chad meyers is in the severe weather center. let's get right to chad on oklahoma. chad? >> we have a line of weather from kansas to texas right across the red river. we have multiple -- i counted eight a little bit ago -- severe thunderstorms all rotating that could put down tornadoes at any time. we do know that big tornadoes have been on the ground, tornadoes in excess of 150 miles per hour to the west of oklahoma city. one just to the west of el reno into oklahoma. that's just a suburb of oklahoma city and on toward guthrie. tornado emergency down near norman, oklahoma and more with a big tornado on the ground and another one down near washington. that tornado has been on the ground for a while. it is going to be one long night, because it is certainly not over, and in fact, with the heat of the day just now being 6:00 central time, it is just getting going for places east of i-35 into tulsa and eventually, yes, that word joplin right there, as the weather just rakes across oklahoma and into the eastern sections of oklahoma county and into oklahoma city. that's where the humidity is even higher. that could make the storms get a little stronger. if they stay together as individual supercell tornadoes, there will be -- there's one, two, see how they're all separate? if they all line up, they will fight for the energy and there won't be as many big tornadoes, but we know there have been fatalities today and there continue to be fatalities tonight as long as all these storms stay together in individual krecells as they rot one after another after another as they go into joplin in probably three or four hours. >> we'll stay in touch with chad and stay on top of the oklahoma story. we're trying to get the governor back on the line as we speak. here in missouri, we'll show you a lot of devastation tonight and we'll try to describe just what we saw as we walked through the shadow of the impact zone. i'm sure we'll fail to do justice for the power of the storm and the death and destruction it left behind. >> it is like armageddon. i mean, it's like everything you think is, like, real and solid is suddenly -- everything is blowing up. as we stood, the door was opened on the produce cooler and looking into the rest of the store, and it just exploded. >> when we arrived here this morning, we were told search and rescue teams had just heard noises at the walmart that was decimated by the tornado. at this hour, no definitive word on that search, and malcolm tells us this hour or this evening he'll have to make a painful transition in consultation with other officials in the search and rescue phase and shift into recovery operation. >> my fear, i guess, is that we won't be able to get to someplace before time and they expire before we can get to them. you'll never know what that number is, if any, but that's a concern. >> but the exhausted search and rescue teams coming here from all across the state and elsewhere in the country spent the day digging and hoping. throughout the day crews have been working at the twisted wreckage of a home depot store where people were seeking shelter sunday night only to be buried when the walls and roof came in on top of them. that site is cleared and there are, quote, no more people. you're reporting and people know 48 hours, they're racing the clock. >> racing the clock and racing the weather. they had to pull people off sites often. i was with missouri in home depot today, but the walls basically collapsed. they recovered seven people yesterday. they recovered one body today. one person was found alive in the home depot yesterday. but this team only found dead bodies. they have dogs there which are especially trained, and they've been working those dogs over the site, four of them, but it is grim work and they have not been finding what they hoped. >> when you talk to these teams, they're veterans of tornadoes in the state, they're veterans of national disasters. they go back and forth, and when they see this, it's hard to describe the power of this storm. this was a school. >> thankfully, they've got heavier moving equipment. they have a number of jackhammers. they were able to drill through these walls itself. these front walls are incredibly thick. two slabs of concrete with insulation in between and a lot of rebar in that concrete, very well made. it's hard to find out if anyone is underneath and then moving those walls away. again, it's just been brutal what they find. >> i spend a lot of time in the neighborhood over the hill here. people finally having a chance to go back to their homes and there is a mix of profound sadness, but also when they see the destruction, people are just grateful they're still alive. >> i spent some time today with a woman who was going through her mom's house, what's left of her mom's house. her mom survived, 80 years old, she was at her sister's house, two elderly women survived in the bathtub, and the daughter, sally smith, just looking for something she could get for her. her mom's house was totally destroyed. she felt if she could find some momentos, it would make her mom happy a little bit to know something survived. i hear it all over today, these are just things. we have each other and we're still alive. sally smith said life is good. she still believes life is good. >> anderson cooper will be back today and 8:00 p.m. eastern time tonight. there are some planes flying around overhead and there's also some forklifts over here. a transmission grid right there, transformer grid, was destroyed in the storm. you can see the heavy equipment here for that. you can see as they debate to go to the recovery phase from search and rescue. that would allow heavy boulders to go on-site, but they worry that there are survivors underneath. we're also on top of breaking news in oklahoma. tornadoes reported on the ground in the oklahoma city area. the oklahoma governor mary fallon on the phone