Page 90 - May 3rd News Today

Which direction do we go? >> do you have a place to stay tonight? >> my daughter is flying back in from florida right now. thats her black car on top of the pile she had fixed last week from hail damage. >> how long have you lived here, gerald? >> 11 years. this is the third one coming through here. >> we know this city in particular has had a history of violent tornadoes. 1999, a tornado came right through this town. folks here are cognizant of weather. but when you see something like this, doe...

Disappears like these did, doesnt matter, youre going to go for a violent ride and you dont know if you can survive that. they make shelters, for instance after the may 3rd tornado in 1999 came the state fair, which is a big deal in oklahoma. and its a place to show your products and shelters were everywhere. and theyre basically these capsules you buy and they are buried in your yard or wherever so you have access to get underground. but theyre not inexpensive. they can be up to thousands of do...

It is destroyed by this storm. the walls are still standing but most of the windows are gone. every car in the parking lot is heavily damaged. and as far as it goes, we know that right now there is a crew possibly trying to rescue someone in some of the debris. were trying to confirm if that is happening, if the person is alive. were hoping for some good news out here this morning. were waiting, getting every word that we can. pure devastation. ive covered a lot of tornadoes. ive lived in oklaho...

A, quote, incredible tornado. it was the afternoon of may 3rd, 1999 when an f-5 tornado crossed into moore, oklahoma. you can see the devastation that tornado wrought when it hit 14 years ago. the mayor today was also the same mayor back then. he said todays storm followed much the same path as that huge one in 1999 and that everybody still just calls may 3rd. the 1999 may 3rd tornado was an f-5. winds at over 300 miles an hour. that may have generated the highest winds ever recorded on the face...

When you see this? i know this is part of your business to document this because we want to learn about the storms but this is heart breaking. >> absolutely. its gundput wrenching to see t, it gives you a sick feeling. it really is reminiscent of may 3rd, 1999. >> simon, what do you think we can learn from this storm? the work you are doing documenting this storm, what can we learn from it? >> we can learn quite a bit from this storm. theres several factors that came into play to create this eve...

Tonight? >> my daughter is flying back in from florida right now. plus, were filtering through the top of the pile that she just had fixed last week from hail damage. >> how long have you lived here? >> i lived in this edition for 11 years. >> we know this city, in particular, has had a history of violent tornadoes. folks here are very cognizant of weather. but when you see something like this, does it give you perspective on certain things? >> may 3rd, of 99, in is what im going back to, the f5...

Recovery is their first priority, calling this the storm of storms. >> in the midst of tragedy and loss of life, we have also seen the resilience and the courage and the strength of our people. and we will get through this. we will overcome, and we will rebuild, and we will regain our strength. >> this has been quite an experience. i was the actual mayor here in may 3rd, 1999, so this is not my first rodeo with this. but it doesnt get any easier. >> well be through every damaged piece of propert...

About a 50% to 60% cutback in disaster preparedness funding for communities and states from dollars that are coming from the federal government. so we have a lot of work to do. this is, again, a wake-up call. i hope it doesnt turn into a snooze alarm. you know, where were excited and obviously concerned about the high drama of this event and that we dont just fall back into a state of complacency in the next weeks. but we really have to stay with this and make sure that never again will we leave...

Been here in this community for an awful long time. you were the mayor during the terrible, terrible storm of may 3rd, is t1999. from what youve seen so far this morning, as youve made your way out into moore, is there any comparison between these two storms? >> it was very similar, except the first one was much stronger, and the second one was much larger. were seeing devastation across the city. it went diagonally across, where the second one went across the street. we had a loss of life of 51...

From the moment the devastating tornado touched down in moore, oklahoma, monday afternoon, there were chilling reminders of another storm. time lapse video of yesterdays twister showing a similar path to an ef-5 tornado that ravaged oklahoma and kansas over a decade ago. the date, may 3rd, 1999, lives in infamy for the region. the "oklahomaen" front page tragically suggests this storm was even worse. joining us now, my colleague milissa rehberger who covered the storm in 1999. you were with us y...