MOORE, Okla. – A mix of volunteers and first responders are combing through debris in an Oklahoma City suburb looking for survivors.
The city of Moore, Okla., was hit by a mile-wide tornado on Monday afternoon.
People wearing neon-green vests were joined by residents in the search through rubble. Neighborhoods are flattened and homes blown apart.
Gary Knight with the Oklahoma City Police Department says an elementary school took a direct hit from the mile-wide tornado, but he did not say which school was hit.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Shards of wood and pieces of insulation were strewn everywhere. Television footage also showed first responders picking through rubble and twisted metal, as well as homes and buildings reduced to rubble and vehicles littering roadways south and southwest of Oklahoma City.
In advance of the storm, the Oklahoma House of Representatives stopped work so Capitol employees could take shelter in the basement. Television and radio broadcasters urged residents to take shelter because the storm’s strength and size.
“We’re just waiting to see what happens. It’s a mile-wide tornado. It’s still grinding out,” said Mark Meyers, a spokesman for the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office. “We are currently on standby for tornado response. Whatever happens, we’ll be ready to respond.”
The suburb of Moore, where Monday’s damage was concentrated, was hit hard by a tornado in 1999 that included the highest winds – 302 mph – ever recorded near the earth’s surface.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman had predicted a major outbreak of severe weather Monday in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Storms on Sunday killed two people near Shawnee, about 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City. Gov. Mary Fallin earlier Monday took a tour of the areas hit the hardest, and she expressed concern that, with power out, Oklahomans might not receive warnings about the new round of storms.
Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth said a 79-year-old man, who was later identified as Glen Irish, was found dead Sunday out in the open at Steelman Estates, a mobile home park near Shawnee. The state medical examiner’s office said Monday that a 76-year-old man, Billy Hutchinson, was found dead in a vehicle.
The office said both men lived in Shawnee, but the city wasn’t hit by the tornado and it wasn’t immediately clear if either or both lived in the mobile home park, which is near the city.
The city of Moore, Okla., was hit by a mile-wide tornado on Monday afternoon.
People wearing neon-green vests were joined by residents in the search through rubble. Neighborhoods are flattened and homes blown apart.
Gary Knight with the Oklahoma City Police Department says an elementary school took a direct hit from the mile-wide tornado, but he did not say which school was hit.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Shards of wood and pieces of insulation were strewn everywhere. Television footage also showed first responders picking through rubble and twisted metal, as well as homes and buildings reduced to rubble and vehicles littering roadways south and southwest of Oklahoma City.
In advance of the storm, the Oklahoma House of Representatives stopped work so Capitol employees could take shelter in the basement. Television and radio broadcasters urged residents to take shelter because the storm’s strength and size.
“We’re just waiting to see what happens. It’s a mile-wide tornado. It’s still grinding out,” said Mark Meyers, a spokesman for the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office. “We are currently on standby for tornado response. Whatever happens, we’ll be ready to respond.”
The suburb of Moore, where Monday’s damage was concentrated, was hit hard by a tornado in 1999 that included the highest winds – 302 mph – ever recorded near the earth’s surface.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman had predicted a major outbreak of severe weather Monday in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Storms on Sunday killed two people near Shawnee, about 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City. Gov. Mary Fallin earlier Monday took a tour of the areas hit the hardest, and she expressed concern that, with power out, Oklahomans might not receive warnings about the new round of storms.
Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth said a 79-year-old man, who was later identified as Glen Irish, was found dead Sunday out in the open at Steelman Estates, a mobile home park near Shawnee. The state medical examiner’s office said Monday that a 76-year-old man, Billy Hutchinson, was found dead in a vehicle.
The office said both men lived in Shawnee, but the city wasn’t hit by the tornado and it wasn’t immediately clear if either or both lived in the mobile home park, which is near the city.