thanks so much for being with us on this wednesday. good to see everybody this morning. you know the pictures are coming in, new pictures, and the devastation, continues for the midwest. >> that's right. ali velshi in joplin, missouri, where they had a harrowing night. hi, ali. >> good morning, christine, kiran, it is a better morning here. people counting their blessings. a near miss last night in joplin, missouri. everyone taking shelter and bracing for another twister that thanchgfully never came. this city, as you know, is reeling. 48 hours after the deadliest tornado in recorded u.s. history the death toll stands at 124 people killed. the national weather service upgraded sunday's tornado to an ef-5, the highest possible rating with winds above 200 miles an hour. now in oklahoma, devastating storms carved up canadian county, which is west of oklahoma city. five separate tornadoes touched down and five people are dead. dozens more are hurt. the dallas area got pounded too. texas rangers fans had to evacuate the stadium for a time before the ball game returned. several tornado sightings were spotted with heavy damage to homes in the ft. worth area, and then two people killed in arkansas, franklin and johnson counties, were bearing the brunt there. now around here in joplin county yesterday, it was the first time the weather cleared up. we had a chance to go up in a blackhawk helicopter to get a sense of the destruction. it was really quite remarkable to see it from the air. there's certainly no -- we can see the devastate around us. we got a sense of what it was. when you see it from the air you really get the sense, it looks shredded. homes look like they were shredded. look at the flattened trees. the homes that were destroyed actually looked like sawdust from the air. that's the medical center you're looking at that's just up the road. there were just entire areas that were completely, completely flattened that didn't have the characteristics, the typical characteristics of a tornado, where it weaves in and out. these were flattened areas entirely. now that was during the day yesterday. then last night, we expected bad weather to roll in and suddenly late last night, after a little bit of rain started to show up, we started to hear the tornado sirens. we were here in this position, this is pretty high ground. we decided to seek cover. before we did that we went to the last place we had seen people. it was a warle hou -- warle hou the highway here. this is what happened when we got there. >> the last place we saw where there was a gathering of people was this waffle house near interstate 44. this is what they call the hotel district. we figured let's get a lay of the land, find out what's going on here. this thing was absolutely full about ten minutes ago. when we got here it was emptied out. people are starting to take shelter. some went in the back. some are trying to make decisions where they should go. a lot of people have applications and are getting messages as to where the storm is, but there is some heavy electrical storms as you can see, not much in the way of rain right now, but the storm is headed in this direction and after what has happened here on sunday night i guess some people just don't want to take chances. everybody is looking for shelter right now. >> and, of course, we had heard at that point that there had been a touch down of a tornado very close to where we were. people started to -- sirens started to go off and folks started to take cover. in a few minutes i'm going to talk to a woman whose house is just a couple blocks from where we are. she survived after her hus collapsed on her and her husband. she will be here to talk about how she was found and rescued. one of the lucky stories here in joplin. with so many people unaccounted for we are uncertain as to where those people are, whether they remain trapped or got out of town and are just having trouble communicating with their loved ones. >> ali velshi, harrowing moments captured on tape. we will be checking with you throughout the morning as you update us on the situation. can't get a break. >> here you have the national center that predicts these storms, the national storm prediction center, the weather is extreme when they have to evacuate as well. that's exactly what happened last night, too. >> it's in norman, oklahoma, a tornado was coming right at them. it missed, but others weren't so fortunate. you see that funnel cloud tearing a path of destruction. five people were killed in oklahoma. the national weather service says at least five tornadoes it touched down. ed lavandera is live in piedmont, oklahoma, this morning. you know, they had warned about this, they were talking about the extreme threat of these tornados and sure enough, we saw them unfold yesterday. >> kiran, here in piedmont where you're talking about is where the five deaths occurred and the sheriff in this county expects perhaps that number could increase. in fact, there's a 3-year-old boy that is still missing after the storm rolled through here late yesterday afternoon. many of these storms caught on videotape. storm chasers following these tornadoes as they touch down and carve their way across this state of oklahoma. it's been a treacherous, long sleepless night for thousands of people. not only across here in oklahoma but down into the dallas area as well. if you look at this one house here in piedmont, this was a two-story home before the tornado rolled through here yesterday afternoon. and you can see the difficult part here out in this, we're northwest of oklahoma city, rather rural area in this town of about almost 4,000 people and the search and rescue here hampered. look out at it in the darkness. the search and rescue efforts had to be suspended as the darkness hit this area last night. they will resume here as soon as the sun comes back up this morning. so, this is what they're facing here. as we've driven around over here in the overnight hours to get to where we are right now, you've seen in many places where these tornadoes come through and basically just carved off the top of tree tops, power