time. but investment, especially female investment is key. >> yep. more to be done but progress, which is a good thing. nice to see you. appreciate it. >> you too. next hour of "new day" starts right now. ♪ good morning and welcome to our new day. it's saturday, april 30th. i'm laura jarrett in new york. >> i'm amara walker in atlanta. boris and christi are off. laura, great to be with you. >> always great to see you. we begin this morning in the midwest where the governor of kansas has declared a state of emergency after a string of powerful tornadoes. >> holy. >> look at that. >> oh my god. >> oh my gosh. >> oh my gosh. >> you can hear the oh my goshes there. at least 14 tornadoes were reported across kansas and nebraska. authorities say at least one touched down in the wichita area, damaging homes, cars and

at least 52 buildings. >> in andover, officials say most of the roads are closed but the fire chief says it will take longer to figure out the damage in his city. >> unfortunately we've been through this before. and it will be years that we'll be recovering from this. >> years. cnn meteorologist allison chinchar joins us now. allison, at least 40 million people are still under the threat of severe storms. how many days are we talking about before things get better here? >> it's a great question because it's going to be a multiday event. you're talking over a dozen states at some point being impacted whether it's today, tomorrow or even potentially on monday. but let's look at the last 24 hours. again, 15 tornado reports so far. over 80 damaging wind reports and 60 hail reports. some were the size of baseballs and even softballs. so you're talking some pretty significant damage. unfortunately for some of these communities you've got high wind

warnings and wind advisories. meaning the cleanup process is likely going to take place today, you have to contend with 30, even 40 miles per hour wind gusts throughout much of the day today. we also still have that same line of thunderstorms that caused the issues yesterday still on going. you can see some of those how issers and thunderstorms, states like illinois, missouri, arkansas and even oklahoma. most of the major threat has died down for the moment. but that is expected to change, especially once the sun comes back out. you get the heating of the day. that's really going to ramp things back up. so this is going to be the focal point for where we anticipate the severe thunderstorms today. you'll notice it stretches from milwaukee all the way back down towards waco and austin, texas. basically anywhere you see this green color has the potential for some strong to severe thunderstorms. but really the focal point will be this yellow area here, chicago, st. louis stretching down to little rock, damaging winds, large hail yet again like we saw yesterday and, yes, even a few tornadoes. here is the thing. we got those showers and

thunderstorms on going, but you'll really start to see the bulk of the severe storms begin this afternoon and continue into the evening hours. so again, it could even be one of those things where afterdark you still have to make sure you get a way to get your watches and warnings especially before you go to bed. we talked about this. it's a multi-day event. it's not just today. we have a second system arriving on sunday. the focus then really becomes that target point around the oklahoma and texas panhandles as well as portions of colorado and new mexico. by monday, we start to see that shift a little farther to the east, but also spread north. so unfortunately you're even talking some of the same communities that were hit last night now getting a secondary round of severe tomorrows yet again on monday. so, here is that first system. sunday you still got a chance for some strong thunderstorms across west virginia and southern ohio. that secondary system really starting to take shape on sunday and continuing to progress as we go into monday. so ladies, unfortunately this is something we're going to have to keep a close eye on over the

next several days. >> yeah. that double whammy is really tough for folks. thank you for tracking all the storms. now to the on going war in ukraine where russian forces are intensifying their attacks in the east, but ukrainian forces say they are holding off the russian assault on several fronts. ukraine says its forces fought off 14 russian attacks in the donetsk and luhansk regions over the past 24 hours. >> yeah. heavy shelling by russian troops struck a key railway hub and supply line. ukraine says russia continues to strengthen its presence in the area. >> we are also hearing from the mother of a former u.s. marine killed while fighting alongside ukrainian forces. she says he went to fight in the country because it was the right thing to do. >> the situation is growing more desperate inside that steel plant in mariupol. hundreds of soldiers and civilians have been trapped inside the plant for weeks now.

