but you look at tuscaloosa. >> what brought me to tuscaloosa, what i was interested in was the south had been reshaped archly because a federal court orders. the courts had forced integration on the south and it had been successful. years we'vet 20 seen a lot of those orders lifted by the court and what we found was that as districts lose their federal oversight, they do begin to resegregating. tuscaloosa has become one of the most rapidly resegregating schools in the country. that is largely because of what the school board did with central. in 2000 when a federal judge released tuscaloosa from its court order, the school board immediately voted to split up central. central having created by the court order. excuse me, 1979, tuscaloosa still operated virtually black high school and white high school. the merger of those two schools created central. it was an integration story. because there is a white board voting to split apart the school and they created three high schools, two integrated and one that was entirely black. what i really wanted to show with this report is that segreg

tornado warnings from south of huntsville south of tuscaloosa.e on the south side of tuscaloosa all the way up to birmingham be on the lookout. get in your safe spot. these tornados, it's nighttime. you won't be able to see them and they are rain wrapped as well. heed the warnings and get in your safe spot. >> we saw what happened overnight. a number of people died because of these tornados. it is indeed a priority to get to safety. >> the scariest part about it. the folks are in their bed and some people don't have weather radios and have no warnings. it's time to get in your safe spot now. >> i'm don lemon in new york. now back to "ac360." ♪ [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announce

it's one-third of the students in tuscaloosa. to say they have maintained an integrated system, you have to be ignoring one-third of your students. >> what is the outcome? what if people say, okay, let's say that the schools are either mostly white or mostly black. what does that mean in temz of the outcome for the students? >> well, it's very simple. 60 years ago we failed to make separate equal, and today we fail to make separate equal, and in my story i follow a young lady called den issua dent. she's homecoming queen, class president, an honor student since middle school, but she spent her whole career is segregated high poverty, low performing schools, and she cannot earn a high enough act to get into a four-year college. that's a problem. she's done everything that we have told her to do. she has done the best that she can with the resource that is she has, and we're failing this child. >> yeah. we also know the outcome is five years of integrated school. black adult earnings increase by 15%. actual real world impact to kid

one thing i can't predict whether a tornado will come to tuscaloosa. but they will be resilient, we'll survive it and come through it better than ever. >> are there lessons that we learned that may save lives this time? >> early warning. make sure you idea your safe places, get to the safe places and heed for caution. if we do anything, we know by doing that, it will definitely save lives. >> tuscaloosa mayor, walter maddox, we'll be thinking, praying and hoping everyone stays safe. >> we must report officials are raising the death toll to 35 over various states. there are people who witnessed a tornado with their own eyes. storm chasers get closer than any of us would care to. and capture images of these very often unpredictable and deadly weather outbreak. brett joins us, good to talk to you. give us your location and tell us what you're seeing. >> this afternoon, we're in meridian, mississippi. i must echo what chad was staying. we are see storms go to the west. getting around 30,000 feet. right now we're seeing those in the distance but they're def

tuscaloosa is a more moderate southern city.it first started public 1800s, manyhe districts did not bother to open public schools to buy children. won awspaper had pulitzer prize. they had a reputation for being more moderate and progressive. as we know, that does not necessarily mean that when it comes to schools that officials are going to support integration. from newy is coming york. caller: hello. i am from new york. raised up in white schools because of my mother. i live in a virtually white complex right now. boys,ing we did teach our they had great learning skills in new york. they all went to college and finished college. i was allowed to stay at home to raise my boys until i could go to business school. in a corporate firm. realize now that we were .eading books i don't like to say black and white. we are all one color to me. i would love to leave these united states if i could. i hate it now. i don't vote anymore. i stopped voting a long time ago. host: mary, thank you very much. any comments for that color? -- caller

another person was killed in tuscaloosa. a major tornado also touched down just across the state line in tennessee. at least two people are dead there. >> a dangerous situation in georgia, too. this cell phone video was from southwest of atlanta, showing a possible tornado on the ground there. there's damage. thankfully, no fatalities. 15 georgia counties are under a tornado watch this morning. this is still happening, folks. arkansas's trying to clean up this morning and make sure there are no more victims from a monster tornado that caused severe damage. at least 14 deaths in two towns. this is west of little rock. those who witnessed the storm called it unbelievable. >> huge. it was by far the biggest one i've ever seen. and not that i've seen that many, but yeah, it was just a huge, black cloud. >> it just popped back up real quick. and then i ran inside, and in about a minute, it was over. i came outside and what you see is what we have. >> southeastern kansas also hit when a two-block-wide tornado went through baxter s

