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Washington, Illinois Flattened by Tornado; Severe Storms Hammer Kentucky

Aired November 17, 2013 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Pekin, Illinois, was just one of many communities in the path of today's storms. And the National Weather Service says it's received more than 70 reports of tornados. At least one was a monster EF-4 tornado. Millions of people are on edge, waiting to see where tornados might strike next.

I want to bring in now meteorologist Karen Maginnis in the CNN -- CNN Severe Weather Center.

Karen, what's happening now in Ohio and Kentucky and Tennessee, the bigger danger zones right now?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it certainly is. We still have tornado watches in effect. One that encompasses much of the eastern half of Ohio. And we have 65 reports of tornados for the day. Some almost 80 unfiltered reports, meaning there were duplicates, so they kind of narrowed down what are suspected to be the duplicates. And we've come up with number 65. We may have 66 in Ohio.

I'll tell you about that in just one second. Here's a view across Tennessee. Live pictures coming out of Nashville. Want to show you this right now. You may be able to see some of the lightning in the distance. In Nashville, you might expect a line of storms to move through as we are looking at severe thunderstorms moving across the region. Gusty winds are expected.

Let's go back and show you what's happening in Ohio right now. There is a tornado warning out. This is in Fairfield County. That is just to the north of Cincinnati. To the southeast of Columbus. And there is an amateur weather spotter or radio spotter who says he saw a tornado on the ground. Now it is dark there. And perhaps he was within the vicinity and could see something like that.

But most of these are rain-wrapped. We saw all day long that heavy downpours with these storms, these super cells, that did spawn tornados were wrapped in rain, so they were not easily visible at all.

Fredricka Whitfield and I were on the air and an image came out of Indianapolis, our affiliate WIFH there, and we could see some of the light, and then within a minute, it got dark, Don.

And this has been a very evolving situation. The worst is over the Ohio River Valley. But still expecting heavy downpours across Michigan, on the backside of this, still picking up some strong storms. But we'll be back in just about 40 minutes and update you on what is happening now.

Back to you.

LEMON: Hey, Karen, humor me here for just a second. It's mid November. Is this pretty late in the year? Isn't this late in the year for tornados? I mean, what triggered today's storms?

MAGINNIS: The primary time for tornados, as we well know, is springtime. Then we see a second high that comes in the fall. Is this late? It is rather late because the temperatures have been very warm. St. Louis today was 80 degrees. That was a record. They are going to be in the 50s for tomorrow. A very vigorous area of low pressure is moving across the Great Lakes.

On the backside of that, temperatures are dramatically cooler. So that cold air is filtering in behind it. Warm air out ahead of it.

And, Don, we get some twisting motion in the atmosphere. And that's why we see this tornadic activity tonight.

LEMON: All right. That is an overview of everything that's happening, tracking the storms.

Karen Maginnis, appreciate it.

Want to get you back now to the pictures and the stories. The small town of Washington, Illinois, not nearly -- was nearly, I should say, wiped off the map today as a tornado bore down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY KHOURY, STORM SURVIVOR: But I hope no one's hurt. Our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Anthony Khoury prayed as a tornado hit his town. One resident described what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was watching the news and they said tornado down near Pekin. And so I -- I go out and I heard this like -- it's like a train. Like a loud train. I said this isn't right. I said it's not thunder. It's not -- and it just kept coming. Kept coming and getting louder. And so then I went in the basement and about 10 seconds later, I heard the -- I felt the house shaking and waited about probably a minute and then I came back up and saw what you're seeing here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Here's what was left after the storm moved on. It was just one of 11 tornados confirmed in Illinois.

I want to get now to CNN's Ted Rowlands. He is in Washington, Illinois, tonight. We have seen so much damage there. And Ted joins us by phone.

Ted, what do you know?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, the images are absolutely astounding. Washington is a small town, about 10 miles outside of Peoria with about 10,000 residents. And only a small portion of this town was hit. One neighborhood. But it was absolutely annihilated. Home after home just reduced to absolutely nothing.

