Gov.: Twister Damage 'Wrath Of God'

(CBS/AP)  The death toll from swarms of violent thunderstorms and tornadoes that devastated communities across eight states rose to 28 with the discovery of the last unaccounted-for resident in Tennessee, the governor said Tuesday.

"The wrath of God is the only way I can describe it," Gov. Phil Bredesen said after a helicopter tour of the damaged region.

He said Tennessee was up to 24 deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed by Sunday's storms. The latest victim was found in the rubble of a home in the community of Millsfield, officials said. Emergency crews were still out searching for possible victims, but no one else was known to be missing, Bredesen said.

"Your heart just has to go out to these communities that have been hit in this way. It's been awful," the governor told CBS News'The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen.

"I have never seen anything like this, and I've been through several tornadoes. I'm used to seeing roofs off houses, houses blown over, these houses were down to their foundations, stripped clean," Bredesen said. "It really stripped the earth clean."

Joshua Medley remembers vividly how he and his mother clung to each other in a closet as a tornado bore down on their Newbern home. The ordeal lasted only a few minutes, but it seemed like a lifetime.

"We got lifted up in the air and the house was spinning," said Medley, whose 1,500-square foot home was moved 12 feet from its foundation. "I didn't think we were going to make it."

Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., who accompanied Bredesen on the tour, said his cousin Janie King, 57, was killed by a tornado that destroyed her home near Newbern.

"When you have 20-something fatalities, that's just a number. This really puts a face to it," Tanner said, visibly shaken.

The storms destroyed homes and buildings across parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas, CBS News correspondent Jim Acosta reports. Strong wind was blamed for at least three deaths in Missouri, and one man died in a store collapse in southern Illinois.

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