a commander inside says russian bombardment has been relentless. and many people there are injured. efforts are under way to try to get those civilians out. let's get the latest now on the situation inside the steel plant and of course other developments in ukraine. cnn correspondent scott mclean joining us live now from lviv. scott, what have you learned about the conditions, if any, inside that steel plant? >> reporter: hey, amara, yeah. things have been dire now for weeks, maybe months. and they're only getting worse there. that is what we're being told from the people inside of that plant. it is well known around the world, even gotten the attention of the u.n. secretary general who was here in ukraine just days ago trying to broker some kind of a deal between the ukrainians and russians with u.n. help to get people out of that area. so far, though, nothing has panned out. yesterday the ukrainian

president volodymyr zelenskyy announced that there was an operation under way to evacuate people from underneath of that steel plant, but by the end of the day again nothing has come from it. one of his advisers said that the russians don't want to give up that steel plant. they don't want to let anybody out of there for them it is symbolic. leaving the fighting there is the azov regimen, a former ultra nationalist extremist militia now folded into the regular ukrainian military but also a propaganda tool for russia to try to make the point that ukraine needs to be denazified in their telling of the story. so he says that the russians simply have not been willing to talk to make any real meaningful concessions at all. i spoke with a deputy commander of the azov regimen yesterday actually inside of that steel plant right now and he said that in recent days they have not only been taking heavy

bombardment from the sky but yesterday russian troops also attempted to storm the compound from the ground. and remember, there are not only citizens there, as young as 4 months they say, but there are hundreds of injured soldiers as well. and i asked him how long those soldiers might be able to survive. >> translator: i'm not going to say how long we could be here, but i'm going to say we're doing everything we can to stabilize them. >> would you rather die fighting than surrender yourself to the russians? >> translator: we are not considering the terms of surrender. we are waiting only for guarantees of exit from the territory of the plant. that is, if there is no choice but captivity, we will not surrender. >> reporter: so, i also spoke with an adviser to the mayor of mariupol yesterday who said that even if diplomacy succeeds in getting the civilian population from out from underneath the steel plant, it is a much longer shot to imagine that the russians would let the soldiers

there, the armed soldiers there walk. they say they will not leave that steel plant unless they have a weapon in their hands. he suggested that they would need not only international intervention but perhaps the pope himself might have to drive the bus and take them out safely. amara, laura? >> scott mclean, thank you. appreciate your reporting. the mother of a former u.s. marine killed while fighting along ukrainian troops says her son wanted to do the right thing. she says he made the family proud. >> 22-year-old willy joseph cancel was working for a private military contracting company when he agreed to join the fight in ukraine. his mother rebecca cabrera says he had high moral value and just wanted to help the people of ukraine. >> that is one of the proudest days of his life when he was able to call himself a marine.

and even before he left to go to ukraine, you know, he was proud because he wanted to do the right thing. and fight alongside the underdogs and help them with things that he thought was important. he knew they needed help. and it was just something that he felt that he could help in because he had the experience and the training and the knowledge to go and help them. >> cabrera says she last spoke with her son on april 21st, four days before he was killed. willy joseph cancel leaves behind a wife and a 7 month old baby. retired major general michael is mere to discuss russia's war on ukraine the command erp for u.s. special operation forces in europe. sir, very nice to see you again this morning. i want to start here. ukraine says that its forces are

holding off attacks on several fronts now as new russian forces come across the border. cnn reports the russian military has made some progress as they work to fix the problems that they faced early in the phase of this invasion. how would you assess just the relative strength of each side. we're now some two months into this crisis. >> for the ukrainians, their ultimate strength is really the defense that they're in and the unity of their people. additionally they have almost unlimited supplies coming in from nato at this point in time. the supply line has been opened up and working efficiently and effectively in providing armaments to the ukrainians out on the front. they're able to use that and deploy that to good effect against the russians. on the russian side, they have numbers and the advantage of geography. right now they're using the numbers of troops that they

have, the various tactical groups in an attempt to encircle ukrainian forces in the east. they're fighting very viciously in the east, pressing hard from the south and the north to encircle those forces and defeat them in detail, which will be a catastrophic loss for the ukrainians if they're allowed to do that. >> well, speaking of the east, ukraine says that russian artillery is hitting villages in the northeast, places that hadn't been targeted frankly in weeks. what does that tell you? >> it tells me that russia is up to the same classic tactics they have been using all along. same tack tics they used in chechnya and syria. they bomb and destroy everything in front of them and slowly advance their troops in that area cleared of any civilian soldiers, anything that's left. they're interested in destroying everything that's in front of them. their not interested in maneuvering and pushing out the troops or killing the troops. they want to push out the civilians and everything that is

