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DEBKAfile May 21, 2013, 9:42 AM (GMT+02:00)
President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma City early Tuesday after a massive tornado, 2 miles wide, obliterated the entire suburb of Moore. Federal aid was mandated to supplement state and local efforts. The death toll has risen to 91 including 20 children with 230 injured, as rescue teams dig for survivors through the debris of a district populated by 50,000 people. The Plaza Towers Elementary School took a direct hit. Another elementary school and a hospital were also devastated. The tornado now heads for the Great Lakes south to Texas.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/21/oklahoma-city-tornado-live-updates
In most years of the past few decades, the total number of deaths related to tornadoes in the US has been around 50 or fewer but 553 people were killed in 2011, the deadliest year on record.
Another frightening video, filmed on a mobile phone from a car, captures the tornado as it gathered near Newcastle, Oklahoma. The storm grew in intensity before it hit Moore.
Summary
• A tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City, the state capital on Monday afternoon, flattening entire neighbourhoods,causing widespread fires and landing a direct hit on an elementary school.
• The Oklahoma medical examiner's office said it has been told by the emergency services to expect another 40 bodies on top of the 51 people already confirmed killed, an official said. The 51 included at least 20 children.
• More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 50 children
• The National Weather Service estimated that the tornado reached up to a half-mile (800m) wide and was an EF-4 on the enhanced five-point Fujita scale, the second most powerful type of twister.
• President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.
• Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin said "hearts were broken" following the storm. In a news conference she said emergency services were doing all they could to find survivors. She asked people to stay away from the damaged areas to allow authorities to continue their search.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-20/stunning-time-lapse-video-2-mile-wide-oklahoma-tornado
Stunning Time-Lapse Video Of 2-Mile Wide Oklahoma Tornado
Courtesy of NBC, here is 10-x sped up footage of the massive 2-mile wide tornado ripping through Oklahoma one short hour ago.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/20/tornado-levels-moore-oklahama-photos-video.html
MASSIVE TORNADO ROARS THROUGH OKLAHOMA CITY SUBURB
— May. 20 7:23 PM EDT
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MOORE, Okla. (AP) — A monstrous tornado as much as a mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods with winds up to 200 mph, setting buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on an elementary school.
There were no confirmed injuries or deaths, but the storm laid waste to scores of buildings in Moore, south of the city. Block after block of the community lay in ruins, with heaps of debris piled up where homes used to be. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside.
The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most-powerful type of twister.
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.
Volunteers and first responders raced to search the debris for survivors.
At Plaza Towers Elementary School, the storm tore off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal.
Several children were pulled alive from the rubble. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain to a triage center in the parking lot.
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 students were placed in the restroom.
"There's no safe room in the school. There will be," said Rushing, who said his home was virtually destroyed.
Oklahoma City Police Capt. Dexter Nelson said downed power lines and open gas lines posed a risk in the aftermath of the system.
The same suburb was hit hard by a tornado in 1999. That storm had the distinction of producing the highest winds ever recorded near the earth's surface — 302 mph.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/oklahoma-tornado-widespread-damage-elementary-school-receives-direct/story?id=19219367#.UZqhO_I7YmEA mammoth tornado carved a trail of destruction through the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, killing at least 10 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 10 people have been confirmed dead in tornado'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.
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.
Courtesy KWTV
An elementary school in an Oklahoma City... View Full Size
May 1999: Historic Oklahoma Tornado Watch Video
Tornado Chasers Catch Outbreak on Tape Watch Video
Tornadoes Rip Through Homes in Oklahoma Watch Video
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.
First responders on the scene tell ABC News all children at both schools have been accounted for, but they are still going door-to-door to search for people in homes.
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.
Area hospitals received dozens of patients 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. Currently, 10 were listed as critical, 10 were serious and 12 were in fair or good condition, hospital officials said.
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.
May 1999: Historic Oklahoma Tornado Watch Video
Tornado Chasers Catch Outbreak on Tape Watch Video
Tornadoes Rip Through Homes in Oklahoma Watch Video
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 4 people.
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