think of what is important in life. we ll be there for the long haul. one of the things i saw in oklahoma city after the federal building was bombed, we came back stronger as a people and we dug in and had the inner courage and strength and actually came back strong. governor, we wish you all of the best. i know the oklahoma spirit will thrive and you will be back stronger than ever. oklahoma spirit, we are really proud of it. absolutely, thank you, governor. thank you, appreciate you. and we ll have more from oklahoma. we ll go live to moore for the impact on the plaza tower elementary school. teachers recall the moments, all of that is coming up at 19 minutes past the hour.
done the same thing. teachers are traumaitized by the event. the moore school district cancelled the rest of the school year. but the three high schools are pressing a head with graduation ceremonies. west moore and south moore holding the ceremony and the cox convention center focusing on graduation and they don t want to talk about the storm. you know, it is a year those students will not forget or the residents here in moore trying to sal vainlying what they can and hopefully move forward. back to you. nemotions are running high and we wish all of the graduates all of the best in the challenging times. the american red cross has been on the ground in oklahoma in full force since the tornado hit. last night 600 people spent the night in red cross shelters.
it cut a 17 mile path killing 24 people, ten of them children. hello, everybody. i am uma in washington. this is not the first time the state s governor had to witness devitation. mary fallon was lieutenant governor last time moore was hit. and she has been on the ground helping them and she joins us now. welcome, governor, great to have you here today. thank you, we appreciate your coverage of this. i can t imagine what it is like to walk in your shoes as you grapple with the complexity of the tornado survivors and also trying to offer comfort for those people grieving over lives lost which include the children. what is your biggest challenge so far? the biggest challenge is the
seven children from plaza tower were killed in that site. the school teachers are sharing what it was like when the storm hit. in moore, people are trying to put their lives back together. absolutely, authorities said they should take advantage of the three- day holiday weekend and help people to sift through the debris. they are doing that now. teens of volunteers have come out here on ridge way drive and helping people gather what is left. saucepans and flatware that managed to surverify. and what will be tossed out on another pile. and the losses of things of
reporter: good day to you. obviously you know these parts pretty well. you know how strong these people. are they re pretty used to living with tornadoes. not so much dealing with this kind of storm damage. the governor assigning this emergency declaration bill into law that will free up about $45 million to flow into places like moore and other communities. just remember on sunday, the day before all of this around the shawnee area, there was a tornado, a killer tornado there that killed two people. so money will be flowing in there as well. fema money is starting to flow. about $1.5 million distributed. some 3,100 people have already registered and fema was out in some of the neighborhoods to meet with some people to try to make this a little easier process for them to get into the system to start to get that emergency aid going. the insurance commissioner, this is something that i m not sure it has gotten around town just yet. today says that anybody who had insurance that was clo