Areas of metropolitan Oklahoma City appeared to be in shreds after a massive tornado moved through the region.
"The houses are destroyed ... Completely leveled," A helicopter pilot for CNN affiliate KFOR said. A school was apparently among the structures leveled by the twister.
The tornado was estimated to be at least two miles wide at one point as it moved through Moore, Oklahoma, KFOR reported. Ref. CNN
The preliminary rating of a tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, is at least EF-4 (166 to 200 mph winds), the National Weather Service said.
"People are trapped. You are going to see the devastation for days to come," Betsy Randolph, spokeswoman for Oklahoma Highway Patrol, told CNN.
Interstate 35 in Moore was closed as a result of debris from the tornado. Moore Medical Center was evacuated after sustaining damage, a hospital spokeswoman said. Ref. CNN
At least 10 people were killed when a powerful tornado blasted an area outside of Oklahoma City, leveling buildings and cutting a wide path of destruction the scale of which is just starting to become clear.
Rescue workers were digging through the rubble of an elementary school looking for trapped students, CNN affiliate KFOR reports. Ref. CNN
The state medical examiner's office has revised the death toll from a tornado in an Oklahoma City suburb to 24 people, including seven children. Spokeswoman Amy Elliot said Tuesday morning that she believes some victims were counted twice in the early chaos of the storm. Authorities said initially that as many as 51 people were dead, including 20 children. Teams are continuing to search the rubble in Moore, 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, after the Monday afternoon tornado. Ref. USAToday
Insurance claims for damage caused by Monday's tornado will likely top $1 billion, Kelly Collins of the Oklahoma Insurance Department tells CNN.
That would exceed the insurance cost of a 1999 tornado that killed 36 people in the same area.
Monday's tornado that killed at least 24 people was 1.3 miles wide with an estimated peak wind speed from 200 to 210 mph, the National Weather Service said. That would make it an EF5, the most powerful category. Ref. CNN