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Exasperation and Dysfunction, Inside Kamala Harris' Frustrating Start as V.P.; Biden to Sign Infrastructure Bill as Inflation Worries Grow; Growing Concern After Queen Elizabeth Misses Another Event. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired December 12, 2021 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST (voice-over): Dozens of people still unaccounted for after a Kentucky candle factory was completely leveled.

SHANIYAH MCREYNOLDS, CANDLE FACTORY EMPLOYEE: I would be down there digging if they could let me. But I can't do anything but sit and wait.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our factory was built as a manufacturing facility. And the concrete walls and the steel frame and the structure, you would have thought it could have been one of the safest places, but ironically, as you can see with this devastation, there wasn't anything safe about this storm.

BROWN: Meantime, six people now known to have died when a tornado hit an Amazon warehouse. Among them, Navy veteran Clayton Cope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're taking care of our own employees, making sure they have everything they need. And we're reaching out to the families of those we lost.

BROWN: Now the country's top climate experts warning extreme weather is becoming our new normal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The effects that we're seeing from climate change are the crisis of our generation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: I'm Pamela Brown in Mayfield, Kentucky, one of the many communities devastated by this weekend's outbreak of deadly tornados. There are still hopes for a miracle here, that search crews will find at least a survivor in the rubble of a candle factory. They are still hard at work, but the odds are long, dozens of people are still missing.

There is just so much grief and heartache here tonight but also a sense of resiliency. This town is 10,000 -- of 10,000 is among the hardest hit. They've lost their town, there are town square, so many people here have lost their homes from the factory, to the farmland, to the once quaint downtown, few buildings are left standing. So many people here I've talked to.

They're just wondering about their jobs. How are they going to survive moving forward. One man I saw today said he couldn't find his blood pressure medicine, he had lost his home, he didn't know what to do. There is just so much need here in Mayfield and beyond in Kentucky. And the heads of Homeland Security and FEMA, they have been in this area today and they are bringing much needed federal resources. More than 80 people, though, are feared dead. But Kentucky's governor says the flood of support has eased the heartbreak somewhat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BESHEAR: We're grateful for the outpouring of love. It's the best way I can describe it, from all over the country and from all walks of life. I want to thank everybody for standing with the people of Kentucky. We feel it. In fact, one of our biggest challenges right now is organizing the amount of people that want to help, want to donate and want to volunteer, but you know what? That's the best challenge that any of us could ask for.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: That is so true and in talking to my fellow Kentuckians here today, there are just so many who literally like lost their homes, lost their most cherished belongings but they are forging ahead. One man said you just got to pull up your big boy britches and plow forward, so many people here just thankful to be alive when you look at the growing death count here in Mayfield, and beyond.

And Edwardsville, Illinois, about 200 miles from here, crews have removed mountains of debris from an Amazon warehouse. Six people died when a tornado tore into the building and the walls of 11-inch-thick concrete crumbled and collapsed.

One very hard-hit area here in western Kentucky is Dawson Springs. That is a popular tourist destination, much of it is now in ruins, a number of people are still missing. And that's where find our Ed Lavandera.

I know, Ed, you've also been speaking to so many people today who are just going through unimaginable heartbreak. What are they telling you?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a great deal of grief and a lot of people still processing that. It has been a day of search and rescue and we have some new, grim updates here in Dawson Springs, in the Hopkins County area. We are now told, we were just updated within the last hour by county officials here that there are now -- the death toll is now 13, up from 10 when we spoke with you last night.

Two bodies pulled out of the rubble here in the Dawson Springs area. Today we saw search and rescue teams. There are nearly 140 people involved in the search and rescue with canine units pouring over the landscape here of this area that has just been so decimated by these storms. We were also told by county officials that it's looking like it will now take weeks for the electricity to be fully restored across the city.

But right now, the most urgent and pressing issue that people here are dealing with is trying to piece together and collect as many of their personal belongings as they can. And they're also really kind of coming to terms with the brush with death that so many people here in this neighborhood had. We know that of the 13 people that died here in Hopkins County, many of them were from this very neighborhood that we've been reporting from.

[19:05:05]

And many people describe some harrowing accounts of what it was like when the storm hit this very spot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE HICKS, TORNADO SURVIVOR: We were right down in here, so I couldn't necessarily see the house move but you could feel the wind coming in on top of you.

