• Search and rescue winds down a day after deadly Oklahoma tornado

    Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

    Destroyed vehicles lie in the rubble outside the Plaza Towers Elementary school in Moore, Okla., on Tuesday.

    Launch slideshow

    By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

    As evening drew to a close in Oklahoma, after a day of tireless searching for survivors among the debris left behind by a powerful tornado, officials said the operation could end by nightfall Tuesday.

    "We will be through every damaged piece of property in this city at least three times before we're done and we hope to be done by dark tonight," Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird said at a news conference.

    Emergency crews and National Guard troops picked through neighborhoods without recognizable streets in a grim, house-by-house search of the blasted-out husk of a city left behind by the ferocious tornado.

    Authorities lowered the death toll to 24, less than half the figure they gave in the initial chaos after the twister, but there was still no full accounting of those missing. Nine of the confirmed dead were children, including seven in a flattened elementary school.

    Four bodies were recovered, including a 3-month-old baby, at a local 7-Eleven.

    Working with search dogs and under menacing skies, the crews meticulously combed the rubble in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, which took a direct hit when the tornado cut a 17-mile path of destruction on Monday afternoon.

    Dozens of people were pulled from the wreckage in the initial hours after the storm, but there were no reports of additional survivors found Tuesday — only scraps of wood, shreds of clothing, shards of glass and metal and cars crumpled into each other and into buildings. Entire stretches of Moore looked as if they had been put through a blender.

    “I mean, there’s nothing,” said Robert Foster, whose family home was destroyed. “People are walking up and down the streets. It’s really upsetting to look at. We grew up there. That’s our whole childhood. And it’s all flattened now.”

    Gov. Mary Fallin said there were 237 injured, but authorities cautioned that figure and the death toll could still rise. Even with the benefit of a full day’s light, people were only beginning to grasp the scope of the destruction in Moore and parts of Oklahoma City.

    The Oklahoma University Medical Center admitted 59 children and 34 adults.

    The National Weather Service said survey crews had found at least one area of Category EF5 damage — the highest classification for tornadoes, meaning winds had exceeded 200 mph.

    Frank Keating, a former Oklahoma governor, said on MSNBC that as many as 20,000 families could be displaced.

    “This was the storm of storms,” Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said.

    The first of the victims was publicly identified — Ja’Nae Hornsby, a third-grader who was killed when the tornado demolished Plaza Towers Elementary School. She was remembered by her family Tuesday as full of joy and fond of playing dress-up. Her relatives gathered at a Baptist church in Oklahoma City to console each other.

    A second victim, Hemant Bhonde, 65, became separated from his wife when the tornado struck their home, his family told NBC News. Bhonde's body was recovered Tuesday, hospital officials said. His wife survived.

    Tannen Maury / EPA

    Firefighters examine the rubble of a home in a destroyed neighborhood in Moore.

    As they took the measure of what they had lost, people in Moore also marveled that they were alive, and began to share stories of survival and of how they protected each other when the twister struck, announcing itself with roaring wind.

    Children from Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven children were reported drowned in a pool of water, told of hearing sirens and running into a hall for cover, some still carrying their math books.

    A teacher, Rhonda Crosswhite, said she huddled with students in a bathroom stall and draped herself over them for cover as the storm hit.

    “One of my little boys, he just kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you, please don’t die with me, please don’t die with me,’” she told TODAY. “But we’re OK. And we made it out, and it finally stopped.”

    She said all her students were accounted for.

    Damian Britton, a fourth-grader, credited “Miss Crosswhite” with saving his life. He estimated it took about five minutes for the twister to pass through before the students emerged from cover to survey the damage and check on their classmates.

    “It was just a disaster,’’ he said. “There was just a bunch of stuff thrown around and the cars were tipped over, and it smelled like gas.”

    At an afternoon news conference, Bird said that search dogs were no longer “making any hits” at the school. He said no one had been found there Tuesday but cautioned that the search was still active.

    “They will not declare that structure clear until they are down to the ground and have been through every piece of rubble in that building,” he said.

