i'm in front of an apartment complex where six people lost their lives. i'll bring you the whole story from here and from the whole area in the south and midwest that was hit by these deadly storms. >> and winner take some. mitt romney wins michigan but splits the delegates with rick santorum. romney also picking up another state. this all happening right before super tuesday. and after three days at sea without power means no lights, no toilets, no showers and infested waters, a cruise ship arrives in port finally. and people, boy, they have some stories to tell. but first, we're going to get right over to harrisburg. i was reading that it looks like a bomb went off. i was looking at the aerial pictures. just total devastation where you are. >> it definitely looks like a bomb went off. just look behind me at the garden heights apartments. it's hard to believe this was an apartment. you can see the car in the smashed garage. then when you look threw the wreckage, you can see remnants of life, bathrooms turned up side down, beds, closets, wholesale destruction of families and lives in this community. this particular apartment building as i said right off the top of the show, six people lost their lives here. that's the entire death toll for this town of 9,000. i want to give you a feel for the swath of the deadly storms. 12 people dead across the midwest and the south. again, six of them right here in harrisburg. 100 people injured in this community. but it's thought to be that injuries running from scratches to serious trauma run to 200 people. the tornado system was an f-4. that is just about as bad as they can get. it is second down from the worst tornado out there. it struck just before 5:00 in the morning yesterday, just before we were going on the air. so so many people in their homes. that could be a good thing that they're not out in cars and stores. they do get the warnings. the warnings were pretty good. about 25 minutes to a half hourment a lot of people could take shelter. of course, many people could not either. the storm was moving at 60 miles an hour. that is not the kind of storm can you outrun. so obvious lit town taken by surprise. this isn't even considered tornado season. this is the dead of winter. i want to bring in christy stewart, a reporter for "the daily register." you've been covering a lot of local and state and federal issues with regard to this. can you give me a feel for what the response is? is fema involved? where is the help coming from? >> i have heard from a lot of state officials that they're trying to get as much help and support from state that they can. but the overall response that i really felt from people in the community is just a sense of hope. people are really coming together and being very supportive. everyone is really, you know, surprised. but heartened by that through all this. you know, awful destruction. >> it's hard to seen say that. if you look behind you, it looks like a bulldozer came through and wiped these families and lives away. i know you had a chance to talk to some of the politicians, local, state, federal as well. what is the response? >> pretty much the same. they're just shocked. it's disheartening to see this kind of damage in the community. you drive by these places every day and suddenly they're not there anymore. there is also hope just from the support that they've been seeing from everyone involved. we've had emergency crews working all night long, people from all over the area, all over the state coming to help. >> and they moved in fairly quickly, too. it was only 24 hours ago we begun our program and started to hear word of breaking news of the tornadoes coming through. as i was coming into town, i have to be completely honest, i thought we were in the wrong place. the north part of town looks great. and then all of a sudden, you show up here and the reality kicks in. do the people here get it? do they know how lucky they are if they lived in one area and how unlucky others were? >> i agree with that. i'm not sure. honestly, i think some people who have power haven't seen the news reports. people are getting on fb and photos are starting to trickle in. there are people in the areas that are completely intact and haven't been affected. it's shocking to see the photos a few miles away. >> this is considered part of the tornado district. we see these things on television. every year we see the tornado disasters. are people here accustomed to that or was this the sort of thing that they have never seen the powers of those winds like that here? >> i don't think you can ever get accustomed to thatment we've seen some major storm damage but nothing like this ever. >> i know that this is your community. live and work. so you're covering people all the time. are you getting a sense for hope or a sense where people are bewildered and hope is some time down the road? >> some of both. but it's actually shocking how helpful people can get in a situation like this and how supportive and how much people want to help each other. everyone's just been, you know, trying to figure out what they can do to help. i think that should bring a little hope for all