LAVANDERA: Wow, and when you walked out of there, it was --

HICKS: We didn't walk out. We had to climb out.

LAVANDERA: You had to climb this.

HICKS: One it was totally -- think about it's totally dark. There's no power. I couldn't see anything in there and the whole basement is trashed.

LAVANDERA: So it's like the storm lifted up your entire foundation and moved it over by six feet.

HICKS: Pushed it over there, yes, and I was in there thinking, why is the wind blowing so hard down here?

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And local officials are telling us tonight that there are still about 100 people on the missing list. The hope is that these are people who have left the area and they still haven't checked in with anyone and so they are hopeful that that is not an indication of this many more deaths, that will need to be reported, but they are also telling us that the search and rescue part of this storm is really now coming to an end and anything that they do from here on out is really a recovery process, as I mentioned earlier.

Two people pulled out of the rubble today, but they had been found dead and that is the kind of gruesome work that is still undergoing throughout vast swaths of this county.

Pamela, just to make a -- put a fine point on it here, 2/3 of this city of nearly 3,000 people was decimated by this tornado.

BROWN: That really just sums up the reality there in Dawson Springs.

Ed Lavandera, thank you so much.

And back here in Mayfield, I want to bring in the Mayor Kathy O'Nan.

Mayor, thanks so much for taking the time out. I know you have just been going nonstop since this tornado came through here. First of all, what can you tell us about the search efforts, and is this still a search and rescue mission here?

MAYOR KATHY O'NAN, MAYFIELD, KENTUCKY: It's still -- it still is a search and rescue mission here. I just talked to the fire chief, who was in charge of all of -- well, in charge of all of that, and what he's told me that usually lasts for 10 days before it's a complete recovery. Now that is hearsay, you know, from him, but he should know. So I think we're still searching and hoping to rescue, but as you know as I do, every day that goes by, we lose a little bit of that hope.

BROWN: And it's so cold and everything. Now we know FEMA, Homeland Security officials they are here. Are you getting the help you need? What more needs to be done?

O'NAN: Absolutely, we're getting the help that we need. This afternoon, the secretary of Homeland Security was here, the head of FEMA along with our governor, and I stood in front of them and spoke at the end of the press conference, and I just, behind me were the people who are going to -- they came to us. I never called them. They came to us.

Before the sun rose after this event happened I talked to the governor three or four times. I have talked to Mitch McConnell. They are ready for whatever we need and I am so thankful for both, the help on both the state and federal levels.

BROWN: Can you give us an update on how many people in your county are still unaccounted for?

O'NAN: I'm not going to give you a number because I don't know that number. And so I'm just -- I'm hesitant to say.

BROWN: I understand. Is there any update at the candle factory? We know crews have been there also around the clock.

O'NAN: They're still there. There's no update that I know of. What we last heard and the governor mentioned it at the press conference this afternoon, there was always a discrepancy of some type of how many were in the building at the time it collapsed. So we have heard now that possibly the number is lower, the number of casualties is lower than we anticipated. We certainly hope that is true. So in the days to come we will find that out. That quite possibly maybe only half of the casualties, but we can't say that for sure.

BROWN: Right, I mean that's, you know, these early days, you're just trying to get information and it's hard to come by. I had been talking with residents here in Mayfield, many of whom lost their homes and they are just at a loss of where to go, what to do, how to get medicine. I spoke to one man who's paying out of pocket for a motel room about an hour away. What do you tell those residents here? O'NAN: Hold on. Just hold on. Help is going to be here. The

fairgrounds here is a wonderful source. That's where we tell people to take any type of supplies they have brought. There's a coordinating effort that's going to get stronger there every day as to if you need this here it is, if you need that, here it is. There is a fund set up through a local bank here, Independence Bank, and of course they can do no banking so it is administered through a branch of theirs at Fancy Farm, where people can send money. That will be posted. It's been posted at other places but will be on the city Facebook page by tomorrow.

I know I have a family member that is the manager of a big liquor store in Lexington.

[19:10:04]

He's holding $8,000 that they collected in one day on Saturday for us, and as soon I -- I'll just send him the address.

BROWN: I'm so proud. I'm from Lexington, so that makes me feel proud.

O'NAN: It's one of those big liquor bars, I think. There we go.