warning in effect for tuscaloosa county as well as jefferson county. birmingham included in this. if you look at the numbers more than half a million people in the path of this devastating storm. this is one we will keep a close watch on. also watching the storm closer to birmingham. look to the north we have been watching the severe storms just to the north of the city. racing to the north and east and these are very powerful and then i want to take you to tennessee. we have with the storm prediction center is calling a particularly dangerous situation. the tornado warnings are heading toward the city of knox fill in that direction. if the soil together this could be potentially dangerous where there could be a confirmed tornado on the ground. we have seen confirmation of a couple of tornadoes on the ground in alabama and even in tennessee. barry dangerous situation. happening in the middle of the night which we know is the worst case scenario. get your safe spot as fast as you can. i want to plot this quickly and we can. it will show you which counti

reagan in new hampshire to a ronald reagan bust that is apparently inside a mcdonald's in tuscaloosa, alabama. it all counts. it's all on the reagan legacy project clickable map. even the one in the mcdonald's. conservative activists trying to pump up ronald reagan's legacy have proposed that ronald reagan displace ulysses s. grant on the $50 bill. at one time, they even proposed that ronald reagan be put on the dime. but that might be a little bit of a hard sell, since the person who's on the dime right now is fdr and he does have his fans that sort of, i think, anticipated backlash led to their novel proposal that the united states should have two different kinds of dimes, some with fdr in them, some with ronald reagan on them. it's one thing to have a quarter for every state, right? it's collectible, but now you can have one dime specifically for republicans and one dime specifically for democrats. i don't think that's going to happen. after president obama was elected in 2008, you might remember the republican party doing a really overt rebranding effort for themselves, which invo

another person was killed in tuscaloosa.or tornado also touched down just across the state line in tennessee. at least two people dead there. >> very dangerous situation in georgia, too. take a look at this cell phone video from southwest of atlanta, spotting a possible tornado on the ground. there's damage, though luckily, no fatalities there. 15 georgia counties are under a tornado watch this morning. arkansas is cleaning up this morning, and they're trying to make sure there are no more victims from the tornado that caused severe damage and at least 14 deaths in two towns west of little rock. those who witnessed this storm call it just unbelievable. >> it was huge. it was by far the biggest one i've ever seen, and not that i've seen that many, but yeah, it was just a huge, black cloud. >> and it just popped back up real quick. then i ran outside. in about a minute it was over. i come outside, and what you see is what we have. >> southeastern kansas also affected when a two-mile-wide tornado marched its way through baxter

it was three years ago this weekend that a massive ef-4 tornadoer to through tuscaloosa and bedrooming ham, alabama, killing 64 people. an ef-5 devastated job lynn, missouri, with 15 fatalities. last year, another ef-5 took aim at moore, oklahoma, including seven people killed when their elementary school was hit. many oklahoma schools still don't have the money to build tornado shelters, so here they are welding together four huge shipping containers reinforced with concrete and dirt berms. all 225 kids should fit inside. >> it can't be built fast enough. we're nervous every time a storm comes over. >> reporter: thankfully, tornado season is off to a slow start this year with below normal temperatures, but meteorologists warn something is brewing. >> we'll have a multi-day tornado episodes rolling into houston, rolling in fact by wednesday all the way to raleigh, north carolina. >> reporter: tornados cause roughly a billion dollars in damage each year. this video from the insurance industry shows the house on the left coming apart in a low-level tornado, 96 mile per hour winds. a came

we're going from birmingham to tuscaloosa and then almost towards montgomery. this is moderate risk. if we see lots of sunshine, it could go to high risk. we should expect a repeat of what we've seen the last two afternoons. these are the same people that did this yesterday. >> the irony the sun could come out, and it's worse. >>> now to new fallout for the owners of the nba's los angeles clippers donald sterling after an audio of him going on a racial rant, several sponsors are dropping the clippers. today the commissioner will make an announcement about the investigation. joe fryer has more. >> reporter: in the midst of the playoffs, players and fans are calling for the nba to take swift action against donald sterling, the owner accused of making racist remarks. >> they need to come out and erase sterling from the clippers. they need to say this man will not be part of this team. they need to suspend him immediately and indefinitely. >> reporter: but one says it's a complex situation. >> the owners wouldn't want to show a pres deputy that the commissioner has

