MOORE, Okla. — A deadly twister, 12 miles long and two miles wide, ripped apart the town of Moore, Okla., on Monday.
“I could hear the roof going and then I could start seeing small holes and insulation falling on me,” said one survivor.
The tornado leveled much of the town, taking aim at the hospital, schools and home.”
“[It was] a sky full of things that needed to be on the ground,” another survivor said.
Lando Hite was shirtless and muddy as he described what happened at a farm in Moore.
“It was just like the movie ‘Twister,’” he said. “There were horses and stuff flying around everywhere.”
Even though sirens sounded, the power of the tornado was deadly.
“Those sirens did go off,” said Public Information Officer Betsy Randolph. “Those children, we believe, were in an area that we thought and they thought was safe for them to be, but the kind of tornado that touched down here yesterday afternoon was not what anyone expected.”
Randolph said search teams found 101 people overnight in shelters — a boost to morale at the time. As crews continued Tuesday morning to search for missing children, Randolph said hopes remained high some would be found alive.
“We don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that some of those children escaped,” she said. “They may be harmed, they may be in an emergency room or a hospital somewhere and we don’t know who they are — they may be unconscious. We’re so positive that people are still in shelters buried under debris.”
Search and rescue crews are now working to find people in the rubble.
As of Tuesday morning, the medical examiner revised the number of dead from 91 to 24, but that number is expected to fluctuate as search and rescue efforts continue.
Stay with FOX 4 News and FOX4KC.com for the very latest on the search and recovery efforts in central Oklahoma.
