TORNADO TOUCHES DOWN NEAR OKLAHOMA CITY

[MuffyBee]

My brother in Waxahachie just texted his power is out.  Says it's extremely windy.  I looked at his area weather, winds are 33.6 mph now.  I can't imagine what folks even more north are feeling.    

[MuffyBee]

I've been looking through some of the photos from the areas hit by the tornado.       Prayers going out to those who lost a loved one or suffered injuries. 

[labubske]

I have a lot of family and friends in Oklahoma (my home state), and in OKC area.  I am still getting updates.  Pray for those babies and everyone.

Prayers for your family and friends labubske.  This has been one of worst ones I have seen. 

Thanks Green Eyes, they will need it.  It is absolutely devastating.  It is worse than I have seen too. 

[crazybabyborg]

Prayers for your family, labubske! Prayers for all who live in the wake of the tornado. What a horrific tragedy for so many!

[MuffyBee]

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/21/18394047-crews-comb-devastation-in-oklahoma-confirmed-death-toll-lowered-to-24?lite
Crews comb devastation in Oklahoma; confirmed death toll lowered to 24
May 21, 2013

Rescue teams combed through pulverized buildings and splintered homes early Tuesday after one of the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history blasted through Oklahoma City and its suburbs, killing at least 24 people, including eight children.
The confirmed death toll from the Oklahoma medical examiner was lowered from an earlier figure of 51, illustrating the confusion as day broke over the shattered city of Moore. Authorities cautioned that the toll could change again.

In Moore, where police said 19 people had been killed, entire blocks appeared as though they had been razed, and cars were mangled beyond recognition. Piled up where houses once stood were scraps of wood, clothes, glass and metal.
At least 120 people were injured in what President Barack Obama called “one of the most destructive tornadoes in history.”
Children were among the many missing after the tornado struck Monday afternoon and delivered a direct hit to two elementary schools. Seven children drowned in a pool of water at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which was all but leveled, officials said. The twister also laid waste to a hospital.
More...

[Nut44x4]

   I am speechless......

[MuffyBee]

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/21/18402060-9-year-old-from-plaza-towers-school-among-first-tornado-victims-identified?lite
9-year-old from Plaza Towers school among first tornado victims identified
May 21, 2013


Courtesy Angela Hornsby
Ja'Nae Hornsby, 9, (right) with her cousin Taylor, 14, in a photo taken over the weekend.

A 9-year-old girl who was "always smiling" is among the first of the Oklahoma tornado victims to be identified.
Third-grader Ja'Nae Hornsby was one of the students who perished when the twister demolished Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla. on Monday afternoon.
Members of her grieving family gathered Tuesday at a Baptist church in Oklahoma City to console each other after a night of anxious waiting ended with a hope-shattering call from the medical examiner's office.
Her aunt, Angela Hornsby, said Ja'Nae had spent last weekend at her house, playing with her cousins and “doing what little girls do.”
“They like to play dress-up,” she recalled. “My daughter puts jewelry on them and I took pictures of them dancing together and they took video. They were just happy.
"She was always happy, always smiling."
 
n Monday, Ja'Nae went off to Plaza Towers Elementary School while her father, Joshua, headed into Oklahoma City for work.
As the tornado bore down on the suburb of Moore just before dismissal time, the father of two tried to race back home to get Ja'Nae from school and his two-year-old, Jia, from daycare, Angela Hornsby said.
The highways were jammed, though, and by the time he got to Moore, the grade school had been reduced to a pile of rubble, its parking lot transformed into a triage area for surviving students being pulled from the debris.
There was no sign of Ja'Nae, though. Her father and other relatives shuttled from shelter to shelter, “looking for answers,” Angela Hornsby said. She dialed all the hospitals that had taken the injured but could not find her niece.
 
oshua Hornsby also lost his house to the twister. His youngest child, who was picked up from daycare by her grandmother, survived.
Ja'Nae, whose mother died last year of lupus, had doted on her baby sister, family members said.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-oklahoma-city-tornado-20130520,0,7920720.story
Oklahoma City tornado: Strength is upgraded to EF5
May 21, 2013

(2pgs)
Rescue workers today went building to building in search of victims and thousands of survivors were left homeless a day after a massive tornado tore through a suburb of Oklahoma City, killing at least 24 people.

The tornado has been upgraded by the National Weather Service to a rare EF5, the strongest rating, with winds exceeding 200 miles per hour.

The death toll was lower than initially feared, but nine children were among the dead, including seven who died at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which took a direct hit in the deadliest tornado to hit the United States in two years.

Emergency workers pulled more than 100 survivors from the rubble of homes, schools and a hospital, and around 237 people were injured. Cadaver dogs sniffed through the scattered planks and bricks of ruined homes on Tuesday.
 
