Page 29 - Ef 4 News Today

That little part that you see there, that three dimensionality, thats the debris that was picked up in the tornado and thrown around. it went from an ef-0 all the way up to an ef-4 in 10 minutes. and then it got even stronger. it got up to that 200, 210 miles per hour. and there are many homes out there that you just cant find anything. the fact that we only lost 24 people a actually a blessing considering how many homes you see with nothing left. anderson?

Just quickly to explain what that means and talk more about how the storm measured up, i want to check in with chad myers and the weather center. chad, explain the ranking system. >> when you get an ef-5, that means some building doesnt exist anymore. by the three, youre losing an outside wall, four, youll lose a lot of walls and five youll lose everything. 2 you lose a couple of shingles. five you lose everything. thats where we are now. 200, 210 miles per hour. when that tornado was on the gro...

A maximum path 1.3 miles and moved at 20 miles an hour and slower than the average twister which averages about 30 miles an hour. so that didnt help. but twisters can be almost stationary or race along at about 70 miles an hour. ef-5, 210-mile-an-hour sustained winds and found damage around the elementary school from brookfield elementary and it was either the building, a huge part of the building collapsed or there was some serious stretch of impacts to steel or concrete and how you get ef-5 da...

So many people are saying they lost everything. they did. but so many people survived. >> right. depends on how you look at it. >> this was an incredible twister. talking about ef-4 yesterday. upgrade in areas to ef-5. only 2% of tornados in the u.s. are registered at ef-4 or ef-5. they are responsible for 75% of tornado deaths because of how strong they are. take a look at the devastation. nothing left of the town. >> unbelievable. >> united states is the tornado capital of the planet. number t...

>> shelters are somewhere around $4,000, maybe more. fema does have grants available to people, up to $7500 to help them put in a storm shelter. i know the same tom costello piece talked about bureaucracy involved. i think it is important to understand, if you need the peace of mind, if you want the shelter, you can get one. ef-5 tornadoes, ef-4 tornadoes, really represent only about 1% of the thousand pltornadoes we e every year in this area. so you can tie the walls to the foundation for less ...

Four surveyors on the ground, teams of two. and they did find that it was ef-5 damage as weve told you there at the briarwood elementary school. max winds of 200 to 210. the blue coloring is where it was ef-0. ef-2 in yellow. the intensity changed dramatically as the tornado was on the ground. these storms are always evolving. it was an ef-5 for a very short period of time. notice the bright red. thats when it was ef-4. almost the worst of it in the strongest this tornado was was unfortunately w...

But so many people survived. >> right. depends on how you look at it. >> this was an incredible twister. talking about ef-4 yesterday. upgrade in areas to ef-5. only 2% of tornados in the u.s. are registered at ef-4 or ef-5. they are responsible for 70% of all tornado deaths because of how strong they are. take a look at the devastation. nothing left of the town. >> unbelievable. >> united states is the tornado capital of the planet. number two country, canada. yeah, i learned this on "world new...

Two-mile-wide debris ball. i showed you that. third devastating ef-4 to hit moore, oklahoma, in 14 years. were not done yet. these are the watch boxes are out. we have lost one ingredient, the heating. the dynamics are going to push a little bit further to the east, the conditions that make these tornadoes form right here. dallas, again, northeast texas heading into southwest arkansas, this is the area that well have to watch. the rest of the area, sure, the potential for severe weather. large t...

And im always careful not to try and get ahead of the official count, if you will. but we know that the people on the ground did exactly the right thing. thats the tragedy. the teachers did the right thing, the children did the right thing. the neighborhood around the school is totally devastated. and the school was the most secure structure. they were in interior and reinforced walls. but an f-4, f-5 rolls through, and, again, weve seen this sort of thing in more before. theres simply nothing y...

There are homes destroyed, for many people theyre just getting out to this neighborhood to see their home for the first time. its going to take a long time for this area to recover. >> george, for now, thank you very much indeed. i want to bring in cnns nick valencia, two blocks from the plaza towers elementary school. clearly a lot of focus on this school. nobody seems to be too sure how many children may still be trapped inside there. what can you see, what can you hear? >> reporter: well, pie...