lines down as well, and homes that in many situations, in many cases look just like this, kiran? >> unbelievable. any update or any word on whether more people are missing? >> well, what we do know is of the 3-year-old boy, that will be, we suspect here in the piedmont area, one of the areas where they quickly resume that search here this morning and as the sheriff mentioned, they believe that death toll number here in this area could go up, so those search and rescue efforts because they had to be suspended here, i mean it is absolutely dark once you start getting away into some of these rural areas. it makes it virtually impossible for these teams to get through -- see through there, treacherous terrain and wooded areas to be able to do any kind of reasonable and thorough searching. they're going to need that daylight to be able to make any headway in that. >> so tragic. ed lavendandera in piedmont, oklahoma, thanks. tornado watches in place in st. louis, chicago and memphis. those could be today's targets. rob marciano is here with more on that. three days now of very extreme weather and tornadic activity as they say in your business. >> last night, i feel like -- we had such strong storms rolling through oklahoma and kansas and arkansas and missouri. some of the storms, luckily, dodged some of the more populated areas. that hasn't been the theme this year, has it? i mean that's why we've had so many fatalities. we've had big storms, big tornadoes but they've rolled through populated areas like tuscaloosa and joplin. a look at the storm reports, part of yesterday, or since about 8:00 last night. and in total, 56 tornado reports, over 600 reports of wind and some of those reports stretch all the way to the northeast as well. we're looking at tornado warnings right now, just north of st. louis. looks like the last one was allowed to expire. southwest of st. louis and east of springfield and rolling through the east. tornado watch in effect for the next few hours here. you can see this well-developed storm system, pinwheeling slowly off to the east. the entire storm that spawned the severe weather the past few days is beginning to push off to the east and under the gun will be folks in indianapolis, st. louis, back to little rock, memphis. moderate risk for seeing severe weather today. that's one notch down from what we saw yesterday across parts of ek oak. more populated areas, a dangerous afternoon and evening for sure as this storm continues to push up. it's going to be tapping moisture from the gulf of mexico. that humidity is going to increase things as well and the heat also. it's another day and then this will push off to the east tomorrow and it will weaken somewhat, but still we're not done with this system yet. it's a big one. >> amazing how many of the twisters caught on camera throughout yesterday. how -- i mean we just have so much visual evidence of the destruction. >> oklahoma city, they don't mess around in that television market. the choppers get up in the air and fly around these tornadoes. it's remarkable. and the residents of that state know what they're doing. >> a little more practice. >> they do. it's part of their daily lives, like brushing their teeth, get in the storm shelter or inside your home when the storms come through. they know how to cover it and warn their residents as well. that's another reason there weren't as many fatalities as we could have had. >> the funnel cloud is narrow and powerful, others we've seen monster wide storms. is there a difference of how they behave, the destruction or just different? >> they're like snowflakes, every one is different. the wider ones, wedge ones, can have multiple vortstysys within them. but the smaller ones, they don't look as bad but they pack a punch as well. >> explode a barn, pick up a car, amazing. >> truly remarkable. >> also new this morning, officials say it is unlikely iceland's volcano will blow again, but right now the ash cloud is disrupting international air travel this morning. there's a look at it. you can see how wide, how dense the ash is at this point. germany shutting down two airports. ended up canceling 700 flights because of it. some good news, the european air traffic control agency says things could return to normal later today if the ash cloud continues to break up and dissipate. >> today is day three of president obama's tour of europe. he's in london right now. last night he and the first lady went to a lavish state banquet hosted by the queen, but the president's toast was accidentally interrupted when the orchestra started playing a bit too soon. >> to her majesty, the queen, to the vitality of the special relationship, between our peoples and in the words of shakespeare, to this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this england. to the queen. >> president obama and british prime minister david cameron will hold a news conference in just over an hour. "american morning" will have live coverage of that event beginning at 7:35 eastern time. we're expecting them to address libya, afghanistan, the relationship between these two countries and a whole lot more. >> and the whole global economic situation as well. >> that's right. there's a huge interest in this trial going on, three years in the making and a bombshell in the casey anthony case as opening statements in the trial in florida. the attorney for casey anthony basically accused -- who she is accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter caylee, her defense attorney told the jury that her toddler drowned accidentally and casey's father helped covered it up. her defense claims she was sexually abused by her father from the age of 8 and this is a family used to covering up lies. we will be talking to sunny hostin about this defense. she is facing -- casey anthony is facing capital murder in this case. we'll talk to sunny hostin at 6:40. a judge rules against chris christi's state education budget. the state's supreme court ruled christie's school cuts are unconstitutional because they don't meet funding requirements. christy must include another $500 million in education aid