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said on Tuesday the death toll could rise. "There may have been bodies that may have been taken to local funeral homes," Fallin said.

Damage assessment teams determined the tornado left a trail of destruction measuring about 17 miles by 1.3 miles wide.
More...

[MuffyBee]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/oklahoma-tornado-officials-hunt-people-missing-survey-damage/story?id=19235834
Oklahoma Tornado: Officials Hunt for 6 People Missing, Survey Damage
May 22, 2013

Six adults remain unaccounted for after the devastating tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., Monday, killing 24 people and destroying as many as 13,000 homes, officials said today.

Authorities are working to determine whether the missing adults are buried in the rubble or simply "walked off," Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management Director Albert Ashwood told reporters.
Of the 24 confirmed deaths, 23 people have been identified. Ten of the victims were children, according to a report issued today by the state Medical Examiner's Office.

Most of the dead children were killed at the Plaza Towers Elementary school, which was leveled in Monday's E-F5 tornado. Their ages ranged from 4 to 9.

Six children were killed by suffocation after being trapped under the rubble and two died from massive injuries, the medical examiner said.
More...

[MuffyBee]

I hope the six that may be missing are found alive and well.  After seeing the photos and videos of such a magnitude of destruction, I'm amazed so many folks are still alive.  It looks bad.     So many homeless now. 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.kvue.com/news/Names-of-those-killed-in-Oklahoma-tornado-208529161.html
AP: Names of those killed in Oklahoma tornado
May 22, 2013

[MuffyBee]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/oklahoma-city-starts-to-dig-out-from-tornado/2013/05/22/d90d0a4e-c314-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.html
In Oklahoma, volunteers clean up cemetery in preparation for burial of tornado victims
May 22, 2013

(3 pgs)

MOORE, Okla. — Cathie Parker and her two daughters brought their wheelbarrow, rakes and shovels to the Moore city cemetery Wednesday, wanting to make sure that the victims of Monday’s monster tornado are buried in a place of peace and beauty.

“Memorial Day is next week, and we know there are going to have to be some funerals here in the next few days,” said Parker, 52, a corporate trainer who was among hundreds of volunteers who flocked to the cemetery to clear graves and walkways coated with soggy insulation ripped from homes. “We don’t want them to come and see this terrible mess. We don’t want them to have to be reminded of the disaster.”

The cleanup of Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City that bore the brunt of the tornado’s deadly force, began in earnest Wednesday, and among the first tasks for the survivors will be to bury the dead.

The town’s 55,000 residents are still digesting grievous details of damage and loss from the twister that cut a swath 17 miles long and 1.3 miles wide Monday afternoon. The Oklahoma City medical examiner’s office said that all 24 of the known dead have been identified. Ten are children, including two infants, 4 months and 7 months old, who both died of blunt-force trauma to the head.
 
The search for more victims is nearing an end. Search-and-rescue units from Nebraska, Tennessee and Texas have canvassed affected neighborhoods, and on Wednesday, Federal Emergency Management Agency teams combed through open fields and cluttered streams and under ragged trees with twisted aluminum siding hanging like moss from their branches.

“We’re going to be looking for something that doesn’t look like a body,” said Steve Dolezal, part of the search-and-rescue team from Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., before the 80 members of the team fanned out across a muddy, snake-infested field behind a church. “Hair mashed up. Clothing. That stuff. Take your time and verify what you see.”
More...

[MuffyBee]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/distraught-mom-who-carried-daughter-to-safety-becomes-the-face-of-the-storm/2013/05/23/0fcb6738-c3e2-11e2-9642-a56177f1cdf7_story.html
Distraught mom who carried daughter to safety becomes the face of the storm
May 23, 2013


Sue Ogrocki,File/Associated Press -  FILE - In this May 20, 2013 file photo, LaTisha Garcia carries her 8-year-old daughter, Jazmin Rodriguez near Plaza Towers Elementary School after a massive tornado carved its way through Moore, Okla., leaving little of the school and neighborhood. This picture, published on hundreds of front pages around the world, has become one of the enduring images from the storm.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/country-stars-blake-shelton-carrie-underwood-coming-to-aid-of-fellow-oklahomans/2013/05/23/e8d32f04-c412-11e2-9642-a56177f1cdf7_story.html
Country stars Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood coming to aid of fellow Oklahomans
May 23, 2013

Blake Shelton has a date and location for his benefit and fellow Oklahoman Carrie Underwood is writing a large check to help benefit those affected by this week’s storms in their home state.

Organizers say Shelton’s “Healing in the Heartland” benefit concert will be held May 29 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. The event will be televised live on NBC.