In fact, when you look at what happened here, it is amazing that only one person has died here in Washington. There are several people in critical condition at St. Francis in Peoria nearby here. But this was a massive, massive storm. We got ourselves inside this neighborhood that was annihilated and talked to some of the residents. One of them, Michelle Crumrine, was out of town. She came back and she found that her house was completely gone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE CRUMRINE, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Our house was just beyond the deck. And this was -- this was my business. And we had -- we had bedrooms above the garage, above the car here were our bedrooms. And -- yes. I mean, a lot of people have a pile of rubble still. And I -- I mean, I don't have anything. My whole -- it's gone. I don't know where it went.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Right now, Don, they are going -- the rescue crews are going through this rubble with flashlights. It's completely black here because the power is out. They're going through just making sure, marking each home, each area, making sure that there is nobody still trapped. But what a scene. And when the sun comes up in the morning, there's going to be a lot of heartbreak in this town.

LEMON: Absolutely. Ted Rowlands there in Washington tonight. Ted, stay safe. We'll get back to you later on in the broadcast if the situation warrants it.

In the meantime, let's talk about Jonathan Monken. He is the director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. He joins me now by phone with the latest information.

Earlier you told us it was three people. Now we understand five people have died. What's the latest?

JONATHAN MONKEN, DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Yes, unfortunately, obviously this has just exacted a terrible toll on the people in Illinois as it has across the Midwest. But unfortunately each time we talk now -- and there's only been an hour in between our conversations -- the death toll continues to rise. So at this point, we can confirm two additional fatalities down in Massac County, Illinois, which is at the far southern tip, right by the Kentucky border. So right now our total count across the state is five fatalities. LEMON: Oh, my goodness. And you -- sadly, you said earlier -- you're right. Each hour we talk it appears that the situation gets worse. You said that you believe the number of injuries will go up as well.

MONKEN: Absolutely. Right now the hard part is getting accurate reports of the total -- number of injuries because just getting to treatment is difficult. In many instances these injuries are happening in small towns that don't have hospitals, that are in close proximity so they need to be transported. So we've been providing a lot of additional ambulance support to a lot of these small communities.

So I think those injury numbers are definitely going to increase and I think a lot of people are just trying to balance out the needs. And there's a lot of things that need to be done and accounting for those injured folks is certainly one of them.

LEMON: You said -- you're utilizing a lot of resources. I would imagine that neighboring towns and municipalities, you're all working together, I should say to --

(CROSSTALK)

MONKEN: There's no question. This is a statewide effort. And definitely we have a lot of folks that are engaged in this, from everything from search and rescue to security. We even had people calling in to the State Emergency Operations Center offering bedroom space for people whose homes were destroyed. So this is certainly an all-community involvement to get this done and that's really what it takes.

LEMON: Oh, my goodness. And you're going to need some federal help, I'm sure?

MONKEN: Yes, definitely. So we do have some federal liaisons that are on the ground, making sure that they keep a close eye on how things are progressing and doing those longer-term assessments to make sure that we don't just have what we need now but we have it in the days to come because as you can imagine the recovery from something of this magnitude is going to take a significant amount of time and there are certain things that can never be replaced that were lost today.

LEMON: My goodness. Jonathon Monken, the director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Thank you, sir. We appreciate you. Good luck to you guys.

MONKEN: Absolutely. Keep the good prayers coming.

LEMON: We certainly will.

We're going to move on from Illinois now and we're going to go to Indiana, where an eerie scene began to develop this afternoon over the skies of Indianapolis. Dark clouds and heavy rain quickly swept across the city skyline. The city has been under a flood advisory since the storms rolled through. Meanwhile, cars were tossed like toys outside a Starbucks in Lebanon, Indiana. Storm chasers followed the path of the damage across the state. High wind warnings are still in place for much of Indiana.

And we have been getting a lot of images from social media. And we are going to get some of those images for you on the air tonight.

Our Rosa Flores is standing by with those stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: More than 60 tornados clawed into the central U.S. today. Powerful twisters wiped out entire neighborhoods. Five people were killed today in Illinois and dozens are injured.

I want you to look at this video. It is from Brookport, Illinois. And you can see the power lines dangling there. Stunt people walking around. And this is a very southern part of Illinois. A band of severe storms extended far north.

And here's damaged homes in Allenton, Wisconsin. This is about 500 miles from Brookport, Illinois. Hail the size of quarters felt today during torrential rains and floods. In the meantime, you're looking now live at pictures -- this is Nashville, Tennessee, you're looking at. You can see lightning in the distance every couple of seconds there in Nashville, along with parts of central Kentucky and southern Illinois. Now in the bull's eye of this severe weather system.

If you live in those parts, if you live in those parts, be aware and be safe. It's the best advice we can give you right now.

