Television footage shows flattened buildings and at least one fire after a mile-wide tornado tore through the Oklahoma City area. Video shows homes and buildings in Moore, Okla. reduced to rubble and vehicles littered roadways.
UPDATE: About 7:00 p.m. CDT Monday news spread that 24 children were feared dead at Plaza Towers Elementary School. Seven of the children were recovered from the school building by 7:00 p.m. Tuesday morning 91 people were reported killed with the number of children killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School unconfirmed.
A tornado touched down in Moore, Oklahoma and stayed on the ground for an extended period Monday afternoon. Aftermath reports of fatalities, injuries, and damage are just starting to arrive at media stations. Helicopters are restricted from the area so that rescuers can listen for people calling for help in demolished buildings.
Roads are blocked, house, buildings and schools are destroyed after a one- or two-mile wide tornado touched down with wind speeds of 200 mph in Moore, Oklahoma.
CNN’s Chad Myers and Jake Tapper discuss severe damage to Plaza Towers Elementary School as a result of the tornado that hit Oklahoma.
There are reports of school children trapped and being pulled out from underneath cars that landed on top of school buildings.
The day after tornadoes killed two people in Oklahoma, a new tornado was spotted on the ground in Newcastle. Newcastle is about 10 miles southeast of Moore, Oklahoma.
The population of Moore, Oklahoma was 55,081 at the 2010 census. Moore, Oklahoma is the seventh largest city in the state of Oklahoma, and is located just south Oklahoma City.
The city of Moore has been damaged by large tornadoes on October 4, 1998, May 3, 1999, May 8, 2003, May 10, 2010, and May 20, 2013. The May 3, 1999 tornado that hit Moore was rated an F5 on the Fujita scale, and was probably the strongest single tornado ever and most destructive tornadoes in world history. There is some discussion that today’s tornado may have surpassed the May 3, 1999 tornado in destructiveness.
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