. >> we also went to tuscaloosa, alabama, for habit for humanity, and we helped build houses that got tornado damage a few years ago. >> and we also traveled to guatemala twice. we went to an orphanage down there, and we played with them. we fed them. and we also went to a school, and we gave them supplies that we donated. >> that's amazing. when you were interviewed by tyler years ago, you said that one goal was to make other teens want to volunteer. do you think that worked out? >> yes. we're in the process actually of actually trying to promote a new group of freshmen who are coming up, and we're talking to eighth graders right now and having them apply and try and be the next four friends. so, we're really interested in finding girls that are interested in volunteering and helping those specific girls start their own group, as well as helping other students that are interested. and we have seen students already participate in volunteering activities because they've seen us volunteering. >> that's great. so, now that you're graduating high school, what are your plans going forward?

tuscaloosa. looks like we've done it again. >> okay. watch that for us. i know we've got some other systems on the way. >>> let's turn to the crisis in ukraine where europe is being drawn into the center of the conflict. a group of military observers from five different european countries are being held hostage by pro russian militants in the eastern part of the ukraine. they kidnapped eight unarmed monitors accusing them of being spice for nato. they were put out on display at a news conference just hours after video emerged. >> the people will be released. thank you. we are really waiting for it. >> one of the observers was released for health reasons. they say the other men will not be released unless there is a prisoner swap with kiev. >>> "the daily beast" is reporting that putin is halting all talks. president obama announced that as expected new economic sanctions would be issued later today against russia. >> the goal here is not to go after mr. putin personally, the goal is to change his calculus with respect to how the current actions that he's

. >> reporter: john, a native of tupelo, and a swimmer at the university of alabama, was in tuscaloosa when the tornado hit. he was found holding up a concrete wall, so his girlfriend could get out under it. >> he was great guy. >> reporter: now survivors are left to pick up the pieces. >> we will rebuild and come back stronger. >> reporter: of communities and families left shattered by mother nature's wrath. sara dollof, nbc news. >>> and a follow-up to tell you about now. late last night, the santa clara board of supervisors did approve a new restaurant ratings system. that's the result of an nbc investigation that began more than a year ago. soon restaurants will hang color-coded placards to show if they passed health inspections. if they get a green card, that means they passed. yellow means they had a few more violations. red means they failed and could be closed. the changes could go into effect as soon as this fall. >>> this morning, ikea is expanding a massive recall of its children's lamps. nearly 4 million tasa wall lamps are being recalled because children have tangled in th

more stories of devastating tornadoes, likely it will occur in this red area from hattiesburg, tuscaloosa, birmingham, same areas that were hit late last night. as far as the west goes, you remain very quiet. doesn't look like bad weather heading your way anytime soon. that's your national forecast. >>> we'll talk more about the extended forecast for west coming up. >> yeah, so expect bumpy and delayed flights if you're in the west going east. >> yes. >> absolutely. >>> grim day for the congressman who used to fight corruption. >>> and a seaworld safety vest. >>> and they're not pretty, but they are fast. building homes with a 3-d printer. details when "early today" returns. [ male announcer ] if you can clear a table [ sneezes ] without lifting a finger, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. ♪ zyrtec®. muddle no more™. [ female announcer ] and now introducing children's zyrtec® dissolve tabs for full 24 hour allergy relief. children's zyrtec® di

dead in this outbreak, 21-year-old john servati on the swim team at the university of alabama in tuscaloosa. he was sheltering in his basement when a retaining wall fell on top of him. now, this weather system is moving east, spreading rain up and down the coast. and as you guys mentioned, bringing those bad floods to the florida panhandle. still, even though it looks pretty bad there, the system isn't expected to leave behind the same kind of mess it left here. john and diana? >> good news there. scott goldberg, live in tupelo, mississippi. thank you. >>> and that weather system is now bringing heavy rains and high winds to the northeast. >> accuweather's jim dickey is joining us with more on the track of the storm. jim? >> good morning, john and diana. another round of heavy thunderstorms expected today. now, the good news is not nearly the tornado threat we've been dealing with since the weekend. the storms today, mainly bringing just damaging winds. but also, torrential rainfall. as you see, numerous rounds, thunderstorms in these areas. plenty of soaking rainfall, flash flooding and ri

