. >> this tornado in tuscaloosa shot by the university of alabama.he city of tuscaloosa sustained massive damage. >> we have under disruption. we have neighborhoods that have been removed from the map. >> so much and so many have been lost. more than 330 dead across seven states. the hardest hit is alabama. more than 1000 injured. >> that is a monster tornado. >> the pilot to attack happened just before sundown. a mass of tornado cut through the heart of joplin, missouri ripping across everything in its six mile path. so many have been beat up physically and emotionally, ones that will be slow to heal. >> it is going to be years. >> an agonizing struggle to survive that is only just beginning. >> the massive stage, just minutes before the country band sugarland was to perform. things began to shake along the eastern seaboard. the powerful earthquake rattled buildings and honors. >> i could see the building living side to side. >> perhaps the greatest irony is that -- >> that is what it was time to get out. >> two days after the storm blew through eng

that game is in tuscaloosa. the have been having a good season. it is a good opportunity on the road. [ female announcer ] more people are using wireless devices... in more ways than ever. and our networks are getting crowded. but if congress frees up more wireless spectrum... we can empower more people to innovate... putting momentum behind our economy. and we can reduce the deficit... with more than thirty billion dollars paid by america's wireless companies. it's simple -- more spectrum means more freedom. for everyone. >>> it is almost time for the annual lighting of the buildings. >> doug hill is outside with more on this event. >> i have done this many times over the years. we have been located here in rosslyn. it is a lot of fun because it is an activity that is your round to light up the lights on the buildings here in roslyn. they do a lot of stuff. there is a charity drive that led up to this. major clothings election -- collection. they will celebrate with a jazz performance across the street. it is another one of those moments that the

the truth be told we have to do it with less here in tuscaloosa. >> 12 weather disasters $12 billion.p just 12 in the 1980s even when you adjust for inflation. trace? >> trace: the chief meteorologist rick reichmuth. we should note that 2011 had the most billion-dollar disasters but it wasn't the costliest year ever. that distinction still belongs to 2005. the year of hurricane katrina. well, we have all heard of black friday and cyber monday. but did you know that today is mega monday and it could be just as crucial as those other days to our struggling economy. we many tell you why. crowds searching for savings find a deadly scuffle that closes down a world famous shopping district. stabbing at the foot locker coming up. and some professional wrestlers take on a brand new rival outside the ring. next, wait until you see what they did when a grinch, who stole one little boy's christmas. what's going on? we ordered a gift oine and we really need to do something with it... i'm just not sure what... what is it? oh just return it. returning gifts is easier than ever with priority mail fl

winning 9-6 in overtime in tuscaloosa. all i have to say is go tigers. and thanks for watching. i'm don lemon at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. thanks for watching. have a great week. i'll see you back here next weekend if not before. good night. >>> tonight -- >> we're having a party, and you're invited. >> come on in. my wife shawn and i are hosting a dinner party. >> nice to see you. >> and invited some of the biggest names in hollywood. >> hi. >> we're saving a seat at the table just for you. >> i'm just wondering why we're being served by the cia. >> conan o'brien. russell brand. tyra banks. seth mcfarlane. shaquille o'neal. quincy jones. and twitter inventor jack dorsey. all opening up about life, love, success and failure. >> the most shocking thing that anyone would hear from a table like this is there's a tendency for people to look and say they've made it. what they don't understand is the amount of insecurity that drives you when you're 15, but it's still there when you're 48. >> nothing's off limits. >> any discussion of this type always makes me kind of secr

and i was in tuscaloosa, alabama, smithville. mississippi. northern georgia, all affected by the tornadoes. and up in north dakota from the floods. and when i was flying over and when i was flying over north dakota, had the