CNN crews and affiliate stations are all over the storm zone, but our iReporters have given us some of the most amazing pictures, most amazing images, of video from inside or close to the tornados as they hit.

CNN's Rosa Flores watching all of them for us.

Show us some of them, Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, these people online, they describe zero visibility. The tornado sirens. A lot of chaos and a lot of fears. So let's show you some of these images. We're going to start in Washington, Illinois. We're going to see two pictures of Washington. Debris and devastation. You see -- you see it all there. Homes flattened. Wood splintered, trees snapped.

Now keep in mind, one of those five people that Don was just describing died in Washington, so in this very county. Now we're seeing Pekin, Illinois. And you're going to be able to see -- there we have it. Pekin, Illinois, you can see that funnel cloud, very well-defined there. You can only imagine the fear of the people who were taking these photos.

Now we move on to Garner, Illinois. Here you see almost two sets of clouds. A lot of gray area. You see the area divided there. And if you look at where that funnel cloud, at the end of that funnel cloud, you can see that there are homes down there. So you can only imagine again what those people were thinking and what was going through their minds.

Now let me take you back to Washington. And I want you to take a listen for just a moment.

And now again, this is video from Washington, Illinois, from one of our CNN iReporters, who said that the weather warning alarms went off. He went inside his house, and from the corner of his eye, this is what he was seeing and he was listening to. He described that this looks like about a quarter of a mile away from where he was.

Now we always hear, you know, does it sound like a freight train? He says it sounded like a slow-moving freight train.

Now, Don, I want to end on a positive note, because I received a tweet from someone -- and my computer just went --

LEMON: The -- it's OK. It's Kirk Miller, right?

FLORES: Yes. So from Kirk Miller. And he says, he tells me that his 102-year-old grandma Loretta survived the storm.

LEMON: Good.

FLORES: And he is just so proud, and I'm working to try to get us the photo of her so that we can see her. Cutest thing. You can see it right here, Don. But -- you know, there are stories of death and destruction, obviously. But then there's also --

LEMON: Yes.

FLORES: -- a silver lining here that a lot of people like this woman who --

LEMON: Yes.

FLORES: Who were right in the path of that destruction survived.

LEMON: We're glad that she's OK, but there's so many more injuries and so many more people --

FLORES: Yes. Very much so.

LEMON: Really homeless tonight. And we're all thinking about them and they are absolutely in our prayers.

This is just in to CNN. I am told -- this is from the White House. The president has been briefed about the severe weather by assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco and will continue to receive regular updates.

The White House will continue to stay in touch with our federal partners including FEMA as well as the state and local partners in the impacted states. We urge citizens to continue to follow directions from their local officials. Again, the president of the United States briefed on the situation happening in the Midwest. The severe weather system that pounded a big part of this country today.

In the meantime, an iReporter Anthony Khoury watched from his window as a tornado tore through his town and demolished his neighbor's home. He started praying with his family. He joins us live next.

And a quick reminder for you, coming up at the top of the hour, an amazing look back at the events 50 years ago this month when an assassin gunned down John F. Kennedy as his motorcade rolled through downtown Dallas.

It's part of CNN special "Look at the '60s."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Unbelievable. Complete destruction. This is how people are describing their homes and neighborhoods after they were destroyed by a swath of tornados. More than 70 twisters tore across the upper Midwest today. The town of Kokomo, Indiana, north of Indianapolis, has declared a state of emergency after storms damaged a mall, a bank, and a fire station.

The city's Twitter account states schools will be closed tomorrow. Schools will be closed tomorrow in Kokomo, Indiana. Some of the hardest hit towns are in neighboring Illinois. This is a town of Washington, what's left of it, we should say. Entire neighborhoods obliterated. Cars completely smashed.

And as we told you earlier, Anthony Khoury got down and prayed as he saw a monster tornado approach his home in Washington, Illinois. He took this video.

I want to bring in iReporter Anthony Khoury now, he joins us by phone.

Tell us, what did -- what did this sound like as it was coming through?

KHOURY: It was an obnoxious sound. You know, we just -- you know, me and my family, we're just hanging out in the living room and my dad, well, he thought he heard a helicopter. And we looked outside, all we see is this huge massive of tornado, white tornado just destroying everything in its path. And so we -- we quickly just ran downstairs and we just prayed. Me and my mother and my father.

LEMON: Yes. This is you shooting this video out of the window?

KHOURY: Yes. That was -- yes, that was my basement and I was just recording as we were praying.

