Team rushes to help tornado-hit town

(CNN) -- Last week's tornado outbreak was the largest in U.S. history, according to the National Weather Service. At least 178 tornadoes tore across communities in 14 states and caused 327 deaths.

Among the communities affected by the storms was Ringgold, a small town in northwest Georgia. Half of the town's businesses were damaged, and many homes were reduced to rubble.

Ringgold, population 2,800, had limited resources to deal with the emergency until 2008 CNN Hero Tad Agoglia and his First Response Team rolled into town.

With more than $1 million worth of specialized equipment, Agoglia's mobile response team has the tools and the experience to help communities recover in their darkest hours.

CNN spoke to Agoglia about his group's recent efforts in Ringgold.

CNN: Where were you when you heard about the storms, and why did you decide to come to Ringgold?

Tad Agoglia: (We) had been in North Carolina for the past two weeks. We responded to a terrible tornado there that ripped through most of the state. All of a sudden, we're watching on TV one of the worst (tornado outbreaks) form in United States history, possibly.

We knew there was going to be a tremendous amount of suffering, and we knew we had to respond. We decided to come to Ringgold, Georgia, because it's a small community, and most likely they didn't have resources they would need to deal with this type of storm.

CNN: What kind of resources do you bring with you?

Agoglia: When a disaster strikes, you don't really know what you're going to need, so you have to bring everything. That's why we've packaged up four tractor-trailers loaded with just about every type of tool and gear and piece of equipment.

We have huge lighting systems and rubble cameras for search and rescue. We've got cranes and trucks to remove the debris from the road. We've got the (generators) to power up emergency rooms, nursing homes, shelters. We've got just about every type of cutting tool known to mankind -- plasmas cutters, concrete saws, metal saws, wood saws -- anything that you need to get through an area to get to the people that need help.

We have seen just about every type and size of disaster imaginable. We can create a lot of progress really quickly in a lot of communities just by the experience we have and the equipment we have.

CNN: What have you been doing since you arrived in Ringgold?

Agoglia: We were able to get the church powered up and utilize it as a shelter. After that, we quickly moved in gear to start clearing roadways.

Clearing roads is really important, because people can't get out if the roads aren't cleared. Ambulances and fire trucks need to get to home sites to perform search and rescue, so we help with that.

This debris is really tricky stuff to deal with. When you look at a road and it's covered with houses and trees and cars -- just about anything you can imagine -- it's a little challenging to figure out how to clear that path. But we've got the equipment to be able to do that. So we just began to clear one road after the other.

CNN: You've also been clearing home sites. How do you decide who to help?

Agoglia: It was a little difficult to figure out where to start. It's just home after home, hundreds of them for miles and miles throughout this county and city. And so we decided to start helping families who lost loved ones in the storm.

I literally just started walking up the streets. I started asking questions. "Do you know anybody that's in need? Do you know any families that have lost loved ones?" And the local community led me to Melba (Weese, whose father was killed).

Not only were we able to go through the home site (where Weese's father lived) and find some of their precious belongings and clear the site, but we were also able to prepare the burial grounds for her and her family.

CNN: This work is so physically and emotionally grueling. What keeps you going?

Agoglia: This is part of being human. A lot of people think the government is supposed to help us or FEMA's supposed to help us, the White House in Washington will help us. But when we see people who are really suffering and struggling, it's our responsibility to come and to help.

I'll come into a city, and I'll meet absolute strangers. And within days, they're kind of like friends and family. And it's hard when you look into their faces and you see the sadness and the loss, the shock and confusion. And all I can hope is that what we did makes a difference in their lives ... and hopefully others will also rise to the occasion, see the needs and do something about it.

To donate to the First Response Team, visit its website at firstresponseteam.org. To read the original story about Agoglia, visit his archive page at CNNHeroes.com.

CNN's Kathleen Toner and Ashauntae Porras contributed to this report.

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Top US officials tour tornado-hit South

NEW: "Our world will never be the same," a Mississippi pastor saysNEW: The University of Alabama's student newspaper is trying to track down the missingA tornado that decimated a north Alabama town is upgraded to EF5FEMA's director is among the federal officials visiting the area

Smithville, Mississippi (CNN) -- Several top federal officials toured tornado-ravaged areas of the South as churches honored the storms' victims in Sunday services.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate were among the officials visiting parts of Alabama and Mississippi decimated by one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.

The visit comes as damage reports from Wednesday's storms grow and the number of dead and injured mounts. The death toll had climbed to 339 Sunday, according to emergency management officials in six states.

"We were changed. Our world will never be the same. This moment will forever be etched in the forefront of all our imaginations," Pastor Wes White said at a service in Smithville, Mississippi, where at least 15 people were killed in the storms.

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A tornado demolished the Smithville Baptist Church, but White urged several hundred congregants gathered under a tent Sunday not to lose hope, but to turn to Jesus.

"In these moments of change and in these moments of hurt, as we look on what was our precious building ... let me remind you of this truth first: when you don't know what to do, you can know where to go," he said.

Alabama's governor declared Sunday a day of prayer to honor victims Sunday, as the funeral of at least one -- University of Alabama graphic design student Morgan Sigler -- was scheduled to take place.

Sigler huddled in a hallway with friends as the tornado hit. But the twister demolished everything in the house but a closet, where one friend took shelter and survived, later finding Sigler's body in the rubble across the street.

"She just lit up our world; she was our baby," mother Vega Sigler said Saturday. "We know where she's at, but it doesn't make it any easier."

Sigler's story is one of scores of heart-rending tales emerging from the battered South.

In Alabama -- the state hit hardest by Wednesday's storms -- the death toll Sunday morning was 250 and the number of injured was 2,219, emergency management officials said. Nearly a half million customers in the state remained without power.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox said his city, where at least 39 people have died, faces a "humanitarian crisis." Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for and many more have been rendered homeless, he said.

Rescuers and volunteers were canvasing neighborhoods, searching for missing victims and people left homeless by the storm.

Some have remained in partially damaged homes or moved in with relatives, volunteer Martin Izaguirre said. In the Hispanic community, he said, many are afraid to go to shelters.

He said some have told him, "We are afraid we won't be welcomed in places where Spanish is not spoken."

While searchers fan out across the city, some have taken a more high-tech approach. The University of Alabama's Crimson White student newspaper is trying to track down some of the city's missing using the #UAMissing hashtag on Twitter, said Hannah Mask, a former editor who has been working on the project.

"It's been really efficient," she said, noting that the list of those unaccounted for seems to be decreasing.

Damage to larger Alabama cities such as Birmingham and Tuscaloosa may have been greater than the damage suffered by smaller towns, but rural areas will likely have a harder time recovering, Red Cross spokeswoman Anita Foster said.

"In terms of suffering, these people have lost their loved ones, they've lost their community. There are people who don't have home to return to," Foster said.

She noted the sad response she received from one Hackleburg, Alabama, resident after asking her whether the town could recover.

The woman simply shook her head, Foster said.

The National Weather Service has upgraded a tornado that devastated the north Alabama town to an EF5, the deadliest ranking for a twister. The agency said the twister -- which moved at a speed of at least 200 mph -- destroyed several subdivisions, the town's high school and a Wrangler Jeans plant.

It also obliterated an assisted living center adjacent to the town's emergency shelter, a Piggly Wiggly grocery store and a Dollar General store, the Red Cross said.

Emergency management officials have tallied 34 deaths in Tennessee, 34 in Mississippi, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Arkansas.

CNN's Martin Savidge, Raja Razek and Gustavo Valdes contributed to this report.

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