WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Search crews
in Alabama have spent this
day looking through tornado

wreckage, hoping
to find nothing.

Sunday's storm ripped apart
everything it hit, with
winds of 170 miles-an-hour.

At least 23 people were
killed, making it deadliest
tornado in the United States in

six years.

In Beauregard, Alabama, homes
have been reduced to piles of
debris along a county highway.

The deadly tornado tore through
this rural community just 60
miles northeast of Montgomery

near the Georgia
border on Sunday.

The storm cut a path nearly
one mile wide and 24 miles
long after touching down.

It snapped pine trees in half,
wrapped metal siding around
their trunks and ripped down

power lines and a cell
phone tower, now splayed
across the highway.

Kevin and Becky Boyd were
inside their mobile home
when the tornado hit.

MAN: I got underneath the bed,
and the trailer's upside down in
the backyard on top of my shed.

WOMAN: I felt it rolling.

I tumbled over and ended up
on my stomach, and I had to
crawl out once I could get my

legs straightened, and he
lifted stuff off of me.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The Boyds
escaped serious injury, but at
least one of their neighbors

was killed.

JAY JONES, Lee County Sheriff:
It looks almost as if someone
took a giant knife and just

scrapped the ground.

There are slabs where
homes formally stood.

There is debris everywhere.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lee County
Sheriff Jay Jones warned today
that the death toll is likely

to rise as rescue and
recovery efforts continue.

JAY JONES: I have not seen this
type of level of devastation
ever in my experience here

in Lee County.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Overall, the
tornado that struck Alabama
was one of more than a dozen

to hit parts of Georgia,
South Carolina and
Florida over the weekend.

KEVIN LAWS, National Weather
Service: When you get into
this kind of range, like 165

miles per hour, you start to
see not only exterior walls
that collapse on well-built

homes, but you also start
to see the interior walls.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Kevin Laws is
chief scientist at the National
Weather Service in Birmingham,

Alabama.

He says the storm quickly
intensified after a
front of cold arctic
air slammed into warm,

humid southern air.

And while warnings went out,
Laws says homes in the area
are simply not built to sustain

such a storm.

KEVIN LAWS: The teams are
out assessing, where a lot of
manufactured homes once were are

now completely destroyed.

So, if you're in one of those
homes, it's probably about the
worst place you could possibly

be.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Just across
the state line from Beauregard,
in Georgia, another tornado

touched down in Talbot County,
about 80 miles south of Atlanta.

Today, residents surveyed what
was left, picking up clothing
and other personal items, some

thrown hundreds of
feet from their yard.

One woman said she prayed
for her family as the
tornado blew through.

WOMAN: My babies, I just covered
them just like this, calling
on Jesus, just kept saying,

Jesus, cover us.

Cover us, Jesus.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: A
handful of Georgians
were hurt, but Governor
Brian Kemp today said the

state escaped the worst.

GOV.

BRIAN KEMP (R), Georgia: We
certainly dodged a bullet,
and we're thankful for that.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back in
Alabama, rescue efforts are
continuing, but the storm system

brought freezing temperatures
in its wake, and some 8,000
people are without power.

And now, for an on-the-ground
report, we're joined by phone
by Jeremy Redmon of The Atlanta

Journal-Constitution.

He's in Lee County,
Alabama, today.

Jeremy, thank you very
much for being here.

The pictures that we're
seeing of the devastation
there are just horrible.

I wonder if you could give
us a sense of what you're
seeing on the ground now.

JEREMY REDMON, The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution: Yes.

The sheriff here, Jay
Jones, gave an adequate
description, I thought.

He said it looked like
someone had taken a knife and
scraped the ground with it.

I went out there today in
Beauregard, the hardest-hit
area, and there was this yellow

installation hanging
from the trees.

One house has got a
Coca-Cola truck up on its
side in the front yard.

Some homes were just completely
destroyed, their roofs taken
off, cars on their side.

It's pretty grim.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And we're
hearing that the number of
victims is expected to go up, as

search-and-rescue
efforts continue.

Can you tell us about the people
that we already know who have
who have been killed in this

tragedy?

JEREMY REDMON: Yes.

Unfortunately, they have said
that 23 people have been killed.

Among them are three
children, ages 6, 9 and 10.

They have not
identified any of them.

The oldest is in the 70s
or 80s, I understand.

But it's still certainly
possible, they're telling us,
as they come to the wreckage,

that they may find more.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And
as you have been hearing
from people that you're
talking to who obviously

survived this storm,
what kind of stories have
they been telling you?

JEREMY REDMON: Yes, it's a
pretty harrowing, stories
of people scrambling
to get into their

bathroom, in the
bathtub, in the closet.

The sound of a freight
train is how they described
the tornado coming.

People are openly weeping here.

There's just a lot of
stunned expressions.

People are still grappling
with the devastation that
has hit their community.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:
And I understand it's
quite cold there now.

And there's still thousands
of people without power.

More broadly, how are
people holding up?

JEREMY REDMON: Yes, it
was really striking.

This morning, around
10:00, 10:30, there were
dozens of people that
filed into the Beauregard

High School gymnasium,
stood in a circle and held
hands and led a prayer.

And there were people openly
crying during the service.

But it was certainly
a sign of solidarity.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And
I understood you heard
from one local reverend
and about what happened

to his particular family.

JEREMY REDMON: Certainly.

So this is Providence Baptist
Church that is serving as a
shelter for storm victims.

The associate pastor
there, Chuck Adams, said
he got an urgent call
from his daughter that

her future father-in-law
was trapped underneath
the wreckage of his own
home in the Beauregard

area.

His family apparently had
taken shelter in the house.

The storm took home -- this is
a modular home - - and threw it
70 yards, according to Reverend

Adams, destroying it and
trapping this Alabama
state trooper, Robbie
Burroughs, underneath

the debris.

He was rescued, but he suffered
serious injuries, a concussion,
broken ribs, and a back injury.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right,
Jeremy Redmon of The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, thank

you very much.

JEREMY REDMON: My pleasure.