    One child was killed at Briarwood Elementary School, elsewhere in Moore, said police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis. There was no word on how the ninth child died. Besides the 19 deaths in Moore, five were killed in southern neighborhoods of Oklahoma City.

    Charlie Riedel / AP

    Zac Woodcock salvages items from the rubble of a tornado-ravaged rental home in Moore.

    Authorities said they hoped to have every home, business and car in Moore searched by nightfall. They worked under the threat of still more severe weather. Forecasters said parts of Oklahoma and Texas, including Dallas, were at risk for more tornadoes.

    The tornado Monday spent 40 minutes on the ground, said Rick Smith of the National Weather Service.

    “We’ve seen numerous structures that are wiped clean to the foundation,” he said.

    Smith said that the first severe thunderstorm warning had gone out 44 minutes before the tornado touched down, and the first tornado warning 16 minutes ahead. The weather service said the storm, at its widest, stretched 1.3 miles.

    President Barack Obama called it “one of the most destructive tornadoes in history.” Speaking from the White House, he pledged the full help of the federal government and said there was no time to waste.

    “In an instant, neighborhoods were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives, many more were injured, and among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew, their school,” he said. “So our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today.”

    Fallin, after a helicopter tour that traced the tornado’s path, said searchers were having trouble because “the streets are just gone. The signs are just gone.”

    Expressions of grief and support came from across the world. Pope Francis said on Twitter: “I am close to the families of all who died in the Oklahoma tornado, especially those who lost young children. Join me in praying for them.”

    Queen Elizabeth II extended her deepest sympathies, and House Speaker John Boehner ordered flags at the Capitol to half-staff.

    Relief efforts sprang up. The NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder and its star player, Kevin Durant, each pledged $1 million. Others helped as they could: Miles from Moore, people went on Facebook to post family photos that had landed in their yards, hoping to match them with their owners.

    Aerial pictures of the destruction brought to mind Joplin, the Missouri town virtually wiped off the map two years ago when an EF5 tornado killed 158 people and caused $2.8 billion in damage.

    The twister cut a path similar to a tornado outbreak that ravaged Oklahoma and Kansas on May 3, 1999, killing 46 people and damaging or destroying more than 8,000 homes. Wind in that outbreak was clocked at 318 mph, the fastest ever recorded on earth.

    Officials in Moore complained earlier this year about foot-dragging by the federal government over $2 million in federal grants for “safe rooms” in 800 homes to protect them from severe weather.

    A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency told NBC News the agency was looking into the claim.

    The city’s website also said, however, that Moore faced only a 1 to 2 percent chance of a tornado on any spring day, and that if a tornado did strike, there was less than a 1 percent chance that it would be as strong as the 1999 tornado.

    Monday’s storm beat those odds. Alfredo Corrales and Viviana Lune rode it out in a shelter beneath their house. Corrales told TODAY that they had hunkered down there and heard voices above, and popped open the door to find several neighbors asking to come in.

    The wind was so strong, Corrales said, that he and a neighbor had to hold the cellar door shut. When they emerged, they found a rewritten landscape.

    “I saw basically nothing,” Luna said. “There were no fences there anymore, trees were snapped in half, roofs of houses were gone. Everything from people’s houses and even from neighborhoods across the street was laying in our yards. Half of the roof is torn off, the garage is caved in — it's just a total mess.”

    More on the Oklahoma tornado:

    How to help Oklahoma tornado victims

    Tornado survivors: A 48-hour window of opportunity

    ‘The school started coming apart’: Trapped students had nowhere to hide

    ‘Bless you for posting’: Facebook group reunites tornado victims with photos, documents

    Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley's past and future

    NBC News' Jeff Black, Tracy Connor, Becky Bratu and Kristen Welker contributed to this report, as did NBC News contributor Alex Hannaford and The Associated Press.

