Dozens killed by 200mph Tornado
A massive tornado up to a mile wide roared through Oklahoma City’s suburbs, killing at least 37, flattening neighbourhoods with winds up to 200mph and landing a direct hit on at least one school.
An Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office spokeswoman said the death toll was expected to rise. Two hospitals said they were treating nearly 60 patients, including more than a dozen children. At least 10 people were in a critical condition.
The storm of rare ferocity – less than 1% of all tornadoes reach such wind speed – ripped through scores of buildings in Moore, south of the city. Street after street of the community lay in ruins with cars and trucks left crumpled.
The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most powerful type of twister.
In a video of the storm, the dark funnel cloud could be seen moving slowly across the landscape, scattering shards of wood, pieces of insulation, shingles and glass over the streets.
At Plaza Towers Elementary School, the storm tore off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal.
Several children were pulled alive from the rubble. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain to a triage centre in the car park.
James Rushing, who lives opposite, heard reports of the approaching tornado and believing he would be safer there, ran to the school, where his five-year-old foster son Aiden is a pupil.
“About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart,” Mr Rushing said.
The pupils were placed in the restroom.
Downed power lines and open gas lines posed a risk in the aftermath of the storm, police captain Dexter Nelson said.
The same suburb was hit hard by a tornado in 1999. That storm had the distinction of producing the highest winds ever recorded near the Earth’s surface – 302mph.
Meanwhile more tornado warnings were issued across much of the Midwest, stretching from Texas to Illinois.
The National Weather Service issued warnings for several counties in south-eastern Oklahoma and north-central Texas, along with parts of north-west Arkansas, Missouri, central Iowa and western Illinois.