BROWN: There are a few of those.

O'NAN: Yes. And you know, we're famous for our bourbon and we're proud of our bourbon and so we will gladly take the money that those people donated to us.

BROWN: There is so much pride here, speaking of, and I just want to note, I live a few or I grew up a few hours away in Lexington but before I came here I went on the Mayfield site, and you had done a video there. And you said, just last week, it was just last week, you're in your office and you're saying what really makes Mayfield so special is the people, and this was of course before this happened, this tragedy. You're talking about all the Christmas festivities, and now, isn't it surreal? I'm interviewing you and then the background are just decimated buildings. Your town is gone. What does that feel like?

O'NAN: It's horrible. There are three -- we're standing here at the Baptist church and three of the other churches, the Methodist, the Christian, the Presbyterian, which are also now almost totally -- two of them are completely gone. And last Sunday night, we had an Advent walk, and there was a short service at each church and we ended up with refreshments and all of us, the members of each of those three denomination churches said, we've got to do this again. It was the first time we'd ever done it.

And now, just speaking with my minister and I said thank goodness we had that to remember and we will do it again, not in the same sanctuaries but it will happen.

BROWN: I know. And it was incredible, I spoke to people today who actually went to Church of the Sanctuary, a block away, the sanctuary was intact and they still had their fellowship. Thank you so much, Mayor, and best of luck as you rebuild your

beautiful town.

O'NAN: Well, Pamela, thank you for telling our story. We appreciate you're being here.

BROWN: And we will continue to tell it. I promise you that.

And when we come back, stories of hope, Mayfield resident and businessowner Tracy Marie Elder on how people in this community are rallying together in the face of tragedy.

And a Sunday morning shocker. FOX veteran Chris Wallace quitting FOX and heading right on over here to CNN, and we sure do welcome him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FORMER FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I want to try something new to go beyond politics to all the things I'm interested in. I'm ready for a new adventure and I hope you'll check it out.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:16:22]

BROWN: And we're back now in the devastated town of Mayfield, Kentucky. Tracy Marie Elder is a resident and businessowner here. She some of those weekend's tornado destruction firsthand. Tracy joins us now.

Thank you so much. Tell us just about what those last 48 hours have been like for you?

TRACY MARIE ELDER, MAYFIELD RESIDENT AND BUSINESS OWNER: Devastating and still in shock, honestly, just almost numb. You know, feel like you're in a bad dream, you know?

BROWN: Yes, I've heard that from so many people who say this does not seem real. They're in a state of shock. They think it's a dream. Tell us about your business and what happened.

ELDER: Well, I live about five miles from my business and it has a basement so I decided that it was probably safer for me to come to my shop and go to the basement. So I did and just road the storm out in the basement and my business has some damage. We have roof damage and sidings off and broken windows but it's still standing so just, when I went down in the basement, I had no idea if I would come back out and so just got in the basement and I just, once the sirens went off and I was livestreaming from our local news station, and we knew the time that it was going to hit us and then at the time, we lost connection with the local news station and I just got on my knees and began to pray and just pray for God's protection and pray for those that were in the path of this storm.

BROWN: What was it like being in your basement during that and then coming back up, emerging?

ELDER: Yes, when it was over and it just got quiet and we waited just a little while and when I come out, I wasn't sure that there would be anything left because of how horrific the sounds that we heard, but just coming out and just seeing rubble and things all just on the ground and I made my way to the main street, Broadway, and as I could look across the street from Mayfield Water and Electric. Their glass was all broken in as well.

And then as I looked, I could see F&B Bank's roofs was off, and then I walked a little farther, and then saw the courthouse that it was partially gone and just -- and then the farther you could see, you could just see rubble and it was unrecognizable.

BROWN: It's like a war zone.

ELDER: A war zone. It looks just like a bomb went off here. Just like, how could wind take these big bricks down? You know? But, and to me, it looked like a war zone. Like a bomb went off.

BROWN: That's what so many people, how they've been describing it but it has been really inspiring to see just how the community and businessowners like yourself have been coming together to give each other support and a hug and a smile, whatever you can, to try to move forward in a positive way.

Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.

ELDER: You're welcome. Thank you.

BROWN: Well, churches here in Mayfield will need to rebuild and I'm going to talk about how to keep the faith in the midst of that challenge with a pastor whose church was also his refuge as the tornado hit.