back to the schools. a first look at nasa as it unveils its new space vehicle. exactly what it looks like coming up. more about oprah's final farewell. new details about her last how show. we'll tell you a little bit more about it. ♪ hello sunshine, sweet as you can be ♪ [ female announcer ] wake up to sweetness with honey nut cheerios cereal. kissed with real honey. and the 100% natural whole grain oats can help lower your cholesterol. you are so sweet to me. bee happy. bee healthy. and all we need to do is change the way we're thinking about them. a couple decades ago, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas. this deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years, providing energy security and economic growth all across this country. it just takes somebody having the idea, and that's where the discovery comes from. good morning. i'm ali velshi in joplin, missouri. i'm in front of a church that starts over there behind the camera and extends all the way over here to the library of the church, a classroom, and goes all the way over there behind me. this whole area, we're on a hill, was a church that has just been destroyed. we're in the midst of this area in joplin destroyed. the only building that's still standing in very, very badly damaged is that medical center that we have been showing you for the last couple of days in which a number of patients died. we've been looking at all this, we've been surveying this all from the ground, but yesterday i had a chance to get up on a u.s. army black hawk and take a look around the damaged area. it's quite remarkable. let me give you a sense of the damage around here. it's about three quarters of a mile wide and about six miles long and doesn't have the characteristic, you know, some of the houses are destroyed or others are not. the tornado wrecked everything in its path and most of those houses are just shredded. you can see, some of them are just entirely, entirely flat president. the foliage is gone, trees knocked over, if not stripped bare. the walmart we showed you pictures of and the home depot, also completely laid bare. a number of bodies pulled from the home depot. this is the kind of devastation that the storm has brought. a woman i want to introduce you to, i still will later in the show, lived in a house just nearby here. she went into her basement to wait this tornado out. the entire house collapsed upon her and her husband, but they did a little bit of space and their neighbors actually pulled them out. she actually went back to her house yesterday and got her pet bird that had also survived. there are stories of survival in here. however, there are still a lot of unaccounted for people. the list, according to the latest we just spoke to emergency workers here, about 1500 people. now they are cautioning they don't know that there's anything wrong with those 1500 people. they don't know that they're hurt or trapped or dead. they are just people whose families have contacted authorities to say that they don't know where they are. it's entirely possible they've left the area, but all through the day yesterday and night, we are still having trouble communicating with people on the cell phone service because of the damage, the number of cell phone towers were put out, plus a lot of emergency workers and media in here. we don't know the state of those people. right now the death toll still standing at about 123 people in joplin, missouri, and the recovery continues. christine and kiran, if people want to find out more, they can help those devastated by the tornadoes in missouri, go to cnn.com/impact. we're going to link you to disaster relief in the other states that have been affected. this is a list of organizations and the ways you can help those in need. cnn.com/impact. christine, kiran? >> all right. ali velshi out there today. another day of devastation, another day of uncertainty. we will be checking in with you throughout the morning. a former friend and aide of sarah palin has a new tell-all book. what he's saying about palin as a possible presidential candidate. the nba is trying to put a campaign forward telling people to watch what they say. yoakum noah, the latest player to use a gay slur. we'll talk about his punishment and why it was less than what kobe bryant got for doing the same thing. 20 minutes past the hour. 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[ female announcer ] new purifying facial cleanser ♪ ♪ when you're resonsible for this much of the team, you need a car you can count on. ♪ 23 minutes after the hour. minding your business. it appears americans are all work and no play. according to a survey by expedia.com, the average u.s. worker gets 18 vacation days but uses only 14 of them. one expert says the reason, some folks simply want to eliminate the temptation to spend money. fewer americans falling behind on their credit card bills. transunion says late payments have fallen to their lowest level in 15 years. one reason for that decline -- consumers are cautious about carrying debt, they've been paying down their credit card balances. nasa unveiling its new space shuttle. the multipurpose crew vehicle is based on the or ri yon capsule, designed to take out >>s back to the moon. it will be designed by lockheed martin. >> google and citibank are going green. the two companies announced they will invest $55 million into a california wind farm. once the project is complete it will be the country's largest wind farm able to power 450,000 homes. the best part of waking up will cost you more. the maker of folgers announcing it's raising the price of its coffee products by 11%. j.m. smucker says the price hike is needed to offset high coffee costs. a group of high school students in washington state wanted to illustrate america's $14.3 trillion debt. check this out. they laid out 14,300 pennies, each of those pennies represents $1 billion. "american morning" will be right back after this break. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] with amazing innovation, driven by relentless competition, wireless puts the world at your command. ♪ yo