LEMON: Yes. And as we're looking at this, we see this tornado come through. And it appears from -- is that -- are those homes on the other side or is that a farm? What are we looking at?

KHOURY: Yes, that was -- that was about 150 feet away. It was just -- it was in my neighborhood. It was just -- it was in my backyard, just destroying every single house in its way.

LEMON: And these homes are gone now?

KHOURY: Most of them are gone, yes.

LEMON: Yes.

KHOURY: Everything collapsed on the ground and, you know, cars were flipped. Just families just lost their homes. And rubbish everywhere.

LEMON: Unbelievable. And have you been able to go back and talk to your neighbors or go in that area and speak to any of your neighbors?

KHOURY: I haven't been able to. All the phone lines are out and they blocked all the roads in Washington, and I'm currently here in Peoria. They wouldn't let us come back. And Peoria is about 20 minutes away. I evacuated the town as soon as I could. So I can get a hold of all of my family and friends who are worried about us.

LEMON: And, Anthony, you know, this had been reported that there would be, you know, a very damaging or severe storm system coming through. Do you think you got enough warning?

KHOURY: Not really. We weren't really paying attention. We just -- we just heard a noise and we freaked out.

LEMON: Yes. Well, I'm glad that you guys are safe. I hope that your neighbors are safe as well.

Anthony Khoury --

KHOURY: Thank you very much.

KHOURY: He's a CNN -- you're very welcome. He's a CNN iReporter. That video shot out of his basement window. Unbelievable there.

In the meantime, the town of Pekin, Illinois, some 30 minutes away from Washington, suffered substantial tornado damage as well. Jack Lance took some incredible photos in the aftermath and spoke with CNN about what he saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK LANCE, TOOK PICTURES OF TORNADO DAMAGE: I actually came down from a separate neighborhood and I saw sirens, I saw lights. And I -- me and a couple friends ran down there and we saw a lot of wreckage, we saw trees down. We saw houses with their roofs completely torn off. Power lines down. There's huge clouds, huge storm clouds.

When I was there, it wasn't even the worst of what happened. I'm sure there's more trees down. The winds are very strong right now. And it's not really safe right now. But I -- what I saw was a lot of people distressed and like with their homes destroyed. Car windows were shattered. It wasn't a pretty sight. I haven't heard of any injuries. I think people heard the sirens and they got to safe spots. But it was mostly just heads down and like people really worried about each other. Everyone was asking each other if they're OK. Neighbors were outside. Help in the clean up. I saw people with chainsaws trying to cut branches off their roofs trying to get -- everyone was really helping each other.

I'm staying at my house right now. I have a storm shelter, but I continue to -- they're really loud. Like a boat flipped over in my yard. And there's -- nearby towns got hit as well. Like Washington, Illinois, which is right by us. Their town got completely leveled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That was Jack Lance on CNN earlier.

If you want to help victims impacted by the tornados, log on to our special "Impact Your World" Web site. You can go to CNN.com/impact.

We've taken you to Illinois. We've shown you the damage in Indiana. And we're going to take you now to south central Kentucky, maybe facing some of the worst weather in the nation right now. We're going to talk to Kentucky's emergency management for an update right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Illinois suffered massive losses today when a string of tornados hammered the state. Five people were killed and dozens were injured. Roofs ripped off homes and trees splintered by a suspected tornado in Washington, Illinois.

More than 60 tornados were reported throughout the region today and the threat not over yet. The damage is shocking in Washington. Look at this tree. It appears to be a mattress and maybe tattered sheets caught in its broken limbs.

People in Kentucky may be facing some of the worst weather in the nation. Earlier a tornado was spotted near Paducah, Kentucky.

And I want to bring in now Buddy Rogers from Kentucky's Emergency Management. He's joining me by phone from Frankfurt, Kentucky.

Buddy, what are you hearing about possible damage in Paducah and is everyone there OK?

BUDDY ROGERS, KENTUCKY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: We know that in the Cracken County that there was some damage reported. Three homes were reported being destroyed and one church has some heavy structural damage. But we've had several counties reported having tornados pass through and creating some damage and some homes destroyed. Right now I'm aware of eight different counties that have reported possible tornados.

LEMON: Eight counties with possible tornados. ROGERS: Yes. And you know the good thing to focus on right now is, unfortunately like our neighbors in Illinois, the good thing for Kentucky and our residents, we've not had any reports of any injuries or deaths. So we're very fortunate in that regard.