ukrainian out of the area. they want to destroy anything that is ukrainian in front of them. that is their mission. it's been that way since the beginning of this thing. the reason is they don't want anything that looks like ukraine or has any tie to ukrainian culture left when they pass through the area. they want to annex that area and make it part of greater russia. that's their strategy and objective all along here. so this is exactly typical what they've been doing since day one. >> as you mentioned, though, ukraine is getting help. poland says it has sent more than 200 tanks to ukraine in the past few weeks. u.s. has delivered more than half of the howitzers it pledged in the recent weapons package. how significant is this new aid from the west and really at in point what do you think is most needed? so first to poland, it's very impressive isn't it what they've

done? 200 tanks or so and those are badly needed by the ukrainians. and the ukrainians are taking those and using them to good effect. they have to replenish their losses as well. we think the russians lost about 1,000 tanks. i think probably the ukrainians have lost substantially less than that. probably in the range of 2 or 300. another 200 tanks coming into the inventory to be used by front line troops is a very significant addition to the capability there. the nato capabilities being provided not just the u.s. but also got to take into account what nato is doing and other nations as well. as an example, australia provided artillery pieces similar to what the u.s. has done. so, it's more than just the united states. it's a nato effort, plus nato friendly countries that are supplying the ukrainians. so that's a significant effort in combination. the troops have been trained.

they trained the trainers so to speak, for the artillery systems. they've gone back and now training the troops on how to use the artillery systems that have been provided to them. so we should see them put into action in the next week or two. it's not a matter of just getting something and going out and shoot the weapon. there's a lot of art and science behind this that has to be learned and akwooifed along the way. >> well, really helpful to have your expertise as always to help break all of this down. it's a lot to digest, that is for sure. major general michael repass, thank you so much. appreciate your time. >> thank you. the brutality of russia's invasion of ukraine is shocking. even to those who are accustom to dealing with atrocities and conflicts. pentagon press secretary john kirby got emotional discussing vladimir putin's depravity in ukraine. here he is. it's hard to look at what he's

doing in ukraine, what his forces are doing in ukraine and think that any ethical, moral individual could justify that. it's difficult to look at the -- sorry. it's difficult to look at some of the images and imagine that any well-thinking, serious mature leader would do that. so, i can't talk to his psychology. but i think we can all speak to his depravity. >> kirby called putin's justifications for the invasion b.s. still to come this morning, president biden is requesting additional aid for ukraine to the tune of $38 billion. but he'll have to get congress's approval first. and next, a cnn exclusive, the 80 plus text messages that

reveal the advice trump's white house shared with a fox host after the 2020 election. it's because we're doing it every single day, all day. how do you like learning at home? i kind of don'n't like it. i kind of don't like it either. i i just want you to have everything. everything that you want in life. ♪ ♪ ♪ spraying flose daily stopse your body from overreacting to alrgens all season long. psst! psst! flonase all good.

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♪ ♪ we're learning new detarials about more than 80 text messages between former white house chief of staff mark meadows fox host sean hannity. we have seen some of these messages before, but these new ones show hannity's support of former president trump's big lie and offer a window into how he was reacting to the election and its aftermath. cnn's brian stelter has more details. >> hey. these really re-enforce how right wing media re-enforced the right wing election lie. these were handed over by mark meadows to the 1/6 committee. sean hannity's name came up over

and over again with dozen of messages back and forth between hannity and meadows from november 2020 to january 2021. there's a clear evolution in hannity's thinking. he starts out in november believing trump actually won the election saying on november 29th, i've had my team digging into the numbers. there is no way biden got these numbers. just mathematically impossible. it's so sad for this country. they can pull this off in 2020. so language from hannity and meadows responding, you're exactly right. working on breakthrough. in other words, meadows saying he's trying to prove the election actually was stolen. but by december of 2020, hannity and meadow's tone shifted. they talked about what life would be like in the biden years and possible business deals together. and then in january of 2021, hannity expressed real alarm during the riot of the capitol and then after the riot tried to manage trump, tried to provide guardrails around trump for the

final days of the trump presidency. these messages they demonstrate how unusual the relationship was between fox stars like hannity and the trump white house. of course, hannity had a lot to say back then, but didn't have anything to say about this report. he declined to comment. i think what really stands out more than anything else the difference what hannity was saying publicly on his television show and saying privately. booking guests and interviewing people on his show stoking the big lie, encouraging people to disbelieve that biden was the actual winner, in private, he was acknowledging reality by december and january. he was acknowledging biden was going to be the president. he kept that from his viewers and told a scary story on tv about the election being stolen from donald trump. laura, amara? >> brian stelter, thank you for that report. also this week, president biden formally asked congress for $33 billion in supplemental funding ing to support ukraine