the most memorable the tornadoes of tuscaloosa alabama and joplin missouri and also the massive floodinghe south and midwest. the price tag is around $52 billion and that is a third costliest weather year ever. number one, hurricane katrina. justin. >> no argument there. severe weather yesterday, in southeast virginia, with the same storm. you mentioned main street. here main street in bel air. charm city runners look at wet weather yesterday. it snowed for a few hours and didn't stick and waking up this morning, the sun trying to come up over dry streets. that's an any. you were disappointed -- irony. you were disappointed the snowflakes didn't overtake the warm, wet ground. but at 35 we are looking at what we expected to have a dry morning. if you didn't do your homework it's your fault. we told you we will have school today regardless of whatever fell or stuck or didn't. storms out of here but cold lan at 33. down into the 30s and near freezing near pensacola florida it's low 40s in orlando. that is deep cold air mass. storm is pulling out and the cold front is clear the coast in flor

we're in tuscaloosa. hoyas would have their hands full against the crimson tide.gh environment to play in. did not faze this young man. second half, georgetown up by 3. alabama on the move. look out below, tony mitchell getting up high. he had about five of these alley-oop dunks in the game. but georgetown would answer the call. the pass to henry simms, oh, man, nice move for the big fella. right now it is tied up at 54 with seconds remaining in the game. >> all right. >> kansas state hosting gw. tony taylor leading the colonials. taylor with the pass. david pellham is there. he dunks it in there. gw down by 1. second half gw down by 3. tony taylor again to chromia. how nice is that. 14 points. but k state would begin to run away with it, spradling with the three. that caps a 15-point -- 15-1 run, 14 points for spradling. wildcats beat the colonials 59-56 is the final. >> donovan mcnabb looking for a new job. mcnabb asked to be released and the vikings are granted his wish. on the college front west virginia and south florida going at it. mountaineers trying to cl

and i was in tuscaloosa, alabama, smithville. mississippi. northern georgia, all affected by the tornadoes. and up in north dakota from the floods. and when i was flying over north dakota, had the opportunity with the general and a couple congressmen. and as we're flying over, and it was just cresting. in looking at the damages, the general is explaining how many homes and businesses were damaged. in sort of a side mentioned we've really done a good job and haven't lost any lives and working hard, and we saved the school and did this and did that. later i went and talked to the mayor and governor and police, fire, e.m.s. folks and chiefs and command staffs and a lot of people that had been working on fighting the flood in north dakota for literally -- much longer, but this part of it for two weeks. and sometimes i think we miss things and we forget things. but for total devastation, they did not lose one life. that is incredible. if you can view the damage that happened there. and the reason that is, is because they prepared. they took the ti

and i was in tuscaloosa, alabama, smithville. mississippi.

the reason i say it is a public safety feature -- all you have to do is go to tuscaloosa, alabama, or joplin, missouri, or washington, d.c. after an earthquake to recognize that the first thing to get jim -- there is never going to be enough spectrum to handle a crisis by broadband. the one constant is broadcasting. an fm check in a cell phone provide life-saving confirmation in a time of natural or human-caused emergency, like a terrorist attack. it is approaching because of all of these -- this constant emergency. it ought to be considered. we hope that instead of streaming music, more and more of the manufacturers of cell phones and so phone carriers will permit the liking upper of the radio chips that are currently in most models of cell phones. they are there already. the want to stream music and not have the consumer have the ability to get music for free. >> in november, the fcc and stakeholders offered the first national test of the system. there were issues with some cable systems. what lessons were learned, and how you plan to work through difficulties? >> there were difficu

the reason i say that it is a public safety feature, all you have to do is go to tuscaloosa, alabama, or joplin, missouri, or washington, d.c. in an earthquake to recognize that the first thing to get jammed -- and, again, there's never going to be enough spectrum to handle a crisis via broadband. um, the one constant is broadcasting. and an fm chip in a cell phone provides life saving information in a time of natural or human-caused emergencies like a terrorist attack. and so it is approaching because of all of these, this constant emergencies that beset the american people, it ought to be considered. we hope that as spectrum is shorter instead of streaming music that more and more of the manufacturers of cell phones and the cell phone carriers will permit the lighting up of the radio chips that are currently in most models of credit cards. -- cell phones. they're there. they're there already, but they want to bill them by the bit, by streaming music and not have the consumer have the ability to get music for free. >> host: in november the fcc and dhs along with stakeholders held the