LEMON: Yes. The video we've gotten from Kentucky, we see an accident with a fire truck. Do you know anything about that, Buddy?

ROGERS: No, Don, I'm afraid I don't. I've not actually heard that yet.

LEMON: Yes.

ROGERS: You have to understand, we're getting reports from one end of the state to the other. We had activated the Emergency Operations Center. We actually activated to a heightened level as early as 1:00 this afternoon. Things seem to be slowing down here in Kentucky as this storm exits the state and we're hoping to continue that way.

LEMON: Yes. And I'm sure you're glad that it appears to be slowing down. That fire truck apparently was responding to the situation. There are two deaths right across the state line from you in Illinois. Very close to where you are.

ROGERS: Yes. You know, you always hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Fortunately, Kentucky -- as I said earlier, we've not received any reports of injuries, let alone deaths within our state. And I know our hearts and sympathies and thoughts go out to our neighbors and the losses that they've suffered. But, you know, you can never be prepared enough.

And we try to preach that over and over again, when we have these warnings and alerts in advance that residents and our citizens need to be prepared to take action immediately. If their sirens go off, if the weather radios go off, don't hesitate. Take immediate protective action. And so far in Kentucky, those warnings and alerts have paid off. And we've kind of dodged a bullet, so to speak.

LEMON: Buddy Rogers with Kentucky's Emergency Management, thank you, sir. Best of luck to you. We'll be thinking about you.

ROGERS: Thank you. Same here. Thank you.

LEMON: All right. Severe weather is to blame for two serious accidents in the section of Interstate 64 in Kentucky earlier today. One accident involving a fire truck that we just showed you just a second ago.

More now from Scott Adkins with CNN affiliate WAVE.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT ADKINS, WAVE REPORTER: Traffic was at a standstill on I-64 East for more than two hours after a three-vehicle pileup in the pouring rain involving a fire truck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Weather played a role in the first accident.

ADKINS (voice-over): Just as firefighters finished responding to a rollover, another car slammed into a fire truck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The second accident occurred when the vehicle struck the rear of the Eastwood's Fire Unit.

ADKINS: Sending five people to area hospitals, including three firefighters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were transported to Baptist East for precautionary measures.

ADKINS: The two men inside the car that rear-ended Eastwood's Trucks suffered critical injuries and were rushed to University Hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a very long extrication on the two victims in the car.

ADKINS: A scene that shut down I-64 East, causing standstill traffic just before Simpsonville's Exit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: That was Scott Adkins with CNN affiliate WAVE. Thank you for your reporting, sir.

The storm hit Chicago just in time for today's NFL game at Soldier Field. It made for some tense moments really as our George Howell explains now.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, we watched here in Chicago as that strong lines of storm cells, as it pushed through this region, brought with it the heavy rain, the strong winds. And that's what we're left with right now. In fact, the winds were strong enough at one point to delay the football game between the Bears and the Ravens.

We're talking about a packed house. Some 60,000 people in Soldier Field all told to take shelter, to get out of the way of the storm. That is exactly what they did, until about two hours later when the game resumed.

And just outside of Chicago in those outer suburbs, that's where we saw those strong winds. In fact, just on Interstate 80 west of Chicago, we saw the winds strong enough to tip over semis. That is the concern tonight as the winds persist. The storm has passed, but the concern is the wind. Until this system passes through -- Don.

LEMON: George Howell. George, thank you very much.

Our meteorologist Karen Maginnis will join us after a very quick break to update us on the storm's path and who might be in danger right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Our meteorologist Karen Maginnis watching it all from the CNN Severe Weather Center.

Karen, the big question right now, where is the danger zone?

MAGINNIS: We are watching over the next 12 hours an area pretty much from a portion of the eastern Great Lakes into the upper Ohio River Valley. This is the area where you see this orange shaded area all the way from Buffalo to Pittsburgh to Columbus. That's where we've got a moderate risk for severe storms. Meaning the potential for tornadic activity. This goes until 8:00 in the morning.

You may remember we started the day out with a high risk right across the area from -- extending from Chicago all the way down towards St. Louis and then extending it to Kentucky. And those predictions have actually materialized in the form of widespread damage from numerous reports of tornados. Now some 66 reports of tornados that have touched down just to the south of Chicago, just to the east of St. Louis, towards Paducah and into Kokomo. And as a result, already five fatalities reported with that.

