Moore Oklahoma Obliterated by F5 Tornado, 24 dead, at least 9 of them kids

[jimmy olsen]

 

Follow the link for video footage
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/20/18375741-major-damage-as-huge-tornado-rips-through-neighborhoods-south-of-oklahoma-city?lite

By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

A monster two-mile-wide tornado ripped through southern Oklahoma City and the suburb of Moore on Monday afternoon, leaving homes and schools in ruins and fires burning out of control.

There was no immediate word on casualties, but aerial footage showed major destruction: homes in rubble, cars flipped over and crushed, residents milling around in shock or combing through debris. At

"I lost everything," a shirtless man told NBC station KFOR as he walked in a daze through the ruins of a horse farm that was obliterated. "We might have one horse left out of all of them."

Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokeswoman Betsy Randolph said 200 people with minor injuries were being treated at a triage center. "Some are more grotesque," she said of the injuries.

"We do have hope," she added. "We are seeing people crawling out of vehicles...crawling out of buildings."

Randolph told KFOR she did not know if there were any confirmed fatalities.

"Just being down here and seeing the rubble and the devastation, I can't imagine that we won't have any, but I pray God that we won't," she said.

A forecaster for NBC station KFOR said the tornado kicked up a debris cloud about 2 miles wide as it tracked east into residential neighborhoods in the Moore area.

Forecasters said the twister could be an EF5, the most devastating category of storm with sustained wind speeds topping 200 mph and "incredible" damage. The National Weather Service will confirm the storm's intensity.

Oklahoma City police told NBC News southern portions of the city as well as the Moore suburb sustained "major damage... a lot of damage."

Two elementary schools —  Briarwood Elementary in Oklahoma City and Plaza Towers Elementary in Moore — were heavily damaged, KFOR reported.

It was unknown how many children may have been in the schools when the twister hit, but a KFOR reporter saw a student being rescued from Plaza Towers, where the roof was blown off and the cinderblock walls demolished.

Hysterical parents began arriving at Plaza Towers as crews began searching the debris. A teacher told a KFOR reporter that she laid on top of six kids in a bathroom as the tornado touched down to protect them.

Search and rescue teams converged on a staging area at the Warren Theater, which was also damaged, as the tornado churned toward other Oklahoma towns. The storms were expected to continue through the evening.

The tornado's ferocity was reminiscent of a 1999 tornado outbreak in Oklahoma and Kansas that registered wind speeds of over 300 mph, left 46 dead and more than 8,000 homes damaged or destroyed.

"A large part of the community has been affected," Jayme Shelton, a spokesman for Moore, told MSNBC.

Tens of millions of people from Texas to the Great Lakes had been warned to brace for severe weather one day after a tornado outbreak killed two elderly men in Oklahoma and turned a trailer park into splinters.

The gravest threat appeared to be in Oklahoma and parts of Missouri, but forecasters warned that strong storms, damaging wind and pounding hail were possible as far north as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

In all, an area covering 55 million people was under risk of severe weather, the National Weather Service said.

On Sunday, twisters killed two men in Shawnee, Okla., ages 79 and 76, and injured 21 others. The state medical examiner confirmed the second death Monday morning.

The storms also destroyed mobile homes, flipped trucks and sent people across 100 miles running for cover. In Kansas, a weather forecaster was forced off the air as a tornado bore down on his station.

"You can see where there's absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up," Mike Booth, the sheriff of Pottawatomie County, Okla., told The Associated Press. "It looks like there's been heavy equipment in there on a demolition tour."

The weather service office in Norman even posted a Twitter alert warning of a tornado about to strike one town:

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency for 16 counties. In Edmond, Randy Grau said he looked out a window and saw what he thought was a flock of birds heading down the street.

"Then I realized it was swirling debris," he told The Weather Channel. "That's when we shut the door of the safe room."

In Wichita, Kan., a tornado touched down near the airport. Two tornadoes touched down Sunday night outside Des Moines, Iowa.

The storm system is making a slow march east. Severe storms will threaten the same part of the country Tuesday and parts of the Northeast on Wednesday, the weather service said.

[11B4V]

Been watching this off and on. Not that they are in the area were tornadoes frequently occur. Who would guesses that would have happened.

[garbon]

Been watching this off and on. Not that they are in the area were tornadoes frequently occur. Who would guesses that would have happened.

Thanks, Hamilcar.

[Razgovory]

That is impressive.

[CountDeMoney]

It was unknown how many children may have been in the schools when the twister hit, but a KFOR reporter saw a student being rescued from Plaza Towers, where the roof was blown off and the cinderblock walls demolished.

MSNBC is reporting that they're missing an entire 3rd grade class.

These damned tornadoes have simply been getting bigger in recent years.  No, nothing to do with global warming, though.  We had snow this winter!

[CountDeMoney]

Damn, that town was already blitzed by an F-5 in 1999.

But at least Senators Coburn and Inhofe consistently vote down increased FEMA funding for their bullshit twister magnet of a state in favor of libertyness and freedomism from government at every turn.

[Neil]

We need to find out what Obama knew about this twister and when he knew it.

[MadImmortalMan]

There have been less of them in the last couple years. Like a little over half the normal number. I guess they're saving it all up to blow all at once.

[garbon]

We need to find out what Obama knew about this twister and when he knew it.

Obama doesn't care about white people.

[Caliga]

If something like that happens here and I get interviewed I'm so using that line.

"Barack Obama does not care about white people." 

[11B4V]

We need to find out what Obama knew about this twister and when he knew it.

Obama doesn't care about white people.

He has to watch the news first. But, that may be a problem now. After the DoJ's  AP & Foxs News oversteps, his back pocket news agencies cut their cable feed. That is was how he finds found out about stuff, you know.

[11B4V]

If something like that happens here and I get interviewed I'm so using that line.

"Barack Obama does not care about white people." 

That would be awesome. Wear your "Languish.org" ball cap with the customary "Das Reich" t-shirt.

[derspiess]

It was unknown how many children may have been in the schools when the twister hit, but a KFOR reporter saw a student being rescued from Plaza Towers, where the roof was blown off and the cinderblock walls demolished.

MSNBC is reporting that they're missing an entire 3rd grade class.

These damned tornadoes have simply been getting bigger in recent years.  No, nothing to do with global warming, though.  We had snow this winter!

Everything bad that happens is because of global warming!  Even though we recently found out that it's not really happening much

[Caliga]

FUCK!  I was enjoying Money having an argument with himself there, but spiess had to go ruin it.

[garbon]

If something like that happens here and I get interviewed I'm so using that line.

"Barack Obama does not care about white people."