >> reporter: it was one tornado after another. >> there goes the roof off a house. >> reporter: in the middle of the day. as many as 62 twisters tearing through homes and lives -- >> holy [ bleep ]. >> reporter: this one rolling through sanford, south of raleigh. >> just a massive, thick cloud with debris, all kinds spiraling around it. pieces of all kinds of metal, boards, just a complete spiral. >> reporter: at the lowe's, there were 70 customers in the way. managers moved them to the back of the store and saved their lives. >> everybody kind of

and we have complete coverage of the aftermath of these vicious storms, starting with steve osunsami who is in raleigh, north carolina. good morning, steve. >> reporter: good morning, bianna. from the looks of it, this tree weighs thousand of pounds. and the winds were so strong, they knocked this tree over in a second. this was a violent storm. there's just no other way to describe it. and as the sun rises, authorities expect they'll find more deaths. >> i'm getting out of here. >> reporter: late saturday, across the carolinas, they said it felt like hell on earth. an incredibly strong line of spring storms, rained down more than 90 reported tornadoes. parts of the state looked like a war zone. the view from the sky, complete devastation. these homes were obliterated. at raleigh's stoney brook apartments the storm ripped off roofs and ruined lives. >> my bedroom, my granddaughter's room is totally demolished. >> it's like a bomb went off in my backyard. >> reporter: in wake county, the high winds stripped the roof off this building and sent a power line straight through a van. the fl

and he in turn rescued me. >> reporter: steve osunsami, abc news, covington, georgia. >>> and coming up, what we learned from two very different princess brides. ant? chances are your soil is like this: compacted, drained of nutrients. it'll hold your plants but it'll also hold 'em back. the solution: miracle-gro garden soil. the perfect mix of rich, organic ingredients, and miracle-gro plant food. just mix it in. and turn bad soil into great soil. helps plants grow twice as big. instead of holding 'em back, they'll leap ahead. miracle-gro garden soil. and moisture control garden soil. ♪ 100 ways to enjoy pringles. ♪ 100 crisps, 100 ways. ♪ everything pops with pringles. with less chronic low back pain. imagine living your life with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a non-narcotic treatment that's fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antid

steve osunsami is in atlanta. >> reporter: 87-year-old ruth needed an operation to replace her aortic valve, but at her age, she was worried about surviving open heart surgery. she asked her doctors if there was another way and there was. >> it is a real paradigm change in the way we treat valve disease. >> reporter: it still needs fda approval, but in new orleans today, researchers announced it could help tens of thousands in the next few years. what you're looking at is ruth's surgery. doctors attached a replacement heart valve to a stent and then guided the stent through an artery in her leg with a catheter. when it reached the heart, they expanded the stent the new valve unfolded and started working. no open heart surgery, no long recovery. >> major step forward. now we're going away from the circulation of the heart, going inside of the valves. this is going to aplay to a lot of patients world wild. >> reporter: there were 700 people in the study. half received open heart surgeries. the others, this new procedure. after a year, survival rates for both groups were the same. the bi

steve osunsami has been covering it and joins us now from lincoln, alabama with the latest. steve? >> reporter: bill, it was a fightening night. fist, it was the sound of the sirens. from city to city, that you could hear blaring through the night. then there was the sight of the funnel clouds racing across the sky, bringing high winds and tornadoes, hopscotching across the state. tearing down trees, bringing them over power lines. hundreds of thousands of people without power, causing a number of fatalities. we won't really know the number until the sun comes up. >> this thing is massive. >> reporter: the pictures of the skies over alabama this evening were frightening. unbelievably large tornadoes swirling over large sections of birmingham and tuscaloosa. some of them appeared to be more than a mile wide. >> it looks like we got hit by 5,000-pound bomb here. >> it is a total mess. you have cars on top of cars. buildings crushed. >> reporter: in tuscaloosa tonight, reports that more than a dozen people were killed and 100 injured. and these were pictures of a rescue at a housing c

our steve osunsami is northeast of where i am right now, in the town of cullman, alabama. steve, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, dan. this is the bumper to an ambulance. there were several that were hit here when the storm came through. when they talk about a roof peeling off, that's what this is here. the town of cullman was hit hard. the entire city is without power. and they could be in the dark for the next week. for cullman, alabama, it was so unfair. first, they were hit with incredibly high winds that left the town in shambles. then, came the monster. one forecasters called it the hand of god, that finished what the winds started. 2 people were killed, 200 injured. the 911 dispatch center was crushed. >> i was on a 911 call when the building got hit. >> reporter: margaret and charlie thompson lost their home. but they had their lives. >> my husband was on one side. but i was on the other. >> you can't imagine the noise. you can't imagine the fright. if i was in that chair, i wouldn't be here talking to you guys. >> reporter: the furniture store was de

