Page 4 - Killer Tornado News Today

A suburb of oklahoma city, about 50 or 60,000 people live in this area. so much of it that was simply devastate. you can go for a walk, and i did throughout this afternoon, you see block after block after block of devastation. so happy for this family. but unfortunately, not all of the families are as happy as they are. theyre literally very happy. heres important information for you. you can impact your world, help victims of the oklahoma tornadoes. go to our website, cnn.com/impact. theres goo...

Shocked. theyve been doing that all day today trying to pick up remnants of their lives. but thats against the advice of public officials. many still look dazed as they pick through whats left of their homes. looking for some sign of order, some symbol of what they had. this may be all they can cling to right now, but the police chief of moore, oklahoma, said now isnt the time to be doing this. >> its too dangerous. too many safety issues. gas leaks, downed power lines. >> reporter: a risk many ...

Checks and the small bits of debris can fall to the ground and people pick them up and find -- they trace it back to the original tornado. >> where are we in the stage of the tornado right now? is it at its height when youre looking at that? or is it sort of winding down? >> this is a mature tornado, where the whole screen is filled with the tornado. you can just tell how quickly its rotating around. >> its powerful. amazing. that report from joe johns. still ahead, extraordinary tornado video f...

Anybody, if you have found -- if you left the area check in so people know youre accounted for and if youre still missing someone check in but just look around here, wolf. you can see one of the reasons these search teams are coming through and digging through some of this debris is maybe for a miracle if there is somebody buried under this but also just to have a double check and triple check so theyre confident they looked everywhere before they declared the search over. >> that search is goin...

Moore bowling. here are the latest developments were following right now. oklahoma officials today lowered the death toll after initial confusion. at least 24 people including nine children were killed by the massive tornado. at least 237 people were injured. seven of those children died at the plaza towers elementary school not far away from where we are right now. some of them drowned while taking shelter in the basement. according to the national weather service, damage assessments show the t...

Tonight. each will be searched, he says, three times, before being cleared. and the national weather service now says the damage in at least one area indicates the most powerful category of tornado, an ef-5. said winds reached 210 miles an hour, and the tornado was 1 1/3 miles wide. emotional scenes are playing out all across this community. as victims return to find homes reduced to rubble, or in some cases, no homes at all. cnns brian todd is here. you spoke to some of those and these are hear...

Massive debris. we sent a team to analyze video of the twister to learn more about those flying killer objects. heres cnns joe johns. >> wolf, were here with paul of the national we her service. paul, if you would, just give us a sense of what this video tells us about the tornado, as you look at it. >> were looking at a, what looks like a really wide tornado, violent just based on being able to pick out individual chunks of debris swirling around. these are large chunks of debris. two-by-fours,...

I couldnt believe i had t >> for the car. >> yeah. it was so frustrating to have to get keys. i just wanted to leave. i didnt even put him in his car seat. i just put him in my lap and i kept thinking theyre never going to pull me over. you know, why would they do that? >> you just started driving. >> i just drove. i drove. but i started feeling guilty he was on my lap like this is a bad decision so i got him out just past the high school when i pulled over and i went to put him in his car seat ...

We started hearing voices and pulling them out. >> how were the kids reacting? they were surprisingly very calm. >> why do you think that is? >> i think they felt safe. we did our best to take care of them and make them feel loved and secure. that -- people, you know, talked about us being brave but its just our job. we love these kids like theyre our own. >> she also told me an incredible story about the moments before the tornado hit that the students were singing the national anthem, that the...

Moisture on the ground in that part of the country. crazy. thats a stat to remember, one inch of rain is about ten inches of snow. >> so we need ten inches of snow to make a difference. >> for that to be like an inch of rain. ginger can explain it better than i can. i just know the numbers. that same storm system may have sent a killer tornado through texas. >> one woman was killed in hemphill where powerful winds blew a true on her mobile home. we get the latest from meteorologist jim dickey ...