Devastating Tornado Hits Moore, Oklahoma; Dozens Dead
Monster tornado slams into Oklahoma city
Last updated 14:09 21/05/2013 Reuters
Monster tornado hits Oklahoma
Dozens of people have been killed by a monster tornado that pounded Oklahoma City for more than half an hour this morning, taking a direct swipe at a school.
The Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office said 51 people were killed in the twister, which stretched 3.2km-wide at times and also pulverised entire neighbourhoods and set buildings on fire. The death toll was expected to rise.
Frantic hunt for survivors after massive tornado leaves trail of destruction in Oklahoma. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
--Massive storm brings tornadoes
--Twisted metal lies in the road after the tornado.
--"This is war zone terrible"
The storm, with winds of up to 320 kilometres per hour, struck the suburb of Moore and made a direct hit on Plaza Towers Elementary School, leaving it a pile of rubble. At least 75 students were inside at the time. They were told to "hug the walls" as they braced for the winds. Rescuers swarmed the debris as darkness fell. More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 70 children. Some were in critical condition.
''Hearts are broken'' for parents looking for their children, Governor Mary Fallin told a news conference. Local television station KFOR said seven children were killed, reportedly drowned in the basement of the school. Dogs have been called in to help the search effort and cries for help could be heard from the debris.
''There are 13 kids that are buried right now,'' Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, said in an interview in Washington. ''There are 13 kids that are in a school that collapsed, we don't know whether they are alive or dead."
Rescue workers lifted children from the rubble before they were passed down a human chain and taken to a triage centre set up in the school's parking lot.
'A WAR ZONE'
The unusually intense storm - less than one percent of all tornadoes reach such wind speed - ripped through scores of buildings in Moore in a region of the US known as Tornado Alley. Block after block lay in ruins. Cars and trucks were left crumpled. In video of the storm, the dark funnel cloud could be seen marching slowly across the green landscape. As it churned through the community, the twister scattered shards of wood, pieces of insulation, awnings, shingles and glass all over the streets.
At Plaza Towers, the storm tore off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal. James Rushing, who lives across the street from the school, heard reports of the approaching tornado and ran to the school, where his 5-year-old foster son, Aiden, attends classes. Rushing believed he would be safer there. ''About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart,'' he said.
The scene was described as "an atomic bomb war zone".
A survivor said the tornado sounded like a freight train was coming. Another, Lando Hite, told KFOR about the storm hitting the Orr Family Farm in Moore, which had about 80 horses. "It was just like the movie Twister," he said. "There were horses and stuff flying around everywhere."
After the tornado roaded through, Tiffany Thronesberry said she got a panicked call from her mother, Barbara Jarrell. ''I got a phone call from her screaming, 'Help, help! I can't breathe. My house is on top of me!''' Thronesberry said. She hurried to her mother's house, where emergency crews had already pulled her out with cuts and bruises.
Damon Lane, chief meteorologist with Oklahoma City news agency KOCO, said debris from the tornado was falling in Branson, 400km away. Police Captain Dexter Nelson said downed power lines and open gas lines posed a risk in the aftermath of the system. Power was cut to more than 38,00 houses. The same suburb was hit hard by a tornado in 1999. That storm had the highest winds ever recorded near the earth's surface.
Yesterday storms slammed into Wichita, Kansas and in Oklahoma, killing two. The worst of the damage appeared to be at a mobile home park located near Shawnee among gently rolling hills, southeast of Oklahoma City.
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Oklahoma Tornado: At Least 51 Dead, 'Horrific' Damage
By LAUREN EFFRON and DEAN SCHABNER
A mammoth tornado carved a trail of destruction through the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, killing at least 51 people and ripping apart two elementary schools today, local authorities said. David Barnes, the director of Oklahoma Emergency Management in Oklahoma County, told ABC News that a single twister tore through homes from Newcastle to Moore, a path of 12 miles. The damage was "widespread" and people's homes were completely destroyed, all the way to their foundations, he said. At least 51 people have been confirmed dead in the storm's aftermath, according to the state's chief medical examiner's office.
"It is absolutely devastating, this is horrific," Oklahoma Lt. Gov Todd Lamb said. "We're going to have fatalities. ... We're going to have significant injuries. ... We just don't know what those numbers are. Schools have been hit, a hospital has been hit, businesses have been flattened, neighborhoods have been wiped away -- we don't have the numbers in yet but it is going to be significant and it is going to be horrific."
The National Weather Service said the preliminary rating of the Newcastle-Moore tornado was at least EF-4, meaning wind speeds of up to 200 mph. "We probably had five tornadoes [tonight]," said NOAA spokeswoman Keli Pirtle in Norman, Okla.