    This story was originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 8:55 PM EDT

  • 'Bless you for posting': Facebook group reunites tornado victims with photos, documents

    Glen Adkisson via Facebook

    This photo was posted on Facebook by Glen Adkisson after tornadoes struck Oklahoma on Monday. "This was in our yard 5/20/2013...Collinsville," he wrote.

    By F. Brinley Bruton, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The photo shows a baby in diapers on a high chair gazing at a white cake with one pink candle.  

    Glen Adkisson of Collinsville, Okla., posted on Facebook that it had been found "in our yard" following Monday's devastating tornadoes.

    Allison Messer via Facebook

    This photo was posted on Facebook by Allison Messer after a tornado struck Oklahoma, with the message "Found in our pasture between Stroud & Depew. Would love to find the momma this belongs too."

    The message below reads: "This photo is of my sisters deceased husband when he was a child. We are from Shawnee Oklahoma. She did live in the trailer park. She and my 7 year old nephew lost their home. I will try to contact u va Facebook. Bless you for posting this!"

    This exchange appears on a Facebook page -- May 19th 2013 OK Tornado Doc & Picture Recovery -- set up to return photos and documents to victims of a deadly storm system that has ripped across the state. 

    Early Tuesday, the page included hundreds of family photos and documents.  A picture of a cat with one blue eye sat next to another of a woman in a camp chair holding two blond and grinning children. A grimy electricity bill was next to the stained photograph of a toddler sitting on Santa's knee.  An ultrasound photo showed what appeared to be a baby in utero.

    Some postings had happy endings, with pets and pictures being reunited with their families.

    A photo of a brown-haired young man cuddling a smiling girl with long caramel-colored hair elicited an overjoyed response from Dana Davis: “this is my picture it was in my room at my sisters and her house got destroyed by the tornado by lake thunderbird !”

    Becky Miller, one of the page’s administrators, knew the photos and documents that landed on the ground as so-called falling debris, might look like detritus but were in fact irreplaceable artifacts or documents for somebody.  

    This photo was posted on Facebook by Kristi Hodge after a tornado struck Oklahoma with the message "Found 2 miles south of Ramona at 815 PM floating from the sky."

    “People had falling debris 100 miles away – people were saying it is raining debris in the yard,” said the resident of Liberty, Okla., which is about two hours away from Oklahoma City.  “That’s what started it. I wanted people reunited with precious pictures or colored pictures – you can’t replace those in a disaster.”

    Indeed, Jeremy-Trista Blevins posted a ripped picture of three children – the smallest a bald and smiling baby – that she says she found in Sand Spring, 119 miles from where the hurricane struck.

    The page, which was started by Leslie Edgar Hagelberg, Miller’s cousin, and her sister, Sarah Miller-Deibert, quickly turned into a sort of clearing house, attracting others trying to help those in need.

    Diana Gann’s plea for help subduing a traumatized mule prompted almost 150 responses. 

    A posting originally on Photos of Moore Oklahoma Tornado Pets Lost & Found and cross-linked on May 19th 2013 OK Tornado Doc showed a nervous-looking black lab.

    "3 dogs rescued from Moore tornado! Bathed, and cared for at rescuers home. Want to reunite them back with their families," the message with the photo read. "Prayer to all our furry friends and families."

    Erin Lang via Facebook

    Erin Lang posted this photo on Facebook after Monday's tornado in Moore, Okla., writing: "3 dogs rescued from Moore tornado! Bathed, and cared for at rescuers home. Want to reunite them back with their families. Please spread the word and contact Erin Lang or Carey Ralstin on Facebook! Prayer to all our furry friends and families."

    And down the page another message from Farah Payton-Snider declared: "The black Lab is my (friend's)... dog Tin. Please call me ASAP."

    Payton-Snider, 36, said she would close her flower shop and head into Oklahoma City first thing in the morning to try and help reunite people who had been hit by the tornado with their pets.

    "I feel helpless, I want to be able to do something," said Payton-Snider, who lives in Newcastle, Okla.  

    Related:

     

     

     

     

    This story was originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 6:21 AM EDT

  • 'Oh, my God!': KFC cook records dramatic footage of monster tornado

    Michael Welch captures dramatic video of twister from a KFC parking lot in Newcastle, Oklahoma.

