>> we drove by shaw university. you can see all the windows were shattered. there were trees everywhere. i could see why they decided to cancel classes. >> ifill: is there anyway to know, we know we have heard the latest numbers of casualties of fatalities is at 44. but is there any way to keep count of how many people have been left homeless by these tornadoes not just in north carolina but around the country. >> very difficult to track exact numbers. we track the number of people coming into our shelters. we had about 500 people come to our shelters over the weekend. that number is down to 300 in the state of north carolina with seven shelters open. we had 120 in wake county probably the largest number of people in one location. that's how we track people. as state officials will probably do a better job of pinpointing exact numbers on a day-to-day basis. >> when we talk about disasters like this it's usually located in one place whether it's in a country like haiti or it's in another location where we've seen earthquakes or hurricanes. in this case because

nearby shaw university also sustaining some major damage, parts of roofs coming off, some windows shattered. it's just a real mess here, a lot of emergency vehicles moving about. but from what we understand so far, there hasn't been any fatalities. now, this was not the only tornado to occur across north carolina. also, numerous tornadoes down toward the dunn area and wilson area as well, lester. a lot of cleanup ahead here. >> jeff morrow in raleigh, thank you. >>> news tonight of yet another air traffic controller falling asleep on the job. this time in miami. the faa quickly announced it's going to be changing the work schedules in towers and radar centers as soon as this weekend in an effort to end this problem. nbc's michelle franzen reports. >> reporter: here we go again. another air traffic controller asleep on the job. this time during the midnight shift saturday at the miami air route traffic control center. and now the federal aviation administration is planning to make changes to air traffic controllers' work schedules to combat fatigue, long overdue says one former faa administr

. >> reporter: in raleigh a shaw university student captured the chaos as classmates ran for cover. the devastation here is heartbreaking. homes upended or worse, splintered into a million pieces by winds estimated by the weather service to have been whipping at 165 miles per hour. in raleigh, two brothers and a cousin died when a tree came down on their trailer. the 9, 8, and 3-year-olds were holding each other huddled in a closet. >> i'm so sorry they heeded all the warnings and did everything they could and still sacrificed. >> reporter: amid the sorrow, there is also inspiration. in sanford, north carolina, the assistant manager at this lowe's hardware store turned hero when he ordered more than 100 panicked customers to the back of the store now. >> if any of the employees had hesitated another 20 seconds, we might have been out in the middle of the store when it hit. >> everybody in that building was a hero. >> reporter: north carolina governor beverly perdue toured the damage in colerain today. >> this is catastrophic. >> reporter: 11 residents in bertie county died, includin

. >> reporter: classes at raleigh's shaw university had to be canceled for the rest of the school year due to damage there. sophomore julius stokes, jr., grabbed his camera at the height of the storm, risking his safety to document damage at the oldest black college in the south. >> i really, really need, like, a lot of people out there to help my school because i love my university with all my heart. >> reporter: well, there's not going to be much time for people in this area or much of the country to recover from this round of deadly weather because forecasters say another potentially deadly storm system is now forming and it could trigger as early as tomorrow and again, katie, it looks like the starting point is going to be oklahoma. >> couric: bad news, cynthia bowers reporting tonight from raleigh, north carolina. cynthia, thank you. now to storm clouds of another kind. in an unprecedented warning today, standard & poor's, the cyedit rating agency, said the u.s. government's stellar standing could be in jeopardy unless congress and the president get the deficit under control, s&p

university and other places who came to buffalo to work during the summer, they knew black history i have a friend named cecil brown who's a great writer and his book is "where's my black studies." he said at the schools in the south he learned black history and black culture. charles harris, who was the editor of amistad magazine and had a series on black history. he knew black history, they all knew black history. i knew nothing like this. there was nothing like this available in the university curriculum or any school curriculum that i was exposed to. so that's -- that's the kind of change that he made, but now a kid goes to these integrated schools -- look, i understand why these kids didn't want to be humiliated. i think there's a great anecdote about lyndon johnson's valley is the black valley. and lyndon johnson wanted him to take his two dogs down to texas. and the black valley says i have enough trouble getting down there myself but i'll take two dogs. lyndon johnson, i told him under those accommodations and you couldn't go to the restrooms and all that kind of stuff you ca