Authorities said Briarwood Elementary School in Moore, Okla., received a "direct hit" from the storm and was severely damaged. In anticipation of the severe weather this afternoon, schools in the Moore area did not release their students at the end of the school day, according to Oklahoma Emergency Management officials.
One sixth grade boy named Brady told ABC affiliate KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City that he and other students took cover in a bathroom. "Cinderblocks and everything collapsed on them but they were underneath so that kind of saved them a little bit, but I mean they were trapped in there," he said.
Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore was also in the monster twister's path. Local residents who lived near the school rushed to help pull kids and teachers out. Moore resident Melissa Newton said the hail from the tornado was "about the size of golfballs."
The National Weather Service issued a rare tornado emergency for the Oklahoma City metropolitan area this afternoon, meaning that significant damage and fatalities were likely. Authorities have not yet confirmed the number of injured or dead. At least 60 patients were admitted to area hospitals as more people emerged from the rubble. Moore Medical Center, the only hospital in Moore, sustained major damage and was evacuating all of its patients to other hospitals.
Integris Southwest Medical Center in downtown Oklahoma City, said it received 33 patients -- includihng three children -- and was expecting more. The Oklahoma University Medical Center in downtown Oklahoma City had received 20 patients, hospital spokesman Scott Coppenbarger said.
First responders were reportedly having trouble reaching Moore, which has a population of about 56,300 people, because people were stuck in their cars on the highway. "We've got so many people that are all on the interstate that we can not get our emergency responders to the scene because we've got so many people tied up in traffic on I-35," said Betsy Randolph of the State Highway Patrol.
This twister was the latest in a group of violent storms that swept through the Midwest, starting Sunday, that has left at least two people dead and dozens more injured. On Sunday, a tornado ripped through Shawnee, Okla., killing a 79-year-old man near a mobile home park that was reduced to rubble, according to Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth. Twisters, hail and high winds also struck Iowa and Kansas as part of a devastating, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota. Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma were ravaged by 50 tornadoes this weekend.
Moore was the site of one of the most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history. On May 3, 1999, an EF-5 tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City area, killing 42 people.
ABC News' Mike Boettcher, Howard Price, Dan Childs, Anthony Castellano and ABC News Radio contributed to this report.
Last updated 14:09 21/05/2013 Reuters
Monster tornado hits Oklahoma
Dozens of people have been killed by a monster tornado that pounded Oklahoma City for more than half an hour this morning, taking a direct swipe at a school.
The Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office said 51 people were killed in the twister, which stretched 3.2km-wide at times and also pulverised entire neighbourhoods and set buildings on fire. The death toll was expected to rise.
Frantic hunt for survivors after massive tornado leaves trail of destruction in Oklahoma. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
--Massive storm brings tornadoes
--Twisted metal lies in the road after the tornado.
--"This is war zone terrible"
The storm, with winds of up to 320 kilometres per hour, struck the suburb of Moore and made a direct hit on Plaza Towers Elementary School, leaving it a pile of rubble. At least 75 students were inside at the time. They were told to "hug the walls" as they braced for the winds. Rescuers swarmed the debris as darkness fell. More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 70 children. Some were in critical condition.
''Hearts are broken'' for parents looking for their children, Governor Mary Fallin told a news conference. Local television station KFOR said seven children were killed, reportedly drowned in the basement of the school. Dogs have been called in to help the search effort and cries for help could be heard from the debris.
''There are 13 kids that are buried right now,'' Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, said in an interview in Washington. ''There are 13 kids that are in a school that collapsed, we don't know whether they are alive or dead."
Rescue workers lifted children from the rubble before they were passed down a human chain and taken to a triage centre set up in the school's parking lot.
'A WAR ZONE'
The unusually intense storm - less than one percent of all tornadoes reach such wind speed - ripped through scores of buildings in Moore in a region of the US known as Tornado Alley. Block after block lay in ruins. Cars and trucks were left crumpled. In video of the storm, the dark funnel cloud could be seen marching slowly across the green landscape. As it churned through the community, the twister scattered shards of wood, pieces of insulation, awnings, shingles and glass all over the streets.
At Plaza Towers, the storm tore off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal. James Rushing, who lives across the street from the school, heard reports of the approaching tornado and ran to the school, where his 5-year-old foster son, Aiden, attends classes. Rushing believed he would be safer there. ''About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart,'' he said.
The scene was described as "an atomic bomb war zone".