tuscaloosa, alabama, joplin.appened, the timing -- >> it's still the scenes from the destruction there and the families there. ah. it chokes you up. >> the number one battlefield. trees, homes from the foundations almost wiped clean. a tremendous mess. the thing so weird about last year is every single season had some kind of catastrophic weather event, and it was just really insane. we're begin with what happened here in the wintertime. of course, record snowfall in parts of new york. a lot of people working overtime with snow blowers, using snow shovels, trying to move as much. soon as you would move one scoop, more snow fell from the sky. in february, kept up. massive winter storms hit parts ever the midwest and northeast. incredible pictures of cars on lake shore drive in chicago that were basically stacked up motionless due to the incredible snow coming down. we have wind gusts actually tropical storm to hurricane force winds along michigan avenue in parts of chicago. on top of that, widespread power outages

the one that hit tuscaloosa, alabama.ad those tornadoes dropped out of the sky in a cornfield, in the middle of the central plains -- >> there are plenty of areas they could have dropped and hit no one. >> exactly. if you have that type of storm, a tornado that hit a more dense population cluster, you would have numbers that would be higher. let's look at what happened this year, starting off with the winter. the snowmagetton in new york. the area was blanketed by several feet of snow, just kept coming down day after day after day. in parts of february, you had even more massive winter storms. the midwest, the northeast, chicago, too. winds in chicago topping 80 miles per hour. everything was shut down. a lot of tree damage. even in parts of the northeast, you had widespread tree damage in places like connecticut where power was out for weeks and weeks. in april the situation was different. two tornado outbreaks, 367 people killed, tuscaloosa, alabama one of the bullseyes. they're still cleaning up from it. the joplin tor

. >> normal was just another casualty here in tuscaloosa, alabama when an ef4 tornado touched down. >gh the heart of the city. >> the mayor said the rebuilding is just beginning, eight months after the storm killed 42 people, flattening one out of every ten buildings here. >> it's one thing to have damage to power lines and streets. it's another thing to have 5,000 plus homes gone and 600 businesses destroyed. >> holy -- oh, my god! >> it was part of a three day outbreak that spun the most tornadoes in u.s. history, 353 of them in almost half of the states, costing more than $10 billion. and that was merely one of what the feds report were a half-dozen tornado outbreaks in which losses topped a billion bucks. >> oh, that is a monitor tornado. >> like the one that produce an ef5 tornado, destroying a third of joplin, missouri and killing hundreds of people and costing more than $9 billion. we saw a wide range of other weather catastrophes as well. the groundhog day blizzard brought chicago to a standstill, resulting in a financial loss of $2 billion. and late spring rivers flooded at h

last night, georgetown in tuscaloosa where the hoyas crashed the crimson tide's party. georgetown snaps alabama's 24-game home winning streak. jason clark wide open at the top of the key. knocks down the three pointer. hoyas up seven. clark went for a game high 22 points. later, back come the crimson tide. tony mitchell, top of your screen for three. he scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half. alabama down two. less than ten seconds to play. hoyas down by one. clark hands it off to hollis-thompson. needs to make a shot, and he does. buries it. check out the bench. calm down, guys. last chance for alabama. levi randolph from half court. good if it goes. off the rim, and georgetown upsets number 12 alabama 57-55. the hoyas have two wins over top 15 teams this season. georgetown improves to 6-1. hometown hockey. after the penguins outshot the capitals 5-17 last night, alex ovechkin told us that it wasn't frustrating, but shouldn't it be? consider this not so fun fact. while bruce boudreau was head coach, the caps failed to record 20 shots on goal in the regular seaso