what happened in tuscaloosa, tuscaloosa had been forced by a judge to combine its two largely segregatedschool into one citywide integrated high school. as soon as it was released from the court order it split it into three schools including one that was entirely black. >> so if court-ordered desegregation mandates have proven to be effective in the past, why are they being lifted? >> beginning in the early 1990s, the supreme court made it clear that these orders were not to be permanent. it made it much easier for school districts to be released. they no longer had to show they had eliminated all the vestiges of segregation but only that they had tried to do so and had made a good faith effort. so i also think there's a great deal of fatigue. many people, including judges, believe that these orders have lasted long enough. >> you know, a kodiccord to a r study, schools in new york state with the most segregated. what's your reaction to that? >> it's true. the reason that is true is because there's a great deal of residential segregate in the northeast. new york city is one of the most h

reporter: back in tuscaloosa, mourning the loss of a champion swim team member.eeking shelter in the basement of a local home during the tomato when a retaining wall collapsed on him. he was named to the sec academic honor roll. also other stories of survival and help. many of the people and the cruise have come from maryland and other states throughout the region to help people with the recovery effort, and looking at the mobile home, the family here survived because whe we tornado warnings were issued, they sought shelter at a local hospital. back to you, jenna. jenna: what a blessing. encouraging whether developments. thank you. jon: it was an execution at did not go as planned and oklahoma. no information on it now. a drug cocktail left this inmate on a gurney shaking uncontrollably. even though the execution was stopped after the first drug was given the inmate died of a massive heart attack less than an hour later. the first time oklahoma use this particular combination of drugs. we're joined now live from los angeles. what went wrong, have they figured it

jonathan is live in tuscaloosa, alabama. what's happening where you are?u there. >> right behind me. take a look at this.

this is the same storm that was in tuscaloosa. that tornado on the ground moving towards birmingham. we're going to go down and get shelter right now. we're on top of a hotel. it's just too dangerous up here. >> there's like two tornadoes over there. >> reporter: 13 tornadoes touching down across alabama just in the last 24 hours responsible for at least two deaths. and now reports that a 21-year-old in tuscaloosa died after doing the right thing, going into his basement. but the basement wall collapsed on top of him. the storm destroying this church in kimberly, alabama. 25 people were inside at the time. all of them survived. the pastor uses this church as a community shelter, keeping people safe underground. when you saw your church demolished the way it is right now -- >> i cried. i cried. the church is not the people. the people are the church. >> reporter: and here at this apartment building, a massive tree took out two cars, and people were forced out after the building's roof was torn off. and this morning, officials tell

. >> mayflower, livonia, tuscaloosa, and alabama, and other places know what it's like to face down a tornado, survive more than once, and be grateful for it. >> we are so grateful god spared our lives. >> if it seems to you that tornado strikes the same communicate yes over and over, there is some truth. >> we do not always hear about them on average: . >> curiously most: . >> following up on tornado and why they so often seem to strike in the same place. joining us is dr harold brooks, senior scientist at the national severe storms laboratory in northern oklahoma. appreciate you being back. we are struck by that. the situation at tupelo, going back in history and other places, we see the same communities hit repeatedly. why is that? >> the tornados have been happening everywhere. we are paying attention. there are a lot of places out that are hit multiple times. as we look at a longer record we see places hit more than once. >> certain places of the country, is it environmental, south, wide open paces - is that what a tornado needs? >> essentially we are looking at the area between

double springs all the way through jasper and down the south north of tuscaloosa. down through jackson, all of these hot pink boxes, these are tornado warnings. active tornado warnings. so this line will push to the east as we go through the overnight hours. scary part is we're losing daylight. the sun is setting and that's when folks can be in real danger because they won't be able to see these storms coming. and so that's where a lot of times we lose the most lives, unfortunately. so make sure you have your weather radio, this is still that area that we're going to be watching the closest, mississippi through alabama, even portions of tennessee. one quick look at that severe weather map the storm prediction center highlighted this area including tupelo and jackson, the hot pink shaded area that is a high-risk of severe weather throughout the rest of this evening and into tonight very large tornadoes possible with very long tracks just like we saw in arkansas, anderson we're seeing that play out again in mississippi and also alabama tonight, unfortunately. >> jenn