of us. >> this is the area that was worst hit, this apartment complex. it's hard to tell. it's dark. we just signed on. 4:00 in the morning local time here. but this swath of devastation sort of, you can really look at the path. it is 200 yards wide and moves straight down in a south easterly direction. there are a lot of homes back there as well. anything as bad as this or is this really just the worst it got? >> this is the worst i've seen. i know like the strip mall over next to walmart got hit really hard. some businesses around that area. but as far as homes, you know, like a neighborhood, this is definitely the worst. >> christy, you have your work cut out for you. i really appreciate you coming out at this hour. good luck you to and kblurn community. harrisburg is the hardest hit. again, six dead here. but there are 12 dead in total from these storms. one of the local reporters had a chance to do some interviews and get some perspective. have a listen. >> reporter: you knew this wasn't an order storm. it just sounded different. it was an erie sound that i had. you knew there was nothing you could do anyway. so you just laid there and just hoped your house didn't come down around you. >> i want to remind you that in branson, missouri, the storm system, it was a very unusual hit. some people call it a direct hit. other people say it really hop scotched through branson, missouri. if you know branson, you know that is a tourist capital. it's like a mini vegas. it's an entertainment capital. there is a strip of entertainment facilities and musical theaters. they got pretty hard hit through the storms as well. southwest missouri is where the storm systems hit. the winds here were 170 miles an hour. but there they were 130 miles an hour. the marquee musical theaters got hit, a convention center there as well was hit. and apparently the swath of destruction in branson was seven miles long along that entertainment strip. and 400 yards wide. if you do the math, think about it, it's four football fields wide. so that was an enormous system that passed through branson, missouri. apparently the storm was on the ground there for 20 minutes. imagine the kind of destruction that was -- you know, that community was undergoing for 20 minutes of 130 mile an hour winds. cars were crushed. rubble everywhere. three dozen injuries that we know of so far. city officials, though, i tell you this are grateful. hard to say. that grateful this didn't happen two weeks from now when the key tourism season kicks in. rob marciano is joining us now. while it's calm here after the storm, the deadly systems may not be over yet. >> we're going to recharge the atmosphere starting tomorrow. first, reminder of what kind of damage these things can do. where you are in harrisburg, e ef-4. most of the other tornadoes that did damage in branson and in through kentucky, ef-2s, still 130 mile an hour winds. we'll be getting more reports in from the national weather service as we send our teams out o survey more thoroughly the exact path, how wide, how long and we'll begin to learn a little bit more about what happened yesterday. all right. what's going on today? we don't have as much as a threat. that pretty much is over. no watch box out right now. there are thunderstorms near the south. they're nowhere near the strength we saw yesterday. i want to show you this video from newburgh, indiana. this is south and east of evansville. an ef-1 tornado hit around this time or maybe an hour or so from now. an hour after the one hit harrisburg. this is likely the same cell that hit harrisburg. it weakened by the time it got to newburgh. that is from an ef-1 damage. we do expect to see a threat for tornadoes as we go on through -- as we go through tomorrow. a slight threat today through the nation's midsection. i think a greater threat as this storm which has a lot of energy with it comes out of the rockies and into the plains tomorrow. highlighted by the storm prediction center as a moderate risk here, two days out that, is pretty serious stuff. what's different today or tomorrow is that it will be shifted more to the east. the strak more to the east. hopefully harrisburg will be spared. they're in the shaded area of slight risk. so a wide swath of real estate but we'll be under the gun tomorrow. back to you. >> all right, rob. thanks very much. i want to remind viewers as well. i mentioned not only harrisburg in illinois and also branson, missouri. tennessee also suffering deaths, three deaths there as well. still not confirmed whether they were tornadoes necessarily. but straight line winds, tornadoes, whatever it was, devastating damage there as well with three deaths reported in tennessee. if you want to help, there is certainly a lot of ways that you can. i want to direct your attention to cnn.com/impact. if you go to our website and you click on that, you can find an array of different organizations where you can reach out and you can lend your assistance in any way you can. can i tell you one thing? if there's one thing i heard since arriving in this town, they're going to need a lot of help just here. >> i was reading online that there are a lot of