in oklahoma city. governor, what are you being told about any fatalities or significant damage so far? >> we're actually right in the middle of our storm. the fire engines just went off a few minutes ago here at the capital city a few minutes ago. we're still tracking all our storms. we don't have any counts right now of any fatalities, but we do know we've had at least four tornadoes and there's still some right now on the ground in different areas of oklahoma. >> and, governor, what are the meteorologists telling you, your state of emergency management people telling you about the scope? how many tornadoes to expect if more than one and how broad the area where people need to be on alert? >> they need to be on alert right now and need to be watching the news and stay on top of this weather. it's a very dangerous storm. we anticipate the storm is going to last all night. it's a wide storm that goes clear from texas up to the kansas border. it's making a wide sweep through oklahoma. at one time a few moments ago, we had two, three, four tornadoes on the ground at once, and several of them were huge tornadoes that were on the ground, and we were seeing debris that was coming up. we were seeing flashes of lightning on the ground which means it's hitting, and we do know we've had some damage on the ground yet, but once again, we're all still watching the storms and trying to keep safe until this big storm is over. >> and, governor, if anybody in your state, anybody in this area, sometimes people get a little foolish. they see a storm, they want to go out and take some pictures. we've already heard now two fatalities reported, perhaps more for the canadian county emergency management agency. obviously we're watching this play out. what would you say to anybody in your state who may be listening right now who want to go out in their car and shoot pictures of this? >> i'd tell them to stay inside, listen to the tv or radio, stay underground. on the news they've been showing pictures of the tornadoes on the ground. they're huge also, and this is a very dangerous time right now. we have all of our emergency management personnel in the emergency headquarters along with the high patrol, the hersch responders, the salvation army, all the different agencies, health department all lined up, tracking the storms to do everything we can to keep people safe. we'll be on the ground as soon as the storms pass to do everything we can to help in the recovery effort. our high patrol has actually been going up and down our highways warning them with their lights and sirens to get off the highways. they pass through a major highway in oklahoma called i-40, and part of that highway is closed right now. we're still waiting on some reports from damage in that area. >> and you say you're waiting on some reports. i just want to circle back for anybody who might not have been with us in the beginning of the conversation. what are you being told about the potential reach and potential impact of the single tornado that we know has touched the ground in your area and the other storms that we know are nearby? >> what am i being told about that? >> yes, governor. >> oh. well, as i said, we do have some damage that's on the ground in the communities. i'm sitting here watching a television right now looking at a tornado that's already hit on the ground and some that are still up in the air coming down. we have communities that have lost homes and damages done. we have workers and first responders that are already at the sites right now. we're going to be sending all of our people out surveying damage, and there are people out right now surveying that damage. but we're still in the middle of a big storm, so we're trying to warn as many people as we can to pay attention to the weather, be safe and get all of our people strategically out where they need to be, where there's been immediate damage and destruction. >> excellent advice there from the governor of oklahoma, governor mary fallon. governor, thank you for your time in the middle of this challenge for you tonight. we'll keep you updated on tornadoes in oklahoma. as you can see, it's getting windy here, too, in joplin, missouri. weather in the west, in oklahoma, in kansas, coming here tonight. more of the toll here in joplin. the breaking news tonight, the death toll has been increased to 122 now. sure to go higher. when we come back, the pain and emotion for people returning to their homes, and we'll take you on a tour of what was the school behind me. the principal talked to one student who had a parent killed in the tornado. 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>> it really disheartens me a little bit that he's here in this state because i'm used to seeing him happy and so vibrant. he's a very energetic boy. >> brian todd is with me here now in joplin, joining us live. brian, you listened to that story, one of the many emotional stories of parents who are hoping and praying their children recover, in some cases hoping and praying they can find their missing children. >> that's right, john, and this father really had a perspective on this. he realizes people outside the hospital room may be a little resentful thinking, you got to keep your son, at least, as they continue looking for theirs. he says, i count myself one of the lucky ones. he's looking at a young man in an induced coma, not sure if he's going to live. this father was incredibly measured and stoic. it was really something just to listen to him and listening to what he described about his son. he plays soccer, he rides horses, such a vibrant young kid. it really got to us when we were there. >> it's a remarkable story. and brian, any sense? what are the doctors telling him to look for? is it 24 hours, 48 hours? when will he know the prognosis? >> with these neurological injuries, the doctor told me they can't give him a timeline right now. he