russia's war enters a new phase, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle warn there are many issues that need to be sorted out that could delay this vote for weeks. >> daniela diaz joining us now. good morning. so, what does congress need to flesh out before making a decision? >> reporter: well, of course, that supplemental request came from president joe biden. he laid out what he wanted to see in this legislation. but the democrats need republican support to pass this through the senate. so, it's going to take a couple of weeks as democrats and republicans flesh out what they actually can pass with republican support. remember, it is a priority for republicans to help ukraine try to combat this russian invasion, but that price tag, $33 billion, is a lot of money. so they're going to try to figure out what they can do. another issue here, of course, being that democratic leadership wants to couple this supplemental request, this legislation to help ukraine, with separate funding for to

help covid-19 or for covid-19 to help businesses relief package as well as funding for testing, funding for vaccines, senate already agreed on $10 billion price tag. they tabled that after -- before congressional recess that took place about a couple weeks ago. now democratic leadership is figuring out whether they want to couple that $10 billion bill for covid-19 relief with the supplemental request, but republicans don't want that. in fact, one very powerful republican in the senate john thune said that is a non-starter. they'll try to figure out how to do and this the other question is when they agree on what this legislation is going to look like, they have to write it. but the goal here for democratic leadership is to try to pass this legislation by memorial day weekend, whether that happens or not remains to be seen. we all know things take a long time here at capitol hill. laura, amara? >> yeah, sometimes too long. daniela diaz, appreciate you. thank you so much.

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♪ welcome back. it's now been six months since the deadly shooting on the set of that movie "rust." and still, the central question at the heart of this investigation remains, how did live ammunition make it on to that set? answering that question may take time, but in a newly-released interview, a detective on the case details just how many live rounds were found. >> they're everywhere. i mean -- they're in that box. there's one in another box. like i said, there's those ones on the carts. there's ones in belts.

i think we have seven total. >> they were everywhere. joining me now is cnn legal analyst areva martin. so nice to see you this morning. let's start with this interview. the film's prop master, her name is sara zachary, she found live rounds in the ammo box that was being used to load the gun at the center of this shooting. they found, as you heard the detective there, they found live rounds everywhere. this is the first time we're hearing this publicly. what does it mean for the investigation? >> very troubling that live rounds would be mixed in with the blanks. these are the rounds, we know one of the rounds actually killed halyna hutchins. to see these rounds were mixed in with the blanks, very again troubling revelation by this investigation. we know that there has been so much negligence that was a part of this set. we know that when the armorer herself was interviewed, she said she had not received certain safety bulletins that

were sent out. she can't explain how the live rounds were mixed in with the blanks. we heard there may have been sabotage that happened with respect to this set. so so many disturbing revelations but still no answer to that central question how did those live rounds make their way to this movie set. >> yeah. you certainly get a sense of just sort of casual atmosphere when people are handling a dangerous weapon. meanwhile, the family of the victim, as you mentioned, halyna hutchins, furious with the santa fe county sheriff's office after investigators released videos and pictures earlier this week of hutchens' final moments. we're not going to show those moments. they want that taken down. the family attorney says it tramples on the constitutional rights of hutchens. is there anything to be done from the family's perspective? >> i don't think so as graphically horrific as some of the evidence was that was

released what the santa fe police department is saying essentially, look, we had a public records request for this information and we are simply complying with that public records request and releasing this information. they also talk about transparency. saying they wanted to release this information to demonstrate they are being transparent with respect to this investigation, as horrible again as this is for the family, i don't think we're going to see the law enforcement agency retract any of the agency put out to the public. >> fair enough. i want to pivot here to another high-profile case. the attorneys for the suspected new york subway shooter, frank james, say the fbi violated his constitutional rights when they took his dna and failed to notify the lawyers. now the federal prosecutors say they had authorization from a judge to get the dna. they say they didn't violate his rights. can you walk our viewers through what's the protocol in these situations in a criminal case for getting dna.

does anything smell fishy here to you? >> yeah, i have a couple of concerns. the protocol is getting legitimate search warrant to be able to take a swab, which is what they did in this case. they took saliva swab to test his dna. they did that a couple weeks after he was in custody, but there was legitimate search warrant for that swab. what i'm a little more concerned about is if they questioned him. seems to be some allegations that law enforcement agents actually questioned him outside the presence of his attorney. we know he is represented by a federal prosecutor and there shouldn't have been any conversations or any questioning of him without those attorneys being there, even though you've been accused of committing horrific crimes, you still have constitutional rights and those rights can not be trampled on simply because you're in detention or again the heinous nature of the crimes that you've been accused of. so, if there were conversations with him, questions asked of him outside the presence of his attorneys, that could be

troubling. >> all right. areva martin, nice to see you, my friend. thank you so much. >> thank you. we'll be right back. ♪ this is how it feels to have a dedicated fidelity a advisr looking at your full financial picture. this is what it's like to have a comprehensive wealalth plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. and set aside more for things like healthcare, or whatever comes down the road. this is "the planning effect" from fidelity. with age comes more... get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .5% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkle results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin.

