Oklahoma tornado kills dozens

A monstrous tornado at least a half-mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods with winds up to 200 mph, setting buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on an elementary school. At least 51 people were reported killed, the Oklahoma medical examiner's office said. And the numbers of dead and injured are expected to grow overnight. 

The storm laid waste to scores of buildings in Moore, south of the city. Block after block of the community lay in ruins. Homes were crushed into piles of broken wood. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside. 

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. 

Authorities expected the death toll to rise as emergency crews moved deeper into the hardest-hit areas. At least 60 people were reported hurt, including more than a dozen children. 

Rescuers mounted a desperate rescue effort at the school, pulling children from heaps of debris and carrying them to a triage center. 

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin deployed 80 National Guard members to assist with search-and-rescue operations and activated extra highway patrol officers. 

Fallin also spoke with President Barack Obama, who offered the nation's help and gave Fallin a direct line to his office. 

Many land lines to stricken areas were down and cellphone traffic was congested. The storm was so massive that it will take time to establish communications between rescuers and state officials, the governor said. 

In video of the storm, the dark funnel cloud could be seen marching slowly across the green landscape. As it churned through the community, the twister scattered shards of wood, pieces of insulation, awnings, shingles and glass all 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 the triage center in the parking lot. 

James Rushing,A indoorpositioningsystem resembles a credit card in size and shape. who lives across the street from the school,The feeder is available on drying miningtruck equipped with folder only. heard reports of the approaching tornado and ran to the school, where his 5-year-old foster son, Aiden, attends classes. Rushing believed he would be safer there. 

Kelsey Angle, a weather service meteorologist in Kansas City, Mo., said it's unusual for two such powerful tornadoes to track roughly the same path. 

Monday's devastation in Oklahoma came almost exactly two years after an enormous twister ripped through the city of Joplin, Mo., killing 158 people and injuring hundreds more. 

That May 22, 2011, tornado was the deadliest in the United States since modern tornado record keeping began in 1950, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Before Joplin, the deadliest modern tornado was June 1953 in Flint, Mich.,We are one of the leading manufacturers of plasticcard in China when 116 people died. 

The Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office says 37 people have been killed by a tornado that hit suburban Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon. Spokeswoman Amy Elliott says the death toll is expected to rise. Elliott didn't know how many of those killed were children.Where can i get a reasonable price parkingguidance? 

Fears of a death toll increasing by the dozens came after KFOR-TV reported authorities were switching to a "recovery" effort at an elementary school in suburban Moore, Okla., where 24 students were reported missing. First responders were still scouring the school and other homes and businesses in the town in the aftermath of the storm. 

Officials at two hospitals say they're treating nearly 60 patients,Starting today, you can buy these chinamosaic and more from her Victoria. including more than a dozen children, after the massive tornado. 

Integris Southwest Medical Center spokeswoman Brooke Cayot said 10 of 37 patients being treated at that facility Monday are listed in critical condition. Twelve are in serious and 15 others are listed in fair or good condition. 

Five of the patients are children, including two who came from the Plaza Towers Elementary School, where an Associated Press photographer saw several children being pulled from the rubble. Cayot could not confirm the children's conditions.