Nightly News   |  April 28, 2011

Caught on film: Scenes of the storm's wrath

Were it not for the videos and photographs that captured images of the tornadoes as they tore through the South, the destruction left behind would be unimaginable. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> finally here tonight, join us in taking one more look now add what nature did in the south. the damage and the death toll there, what they're left with, all of it is just unimaginable, and the pictures and the sounds tell the story.

>> please, god.

>> today is a sad day in georgia as it is in alabama and other parts of the country.

>> we are just arriving on the scene here in tuscaloosa. look at this. cars, metal, everything just thrown across the road. look at this vehicle, just wrangled. metal just ripped apart.

>> we have utter destruction. we have neighborhoods that have basically been removed from the map. and we've got thousands upon thousands of citizens who have lost all their possessions.

>> you have to go all the way back to 1974 to even see a tornado outbreak that approaches what we saw yesterday.

>> words can't even describe the feeling you go through when you open that door.

>> you rebuild. you take it all in stride. and pray that everybody is safe.

>> we can't control when or where a terrible storm may strike, but we can control how we respond to it. we stand with every american affected by this disaster in the days and weeks to come.

>> still difficult to process, but already some people are jumping in and helping out. even though their campus was hit, university of alabama students went out as volunteers in teams today, helping people clean up, box what could be salvaged. we know a number of you want to help. we have put some information to that end on our website tonight, nightl nightly.msnbc.calm. thank you