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the justice department says the ban violates the 14th amendment equal protection clause. this law just the latest in a trend from republican-led states like texas and arkansas targeting the lives of transgender youth. in his bid to change the culture of twitter to promote what he calls free speech, some worry that elon musk's version of the social media platform will do more harm than good. in the lgbt community there are fears that cyber bullying will only get worse. now back in 2020 musk himself came under fire for mocking people who displayed their preferred pronouns in their twitter bio, later tweeting, quote, i absolutely support trans but all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare. joining me now is transgender attorney, activist and researcher at the burkeman client center for internet and society. good morning to you, alejandra. so right now, there are things in place, like twitter's content

moderation policy, to protect users from hate and disinformation. tell us more about what that exactly is, how it works and do you expect or believe that that could be either stripped down in some way or completely eliminated? >> yes. thank you. so, the content moderation right now on twitter works mostly through user feedback. so if any users engage in any kind of targeted harassment against anyone based on any kind of protected class, either on their race, their ethnicity, gender identity, sexual or generalation, a user can report those attacks or that content to twitter and twitter can then take action. one of the most common tactics that anti-trans folks use is they go into trans' people's twitter accounts and misgender them and harass them. really over the last particularly month since the bid for elon musk, one of the things i have seen myself and

anecdotally from a lot of my trans friends on twitter is there's much more of a lighter touch in terms of the moderation around anti-trans hate speech particularly around misgendering. and you know, given the media reports that elon musk purchased or decided to purchase twitter and the last straw was the ban for the babylon b for misgendering dr. rachel lavigne, the assistant health secretary, it's clear that there's at least some chilling effect already going on with the moderation around anti-trans hate speech. >> you know, private companies can set their own rules for free speech and we know that musk has said that he would be very cautious or that people should be very cautious about permanent bans on these kinds of platforms and we know president trump was permanently banned after his tweets regarding january 6th. what are your biggest concerns

as to what might be the effect or how elon musk's takeover, potential takeover, will impact your community? >> right. i think we have already been starting to see it this week, some of the worst fears realized. i've already seen multiple tweets of people gloating that because elon musk has purchased the website that they're going to purposefully and intentionally target trans people on twitter. and that's something i feel that already i've seen on my own twitter account. i for the first time had to go take my twitter account private on monday because i had a tweet criticizing elon musk and i was starting to get hate mail to my personal work email. so that kind of harassment is part and parcel of being a visible trans person online. and -- >> did you flag it, alejandra? were you able to report that? and was anything done? or did you get any responses? >> well, yes. at least particularly with anything to my personal email i

was able to handle internally with harvard law and their i.t. system, but in terms of the attacks on twitter, i have actually seen almost negligible amounts of actual moderation by twitter's team. i mean, it's been a noticeable decline particularly since the beginning of april. >> if twitter becomes a more hostile environment, again, we're talking theoretical, i mean, could that lead to more people signing off? would you consider signing off completely? >> depending on how hostile it gets, yes. we know what sites with lax or no moderation look like. sites like 4 chan, 8 koon and others and everything from open racism, swastikas, all kinds of nazi content. so at a certain level if you do not have moderation you're not going to have a site that's welcoming to anybody that is not essentially, you know, a white supremacist or just the most hateful parts of the internet.