And Underwood is donating $1 million in proceeds from her recent Blown Away Tour to the Red Cross, which assists in disasters such as the one that devastated Moore, Okla., and killed 24 people Monday. Underwood grew up in Checotah.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/23/the-twister-stole-my-pet-how-cats-dogs-and-a-donkey-survived-oklahoma.html
The Twister Stole My Pet: How Cats, Dogs, and a Donkey Survived Oklahoma
May 23, 2013

[Kermit]

This is pretty powerful video.  A teacher was videoing the tornado as it hit. 
So you get to hear what it was like 

http://gma.yahoo.com/oklahoma-tornado-teacher-storm-whipped-school-records-moment-120142844--abc-news-topstories.html?vp=1



My prayers big time for those in this horrible tornado & their families & their pets.

[MuffyBee]

This is pretty powerful video.  A teacher was videoing the tornado as it hit. 
So you get to hear what it was like 

http://gma.yahoo.com/oklahoma-tornado-teacher-storm-whipped-school-records-moment-120142844--abc-news-topstories.html?vp=1



My prayers big time for those in this horrible tornado & their families & their pets.

 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/15/moore-tornado-plaza-towers-elementary-school-students/2660593/
Students of tornado-ravaged city return to school
August 15, 2013

The students who endured the devastating May tornado in Moore, Okla., are heading back to school Friday.

MOORE, Okla. — Ethan Nichols has a new backpack, notebook, box of crayons and shiny new Puma sneakers for his first day back at school.

But when he and other students return to classes Friday in this storm-ravaged city, some things will still be missing. Most notably: seven of Ethan's friends and former classmates, who were crushed under concrete walls not far from where he and other students huddled against a monster tornado in May.
 
Plaza Towers Elementary was the epicenter of destruction for the massive EF5 tornado that raked across the city on May 20, flattening homes, flinging trucks and tractors through the air like pebbles, and killing 25 people. The storm left behind a swath of ruin 14 miles long and more than a mile wide. Seven of those killed were third-graders at the school, which was crushed into a hill of debris. Less than 2 miles west, Briarwood Elementary was also destroyed but suffered no casualties.

It's hard to know how many of the 23,000 pre-storm students in Moore's schools will be there when classes start Friday, said Robert Romines, superintendent of Moore Public Schools. Families scattered across the region after the storm and have been hard to reach. Around 2,000 families with children in Moore's schools were impacted by the tornado, he said.

Over the summer, as the city dug out of the rubble, school leaders met with officials from Joplin, Mo., who suffered their own devastating tornado two years ago, to learn what to expect from students and teachers and strategize how to rebuild safer, Romines said. Only two of the district's 33 schools are designed with "safe structures" — concrete-reinforced areas built to withstand tornado damage and where students can ride out storms, he said. Plaza Towers and Briarwood will be rebuilt as safer structures, he said. But getting the money to retrofit every school in the district has been a challenge.

Teams of counselors have also been dispatched to schools with affected students to offer on-site counseling and support groups, Romines said. "We're going to get back to normal," he said."But we're not going to forget the lives we lost that day."

The first day of classes is a key step in Moore's slow march to normalcy, City Manager Steve Eddy said. Around 1,040 homes were destroyed in the tornado, and the city has so far hauled away 161,387 tons of debris — about 90% of all debris left by the storm, he said. But getting students back to school is a true marker of progress, Eddy said. "Schools are such an important part of the neighborhood fabric," he said.

With their school in ruins, Plaza Towers students will attend nearby Central Jr. High, while Briarwood kids will go to class at Emmaus Baptist Church, Romines said.
More...

[MuffyBee]

It looks like there's an effort to learn from the terrible tornado that struck Moore.  I can't imagine arriving on the scene of an area hit by a category 5 tornado like this area was.    

http://www.kbtx.com/news/tamu/headlines/Disaster-City-Adding-Props-Based-On-Scenarios-From-West-Explosion-and-Moore-Tornado-246969401.html
Disaster City Adding Props Based On Scenarios From West Explosion, and Moore Tornado
February 24, 2014

Firefighters and first responders from around the world come to College Station each year to train at Disaster City.

And instructors want to make sure they're prepared for emergency situations of all sizes.

News 3 looks at some new additions coming after members of Texas Task Force 1 responded to the explosion in West, and the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma last year.

From fighting fires of all different types to searching through rubble, a simulated train derailment and building collapses, Disaster City is a hands-on place to learn and train to potentially save lives.
 
After the devastating E-F 5 Tornado last May in Moore, Oklahoma, they are also adding an underground tornado shelter covered in debris, to see if rescue dogs can find a person taking shelter underground.

"We got a list of about 1,900 storm shelters we needed to make sure were completely clear. A lot of those were flush to the ground with very light debris over the top of them, but some of them were hard to find so we're going to simulate that here as well," Saunders added.

Preparing for catastrophe one prop at a time.

The new disaster simulation prop is expected to be finished this spring in time for training exercises in April.

Video at Link