Oklahoma tornado: Residents return to town

RESIDENTS began returning home to their flattened Oklahoma town after a giant tornado killed at least 24 people, destroyed countless homes and reduced one elementary school almost entirely to rubble, killing seven children inside. Authorities said they were confident that all survivors and bodies had been found.

An entire neighbourhood is flattened by the tornado, which is said to be one of the strongest ever. Picture: Getty

As state and federal officials work to set up disaster recovery centers to provide aid and assistance, residents of Moore were beginning the deliberate process of assessing what’s left of their homes and possessions and what comes next.

Helmeted rescue workers have been searching tirelessly for survivors and victims, and officials said Tuesday they planned to keep going - sometimes double- and triple-checking home sites. Officials were not certain of how many homes were destroyed or how many families had been displaced. Emergency crews had trouble navigating devastated neighborhoods because there were no street signs left. Some rescuers used smartphones or GPS devices to guide them through areas with no recognizable landmarks.

Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird said Tuesday he was confident there are no more bodies or survivors in the rubble. Every damaged home had been searched at least once, Bird said, but his goal was to conduct three searches of each building just to be certain there were no more bodies or survivors.

An entire neighbourhood is flattened by the tornado, which is said to be one of the strongest ever. Picture: Getty

“I’m 98 percent sure we’re good,” Bird said.

Monday’s tornado, which traveled 17 miles (27 kilometers) and was 1.3 miles (2 kilometers) wide at points, loosely followed the path of a twister that brought 300 mph (482 kph) winds in May 1999. This week’s tornado was the fourth since 1998 to hit Moore, a middle-class community that has been one of the fastest-growing suburbs of Oklahoma City.

Survivors emerged with harrowing accounts of the storm’s wrath, which many endured as they shielded loved ones in hallways, closets and bathrooms.

Larry Harjo, his twin brother and their wives headed for the hospital at the end of the street only minutes ahead of the tornado that ripped the roof off their home and blew out its walls.

The tornado caused a great deal of destruction. Picture: Getty

“We could see the tornado coming. We could see one side of it, but we couldn’t see the other so we knew it was big,” Harjo, 45, said while standing in his driveway. “There was no surviving that. It was either underground or out of the way kind of thing and we got the hell out of Dodge.”

The hospital was their plan. They had sheltered there before, but this time, it took a direct hit.

“We were directly center of the hospital and we could hear the cars hitting the building, so we knew it wasn’t going to be nice,” he said. “Thump, thump, thump. Loud thumps.”

“Ceiling tiles falling everywhere. I thought it was going to cave on us there for a minute,” he said.

From the air, large stretches Moore could be seen where every home had been cut to pieces. Some homes were sucked off their concrete slabs. A pond was filled with piles of wood and an overturned trailer. Also visible were large patches of red earth where the tornado scoured the land down to the soil. Some tree trunks were still standing, but the winds ripped away their leaves.

Officials had revised the death toll downward from 51 to 24 on Tuesday after the state medical examiner said some victims may have been double-counted in the confusion immediately after the storm. More than 200 people were treated at area hospitals.

The National Weather Service said the tornado, which was on the ground for 40 minutes, was a top-of-the-scale EF5 twister with winds of at least 200 mph (321 kph) - the first EF5 tornado of 2013.

Search-and-rescue teams focused their efforts at Plaza Towers Elementary School, where the storm ripped off the roof, knocked down walls and destroyed the playground as students and teachers huddled in hallways and bathrooms.

Seven of the nine dead children were killed at the school, but several students were pulled alive from under a collapsed wall and other heaps of mangled debris. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain of parents and neighborhood volunteers. Parents carried children in their arms to a triage center in the parking lot. Some students looked dazed, others terrified.

Plaza Towers and another school in Oklahoma City that was not as severely damaged did not have reinforced storm shelters, or safe rooms, said Albert Ashwood, director of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

More than 100 schools across the state do have safe rooms, he said. He added that a shelter would not necessarily have saved more lives at Plaza Towers.

President Barack Obama pledged to provide federal help and mourned the death of young children who were killed while “trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew - their school.”

Superstorms are common, but hard to predict

The raging unpredictability of tornadoes means there is often little anybody can do to avoid them.

Superstorms, when clashing bands of super-energetic air trigger a tornado, are a feature of parts of America but they often go largely unnoticed as they rip through farmland.

Stephen Davenport, senior forecaster with MeteoGroup, said: “Meteorologists are able to point out which areas are likely to be hit by strong storms and tornadoes.

“The difficult part is pinpointing exactly where they are going to be, and there’s very short notice of where they’re going to brew up.”

Dr Andrew Barrett, an expert at the University of Reading, said parts of America can average up to four tornadoes a day, although very few reach the scale of the one that hit Oklahoma City.

Queen ‘deeply saddened’

THE QUEEN today said she was “deeply saddened” by the loss of life and devastation caused by the tornado in Oklahoma City and sent her “deepest sympathies” to all those whose lives have been affected.

The death toll has now been revised to 24, including seven children, after the huge tornado ripped through the suburb of Moore in the US Midwest, destroying scores of homes and a primary school

More than 90 people were initially feared dead.

In a message of condolence to US president Barack Obama, the Queen said: “I was deeply saddened to hear of the loss of life and devastation caused by yesterday’s tornado in Oklahoma.

“Prince Philip joins me in offering our heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families at this difficult time.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to all those whose lives have been affected, as well as the American people.”

The message was signed Elizabeth R.

Pet found alive

Touching video footage of the moment an elderly woman was reunited with her pet dog among the rubble in Oklahoma has emerged. The pensioner, Barbara Garcia, was being interviewed on live TV next to wreckage that was once her home, when her missing dog poked its head out of the bricks and metal.