seven warnings around 9:00 with this line coming eastward and the blunt heading into alabama, tuscaloosa and birmingham probably in line after 10:00, 11:00 their time. this line will fall apart late tonight and early tomorrow morning, but because of the very warm humid air in front of it, it's liable to last into the night and nighttime severe weather is a very, very tough situation to deal with, megyn, and folks should be aware to atlanta, georgia and all the way down to the alabama, georgia boarder. >> joe, thank you. >>> a majority of the storm deaths came in arkansas where the town of conway was particularly hard hit. we reports of residents literally climbing out of shelters and seeing what happened as the storm chasers rolled into town. watch this. casey siegal is surveying the damage, about ten miles down the road from conway. casey? >> reporter: yeah, megyn, i get goose bumps when i hear the tornado sirens and chaos because once you walk around and see the damage, you can put yourself in these people's shoes. the national weather forecasters say the winds were about 130 to 135 mi

dropped tornadoes from yazoo city in jackson, alabama, and they ever overnight through places like tuscaloosa and birmingham. now take a look at where the moderate risk is, it's a lot of the exact same areas. generally you have a tornado system go through, and then things are clear behind it but so many of them people doing their cleanup and rescue and recovery they're dealing right right now, the atmosphere is getting reloaded to see another batch of storms move in. this is a look at the satellite image you. can see this cloud cover here here. you see that clearing. that allows the surface to heat up and gives us the potential to explode again and that's what we're watching. two tornado watch boxes we're watching ruth now. one in north carolina, one here out across parts of southern mississippi, both or these expire at 9:00 p.m. local time but these storms here so far across parts of southern mississippi and in toward the panhandle of florida, they all have hail and wind. i think in the next hour we'll see some of these begin to get the rotation, turn into tornadoes and then we have a very r

jonathan is live in tuscaloosa, alabama. what's happening where you are? we see destruction right behind you there. >> right behind me. take a look at this. we have residents returning to the golden acres mobile home park. trees fell into some of these mobile homes. fortunately the family who lives here sought shelter at a nearby hospital and are okay. while many residents evacuated this mobile home park and were away while the tornado struck, other residents were right here when it happened, although there was plenty of advanced warning of the possibility of tornadoes and even tornadoes on the ground. the power had gone out to some of these homes so folks were relying only on tv or devices dependent on ac power. it wasn't until they got phone calls from loved ones that they were realizing that they were in the direct path. >> looking at all the trees everywhere and trying to clean up on the inside, it's very overwhelming. but i have some people who were helping me yesterday and people who will be back today to help. it's just going to be a long process. >

catching you live in the car as you head up from tupelo, from the scene of the destruction, to tuscaloosaama, where things could get dangerous as well. tell me what we're expecting there. >> we have a lot of sunshine and, ashleigh, that sounds like a good thing. it's a clear day, that's great, but, in fact, that's the exact opposite we want. the sunshine is heating the ground. the ground now is warming up the atmosphere it a atmosphere, and atmosphere is going to bubble. those bubbles turn into clouds. eventually, those storms can rotate, especially a day like today. rotating thunderstorms produce tornadoes. there will be tornadoes on the ground today. a lot like yesterday. although yesterday was really an unbelievable day in my mind, where we take tornadoes, almost a 500-mile wide swath from north to south. think of it like a rake. all the tines of the rake. and mother nature just drug that rake across alabama, a half a mile wide tine. that's the damage we saw here, into louisville, into meridian, big-time damage there. we could see it today, a little further to the south, where the warm

now we talked yesterday, almost the exact same time, i was chasing tornadoes in tuscaloosa. they never happened. why? because the gulf coast stopped pushing its moisture into mississippi and alabama and the rain came down here. we didn't get tornadoes here but it rained and rained and rained for hours on end. some people say that today, they saw on their rain gauge a little click of rain gauge in the backyard, five inches of rain in one hour. that water's still here, still going through neighborhoods. it's still running off and into the gulf of mexico that runs downhill because the gulf isn't that far away. but the water came up and came up quickly. it came through the homes. and now receding. people have a lot to pick up, a lot to do here. we're grateful we didn't get the number of tornados that we were expecting yesterday in such a moderate risk day but the people here paid for that. >> chad meyers, thank you. next door, parts of alabama also getting record-setting floods. rescue workers at it around the clock to reach those trapped. i'm joined by the deputy director for t

the overnight hours tonight, this is going to also progress to the east and that puts places like tuscaloosa on the map for this, and overnight, atlanta. so some very big cities in the track of it. not just nash vol to the north but teethes, birmingham, montgomery, alabama, and this looks like in the tupelo, mississippi area, there's a tornado on the ground with that storm as well. >> we believe it's inside the big pink cell. here's he new watches and warning, greenwood, grenada, and tupelo, and those towns that are just to the north of there on highway 45, you know who you are. if you're in that area, this is as serious a storm system i have scene for that area. we'll be right back. honestly, i'm pouring everything i have into this place. that's why i got a new windows 2 in 1. it has exactly what i need for half of what i thought i'd pay. and i don't need to be online for it to work. it runs office, so i can do schedules and budgets and even menu changes. but it's fun, too -- with touch, and tons of great apps for stuff like music, 'cause a good playlist is good for business. i need the bos

