Thought Moore News Today

>> parents make a judgment, you know, because you believe the schools are going to be safe. schools are built -- >> theyre built to be shelters. everywhere in the country. >> the high school that the senator was talking about was actually a shelter. people were there because they were told to go there. it was meant to be a shelter. so you make a judgment, and the school says, were secure, so lets leave the kids here. >> and i was surprised how few houses have basements in moore. why is that? >> ...

80 members of the oklahoma national guard have been called up to join local emergency crews, looking for survivors overnight. 101 people were pull ed alive from wreckage of their homes. >> a lot of those were in storm shelters. were very hopeful as we continue our search today, well find more people in same or similar situations, where they may be under debris in storm shelters. >> all right. i want to bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins who has the latest on what happened in moore. bill, so,...

Damage there is horrible. i mean, literally, from about half a mile to 3/4 of a mile, from when this developed, it was producing ef-3 damage. 150 to 160-mile-per-hour winds. here, were thinking 180180 to possibly 200 miles per hour. the national weather service out assessing that today. >> the difference between a 4 and 5 at this point is not much for the folks in moore. anyway, jim cantore in moore for us. thank you very much, sir. were expecting to hear from the president in just a few moments...

>> you were tracking this storm and this front for a good 48 hours before it hit. what made this different? what about it made you know this was going to be a big problem? >> reporter: you know whats interesting, the tornado parameters werent as high as they were yesterday -- or, as they were two days ago. so that kind of surprised me a little bit. but it looked like just from watching the radar and the satellite, that something came into the backside of this. and the tornado, you have air motio...

Of damage, but it was in a very rural area. the homes that it hit were obliterates, but it hit very few homes because it was in a very rural area. and we even said monday morning, this could have been much worse, if this were in a more urban populated area, suburban area. and by the time i got here monday from the flight, that was hitting the ground there in moore and we had it all over again. >> are you getting all the help from the nofederal government tt youre looking for right now? >> we are...

That was tumbling within that. so that is one thing. and then a little farther down the line, all of this doppler radar data is planned to be used in a forecasting system that can actually project ahead of time where the tornado is going to go, and even to some extent, where the tornado might form. >> dr. greg forbes from the weather channel, always good to get your expertise on this. thank you, sir. thanks for coming over. up next, well talk to two guys who voluntarily got very close to this ...

>> you know, senator, you talked about -- and lois just mentioned how well versed okalhomans are with this, in dealing with this. talk about the rebuilding. how long did it take moore to recover? theres one thing to recover psychologically. >> they are resilient and theyll bounce back. but for this area, it is devastating. and i agree with lois. this may be -- these places were absolutely obliterated? >> some are saying that school and the hospital, youre sitting there and you cant believe it. >...

Medical examiner does predict that will go up when they get confirmation later today. well work on that for you. >> and we know theres been some confusion about the death toll. so while our best sources indicate that its 51 for now, we know that theres some confusion. hopefully that will get cleared up in this hour. thomas roberts in moore, thanks very much. there have only been six tornados in u.s. history to cause more than $1 billion in damage. one of them was in moore, oklahoma, it was in 19...

Some of the view of the tornado, that let us know how violent it was, baa the stuff it was destroying and wrapping around the intense tornado. >> simon, how long were you guys following this storm? like, when were you able to catch it and how long were you able to track it as it made its way across? >> we began just north of the storm. several minutes before the tornado developed. and we became stuck in traffic, in central oklahoma city, and had to take several different maneuvers in oklahoma ci...

Headquarters and command. but more importantly, were out buying the food and the supplies that people will need immediately. right away, were helping the first sponsors. when the neighbors come in, well feed them, well operate our shelters and then as the recovery continues, therell be other activitieses that will happen. start to put people into the red cross system and well start to coordinate some of the things, the benefits and some of the things they immediate to get their lives moving forw...