This is interstate extending from St. Louis. Interstate 64. This is where we had a report in Washington County, several fatalities, widespread damage. Then we move up a little further towards the north, and this is the severe storm that spawned the tornado that moved from Pekin to the suburbs of Peoria and into Washington.

Widespread damage reported there. They will send their survey teams up from the National Weather Service to assess the damage. When they look at the damage, they will give it an EF number. The higher the number, the worse the damage. EF-5 would mean total destruction.

We have already seen one report, Don, of a tornado that was estimated to be an EF-4, meaning the winds would be between 166 and 200 miles an hour. It has already turned deadly tonight. As we go into the future, there is still a tornado watch. It goes until this evening across a good portion of Ohio.

Then we have the severe thunderstorm watches. Behind this, we're looking at some pretty gusty winds. In Nashville, watch out for the potential for 50-mile-an-hour winds. You are seeing that line move across your region right now.

But, Ohio, Don, the eastern sections of Ohio look to be the most imminent but long-range. Going throughout the night, it looks to be a portion of the eastern Great Lakes and into western sections of Pennsylvania and into New York.

LEMON: Karen, I want to give you this bit of information and get your reaction to it. I'm just being told by my producers, the "Peoria Journal Star" reporting the mail addressed to people in Washington, Illinois, found some 100 miles southwest of Washington, Illinois. That traveled a big distance. Those winds were unbelievable, Karen.

MAGINNIS: It was. And we -- one of the reports that we saw, there was a tornado track that was three miles long. That was the EF-4 tornado. It doesn't really surprise me. There are debris fields that are found. And what you will find so many miles away from where these tornados touched down is staggering.

And from recorded history, since we've been keeping track of these tornadoes --

LEMON: Yes.

MAGINNIS: -- you can see numerous reports of people's homes lifted off and moved, you know, blocks away.

LEMON: Yes. Goodness. Karen, thank you very much. Appreciate that.

I want to go to the phones know. Tony Laubach is -- he's in Pekin. He's a storm chaser. Excuse me. He's on the road in central Illinois.

Where are you right now? And tell me what you see.

TONY LAUBACH, STORM CHASER: I'm just outside of Terre Haute, Illinois, actually at the end of my day here. We followed storms from the Bloomington, Illinois, area all the way to Lebanon, Indiana, where we witnessed one, maybe two tornados, including one that did damage to a Starbucks and flipped a car in a shopping center there on the south side of Lebanon. But it's been a very active day. But happy to have it behind me.

LEMON: I'm not sure if you heard our meteorologist Karen Maginnis saying, you know, almost upwards of 67, 70 tornados that may have touched down. What did you witness as you were along the way here?

LAUBACH: Well, there -- every storm seemed to have potential to produce tornados. And we knew it was going to be an active day. We know that that count will probably go down as a lot of multiple reports probably came in. A lot of people (INAUDIBLE) these tornados, not only chasers, but the public, law enforcement, and I imagine that count will go down a little bit as they start to confirm some of the damage.

But I think out of the five storms we intercepted, I would say that four of them probably produced tornados at one point or another.

LEMON: Tony Laubach is a storm chaser. We appreciate it. Stay safe out there, sir.

I mentioned Pekin just a little bit ago. I got a little bit ahead of myself. Here's that story. There are no major injuries being reported in northern parts of Pekin, Illinois. But the town is heavily damaged.

Eugene Daniel now from CNN affiliate WMBD reports 46 homes are a total loss.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EUGENE DANIEL, WMBD REPORTER: The scene near Pekin's Lakeside Cemetery is troubling. Trees and power lines are down. Homes severely damaged. Some structures completely gone. JEFF LEHMAN, TORNADO VICTIM: The garage is sitting there with the truck, it's gone. It's laying there.

DANIEL: One resident said his neighborhood looked like a war zone. Across the northern parts of Pekin, damage is widespread.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The house is damaged all the way from Second and Sheridan to Second and -- I'm sorry, Sheridan and Parkway and then North. And homes with some just broken windows. To some roof's gone. To some, you know, total devastation.

DANIEL: And here on Truman Street in Pekin homeowners have their work cut out for them. Picking up the pieces behind the tornado. And you can see some of the devastation. In fact, where I'm standing right now was a garage.

Authorities are going door to door, checking on residents. Crews are working on power outages and multiple gas leaks. Jim and Diane Bruin are busy on the phones, figuring out what to do with their damage.