watching that in the fox weather center, first i want go live in tuscaloosa, alabama, where people are recovering from those deadly twisters there. jonathan, how bad is this damage where you are now? >> reporter: bill, the damage is extensive. right here, perhaps a textbook example why officials try to evacuate mobile home parks when a tornado is approaching. right now i'm standing in what used to be a bedroom. a dresser here, baby's crib and double bed here. look, a tree came crashing through the roof onto the bed and the exterior wall. look over there panning to the left, you can see the window on what used to be the wall, it's now become part of the floor. over there, a tree crushi crushing -- partially crushing the car behind it. fortunately, the family that lived in this mobile home heeded the tornado warnings and they sought shelter at a nearby hospital. they've lost most of their property but they still have their lives. bill. >> man oh man. jonathan, thank you, live on that. >>> i want to get the latest on the storm wrecking havoc across the south. right now, live in the weathe

i did witness the tornado in tuscaloosa which was horrible. this one was also extremely bad. a damage path of about a half mile wide across interstate 40. i saw -- when i saw the tornado, i saw numerous semi trucks heading that way and i knew they would run into the tornado if they didn't pull over. sadly many of them didn't. >> the forecast here have been coming for days the storms were headed that way. as you were driving through, did you get the sense that people heeded the warnings? >> i do believe that some did. there was numerous people that did pull over after i did. and there were definitely a lot of people that were aware of what was going on. there was also quite a few who probably weren't. >> we heard from some people this morning on cnn that they felt emergency response was rm rapid. have you witnessed the same thing? >> i did. as a matter of fact, as i was getting back in my car, i was stuck there for two or three hours because it was blocked. there must have been over 100 emergency vehicles, ambulance, police, fire, that rapidly got on the scene. i was really im

. >> you're in tuscaloosa and alabama, there are concerns about flooding, right?rter: pouring down rain, anderson, and now for hours we were following the storm as it came in from mississippi. and we know there was potential for spin on the bottom of it. on the southwest corner of this storm it could have spun. and it did briefly. but not enough to get a tornado warning. and that is great news. honestly, this day could have been a big tornado day, as well. but because of the limiting factors that jennifer just mentioned, perfect day to kill the tornadoes and make flooding but kill the tornadoes. so here is what is going on now. it is getting dark here, almost completely dark and it will rain all night in some spots. especially gulf coast, on up maybe towards georgia and atlanta. if you're driving tomorrow morning, early to work before sunrise watch the water on the roadways. it may be flooded. the road may be gone. there could be that much flooding in some spots. now there is no way to tell where that might be. if you live in a flood-prone area and it is raining a

spring storms are too common for both of us and everybody can remember the storm that swept through tuscaloosae years ago killing so many people. we do share resources on occasion. at this point in time, we're doing it through our own national guard, highway patrol and even borrowed people from the tennessee department of corrections in the search procedure to make sure we haven't missed a thing. jenna: the descriptions we're getting of the area that was affected in your state is really tragic. the national weather service is reporting all homes gone, there's almost total devastation. how much warning did folks get? >> you know, i think that differed in individual cases. i do think it was -- everybody knew the storm front was coming through. you knew about the damage that happened in arkansas and mississippi. what is unpredictable about the storms, as you well know, is you can have the most severe warning possible and nothing can happen or it can touch down somewhere and cause the kind of damage that we have. we have another warning basically for this afternoon and tonight for the state as wel

in tuscaloosa, alabama, well inland, low-lying areas were swamped. >> i've never seen this much water in my life. i mean, i know i'm young but this is a lot of flooding for alabama. >> ifill: some parts of the state saw up to 26 inches of rain in 24 hours alone, more than some hurricanes bring. the slow-moving system also brought powerful thunder and lightning storms overnight, knocking out power to thousands. the heavy rain also reached to the atlantic. llewellyn jones lives in wilson, north carolina. her basement was flooded when a nearby creek overran its banks. >> we had about four and a half feet of water in our driveway. it was over the hoods of both our cars. probably a good three feet in the house that turned our freezer over, washer, dryer. >> ifill: from there, the storm system pushed north, dumping as much as five inches of rain across parts of the mid-atlantic and into the northeast. >> ifill: for more on the flooding, we spoke a short time ago on the phone with ashton hayward, the mayor of pensacola, florida. welcome, mayor. as of 6:00 p.m. eastern time, we're hearing tha

