Nightly News   |  February 29, 2012

Mo. town sustains huge damage

The Weather Channel’s Mike Bettes reports from Branson, Mo., a town that also took a big hit from the tornadoes.

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

>>> we saw some of the devastation in branson , missouri. a lot of americans know it as a very popular tourist destination . weather channel meteorologist mike bettes is there for us tonight. mike, good evening.

>> reporter: good evening, to you, brian. branson known as the live music show capital of the world taking a hard hit from the ef-2 tornado. windows are shattered. debris litters the street. this hit in the middle of the night . this took a the love people off guard. keep in mind, this is not the peak high holiday season for them where they see a lot of tourists that come here. about 10,000 people this time of year in town. they are working very hard to get power restored. this is branson strip. you see the crews trying to get those poles back up as quickly as possible. about 12 of the hotels here sustained significant damage. half a dozen of the music theaters sustained significant damage. we talked with jay dixon, the governor here. he declared a state of emergency and said at least $10 million of damage here, if not more.

>> mike bettes , thanks.