volunteers signing up. they are requesting more. i got to tell you, looking behind you, i cannot believe that anybody survived the collapse of that building behind you. >> you know, i'll tell you something. there is a really harrowing story about a man who came here to get his mother. when this report came out that this area had been hit, he came to find his mother. he found her. he found her alive, rushed her to the hospital. i'm sad to report this morning she did not survive. >> oh, my gosh. all right. we're going to continue checking in with you. i know you're talking to a lot of people in that area. thank you for that. in other news this morning, thousands of government troops reportedly unleashed a full scale assault on the syrian city of homes. water, food and communication cut off in some of the areas there. the government forces are bombarding the rebel strong hold. and they are vowing to cleanse that region of all opposition fighters. and with super tuesday five days away, chalk up another win for mitt romney. romney is campaigning or was campaigning right there in ohio yesterday. santorum is looking for votes in tennessee. 26 delegates at stake. and cnn projects ten for romney and nine for santorum. romney's victory in michigan on tuesday is feeling a little hollow now. he won by three points. he got the popular vote. 30 delegates were up for grabs. you know, 15 went for romney, 15 for santorum. here is a delegate scoreboard, romney with 181, santorum with 61, gingrich with 39 and paul with 33. so we still have a bit to go there. so after three days at sea without power, a cruise ship has finally docked. listen to this. it was toe ed towed by a small boat. it was a fire in the engine room that left that ship stranded. they still don't have a cause as to how that fire started. but you know those folks were without lights, no toilets, no showers since monday. so they have quite a story to tell. minding your business this morning. u.s. stock markets closing lower yesterday. the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 all in the red. but since the start of the year, we have big gains. dow up 6%, s&p 500, the best indicator for your investments, up more than 8%. and the tech heavy nasdaq, 14%. christine romans is back. there is a wall street story this morning about a bank of america considering more fees. >> i know. >> they have to make up all their losses. >> all the gains in the stock market, don't bank them. the big banks as we've been reporting to you, they're looking for ways to raise money. they're doing that by finding ways to put more fees on basic checking. "wall street journal" this morning reporting that bank of america is again considering new ways to raise money. it will be up to $25 in new fees. they're testing this on an essentials account. different kinds of fees for different things. but then there are ways to avoid the fees. we've seen this in a lot of different banks. for example, direct deposit may be one way. in this case, things like maintaining the minimum balance for your type of account. using the credit card tied to a bank of america, taking a mortgage with the bank. bank has a mortgage with you and doing other kinds of banking, that will be a way to avoid the fees. it's something we've seen before. the banks in the '80s and the years since then, they rollout a basic checking account for a young person to get them, you know, hooked as a first time customer with the bank. and then that is free maybe. but then they hope for you to get a mortgage and maybe get more money and do direct deposit. there are ways for the bank to make more money. now they're not making as much money as they used to on the bank accounts because of congress closing down the fee machines. >> it seems a bit unfair, right? i would imagine that folks are going to be in an uproar like they were last time when this was suggested and perhaps, you know, cause this to be reversed. >> it's interesting. there was an uproar against bank of america before. so they are being very careful about how they do it. earlier this week a j.p. morgan executive, anybody under $100,000, they don't make any money off them. they're not in the business of just being nice. they're in the business to make money from us. if they're not making money from us, how are they going to make money? >> that's one of the options. >> you do. and last year we know the turnover for the banks was unbelievable. people going to community banks, going to nonprofit credit unions and avoiding fees that way. >> all right. so there are your options. thank you very much, christine. >> for now, we're going to go back to harrisburg, illinois. six reported confirmed death there's. what else can you tell us? >> six dead here. 12 dead in total from the storms. branson, month moshgs while it may have escaped a death toll, there is a big toll in that community. the entertainment district has been absolutely slammed by the series of storms. after the break, i'm going to speak with the mayor of branson. she's going to talk to me a little bit about how this could have been so much worse but for the timing. 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