, and intense tornadoes are more like likely from the hattiesburg area to laurel to meridian to tuscaloosa and that is the greatest ear of concern,-- greatest area of concern, and the storm chasers are out, and if we have anything happen, that is where it will be. and we are still a couple of hours away from it, but make sure that everybody knows it is going to occur, and have safe plans. they are releasing the schools early so that kids are not trapped on the school buses, and now we will see what happens when the storms come. >>> and now, more fallout on the comments of owner of the clippers donald sterling. we are expected to learn sterling's fate as an nba owner as nba commissioner adam silver go going to be holding a press conference at 2:00 p.m. regarding the league investigation, and many former players and owners are encouraging him to come down hard. that includes leslie alexander who says this guy has no place in the family of the nba, and whatever it takes, we have nik sure this kind of event never happens again. >> and the owner of the atlanta hawks said if it is sterling on th

they looked at school systems in the south, but in particularly in tuscaloosa, mississippi, where desegregationbeen lifted in a lot of places, and they found that the number of what they call apartheid schools, schools where the white population is 1% or less, have risen dramatically from 2,762 in 1988 to 6,727 in 2011, and as schools have resegregated, we have seen the gap between white achievement and black achievement, which was narrowing once again widened. while i would love to be there, i think the facts speak to the reality that we're not. john roberts is saying in his opinions and in implication that racism is over, and, yet, there's so much data that really points in the other direction. up next, we have a different legal dispute of a different kind. did some of the biggest names in tech, google, apple, intel, did they engage in a hiring conspiracy, one allegedly mastermind by, yes, the great steve jobs. much more cycle straight ahead. can you start tomorrow? yes sir. alright. let's share the news tomorrow. today we failrly busy. tomorrow we're booked solid. we close on the house tomor

places like birmingham, tuscaloosa, back towards mississippi. that's where we have the moderate risk. the atmosphere has been cooking all morning long with sunshine out there. temperatures on the rise. we have the spin. we have the instability now, and the storms are firing up. first tornado watches of the day. in fact, we've already seen tornado touchdowns today. thankfully they've been in rural areas of north carolina and also illinois. just to give you an idea of how much of the country is dealing with severe weather all the way up to the great lakes and illinois. here's our first tornado watch box, including jackson, miss mishgs meridian and hattiesburg. we're seeing the storm developing. a super cell nature. don't have the full strength just yet, but the tornado watch will include, and the threat will continue there as well as north carolina. this is our second tornado watch box, including the city of raleigh, and that's where we had our tornado touchdown earlier east of raleigh, and, again, thankfully that was over rural areas. no one was

yesterday, tuscaloosa marine shale, we saw great results come occupy, goodrich petroleum the other dayeologist team that was with that helped him pick the acreage is now with him at halcon. bullishness, 47% of the street have buy recommendations versus 100% just about a year ago, so sentiments change. i was with the management last week, there's an enthusiasm in the company that frankly i haven't seen since they started. not that they weren't enthusiastic, but it's reached a very, very strong level, so i think the stock is going to be a home run from here. >> stock was getting a big spike there. the playbook playoffs is a contest for fun essentially, but do you own it personally? >> i do own it. >> you're doubling down. you own it personally, adding it for the playbook playoffs as well. >> and one more point 80% of the commodity exposure is hedged out. so you're playing the management, and frankly there's noinger in energy that i would rather be about. 60 million to 12 billion. >> the point i wanted to make it's true conviction on your part. >> home cooking, baby. >> the stock's popped

we're really targeting mississippi, alabama, so from birmingham to tuscaloosa, through meridian, laurel and hattiesburg, the area in red is the greatest threat for tornados. we'll start at 2:00 or 3:00 this afternoon. tracking the peak of the storms right around the dinner hour and die off through the evening. once again i'm sure schools will get let out early in this area and we'll cover these storms for you all afternoon. >> all right, bill, thank you. we hope that folks there heed those warnings. >>> we want to turn now to news overseas. more sanctions for russia today and more outrage from moscow. russia is condemning what it calls iron curtain sanctions. the u.s. has imposed on seven russian individuals and 17 companies with close personal ties to president vladimir putin. today the european union added 15 names to its own list of figures close to the kremlin. meanwhile the obama administration is defending itself against bipartisan criticism in congress that it's not doing more. treasury secretary jack lew spoke to nbc's andrea mitchell. here's what he had to say. >> sanctions are