[19:20:08]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Here in Mayfield, the First United Methodist Church was one of the casualties and Reverend Joey Reed is now with me.

Reverend Reed, you and your wife were actually in the basement of the church when the tornado ripped through. Walk us through what you experienced.

REV. JOEY REED, MAYFIELD FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Well, we were at home at the parsonage and local weather said that this was going to be a terrible storm, possibility of an EF-4 tornado, and we decided that the parsonage wouldn't withstand a hit like that. There's no room that's interior enough that we could get to, so we decided to come to the church because it's a stone structure with steal frame and we went into the basement, and through the history room, properly, and got into a closet there and it was the worst minute and a half that we've ever experienced. Terrible.

[19:25:16]

BROWN: What happened in that minute and a half.

REED: Well, we heard the storm coming. We felt the building began to receive the strength of the storm. The glass door that we had come in shattered. Some furniture in that small foyer area was blown around and we heard that humping. Then we heard a larger humping that we found out later was the roof caving in to the sanctuary. The sanctuary floor falling into the basement, where we were, but on the other side of a wall.

So we were in one of the few safe places in the educational annex and when we came out we didn't realize how bad it was until I looked up to see the scope of the damage and realized I was looking at the sky because the sanctuary was gone.

BROWN: Just surreal, I imagine, and there was a safety plan for such a situation of an extreme weather. And had you actually followed that plan, what would have happened?

REED: Well, we wouldn't be having this conversation. The safety plan called for, as you would imagine, finding an interior wall at the most interior point of the building, and the problem was there was debris flying up and down that hallway. When we came out into that hallway where the safety plan called for us to be, there was enough there to have caused us very serious injury and perhaps even have killed one of us.

The other side of that wall, which was also a part of the tornado sheltering plan for Mayfield first, that's where the sanctuary fill in and no one expected a building to collapse. No one would have expected that, but thank goodness my wife's idea to hide in that closet was the right idea.

BROWN: Yes. Absolutely, thank you to your wife. You'll be forever indebted to her. I was out speaking to some of your parishioners earlier today and they were saying that they have a little service at one of the buildings that was intact. And it's just been remarkable to me, to see how many Mayfield residents have just turned to their faith in the face of this. Talk to me about that. How do you keep your faith when something like this happens to your town?

REED: Faith is what gets us through the difficult times. And the service that we had this morning, we follow electionary plan which means that there are selections of scriptures for each part of the Sundays of the year and we're in Advent, the third Sunday of Advent is joy. How you preach about joy in the face of a disaster like this. We ended up making the service out to be exactly what it already was.

Joy is a choice, it's intentional. Happiness means that the things around you are causing that happiness. Joy allows you to be happy, to have a good outlook even when you're in the middle of a crisis or a disaster. And when everyone came together to read scripture, to sing the songs of our faith, to gather with friends and family, our area bishop was able to come in, Bill McAlilly. We had representatives from our disaster relief coordinators at the conference and district level, and a representative from the United Methodist Community on Relief. All letting us know that we were ready to pivot from suffering into servanthood. And that disaster relief effort starts now.

BROWN: And we've seen that play out all around us. We're just talking about how there have been so many Kentuckians out here cleaning up already.

REED: Yes, the amount of debris that has been moved already is gargantuan and it's a testimony to the willingness of the city of Mayfield, the people from the county. Graves County is filled with wonderful people and Mayfield, and the city here, we have folks who are willing to help, willing to reach out and make a difference to people in their lives.

I've made it my practice all throughout the day as people go by offering meals or folks who are running skid steers and excavators. I've just made it my practice, roll the window down and asked them where they're from and say thank you for coming in. And a lot of them are from Mayfield. They're just here to clean up their hometown.

BROWN: Everyone just wants to pitch in and help. I am so inspired by the folks here in Mayfield. It's just been amazing to see the resilience and the joy from these people in the face of such devastation. This is not bringing them down.

Thank you so much.

REED: Thank you.

BROWN: Really appreciate it, Reverend Joey Reed.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is in Illinois covering the Amazon warehouse collapse there where six people died.

