(Newswire.net – May 20, 2013) Cincinnati, OH – Monday evening around 3 pm local time a tornado estimating to be a two miles wide with 200 mph winds hits just outside of Oklahoma City leaving in its path devastation results.
According to the police in Moore the “major damage” included home, business centers and two local elementary schools one of which took a direct hit. According to KFOR-TV the two schools hit the hardest were Brianwood Elementary in Oklahoma City and Plaza Towers Elementary in Oklahoma City.
The tornado is believed to be an F5 or an F4 size with speeds from 166 – 200 mph, the National Weather Service said. On May 3 1999, an F5 tornado devastated Moore, killing 41 people, injuring hundreds others and causing $1 billion in damages.
“The houses are destroyed. … Completely leveled,” a CNN helicopter pilot reported
Interstate 35 in Moore is closed as a result of the debris and the Oklahoma Transportation department spokesman said crews were headed to the north-south highway to start clean up.
“People are trapped. You are going to see the devastation for days to come,” Betsy Randolph, spokeswoman for Oklahoma Highway Patrol
“It is absolutely devastating, this is horrific,” Oklahoma Lt. Gov Todd Lamb said. “We’re going to have fatalities. … We’re going to have significant injuries. … We just don’t know what those numbers are. Schools have been hit, a hospital has been hit, businesses have been flattened, neighborhoods have been wiped away — we don’t have the numbers in yet but it is going to be significant and it is going to be horrific.”
The footage shows survivors emerging from the shelters that kept them safe only to see the horrors that the tornado left behind. Cars twisted, hospitals destroyed, businesses flattened and what had once looked like a parking lot is now a junk yard.
“We certainly hope everyone heeded the warnings, but it’s a populated area and we just fear that not everyone may have gotten the word,” said Bill Bunting of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center
All patients were moved to Norman Regional Hospital and Health Plex Hospital. Any residents hurt in the tornado were also advised to report to those two hospitals.
As many as 28 tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa, according to the National Weather Service, with Oklahoma and Kansas the hardest hit. Some of those reports might have been of the same tornado.
Tornado watches are still in effect until 10 CT. It will be weeks though before anyone realizes the full destruction this tornado brought to the Oklahoma City area.
Our hopes and prayers go out to everyone.
Live Coverage from KFOR TV