Page 35 - Ef 4 News Today

Both of you back this 99 when this struck before? you first, todd. were you there? >> yes, i was off 59th and center road at the time. i got to watch that one go by. it was an unbelievable sight. nothing like that. >> that was what was seen last night as they were on hardball speaking with chris matthews on what they saw as an ef-4 had touched down. were continuing to get some incredible pictures from the tornado. what had happened some 12 hours ago. i want to show you a clip from base hunters, ...

Expand on those storms to the south of the city of moore, oklahoma. while overall those storms are moving towards the east and towards the south away from that region, theyre very, very close and any slight movement toward the north we could be looking at heavy rain, lightning and wind gusts. to the south of moore, one storm produced a wind gust in excess of 70 miles per hour. powerful storms out here. were expecting that threat for severe weather anywhere from parts of texas all the way up into...

Bodies are being recovered. >> homes, schools, hospitals, all leveled in that twister. it had wind speeds up to 200 miles an hour. abcs ginger zee reports from moore. >> this is turning into a very destructive tornado and its getting bigger. >> reporter: a local television helicopter capturing the pictures up in the sky, catching this tornado, ranked a preliminary ef-4. look closely and you can see the flashes as the power lines and transformers are ripped apart. >> there is a huge flash, right ...

>> announcer: abc news, the countrys premiere news brand countrys premiere news brand where americans go to see the whole picture, together with yahoo! news, the number one site on the web. this is the number one digital news source. welcome back, pping welcome back. recapping our top story. the death toll is 51. its expected to rise in the aftermath of the monster tornado in moore, oklahoma. much of the suburban city destroyed including a hospital, a shopping center and sadly an elementary ...

Then we had this yesterday. >> you talk about an ef-4, ef-5, theyre saying looks like ef-4 but they havent been issued, how do they determine that? >> a rating scale depending on damage. theyve done wind tunnel testing. a two by four, if it shoots into a car, at what wind speeds it can pierce the car. stuff like that. how far cars can be moved. how far train cars can be tossed or moved. thats happened before. so they take whats happened in the past, know what the wind speeds were then, apply it ...

Fortunately, there was no accidental deaths there or anything like that. and then, all the kids now have been acounted for there. same in highland west, highland east and i believe the original moore high school. all of these schools were in session at the time that this thing actually hit. >> mayor, do you know of anything that residents and people could have done to have reduced the amount of loss of life that weve seen in this? >> well, unfortunately, we didnt have the time opportunity at the...

About the experience and what you saw yesterday? >> we were north of the tornado, it was very large. it was a wedge-shaped tornado when we were there, and the tornado had so much debris it was hard to see the tornado, just the literal dust cloud of debris around it where the debris was no longer anything recognizable. it was just atomized debris. >> you know, simon, as i understand it, you have been chasing storms since 1999. we have been talking about 1999 specifically for moore, oklahoma, beca...

Obama is set to make a televised statement. >> there were five schools hit in moore, oklahoma. they were all filled with children at the time. the one that was levelled was plaza towers elementar apparently the protocol there is when there is a tornado warning, the children are split into two different places. the kindergarten through 3rd grade would shelter in the school. meanwhile the 4th, 5th and 6th graders were taken to a nearby church. no information about injuries at the church. however, ...

>> were getting right there south there at moore high school. you need to see our video. its absolutely massive. viole violent, violent motion. huge debris cloud around it. it looks, mike, like it may be a little bit more north than east. >> i would just venture to say its an ef-4, looks like an ef-5. storm cellar, basement or safe room below ground of any kind. do not be in your car. drive away from it. abandon where you are if you cannot get below ground.

Trying to classify it, is it an ef-4, an ef-5. at this point, we know it was devastating. but we were talking about this. was there -- theres warnings that a tornado might hit. was there warnings that it was going to have this much impact? >> no, i dont think so. were not nearly as skilled in terms of predicting how intense the tornado is going to be as we are in saying that, yes, or no, there is a tornado. now, that said, the longer this particular storm and tornado got going, the wider it beca...