A survivor said the tornado sounded like a freight train was coming. Another, Lando Hite, told KFOR about the storm hitting the Orr Family Farm in Moore, which had about 80 horses. "It was just like the movie Twister," he said. "There were horses and stuff flying around everywhere."
After the tornado roaded through, Tiffany Thronesberry said she got a panicked call from her mother, Barbara Jarrell. ''I got a phone call from her screaming, 'Help, help! I can't breathe. My house is on top of me!''' Thronesberry said. She hurried to her mother's house, where emergency crews had already pulled her out with cuts and bruises.
Damon Lane, chief meteorologist with Oklahoma City news agency KOCO, said debris from the tornado was falling in Branson, 400km away. Police Captain Dexter Nelson said downed power lines and open gas lines posed a risk in the aftermath of the system. Power was cut to more than 38,00 houses. The same suburb was hit hard by a tornado in 1999. That storm had the highest winds ever recorded near the earth's surface.
Yesterday storms slammed into Wichita, Kansas and in Oklahoma, killing two. The worst of the damage appeared to be at a mobile home park located near Shawnee among gently rolling hills, southeast of Oklahoma City.
------------------------------------------------------
Oklahoma Tornado: At Least 51 Dead, 'Horrific' Damage
By LAUREN EFFRON and DEAN SCHABNER
A mammoth tornado carved a trail of destruction through the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, killing at least 51 people and ripping apart two elementary schools today, local authorities said. David Barnes, the director of Oklahoma Emergency Management in Oklahoma County, told ABC News that a single twister tore through homes from Newcastle to Moore, a path of 12 miles. The damage was "widespread" and people's homes were completely destroyed, all the way to their foundations, he said. At least 51 people have been confirmed dead in the storm's aftermath, according to the state's chief medical examiner's office.
"It is absolutely devastating, this is horrific," Oklahoma Lt. Gov Todd Lamb said. "We're going to have fatalities. ... We're going to have significant injuries. ... We just don't know what those numbers are. Schools have been hit, a hospital has been hit, businesses have been flattened, neighborhoods have been wiped away -- we don't have the numbers in yet but it is going to be significant and it is going to be horrific."
The National Weather Service said the preliminary rating of the Newcastle-Moore tornado was at least EF-4, meaning wind speeds of up to 200 mph. "We probably had five tornadoes [tonight]," said NOAA spokeswoman Keli Pirtle in Norman, Okla.
Authorities said Briarwood Elementary School in Moore, Okla., received a "direct hit" from the storm and was severely damaged. In anticipation of the severe weather this afternoon, schools in the Moore area did not release their students at the end of the school day, according to Oklahoma Emergency Management officials.
One sixth grade boy named Brady told ABC affiliate KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City that he and other students took cover in a bathroom. "Cinderblocks and everything collapsed on them but they were underneath so that kind of saved them a little bit, but I mean they were trapped in there," he said.
Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore was also in the monster twister's path. Local residents who lived near the school rushed to help pull kids and teachers out. Moore resident Melissa Newton said the hail from the tornado was "about the size of golfballs."
The National Weather Service issued a rare tornado emergency for the Oklahoma City metropolitan area this afternoon, meaning that significant damage and fatalities were likely. Authorities have not yet confirmed the number of injured or dead. At least 60 patients were admitted to area hospitals as more people emerged from the rubble. Moore Medical Center, the only hospital in Moore, sustained major damage and was evacuating all of its patients to other hospitals.
Integris Southwest Medical Center in downtown Oklahoma City, said it received 33 patients -- includihng three children -- and was expecting more. The Oklahoma University Medical Center in downtown Oklahoma City had received 20 patients, hospital spokesman Scott Coppenbarger said.
First responders were reportedly having trouble reaching Moore, which has a population of about 56,300 people, because people were stuck in their cars on the highway. "We've got so many people that are all on the interstate that we can not get our emergency responders to the scene because we've got so many people tied up in traffic on I-35," said Betsy Randolph of the State Highway Patrol.
This twister was the latest in a group of violent storms that swept through the Midwest, starting Sunday, that has left at least two people dead and dozens more injured. On Sunday, a tornado ripped through Shawnee, Okla., killing a 79-year-old man near a mobile home park that was reduced to rubble, according to Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth. Twisters, hail and high winds also struck Iowa and Kansas as part of a devastating, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota. Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma were ravaged by 50 tornadoes this weekend.
Moore was the site of one of the most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history. On May 3, 1999, an EF-5 tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City area, killing 42 people.
ABC News' Mike Boettcher, Howard Price, Dan Childs, Anthony Castellano and ABC News Radio contributed to this report.