And Polo, you just spoke to the mother of one of those victims.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Pam, I'm sure you've seen it there. It isn't until you start to speak to the families and the loved ones of those that have been affected, injured or even lost, that you really develop a full picture of those massive voids that are left behind for so many families. They're in Kentucky where you are and obviously here in Illinois for the families of those six workers that died in that partial collapse here, and such is the case for the Cope family.

They took my colleagues and I into their home tonight, so that we can learn a little bit more about their 29-year-old son Clayton, at just 29, who served this country honorably in the Navy, eventually made his way back here to Southwest Illinois, in his community, where he took up a job working as a main inspector mechanic alongside his father who worked for contractor that works with Amazon. And that is why on Friday night, Clayton was in that Amazon shipping center when that storm tour through the area, damaging -- heavily damaging that structure.

His mom, Carla Cope, where I had an opportunity to sit down with describes to me what that night was. She picked up the phone quickly, spoke to her son, urged him to seek shelter and then they never spoke again.

She jumped in the car, drove about 20 miles to that facility and it wasn't until the early mornings hours of yesterday that the coroner's office informed her that they had found a body that they believe was in fact her son.

So, tonight, she is obviously stuck with a mother's grief but at the same time, there is something that gives her solace and comfort. That is that phone call that she had with her son. She overheard him urging his colleagues and coworkers to seek shelter, thinking not about himself but about others.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLA COPE, SON CLAYTTON COPE DIED IN WAREHOUSE COLLAPSE: In my heart, I know that he went to try to warn other people to get where they needed to be and between his military training and just who he was, he would have done that. No matter whether, you know, he was told to or not. So that's the only thing I can hold on to, is that I feel like he must have been trying to help someone else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And through the tears, she still brings a smile to her face, remembering that her son, remembering him not only as kind and caring but also as quirky. And, really, Pamela, I'll leave with this, that the importance of having these conversations with those individuals who lost loved ones, especially, for example, here in Illinois, the damage was just isolated to that one warehouse, but that the emotional devastation that tornado left behind, you can compare it to what you're seeing there in Kentucky.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN NEWSROOM: Yes, I think the emotional damage is so important to talk about as well, and that's going to be something that folks here and where you are in Illinois, they're going to be dealing with that for a long time. Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

Well, the FEMA chief says powerful storms like the one that brought all this destruction are becoming the, quote, new normal. What climate scientists are saying when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:35:00]

BROWN: This weekend's historic tornado outbreak is already being called one of the largest and deadliest in United States history. Earlier today, I spoke with FEMA Administrator, Deanne Criswell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Types weather events we're seeing, they're more significant, more severe, they intensify more rapidly, they cause more destruction and more damage. So, what we need to do is make sure that we can understand certain risk, the future risks, what they're going to be, and what we can do to help reduce those impacts from these weather events.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And we heard her there. I know the audio is a little rough but she's saying that this is the new normal.

Joining me now, Victor Gensini, a Meteorology Professor from Northern Illinois University.

What do you think? Is the FEMA administrator right? Is severe weather like this really going to be the new normal?

VICTOR GENSINI, METEOROLOGY PROFESSOR, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY: It's good to be with you, Pamela. Although I'm not great on this circumstances this particular tornado that was one for the ages, one might say, generational, historic, would be terms that come to mind. We're looking at potentially once all the surveys are set and done, nearly 250 mile path length, and ratings potentially EF-4, or EF-5 in damage.

So, yes, I think when it comes to climate change, there are still some questions that I think the president, his remarks yesterday were almost spot-on.

BROWN: Yes. Help us understand, because you just laid out just the historic nature of this, potentially one of the longest tornados on record. Is this a result of climate change? Can you say that definitively? Help us just better understand that.

GENSINI: Yes. We can't say that definitively. It's, you know, one singular weather event versus climate, which is sort of the statistics of weather. And I think the best analogy here is baseball, Major League Baseball during the steroids era. You could never say that one homerun was solely due to steroids, just like we can't say that this tornado was solely due to climate change. But when you look at the season, the batting averages, the number of homeruns, the number of tornados, it becomes pretty clear that climate change is certainly having a role in these types of extreme weather events.

BROWN: And tornados aren't unheard of in December but they are certainly not common, especially tornados of this magnitude. Should we expect to see an increase in tornados in the winter months as the world continues to warm.

GENSINI: Yes. The United States average for tornados is about 25 per year. And when you start looking at what happened Friday, with path lengths well into the hundreds of miles, this is not common, not anything like we've seen before.

