From the Oklahoman: A monstrous tornado killed at least 51 people Monday as it roared through Moore and south Oklahoma City. Rescue workers frantically searched into the night for missing children at the devastated Plaza Towers Elementary School in the Moore School District.
The death toll is expected to rise, the state medical examiner said. More than 100 were injured....
As night fell, relatives were crying out for their children at Plaza Towers Elementary School, where they said more than 20 children were missing and feared dead. Emergency responders continued working late into the night in hopes of finding survivors.
Plaza Towers was one of two Moore elementary schools ravaged by the massive tornado as it ground up neighborhoods, cars and everything else in its path.
Briarwood Elementary School was the other elementary school slammed....
The tornado – with wind speeds preliminarily estimated at up to 200 miles per hour – ripped the roof off the school and collapsed school walls, leaving several children trapped in the debris. Emergency workers arrived quickly on the scene and began laboring to free the children. A witness said none of the Briarwood school children he saw appeared to have major injuries.
The smell of natural gas filled the air from broken gas lines.
Emergency Medical Services Authority rushed ambulances to the school, several homes, businesses and intersections in response to reports of multiple injuries....
Kelly Wells, Norman Regional Medical Center spokeswoman, said Moore Medical Center was significantly damaged, with the second floor largely gone.
“All of our staff has been accounted for,” she said. “None of our patients there have been critically injured. We're in the process of evacuating the hospital.”...
A woman in OU Medical Center's waiting room, who would only identify herself as Dina, said a friend who owns A Step Above day care in the tornado-damaged area had told her she was heading to the hospital with the children. She said the owner had texted her earlier to say “we're alive but buried under.”
“There's damage at a wide scope at this point,” EMSA spokeswoman Lara O'Leary said Monday afternoon....
Monday's huge wedge-shaped funnel initially dropped from the skies at 2:56 p.m. near Newcastle and began churning northeastward through southwest Oklahoma City and Moore, spewing power flashes and mercilessly grinding up everything in its path.
In Newcastle, 35 to 40 homes were either severely damaged or destroyed and one person was critically injured, said Kevin Self, Newcastle emergency manager.
A section of Interstate 44 was closed for a time due to a rupture gas line, but the leak was capped and the highway reopened about sundown, Self said.
The tornado crossed Interstate 35 near the Warren Theatres before continuing east-northeastward and eventually lifting west of Lake Stanley Draper at 3:36 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
The debris path was several blocks wide and stretched for 20 miles. The National Weather Service said preliminary indications are the tornado was at least an EF4, which indicates wind speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. http://newsok.com/oklahoma-devastated-by-second-round-of-twisters/article/3827949
There really isn't much to say other than RIP to those who died, especially the children, prayers to the survivors and if you make donations, my suggestion is the Salvation Army.
At the Prairie Café...
5 hours ago
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