and abc's steve osunsami starts us off in moody, alabama, tonight. steve? >> reporter: good evening, diane. there are tornado warnings up all across this state. ten, at last count. the sky is getting dark. the wind is already starting to blow. this morning, they say there was no warning, no sirens whatsoever. all of a sudden, the top of this home was blown away. it's the never ending storm. this up evening, the sky was literally falling over alabama. in tuscaloosa, a tornado that looked a mile wide. >> it looks like we got hit by a 5,000-pound bomb here. >> reporter: new pictures tonight, where a tornado hit a hospital and a courthouse in alabama. this was from a live camera this afternoon. just after 6:00 a.m., the tornado was bearing down on families in alabama. >> i felt the bed shaking, and that's when i jumped up. >> nothing left. >> reporter: at wendy's home, it's all gone. >> just kind of, like, makes you stop and you think, you know, wow. we're here one minute and we can be gone the next. >> reporter: george says it happened so fast, they didn't hav

steve osunsami is in tuscaloosa, alabama. and they're saying this is the most terrible thing to ever happen to that town. >> reporter: good morning, george. first responders who were here were so busy pulling the living from all of this debris, they were forced to ignore the dead. that's how bad this is. you can hear the sound of smoke detectors in the distance. but no one's here. there's the smell of death. across town, 16 people were killed. and most of them were killed in this neighborhood. so many families, so many people, whose lives were ruined. they were massive, truly massive tornadoes, nearly a mile wide, churning through homes. taking more than a dozen lives in tuscaloosa. another five dead here. six dead there. as the sirens sounded all across the state of alabama and parts of georgia. >> sounded like a bomb went off in the neighborhood. >> reporter: from the sky, it certainly looked like a bomb. >> it's devastating. just i'm in shock. >> reporter: this was the view from surveillance video in covington, mississippi

steve osunsami is in one of those, and it took a direct hit. what do you see around you tonight, steve? >> reporter: well, good evening, diane. there is a lot of heartache around this neighborhood. there were supposed to be search and rescues today, but no rescues today here in tuscaloosa. just a few minutes ago, they found a body of a 5-year-old girl buried in that rubble. so far, 36 people in this town have died here. and many of them were found in this neighborhood. on tenth avenue, the rosedale apartments were home to hundreds of low income families who had so little and lost so much. >> it was just five minutes, it was gone. >> how do you explain to someone what this is all about? >> tragedy. >> reporter: every home was leveled. they tell us five people here were killed. >> justin! justin! >> reporter: the sisters of 15-year-old justin thomas were desperate to find him today. he's been missing since the storm. you said this was his car? >> he was in his car. >> it's unbelievable. it's still not real to me. >> reporter: today, the family pee

there were swarms of tornadoes and thunderstorms descending, and tonight, steve osunsami is in the wreckage in atlanta. steve? >> reporter: good evening, diane. there are scenes like this all over the south today. the people who live in this neighborhood say first it was the sound of the storm which was bad enough. but then, they heard the terrifying sounds of pine trees and oak trees snapping in two. this one missed the house but totaled this suv. today, the worst of this incredibly large storm marched past georgia and into florida, where high winds tore through neighborhoods. eight people have been killed across the southeast. almost every one of them from large trees that were snapped by high winds and came crashing down on top of them. south of atlanta, a father and his 4-year-old son died today. the father was holding the child in his arms in a bedroom, hoping to protect him. the rescuers who found them wept. >> daddy had the baby and he was on top of him holding him, trying to protect him. but it smashed both of them. >> reporter: they're saying that in terms of actual storm reports,

. >> reporter: steve osunsami, abc news, covington, georgia. >> what a story. >>> that's what's makingew

and steve osunsami is in cullman, alabama, tonight. >> reporter: in this small, deeply religious town of cullman, alabama, they told us god did not spare his own house. >> you got two churches here that were damaged. and then east side was just devastated. >> reporter: the tornado that killed two people and injured hundreds tore through every church in town. >> already asked my wife to pray. >> reporter: at east side baptist, pastor ken allen and his family took cover underneath the church stairwell. they watched the rest of the church blow away. >> just now we had someone walk in the front doors and just cry. >> reporter: there will be no services sunday at first baptist church. at first methodist. and certainly not at christ lutheran. >> as you walk up through here, you can see through these double doors, what remains. >> reporter: this is their sanctuary. >> this is a lot of work. >> oh, yeah, i mean, we're just kind of picking through, salvaging what we can today. it's a lot of work. >> reporter: they told us these are important places here, where charlie and margaret thompson hav