The temperatures on Friday morning across a good chunk of the southeast United States were in the 70s and 80s, it looked a lot more like a late spring type of severe weather event, certainly consistent with climate model projections of what we expect later on this century, and you know what, it's seems like it's already here. [19:40:03]

BROWN: Yes. It sure does. Professor Victor Gersini, just fascinating discussion, thank you so much.

GENSINI: Thanks Pamela.

BROWN: And up next, a corrections officer describes to me riding out the storm in a Mayfield jail and honors a colleague who did not survive.

Stay with CNN. We are live from Kentucky tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: I'm here in Mayfield, Kentucky, where we keep hearing these just incredible stories of survival. And tonight, I spoke to corporal C.J. Roberts who rode out the tornado in the Graves County Jail and he told me what that was like.

[19:45:06]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CORP. C.J. ROBERTS, GRAVES COUNTY, KENTUCKY JAIL: Like biggest tornado I ever seen. We walked outside of the outside doors and it's, we didn't see the edge of it. All we saw was the front leaning edge on the left hand side of it. We couldn't see down this way. And it lit up when it hit the substation like a blue-ish green, and that's when we really saw the, that edge of it, and it was, it looked very violent, from the split second we saw. Just --

BROWN: And you ran back inside, and then when it hit the jail, what was that like?

ROBERTS: There was, there was a section. And you could feel it in your ears, in your joints, and it was loud. You could hear pieces of the courthouse, debris, hitting the jail from, on the roof. Then, and then all of a sudden, everything was done.

BROWN: What was going through your mind in that quick, few seconds that it came through?

ROBERTS: Really, my main concern was making sure the other deputies and the inmates were safe so nothing really was going in my mind except for that and getting people under their bunks and getting the deputies inside one of our vestibule areas.

BROWN: Last question, I know you lost a deputy, right, for the jail. Tell me about him and what you think people should know about him.

ROBERTS: Pretty much, only thing we can really, I can really say about it, he was a great man. He loved his job and he did it for the inmates and for the betterment of the community.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: And many our thanks to Corporal C.J. Roberts for sharing his story with me. So many people like him are grieving the loss of loved ones, of colleagues, of people they know. This is a small, close-knit community, 10,000 people, seems like everyone knows each other here. Right now, we still don't have an official number in terms of the death toll.

It's still very fluid, we don't have an official for those unaccounted for, we know yesterday, that some people who they thought were unaccounted, they have been located so that is a bit of good news here, but just so much heartbreak, but at the same time, resiliency too.

I have talked to so many people here today you are just forging ahead, they have been out here all day long, bit by bit, cleaning up the rubble, trying to rebuild their community, and it's been really inspiring to see that level of resilience.

Tonight also caught up with a Mayfield Resident, Charles Sherill, I saw him, he was just looking through a rubble of stuff and it turns out that rubble was his home. He rode out the storm by sheltering in his bathtub. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: So this is your house. Where is the bath tub?

CHARLES SHERILL, RODE OUT TORNADO IN HIS BATHTUB: Right there.

BROWN: Yes, right in there. Look at this, right in there.

SHERILL: Yes, laying there in altar.

BROWN: Look, right in there. And what were you thinking when?

SHERILL: Just praying. Praying that, you know, that God will take care of me, my kids, my family.

BROWN: Where were your kids and the rest of your family?

SHERILL: They were in another house a couple blocks over, but they were okay. Hardly did any damage there. That's the bathtub right there.

BROWN: You must be feeling really lucky.

SHERILL: My first cousin lives across the street here, he helped me out.

BROWN: He helped you get out of there.

SHERILL: Yes, because I couldn't see.

BROWN: Did you have any -- so this basically protected you though --

SHERILL: The wall of this house fell on top of the tub, but - , but the house was right here.

BROWN: It was over there?

SHERILL: That's the foundation it shifted all the way. But well, yes, the foundation was there. It wasn't right here, this was the driveway.

BROWN: And you live right next to train track, and you said it sounded like train coming through

SHERILL: It like a train. I'm just thankful to be alive. Thankful for my kids and family and thankful for the ones that did make it, and sorry for the ones that didn't make it. But, yes, that's where I was.

