Missing Tornado Victims Found Alive

Thirty-nine people who had been missing in Tennesee after a deadly tornado tore through the area turned up alive Tuesday, as survivors of storms struggled to put their lives back together.

One person remained missing in the area, down from an initial high of 40, state emergency management officials said Tuesday. Rescuers had thought most of them were alive but out of touch with family because the storm disabled phones and blocked roads.

In 14 storm-tossed states — roughly a third of America — a storm system spawned more than 70 tornadoes, thunderstorms and terror, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann. At least 36 people were killed including 17 in Tennessee, 12 in Alabama, 5 more in Ohio. More than 200 people were injured. Neighborhoods and nerves were shattered.

It was the nation's biggest swarm of tornadoes from a single weather system since more than 70 tornadoes killed 50 people in Oklahoma and Kansas in May 1999.

Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was expected to arrive to help assess the damage from communities devastated by a wave of deadly storms that left a trail of destruction from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. Communities are continuing recovery work and hoping for progress in finding those who haven't been located.

In one Mississippi county alone, 87 homes were destroyed, officials said Tuesday. Crews in Lowndes County still were measuring the damage to businesses, said emergency management director Larry Miller. Across the state, damage will be in the millions of dollars, Gov. Ronnie Musgrove said.

In 17 Ohio counties, the American Red Cross estimated Tuesday that 109 homes, businesses and other buildings were destroyed.

The National Weather Service posted a new round of tornado warnings in southeastern Georgia as a storm system stretched along the East Coast. Two people were reported injured and there was scattered wind damage. Up the coast, flood warnings were posted in North Carolina as more than 2 inches of rain fell in parts of the state.

These storms were a deadly collision of warm and cold air masses that began in Indiana, moved into Ohio and Tennessee, spawning at least 66 tornados across the Midwest and Southeast.

Yet there was some warning, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr.

Two days before the tornadoes began their weekend onslaught, storm trackers at the National Weather Service knew the November twisters were coming.

"This was a springtime situation in the month of November," said meteorologist Dan McCarthy at the Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma.

He watched as hot and cold air collided, triggering the violent storms along a thousand-mile front from Mississippi to Pennsylvania.

"Usually that's April, May and June," he said. "But...we've seen a trend over the last 20-30 years that we do get a second season. And that second season does occur in October or early November."

Tennessee was among the hardest hit, with one twister packing 113 mph winds as it ripped a 200- to 300-yard-wide path around Mossy Grove on Sunday night.

Seven people were killed there, including a father and his infant son, crushed inside their SUV, fleeing to safety.

A quarter mile away, Ralph Kivett cowered inside his house.

"I felt the whole house shaking. I knew then the whole house was gone," he said. "The roof left us and the floor fell through. But through the grace of God, I'm still here."

Residents of Morgan County, Tennessee, Tuesday morning could do little more than poke through their soaked, shattered and crumpled belongings, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Krasula. Many homes have been reduced to piles of rubble. For some all that's left can fit in the back of a pickup truck. Dazed and bruised survivors are staying in shelters or with friends. The Red Cross and Salvation Army are helping best they can.

Fourteen people remained missing, down from an earlier high of 40. Rescuers thought most of them were alive but out of touch with family because the storm disabled phones.

Steven Hamby, Morgan County director of emergency medical services, said digging out could take weeks.

"We're hoping that we're past the bad stuff," he said.

What took Ohio businessman Randy Adams 20 years to build — a business making purses — took seconds to destroy, but oddly, he feels lucky. Why?

"Because there's nobody injured here," he told CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod.

Adams has 108 employees. Any day but Sunday, his plant would have been full.

"Nobody got killed," he said. "We're not digging for bodies today. We're digging for filing cabinets and servers and computers and that sort of thing."