that's -- [ audience ohs ] [ scattered applause ] [ light laughter ] [ as larry king ] >> "tuscaloosathe air." [ laughter ] [ as larry king ] >> steve: "brownsville, line two." [ laughter ] brownsville, texas. >> jimmy: where is brownsville? >> steve: in texas. >> jimmy: oh, is that texas? [ cheers and applause ] texas in the house! very, very good. hey, speaking of babies, by the way, i just read about a woman in germany who just gave birth to a baby boy named jihad. [ light laughter ] or as the tsa put it, "hope you like amtrak." [ laughter ] [ audience ohs ] "hope you like -- jihad." i just want to say congratulations to chaz bono who recently got engaged to his longtime girlfriend. it's cute. he calls her the old ball and chain and she calls him the new balls and chain. it just -- [ laughter and applause ] it's very -- it's very cute. isn't that cute? >> steve: aw, it's sweet. [ applause ] how sweet. [ applause ] >> jimmy: you liked that one. hey, happy birthday to jaleel white who played urkel on "family matters." [ light laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] yeah. he partied like a

the hoyas and tuscaloosa last night taking on 12th ranked alabama. a tight first half.he toy yeas ledpy -- toy yeas led by seven at the break. the second half was all tony mitchell. here he gets the steal and takes it down court and finishes with authority. and then a few minutes later, following up the jumper with another big dunk. so with five seconds left, thompson hits a big three as the hoyas down 12th ranked crimson tide 57-55. a big win for the hoyas, i'm kristen berset, have a great friday. >>> thank you so much kristin, we are going to take a live look here at 95 south of route 123. no problems to report in woodbridge other than slow traffic. heading toward the occoquan river. coming up in my next report, a closer look into virginia at 5:31. you're watching 9news now. stay with us. at bank of america, we're lending and investing in the people and communities who call greater washington, d.c. home. from supporting an organization that helps new citizens find their way... to proudly supporting our washington redskins... and partnering with a school that brings ac

, lsu which is unbeaten already has played alabama once this season, winning 9-6 in overtime in tuscaloosao tigers. and thanksor watching. i'm don lemon at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. thanks for watching. have a great week. i'll see you back here next weekend if not before. good night.

tuscaloosa, alabama was the hardest hit. >> it was horrifying.was coming towards us, so we ran to the back, and got under a metal structure in the back, and that's honestly what saved us. >> reporter: then in late may, a tornado with winds topping 200 miles an hour leveled the town of joplin, missouri. it was the single deadliest u.s. tornado since 1947, killing nearly 160 people. >> i actually was planning on helping where it was really torn up but there's nothing really to help. it's just flattened. i don't know, there's probably three quarters of a mile of nothing. >> reporter: that same storm system brought triple the normal amount of rainfall to the ohio river valley. the rain coupled with snowmelt caused both the mississippi and missouri rivers to flood. in august, hurricane irene drenched the eastern seaboard. it triggered record flooding in new jersey, new york state and vermont, and cost more than $7 billion. >> once the water started coming through the front door i knew it was getting bad and once the walls started to break and molding

the tuscaloosa mall open at 6:00 a.m. >> yes. >> ann taylor in manhattan open 24 hours a day. stories now showing that retailers are panicked trying to be open on christmas day. >> after a big first weekend, everything has died. they're cutting prices now in an unprecedented way. i'm scared. i'm really scared. because the consumers are in retreat still. i'm scared. i'm one of these guys, i don't care who is president. i'm going to cheer when the unemployment rate goes down but i'm not convinced this economy is getting better. i'm nervous. >> well, we have a very big show this morning where we can talk about this. >> a huge show. >> on the set we'll have mitt romney, governor chris christie, mayor michael bloomberg, and regis. >> regis! >> yes. >> it gets no better than that. >> i cannot wait. >> it gets no better than that. >> also, monday night fiasco. for more than 30 minutes, fans sat in the dark. >> what? >> at candlestick park. during last night's steelers/49ers game. >> what is this, afghanistan? >> we'll show you what happened when the lights eventually came back on. bu