BROWN: I'm so sorry, you're having to go through this. I can't imagine looking at --

SHERILL: Pretty much, but only problem I really had, I guess, when tornado came through, it blew the pipes out, it close to drowning.

BROWN: Wait, what happened?

SHERILL: See the water running.

BROWN: Yes.

SHERILL: See, they busted and the water was just shooting into the tub, and I'm almost drowned, I couldn't get out.

BROWN: And then what happened? It just stopped?

[19:50:00]

SHERILL: I got out of there. And water up to here, and I couldn't see because it was so dark. And I had to first go there and (INAUDIBLE) getting me out.

BROWN: Oh, gosh.

SHERILL: And when I grabbed some shoes and some stuff.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Charles Sherill, it's just incredible speaking to some of these residents who just barely survived the tornado, who lost their homes, and still today they are able to be so pulled together. I mean, he doesn't know what the future holds for him.

His family-- and his family, they're staying at a motel. You know, he needs important things like medicine. We walked up to him, and he, first asked if we were FEMA. We have so many people here just desperate for help, and there are federal, and state, local resources pouring in to help people like Charles Sherill and his family.

Now, check out this story, the small miracle, a decades old family photo from a home here in Kentucky found more than 150 miles away in Indiana. It apparently was whipped up by the storms and found by Katie Postin, who says it was stuck to her car window.

She posted the photo on her social media accounts in hopes of finding its owners, and was able to connect with Cole Swatswell from Dawson Springs, Kentucky, who told her the photo belonged to his family.

Wow. How about that?

And I just want to take a moment and welcome a new member of our CNN family. After nearly two decades at Fox News, Chris Wallace announced his resignation effective immediately. And here's this morning's shocker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS: It may sound corny, but I feel we've built a community here. There's a lot you can do on Sunday mornings. The fact you've chosen to spend this hour with us is something I cherish. But after 18 years, I have decided to leave Fox. I want to try something new to go beyond politics to all the things I'm interested in. I'm ready for a new adventure, and I hope you'll check it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And that new adventure is at CNN, CNN+, our new subscription streaming service that will launch within the next few months. Wallace, of course, the son of legendary newsman, Mike Wallace, will host a weekday show. And, of course, we all welcome him aboard. Chris, we are so excited to have you.

And coming up, we get set for a CNN special honoring all those who made a difference this year. Vanessa Yurkevich is on the red carpet, and she joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:55:00]

BROWN: In just moments, the 15th annual CNN Heroes All-Star Tribute kicks off. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is live on the red carpet. Hi, Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Pam. Well, the red carpet was just electric tonight. You had the ten CNN Heroes making their way down, congratulating one another, celebrities just dazzling on the carpet tonight, who will be introducing those heroes in just moments.

We caught up with one CNN hero, Shirley Raines. She started Beauty 2 The Streetz after the loss of her son. She wanted to find purpose. She said she's found that in helping the homeless on skid row in Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY RAINES, TOP 10 CNN HERO OF 2021: We're not made to get people off the street. We're made to help people wake up in the morning and decide to fight while living on the streets. And I think that every time and we go out and do hair and makeup and see the same people show up, it reminds me that they're still here. They're still amongst the living and that we're doing our job. I wish we can get more people out of the street. Well, we're just helping them live right now in the moment.

YURKEVICH: Meeting people where they are.

RAINES: Meeting people where they're at and bringing beauty exactly to the streets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: Now, all ten of these CNN heroes, they're going to be receiving $10,000 to further their cause, their organizations. But the hero of the year will receive $100,000. That will go a long way for them, but all of these heroes tonight winners in our books. Pam?

BROWN: They certainly are inspiring. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.

And before we honor CNN's top heroes of the past year, a final word from here in Kentucky where new heroes are already rising to the challenge in the aftermath of these tornadoes. In Louisville, a water donation drive, the mayor tweeting this video of the University of Louisville Women's Basketball Team lending a hand before their game today.

And in Warren County, home to hard-hit Bowling Green, the principal of South Warren Middle posted these pictures of his school now packed with donations. He tweeted, overwhelmed by the love and generosity in our community.

And the governor says the team Western Kentucky tornado relief fund has already received more than $2 million from about 18,000 separate donations. And we have more ways to donate to states affected. Check out cnn.com/impact.

The 15th Annual CNN Heroes All-Star Tribute hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa starts now.

[20:00:00]