and it will destroy the user base of twitter. it will be tumbler 2.0 and see a mass exodus of the core users and essentially twitter will end up being a shell of its former self. >> you know, i was quite disturbed and astounded when i saw this report researching before my conversation with you from the anti-defamation league in 2021 it reported that 64% of lgbtq people polled reported experiencing harassment online. that is the vast majority of them. is there another platform that the lgbtq community can turn to to feel safe? >> yes. i mean, i don't think there's going to be a perfect replacement for twitter and the function it had for the lgbtq community in terms of organizing and finding community. i know discord is another one which allows much more specific

moderation because it's a specific server, tiktok has been another one, although increasingly that's becoming more hostile as people are targeted by tiktok and targeted for harassment. and so there's not really an immediate replacement. and that makes it particularly scary for a lot of folks that found community and found voice on twitter. >> well, look, this is an important conversation. we will stay on top of this. i do wish you all the best. alejandra, thank you so much. >> thank you. well, he is a master sew moll ya and a celebrated chef. now carlton mccoy is adding tv to his resume with cnn's new original series "nomad." he gets to the heart of the city through food, music, art and people. >> julie is the creator of free cut, founder of family first. a food-focussed creative agency

that pairs big brands and megastars with bold new concepts. we could have gotten the best table at any fancy restaurant in paris, but instead, he wanted me to try his mom's home cooking. >> troublemaker. >> he's a trouble maker? >> you can tell. >> welcome. >> what's in the inside? >> quail egg. >> beautiful. >> so this is -- >> from sugar cane shrimp to the fresh green papaya salad, this is a true veietnamese style dinner. >> catch it tomorrow at 10:00 p.m. only on cnn.

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♪ taking a look at your other stories this hour. relief abounds for the reed family following the return of former marine trevor reed to the u.s. after nearly three years in a russian prison. meanwhile, brittney griner's wife posted this note on instagram. it reads, as i do everything in my power to get b.g. home, my

heart is overflowing with joy for the reed family. i do not personally know them, but i do know the pain of having your loved one detained in a foreign country. the wnba's brittney griner has been detained in russia since february, accused of carrying cannabis oil in her luggage. next court date is set for may 19th. the fda and cdc investigating a baby formula maker abbott nutrition after reports of consumer complaints and babies getting sick. abbott recalled and held back several powdered formula products made in michigan facility. safety testing continues. friday said it would release some product locks put on hold. products made in late january to early march carry a risk of contamination. in north central new mexico an air quality alert is now in effect because of the thick smoke from a series of wild fires. some that started in early april. almost 160,000 acres have burned

across the state. residents in san miguel and mora counties are now under mandatory evacuation orders as of friday. as the fires continue to threaten homes. the west is also in the grips of a megadrought fueled by climate change and the clearest example of what's happening is lake mead. the largest man made reservoir in the country. >> it's a source of water for millions of people and it has dropped to an unprecedented low. here is cnn's stephanie elam with a look at what's happening now for the first time ever. sometimest hard to get people to understand just how the climate process is impacting us. now we have something to know how big this drought is. take a look at these images of the intake valve. the original intake valve in lake mead for the southern nevada water authority.

now this valve was put in 1971, but they had to decommission it earlier this month because it is now standing above the water line. they saw this coming. so in 2015 they started building a new valve and pumping station that went into operation earlier this week. so that it's now taking in watter from the very bottom of lake mead. but look at lake mead and the images of lake mead and see how much it has dropped over the last couple decades. this is a big problem here. this is something you're seeing across the region. i traveled up to the snow pack in california and it is basically not there. this is after the state logged its first three months that are the driest of any year on record. so this is what we are seeing here. this is why they're asking people in southern california to go ahead and start conserving water. they're asking people to cut their water usage by 35%. this as some regions in southern california are already going to be forced to cut back on their watering to just one day a week.

this is because that snow pack is too small and these are places where they don't get to their watter from the colorado river basin some 40 million people rely on for water. they're saying these cutbacks aren't made and they're not steep enough by september 1st, all watering could be taken off of the option of possibility for those people living in those regions of southern california. it's also worth noting, laura and amara, that most of what people consume for water actually goes to outdoor watering. they're saying 70% of it, that's the case there. so, for people who live here and we're looking at this drought, thinking about what humans need, is way more important than thinking about what your grass may need. laura and amara? >> an important story. stephanie, thank you for that. still to come this morning, more than a dozen tornadoes reported across two states over night. but the severe weather threat is far from over. where the system is headed next after the break. but those who do

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and peacock. just say watchathon into your voice remote and get ready to watch. i love you. i love you. i love you all. good morning, everyone. it is saturday, april 30th. i'm amara walker in today for boris sanchez. >> nice to hold down the fort with you this saturday. i'm laura jarrett in for christi paul. a lot to get to. we start this hour with at least 40 million people under the threat of severe storms. this follows at least 14 tornadoes reported across kansas and nebraska. >> look at that. >> oh my gosh. >> oh my gosh. >> oh my gosh is right. authorities say at least o