the heels of the international katie tuscaloosa. how can my company help, take down. i would love to see spam go away as the distribution mechanism, but from the perspective, there is a certain perspective this shows that that might be the case. there might not be any change, but we are still in the a busy, so we don't know. >> i still feel that we don't know whodunit. i want to check in with you guys. there have been a couple of things that happened. take me to law enforcement aspects of the warm and how you guys feel that they can close of sensitivity of this war and are. >> my suspicion is, and i can say with any certainty, that the authorities do know who was behind it. and i suspect that the difficulty in apprehending them has more to do with the policy, dealing with a foreign government, dealing with foreign laws and police agencies that it doesn't actually finding them, we do know about the authors of the warm without having. they are tremendously sophisticated programmers, and the reason i use the word burro is because it is also not one person because the war

we're also talking tuscaloosa and those other tornadoes. it wasn't going to be a big wind maker and it made a flood from new hampshire and vermont and pennsylvania. vermont was a big story for north carolina. this is coastal north carolina there was a home, cottage built in 1903. survived every other storm so far. there are the owners sitting on the steps of what was their cottage on the sound there in north carolina. damage there, even took out the land mass, some of the island doesn't exist anymore. >> why was it such a crazy year? do you know? >> there's no way to know. it's not a random event. the earth is getting more violent. with the warmth of the global warming event, just you're going to get more humidity in the air and get more of a bomb effect. you can get more humidity in the air, that makes more potential energy and that potential energy is coming in the way of severe weather. >> thank you, chad. i want our viewers to know, these pictures are extraordinary, 2011 is winding down. we'll bring you more of this year's most striking

in tuscaloosa, alabama, this college town reduced to rubble. >> they say the tornado had wind speeds the winds and the rain of irene, still going through this area. >> it's almost impossible to comprehend the force. >> the hurricane made a landfall 40 miles south of here. >> all the homes in this area are going to get flooded. >> george stephanopoulos here in orlando. >> we, the jury, find the defendant not guilty. >> it was swift and stunning to so many. >> for 31 days. >> and the amanda knox case. new forensic findings could help overturn her conviction. >> four years of the conviction of the brutal murder of roommate, meredith kercher, it all comes down to this. >> outside of the courtroom. >> immediate release. >> thank you for being there for me. >> is there a time of the day that becomes more difficult? >> there's not a day that doesn't go by that i don't think about my son. >> we, the jury, find the defendant guilty. >> what do you think of the verdict? >> wonderful. absolutely. justice was served. michael was watching over us. ♪ >> we are back. it's been a rocking debate so f

lsu beat alabama at tuscaloosa. what happens now? alabama wins they play a third time, flip a coin. >> that's the way the bcs is set up. >> i'm more upset there are no games on new year's day. >> yeah. >> the whole contract thing. >> do you know somebody? can we put pressure on the bcs to get this thing right? >> while you're talking about pie in the sky dream, like yesterday, where drew brees was playing at night, can he play a few series -- >> off the soap box for now, but i'd rather watch madonna and cirque du soleil do their selection. >> sad. i'll be watching, madge. >>> it's being called the priciest pileups on record. more than 10 luxury sports cars involved in this one. >>> a holiday tradition at riverdale baptist church, and we are live with a look at the 25th annual living christmas tree. our annie is out there. will she be in the tree this year? stay with us. we'll find out. ♪ yeah, i'm married. does it matter? you'd do that for me? really? yeah, i'd like that. who are you talking to? uh, it's jake from state farm. sounds