is really looking for every squeeze of the hand, which he does get. he gets an occasional squeeze of the hand. sometimes the young man will kick the side of his bed. the doctors tell us he can hear the conversation. so those are all positive signs that they're really hoping to build upon. there's really no timeline from when they can bring him out of this coma because i think they're waiting for the brain to ease the swelling a little bit. they had to cut the skull open. he lost part of the skull in the accident. so really no timeline on when he might come out of this coma, john. >> brian todd live with us here tonight in joplin. thank you, brian. it is so stunning. people that have lived here for decades can't tell where they are in some neighborhoods. residents told they can return to their homes today are trying to find out what they have left of their prized possessions. a teenager that was home alone when the house started shaking and then collapsed. >> i could hear the metal ripping off the walls, and i could hear things flying around, and i couldn't, like, breathe. i thought i was going to die, like -- >> just across the street, they were stunned to see how the tornado ripped through their home and grateful they made a last-minute decision to go camping this weekend. >> the lord told us to go to the lake and go camping even though we couldn't afford it. we went ahead and went, anyways. this is where we would have been. we would have lost someone up there. yeah, we're very thankful, you know, that we weren't here. >> is that the way the bathroom looked when you weren't here? >> the way the bathroom is, it would have been in your eye because we would have been on top of the kids. or, you know -- i just don't even want to think about it. >> did you guys get ahold of fema yet? >> no. we're still trying to get the important stuff out of our house. >> it hasn't hit me yet. >> when you looked around, what went through your mind? >> well, i was praising the lord because there was still roofs on our houses. then i had a closer look and i realized there weren't roofs on the houses, and i started crying in front of my kids. i've never seen joplin like this before. i went over a block, and i don't understand how people are doing it, i really don't. i don't understand. because i can barely keep it together for myself and see what's going on with other people. all i care about is souls. i care less about all this stuff. >> you going to be all right? >> oh, yeah. we're doing good. really. this stuff can be replaced. >> just remarkable people. some of the many remarkable people in this community who are keeping their spirits up, keeping their faith despite the devastation and the loss of just about everything they own. let's continue the conversation now with the man on the front lines, the chief of the joplin fire department, mitch randall. chief, let's start with this question. i spoke with the mayor who said the painful shift would have to begin someone tonight, going from search and rescue to the recovery operation, which means you reached the point that you found everybody or those you are going to be find won't be alive. are we at that point? >> no, i don't believe we're at that point and i'm not willing to give up the search effort as long as there is a possibility that any individual is out there and capable of being rescued or able to be rescued alive. i am not willing to give up and concede that, no. >> we have heard ballpark numbers of 1500 unaccounted for. is that still a rough number you're operating under? do you have a better number than that? >> the unaccounted for i am not keeping track of, i am merely managing the search and rescue efforts. other members of the emergency operations center are taking care of the -- you know, the reported missing, and that's something that i'm not involved with, so i really couldn't speak to that number. >> understood. can you give us a sense of what happened today, the numbers in terms of finding anybody alive today as part of the search and rescue, recovering bodies today? >> yes, we did have actually two individuals found in two different structures here in town. both were recovered and transported to the hospital alive and for treatment. >> and when we arrived this morning, senator mccatskill told us that she had heard that there were noises at the walmart. they were trying to see if there was someone there. any sense of what happened there? >> we did get a report early this morning that there was a tapping coming from there. we did send in two of the urban search and rescue teams, and that ended up being unfounded. it ended up just being a water leak that had been dripping on some of the material in the rubble, and what sounded like tapping to the folks that were there, but it ended up being, you know, basically an invalid report. >> and chief randall, lastly, just give me a sense of the number of people you have on the ground here helping with the search operations. >> well, today i've got over 400 firefighter and ems personnel in the search and recovery portion of this. i've also got 200 other volunteers that are out helping the fire and ems crews with the search. soo so i've got a little over 600. and on top of that i've got the different tasks forces from around the area. i had missouri task force one, oklaho oklaho oklahoma task force one, and yesterday we had another task force here. we really appreciate those groups and members of teams here to assist us. without them, we couldn't be as far as we are, and i can't tell you how much we appreciate the outpouring and support for our department and city. >> chief, we appreciate your time tonight on a busy day. we appreciate you spending time with us. we certainly wish you the best in the hours and days ahead. thank you, sir. we're going to shift from joplin, missouri and go back to the breaking news in oklahoma. on the phone we have sheriff ra