Ed Zurga / EPAA monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving at least 24 dead as the threat of further storms continues.
By Erin McClam and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News
The huge task of clearing debris from areas devastated by the Oklahoma tornado was expected to begin Wednesday as rescue teams wound up their search for survivors -- and victims.
Emergency crews and National Guard troops picked through neighborhoods without recognizable streets in a grim, house-by-house search of the blasted-out husk of a city left behind by Monday’s ferocious tornado.
At the flattened Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore – where seven children died, reportedly after drowning in a pool of water – rescue teams said sniffer dogs had not found any bodies.
Mike Walker, Oklahoma City Fire Department task force leader, said the search of debris was expected to be completed by approximately 7 a.m. local time (8 a.m. ET) Wednesday.
As a historical tornado destroys the Plaza Towers elementary school in Oklahoma, inspirational stories of survival from teachers, students, and parents emerge from the rubble. NBC News' Kate Snow reports.
A team of 50, including two crane operators, was working through the night to finish the search, he said.
Authorities said 24 people were confirmed killed by the twister, nine of them children, including a 3-month-old baby whose body was found at a local 7-Eleven.
The weather system wrought a 17-mile path of destruction and severe thunderstorms were forecast for an area stretching from the lower Great Lakes to the Tennessee Valley on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service said that the “primary threats” would be damaging winds and large hail, but added “isolated tornadoes will also be possible.”
In Moore, Fire Chief Gary Bird pledged to three searches of each building just to be certain there were no more bodies or survivors, but told reporters he was confident there was nothing more to be found.
"I'm 98 percent sure we're good," Bird said late Tuesday.
Amid a the devastation, officials were still not certain 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.
“I mean, there’s nothing,” said Robert Foster, whose family home was destroyed. “People are walking up and down the streets. It’s really upsetting to look at. We grew up there. That’s our whole childhood. And it’s all flattened now.”
Gov. Mary Fallin told reporters there were 237 injured, but authorities cautioned that figure and the death toll could still rise.
The Oklahoma University Medical Center admitted 59 children and 34 adults.
The National Weather Service said survey crews had found at least one area of Category EF5 damage — the highest classification for tornadoes, meaning winds had exceeded 200 mph.
30-year-old working mother Janna Ketchie recounts the frantic journey into the heart of a tornado's destruction in order to find her three children, who were miles away at a daycare center. NBC News' Ann Curry reports.
Frank Keating, a former Oklahoma governor, said on MSNBC that as many as 20,000 families could be displaced.
“This was the storm of storms,” Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said.
The first of the victims was publicly identified — Ja’Nae Hornsby, a third-grader who was killed when the tornado demolished Plaza Towers Elementary School. She was remembered by her family Tuesday as full of joy and a girl who was fond of playing dress-up. Her relatives gathered at a Baptist church in Oklahoma City to console each other.
A second victim, Hemant Bhonde, 65, became separated from his wife when the tornado struck their home, his family told NBC News. Bhonde's body was recovered Tuesday, hospital officials said. His wife survived.
Children from Plaza Towers told of hearing sirens and running into a hall for cover, some still carrying their math books.
A teacher, Rhonda Crosswhite, said she huddled with students in a bathroom stall and draped herself over them for cover as the storm hit. She said all her students were accounted for.
Damian Britton, a fourth-grader, credited “Miss Crosswhite” with saving his life. He estimated it took about five minutes for the twister to pass through before the students emerged from cover to survey the damage and check on their classmates.
“It was just a disaster,’’ he said. “There was just a bunch of stuff thrown around and the cars were tipped over, and it smelled like gas.”
One child was killed at Briarwood Elementary School, also in Moore, said police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis. There was no word on how the ninth child died. Besides the 19 deaths in Moore, five were killed in southern neighborhoods of Oklahoma City.
The tornado Monday spent 40 minutes on the ground, said Rick Smith of the National Weather Service. “We’ve seen numerous structures that are wiped clean to the foundation,” he said.
Smith said that the first severe thunderstorm warning had gone out 44 minutes before the tornado touched down, and the first tornado warning 16 minutes ahead. The weather service said the storm, at its widest, stretched 1.3 miles.
Watch this special montage of sights and sounds from various Oklahoma residents as they share their collective thoughts on rebuilding their lives from a natural disaster.
President Barack Obama called it “one of the most destructive tornadoes in history.” Speaking from the White House, he pledged the full help of the federal government and said there was no time to waste.
“In an instant, neighborhoods were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives, many more were injured, and among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew, their school,” he said. “So our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today.”
Relief efforts sprang up. The NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder and its star player, Kevin Durant, each pledged $1 million. Others helped as they could: Miles from Moore, people went on Facebook to post family photos that had landed in their yards, hoping to match them with their owners.
Aerial pictures of the destruction brought to mind Joplin, the Missouri town virtually wiped off the map two years ago when an EF5 tornado killed 158 people and caused $2.8 billion in damage. The twister cut a path similar to a tornado outbreak that ravaged Oklahoma and Kansas on May 3, 1999, killing 46 people and damaging or destroying more than 8,000 homes. Wind in that outbreak was clocked at 318 mph, the fastest ever recorded on earth.
Officials in Moore complained earlier this year about foot-dragging by the federal government over $2 million in federal grants for “safe rooms” in 800 homes to protect them from severe weather.
A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency told NBC News the agency was looking into the claim.
The city’s website also said, however, that Moore faced only a 1 to 2 percent chance of a tornado on any spring day, and that if a tornado did strike, there was less than a 1 percent chance that it would be as strong as the 1999 tornado.
NBC News' Adam Desiderio, Jeff Black, Tracy Connor, Becky Bratu and Kristen Welker contributed to this report, as did NBC News contributor Alex Hannaford and The Associated Press.
More on the Oklahoma tornado:
- How to help Oklahoma tornado victims
- Chaos and courage as tornado wrecks elementary schools
- Tornado survivors: A 48-hour window of opportunity
- ‘Bless you for posting’: Facebook group reunites tornado victims with photos, documents