ominous wedge shaped image of disaster could be seen hitting the ground in alabama and roaring toward tuscaloosaat least 41 people died in a six-mile path of destruction. it was part of a super cell week of over 175 violent tornadoes that killed at least 327 people in the south. >> i would say 2011 was certainly a year for the record books. deadly, destructive and relentless are the word we're using in the national weather service. >> reporter: but 2011 was more than tornadoes. noaa says a new u.s. record was set with 12 separate billion dollar or more weather disasters. which combined caused property damage to the tune of $52 billion and killing 646 people. cropless fields in texas. in the south and west, heat and drought conditions brought losses to crops and live stock to $10 billion. and it fueled massive wildfires like this one in austin, texas which ravaged this neighborhood. the drought was forecast to continue well into the new year. but if you look at our water it looks like we have plenty here. this is atlanta's drinking water, lake lanier. the only problem as i walk up the hill to thi

tuscaloosa, 71. and dallas, a high of 73 degrees today.t of the country, the plains awfully cold on into the southwest. 20s and 30s up in the northeast. we're looking at heavy rain making its way into the mid mississippi river valley. slight risk of strong storms. texas into oklahoma. snow showers up through eastern minnesota, and the air stagnation conditions continue for the pacific northwest. that's what's going o >> good morning. expect increasing clouds today. temperatures will be slightly above average. >>> and that's your latest weather. matt? >> thank you so much. now it's time to reveal "time" magazine's pick for the person of the year. the criteria, someone who for better or worse has done the most to influence and affect our lives. rick standing, good morning. >> good to see you. >> don't give us the name yet. let's take a look at some of the names that made the final list, the people you deliberated about in the final hours. kate middleton, the duchess of cambridge, admiral william mccrave en, commander of the navy s.e.a.l. tea

here's birmingham and tuscaloosa. you did have a warning earlier.re were sirens going off but that storm stopped rotating so they did reduce it to just a severe thunderstorm warning for you. birmingham is here. the little pink boxes. those are the tornado warnings. birmingham, you're not in it yet. you're getting heavy rain, even possibly some flooding but not the tornadoes. we're watching for circulations on the back side. even selma could be in on it. we're to the weather service. they're saying eventually, maybe the next hour or so, this will begin to slide into georgia and georgia will get a tornado watch. maybe some tornado warnings. a watch means tornados are possible. warnings mean they're happening. so a couple warnings south of birmingham right now. those are the only two. later on tonight, you just talked about this travel. if we get these storms close to atlanta, that's what's forecast, that's what's expected. these storms will be landing everywhere. you're not going to be able to get planes in atlanta. and 150, 200 planes in the air. you

when we ran romania, we learned something i've now called disk at tuscaloosa, dictator of romania. in 1989 the revolution in poland and hungary and czechoslovakia he went into a square in bucharest and was the romanian people what he got for them. all of a sudden one of lady yells liar. then 10 people, then 100 people, than a thousand people come in than 100,000 people are yelling fire. all of a sudden he realizes he better get out of there. something is done wrong. instead of delivering him freedom, be it military officer delivers him to the resolution he and his wife were executed. such a task and moment is when fewer breaks down. either an old lady yells liar or a soldier turned his gun away from the crowd, refuses to fire or is turned away the crowd. and i'm all that is left between the dictator and his people his anger. and that's what you got any arab spring now. that is why kerry and his son is single. >> what do you think about leaking from behind a multilateral coalition? >> out of my multi-collateral coalition. leading from behind is an oxymoron. you don't wait from behin

. >> this tornado in tuscaloosa shot by the university of alabama. spared but the city had massive damage. >> we have neighborhoods that have been removed from the map. >> so much and so many have been lost. the hardest hit, alabama, where at least 250 people were killed. more than 1,000 injured. >> oh, gosh. that is a monster tornado. >> violent attack just before sundown. a massive tornado three quarters of a mile wide cutting through joplin, missouri, ripping up everything in its path. so many here have been beat up physically and emotionally. wounds that will be slow to heal. >> it's going to be years. >> the massive stage and wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour. just minutes before sugarland was supposed to perform. rattling buildings and nerves. >> i could see the building moving side to side. >> enough to wake me up. >> perhaps the greatest irony of hurricane irene is that land locked vermont is suffering the greatest impact from the storm. >> and then the water started coming from the house and that's when it was time to get out. >> two days a