JIM BRUIN, TORNADO VICTIM: I'll tell you once we walked in, I said, what the heck? And saw that it was just all that stuff on the floor and the ceiling came down.

DANIEL: Down the street, Jeff Lehman's hands are full, but this won't keep him down.

LEHMAN: We're going to be all right. I mean, the shed and the garage, stuffs thrown all over the place. These folks are dealing with what they're dealing with, but we'll make it through it. And we're just so grateful that the Lord preserved so many lives here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Eugene Daniel from our affiliate WMBD.

Sharing their stories online, and also at CNN iReports, many of our viewers are. Our Rosa Flores, an update on that right after a very quick break.

And also a programming note for you. Make sure you join us in 10 minutes for "THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY." It's part of CNN's special look at the '60s. Catch it at the top of the hour 9:00 p.m. Eastern right after this broadcast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With your "Weekly Five," I'm Rosa Flores.

If you want to sell pot in Washington state, get ready to file some paperwork. Voters approved a marijuana measure nearly a year ago. Starting tomorrow, the state begins accepting license applications from people who also want to grow or process the drug. When applying, you'll have to get a background check, get fingerprinted and present a business plan to state regulators.

Happy birthday, Ted Turner. The CNN founder turns 75. You can honor the occasion by watching "TED TURNER: THE MAVERICK MAN" tonight at 7:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Some big names visit the White House Wednesday when President Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Among the honorees Ernie Banks, Ben Bradley, Bill Clinton, Loretta Lynn, and Oprah Winfrey.

Also on Wednesday, Illinois becomes the 15th state to legalize same- sex marriage. Governor Pat Quinn says he's looking forward to signing the bill and celebrating a big step forward for that state.

NBA star Michael Jordan's mansion hit the auction block on Friday. The home is being offered for $21 million. At 56,000 square feet, it has nine bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, and of course, folks, an NBA quality basketball court.

And that's your "Weekly Five."

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LEMON: All righty. Thank you, Rosa. We want to get an update now from CNN's Ted Rowlands. He's in Washington, Illinois, tonight.

Ted, you were talking about the devastating scenes that you were witnessing there.

ROWLANDS: Yes, Don. And tonight, you know, it is pitch black here because there's no power here, so you can see out in the distance flashlights and emergency vehicle lights where they are going through the rubble just to make sure that there is no one else trapped, and this is going to go on throughout the evening here.

We're talking about dozens and dozens of homes in this city of Washington. It's a small community about 10,000 people in all, and not the entire community was hit. Only a few neighborhoods. But those neighborhoods that were hit, and we don't know what kind of a tornado this was in terms of its size, but it was absolutely destructing. It was so intense that these homes -- and you see the video and the pictures coming out of here. It's just astounding what this storm did to these homes.

We talked to some of the people that came back to find absolutely everything gone. And again one fatality out of the five so far from this series of storms. Only one miraculously out of Washington.

But you look at this damage, it's really hard to believe more people were not hurt because of the intensity of this tornado.

LEMON: Ted, you said you were able to speak to some of the people there? Can we hear any of that? Do we have that?

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CRUMRINE: Our house was just beyond the deck. ROWLANDS: So what's all this here?

CRUMRINE: And this was my business. And we had bedrooms above the garage. Those are cars here were our bedrooms. Yes. I mean, a lot of people have a pile of rubble still. I mean, I don't have anything. My whole -- it's gone. I don't know where it went.

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LEMON: The winds were so strong, Ted, I mean, she said her house is gone. She can't even find it.

ROWLANDS: Yes. And I'll tell you, you talk to -- Michelle is her name. And she had a very good attitude about this. But on the same token, within the five, 10 minutes we talked to her, she broke down a few times as well. She's missing a dog right now. And she lost everything. And then really watching these people come to grips with their new reality and that is what are we going to do next, where are we going to stay tonight, and then how are we going to replace all the things -- and there's been a lot of times are just simply irreplaceable.

LEMON: Very sad. Ted Rowlands in Washington, Illinois. Thank you very much, Ted. We'll see you throughout the day here tomorrow on CNN.

I want to get back to CNN's Rosa Flores as well. She's been collecting pictures and some videos. CNN viewers who are in the storm zone including the area where at least five people reported that they have sending those images in this evening from those violent storms.

What are you getting?

FLORES: You know, we're seeing a lot of thoughts and prayers being sent through cyber space and a lot of people reuniting, letting folks know that they're safe. And we're also learning a lot of stories of loss and destruction.