. >> from little rock to tupelo to tuscaloosa and now pensacola, 24 inches of rain in 24 hours.e. five inches in one hour. in fact, governor rick scott is with me. a tough day for your state. we've had a lot of tough days across the southeast but this is one for you. >> we've got all this rain that's come, this flash flooding. we've had over 300 individuals evacuated from their homes. we still have more. still looks like we're going to have more rain. you can see the flooding behind us. areas that never flooded before. we brought high water vehicles from national guard that are on their way here. we've got roads just devastated. what you really worry about is individuals. we have the animal shelters flooded. so you think about the animals. i mean this is devastating to this part of the state. we're going to stay here and make sure every sit step gets taken care of. we've got the national guard. fish and wildlife. we've got great local efforts. the sheriff's here. the mayors are here. we've got great emergency management teams all across the state. they're showing up. we have abo

and three years ago tomorrow, an ef-4 ripped through tuscaloosa and birmingham, alabama, killing 64 people. 158 more died just a month later after an ef-5 tornado flattened a large part of joplin, missouri. now, this is the latest we've ever gone in a calendar year without a death caused by a tornado. hopefully, that's a streak we would very much like to continue, but very dangerous storms could be brewing today. as i mentioned, everyone in their path should remain alert and head to safety if necessary. erica? >> dylan, thanks. >>> heading now to the latest in that ferry disaster out of south korea. four more crew members were detained by authorities. this morning, we are seeing more pictures inside that boat taken as the disaster unfolded. bill neely is in south korea with more on that. good morning, bill. >> reporter: good morning, erica. real frustration here for the families of more than 100 missing students with searching suspended today. and with a storm approaching, it may stay suspended for some days to come. the police boats are returning empty. no bodies have been brought ashore

hattiesburg, tuscaloosa, birmingham all included in this. have some strong storms that just rolled through pensacola, panama city. not tornados but these storms will end as we go throughout the morning and weekend. in all, we have seen over 60 tornados in the last two days and we're going to probably see another dozen to two dozen today. we're also going to watch a ton of rain on the eastern seaboard. as far as that timing goes, guys, again, late this afternoon, this evening best chance for tornados. how's this for a number. 76 million people at risk of severe storms and tornados today. >>> coming up next on "morning joe" former senator rick santorum is here. >> krpt nbc's tyler mathisen and jordan roth with a preview of this year's tony nominations up next. >>> coming up next, the top stories in the political playbook. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back, i promise. vo: once upon a time there was a boy who traveled to a faraway place where villages floated on water and castles were houses dragons lurked giants stood tall and

especially the day tuscaloosa, alabama got hit.hat's a much bigger series of days than the three we have here. we still have the opportunity for a fourth day. that may be the most unprecedented as it moves to wednesday further east. this storm was a large bowling ball, in the middle of the country and had this been colder, we would have been talking feet, three feet, of snow in many, many big cities. we're kind of glad it's only rain but not glad when you get it warmer like the spring snowstorms furnace into tornado storms. we'll keep checking back with you. the images are very, very ominous. standing by this very dangerous situation. mississippi, north carolina, that's coming up. also a huge hunt for malaysian airlines. has a private company found debr debris, where nobody has been look. stay with us. you're in the "situation room." frequent heartburn? the choice is yours. chalky. not chalky. temporary. 24 hour. lots of tablets. one pill. you decide. prevacid. ♪ 24 hour we cannot let the fans down. don't worry! the united states p

so areas of the deep south tomorrow around nashville down to birmingham, tuscaloosa, be on alert.u, rick. well, overnight president obama held a press conference with malaysia's prime minister as questions loomed over the missing airliner. no trace of which has yet been found. >> the president also talking about the tensions between russia and ukraine. >> peter doocy is joining us from washington, d.c. with the all the details. good morning, peter. >> good morning, anna. the big thing right now when it comes to possible new sanctions against russia is just making sure that the united states and the european union are on the same page. that's what president obama said this morning at the press conference in malaysia. and the president said he just thinks the impact of the united front against moscow would be greater than it becoming another russia/u.s. greater conflict. >> oftentimes they are really interested in portraying this through this old cold war prism when in fact that's not the issue here. the issue is respecting basic international norms of sovereignty and territorial in