steve osunsami plays some of the videos from this record-breaking and terrifying weekend. steve, good evening to you. >> reporter: good evening, diane. it happened in an instant -- the tornado that tore through this community fell out of the sky, and then started a 20-mile march from here. all of this happened in seconds. this family lost everything. this is the anatomy of the tornado near wilson, north carolina -- an ef-2, 150 yards wide, with wind speeds of 120 miles an hour. 25 families lost their homes. >> i crawled out in shorts, bare feet and a t-shirt. >> reporter: steve hoyg, a state construction worker, was behind the lens and dangerously close. >> yep, there goes the roof of the house. >> reporter: he could see bushes, trees, and 2x4s swirling violently in the wind. >> the last thing before it disappeared around the corner of the building was probably about a 30-foot piece of roofing tin. it wrapped from one side of my truck around to the other side. >> reporter: it was heading northeast. first scott church road. then cranberry ridge. hop-scotching through neighbo

for "good morning america," steve osunsami, abc news. >>> now, diane sawyer with a look at what's ond morning. welcome to a whole new week, juju. tonight, a woman cho says her doctor didn't discover her cancer. her dog did. what did this dog do that got her to get medical care? watch us on "world news." tonight. >> i want one of those dogs, too. that's the news at 8:07. time now for the weather with sam champion. hey, sam. >> a giant british flag. a crowd full of folks in bobby hats here in times square. hey, let's get to the boards. one or two things going on. as you head out the door. a picture of wrtv near indianapolis. there is a big area of thunderstorms that will be popping today. not just today. the next three days. inside that zone, a high probability of tornadoes, damaging hail and winds. the hot pink flashing zone from dallas. indianapolis, you're involved. louisville, kentucky, as well. the flood zone is immense. there's been an awful lot of rain. you get more rain in some of the heavier storms. they just keep moving through those zones. a quick look at the big boards. the

steve osunsami checks out the damage. >> reporter: this is the anatomy of the tornado near wilson northyards wide. with wind speeds of 120 miles an hour. 25 families lost their homes. >> i crawled out in just shorts and bare feet and t-shirt. >> reporter: steve, a state construction worker, was behind the lens and dangerously close. >> yeah, there goes the roof off of the house. >> reporter: he could see bushes, trees and two-by-fours swirling violently in the wind. >> the last thing before it disappeared around the corner of the building was probably about a 30-foot piece of roofing tin that wrapped all the way from one side of my truck around to the other side. >> reporter: it was heading northeast. first, scott church road, then cranberry ridge, hopscotching through neighborhoods, flattening some homes and leaving others. then it moved onto businesses and destroyed more than 100 cars at this dealership. it was moving almost a mile a minute. we asked the national weather service to look through the incredible videos. first, wilson, north carolina. >> it hits the building. all of a sud

steve osunsami is just down the road in north carolina. good morning, steve. >> reporter: there's an incredible story to what's happened here. the damage to this home and the young woman who was pulled from inside by her neighbors. this tree directly behind me fell on the very spot where she was taking shelter in what used to be this cast iron tub. as the tornado came barrelling down, maya knew what to do. she immediately ran to a second floor bathroom and took shelter in the tub, something she had always been told to do. >> she was alone. that hurts me. >> reporter: but the tornado was so strong, it blew over this massive oak tree, splitting the house in two. maya was in the tub, it crashed down to the first floor. >> she went to the bathtub for safety. >> reporter: this morning, she's hospitalized, on a ventilator, and fighting for life. all across the state, there are scenes like this. one house destroyed, the one next door barely touched. >> yep, there goes a roof off the house. >> reporter: as the tornado hit, this family went to the n

but we'll start with steve osunsami in tennessee. good morning to you, steve. >> reporter: good morning, elizabeth. we are west of the city, where the winds were so strong, they lifted this roof off of this car dealership. turned it around a little bit in the air, and then sent it crashing back down on the two people working there inside. a car is now holding it up. they were lucky to get out alive. this giant storm was intense. >> this is unbelievable. my car is physically shaking. this is actually frightening what's going on here. >> reporter: and it was deadly. one man died in tennessee after he stepped on a downed power line. another man died in mississippi, after he ran into a tree that blocked the road. the rain was falling so hard, he couldn't see. >> the young man that was in it was pretty much killed on impact. that's what we can tell at this point. >> reporter: the storm stretched from new england to the gulf of mexico. and marched across the country like an angry army. in topeka, kansas, sharon sands said she opened her eye