And take a look at these photos because these were taken in Washington, Illinois. We've been talking about Washington because one person died in this area. Now this photo was taken by Jim Ardis. Jim is the mayor of Peoria. The pictures are of his mother-in-law's house. Now the home is completely destroyed. You see it there.

And we've many of these homes. So you can imagine this is just one story of the many stories that we're going to hear about.

Now I want to go to Lebanon, Indiana, now, where you're seeing these pictures right now. It's a Starbucks, and you see the window and the walls, part of those walls blown out. A car on its side. And people there assessing the mess and trying to figure out exactly how that even happened.

I want to take you to Indianapolis now. This is a time lapse of a tower camera. Now you've got to get close to your TV screen to see this, folks, because you see those gray skies. You see the outline of the skyline. And then you're going to see it go dark. You saw it right there. So you can only imagine what these folks were going through and the power of these storms.

We're talking about this earlier. The power of Mother Nature, you're seeing it unfold right now on your television screen.

Like I was saying, there's a lot of prayers floating out on social media right now, including for this one woman, 102 years old, Loretta. We were talking about her earlier in this newscast. And her grandson, Kurt Miller, sent us a tweet saying that she survived the tornado. An EF-4 is what he was saying. Literally in front of her doorstep and she was rushed to the basement and survived.

And we're hearing a lot of these good stories, but then we're also hearing a lot of stories of devastation. And I can only imagine that as the sun rises tomorrow morning --

LEMON: Right.

FLORES: -- we're going to hear more of these stories. And unfortunately, based on the video that we've been able to see, a lot of destruction.

LEMON: Yes. And it's so random. It's just so random.

FLORES: Oh, I know.

LEMON: Yes.

FLORES: I know. It just makes no sense.

LEMON: Thank you, Rosa. Appreciate it.

Back to our meteorologist as well. Karen Maginnis in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Tell us where the threat is now and what we can expect when we wake up tomorrow morning.

MAGINNIS: All right. We are watching the eastern Great Lakes. And there is a severe thunderstorm watch until 1:00 a.m., pretty much from Buffalo all the way down towards Pittsburgh.

A portion of the tornado watch across Ohio has been cancelled. There's still a sliver across eastern Ohio. Mostly severe thunderstorm watches for a portion of Kentucky, down towards Tennessee.

Let's take a live look at what's happening in Nashville right now. You can see visibility has gone down. We're looking at some misty conditions and I think you could see some flashes of lightning here as a line of storms moves across this area.

Nashville right now looks to be at the tail end of their tornado watch right now. But I dare say right at the top of the hour it looks like that is going to be cancelled. But much of the rest of Tennessee is under this severe thunderstorm watch as we continue throughout the early overnight hours. Then going into your Monday, looks like those delays could still continue across that I-95 corridor. Newark, LaGuardia, also into JFK, extending towards some of the airports down across the Ohio River Valley, and we see the biggest threat now, a moderate threat extending from Erie down through Pittsburgh towards Columbus. That goes until 8:00 in the morning.

Don, if I had to say anything, it's that we don't have any tornado warnings out right now. Tornado warnings. That is that localized alert. We don't have any of those right now.

LEMON: Right. And that is good news. Karen Maginnis, thank you, appreciate it.

So the headlines from this story tonight, untold loss and heartache all across the Midwest. Kokomo, Indiana, has declared a state of emergency after severe weather hit that city. Both a fire station and a shopping mall reported to have damage there. At least five people are confirmed dead from today's outbreak of tornados, all of them in Illinois, the people who died.

Pekin, Illinois, was just one of many communities in the path of these storms. National Weather Service says it has received more than 60 reports of tornados, at least one was a monster EF-4.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence -- I'm being told plans to head to Kokomo tomorrow, Mike Pence, the governor, to tour the damage there. And we will be on top of it for you. But folks are going to wake up there probably to more damage as we have been hearing from officials. And we will be here reporting it for you.

If you'd like to help the victims impacted by the tornados, make sure you log on to our special "Impact Your World" Web site. You can find that at CNN.com/impact. CNN.com/impact.

I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for watching. Our hearts and prayers go out with the people who have been really hit with this. Our coverage on "NEW DAY" tomorrow morning with Chris Cuomo, Indra Petersons from the hardest hit part of Illinois. In the meantime, our CNN special presentation.