    By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Michael Welch was midshift into his job at KFC in Newcastle, Okla., on Monday afternoon when he noticed hail pounding the parking lot outside the restaurant.

    Then, as he looked into the distance, he saw the wall cloud of an enormous tornado rotating in front of him.

    “It was very large and very fast,” he said.  “I could see debris flying all over.”

    The 24-year-old cook grabbed his HTC cell phone and dashed into the parking lot and started recording video. “Probably not the best thing to do, but I did it.”

    Most of his coworkers took shelter, but his manager stayed at the door while he filmed, Welch said.

    “Oh, my God!” he screams on his video -- seen by thousands on NBC News and YouTube -- as the tornado, which killed at least 24 people and injured scores more in the area, passes. 

    He said an F4 tornado that hit his house in Blanchard on May 24, 2011, helped alleviate his fear.

    “I think that gave me the courage to go ahead and go outside,” he said. “The power of the funnel cloud was amazing."

    He said he had no idea a storm was coming until he saw it with his own eyes.

    But now, his YouTube video showing a street-level view of the massive tornado plowing through Newcastle and Moore stands as an iconic record of the day’s event.

    “I’ve talked to so many people today I can’t even count ,” he said.

    Related:

  • Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley's past and future

    National Weather Service

    This map shows the track of a tornado on May 3, 1999, in green; and the track of Monday's tornado in red. The similarity of the paths is coincidental, but the larger patterns of storm activity in "Tornado Alley" are due in part to the region's geography.

    By Alan Boyle and John Roach, NBC News

    Do tornadoes follow well-worn tracks? Where do the deadliest twisters hit? Will climate change make such storms worse? Monday's devastating tornado in Oklahoma raises some questions for which scientists have ready answers, and others that could puzzle them for years to come:

    Was this tornado a repeat of a famous twister in 1999?

    For a time, Monday's storm followed a track that was similar to the path of a tornado with the fastest wind speed ever recorded, 318 mph (512 kilometers per hour), which occurred on May 3, 1999. That twister was one of 74 tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma and Kansas in less than 21 hours, according to the National Severe Storms Laboratory. The 1999 outbreak of severe weather caused 46 deaths and nearly $1.5 billion in property damage.

    The tracks weren't all that similar, however: Monday's tornado took a more southerly route as it moved east. And there's nothing unique about the area's geography to make it a magnet for super-powerful twisters, according to Bob Henson, a tornado expert with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

    "If there were geographic features, that would tend to cause multiple tornadoes every few years," the meteorologist and writer told NBC News. "Well, why has this been happening only since 1999?"

    The similarity in the tracks of these devastating storms is "a good example for how weather events can be clustered in ways that are striking yet ultimately coincidental," Henson said.

    A classic example of this phenomenon, he noted, is Codell, Kan., which was hit by tornadoes on the same day — May 20 — in 1916, 1917, and 1918. The third tornado killed 10 people and destroyed a part of the community. "That's a good illustration of how sometimes things like this can just happen in clusters," he said.

    NOAA SPC

    The purple streaks on this map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center stand for tornado tracks from 1950 to 2011. The dark blotches indicate population densities.

    But isn't Tornado Alley more prone to deadly twisters?

    On a wider scale, the geography of America's midsection makes it more prone to tornadoes than any other region on Earth. That's because the Rocky Mountains tend to impede the eastward flow of moist air, while the Great Plains allow frigid Arctic air to stream southward from Canada and meet up with warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico. It's the collision of that warm and cold air that breeds powerful twisters.

    "Tornado Alley" generally refers to the region centered in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and points north, where tornadoes are most frequent — but multiple studies indicate that the deadliest twisters occur to the east, in a region that's come to be known as "Dixie Alley." The reasons for that have to do with geography and demographics as well as meteorology in the southeastern United States: Storms tend to move faster, and they're more likely to strike at night. There are more trees and other obstructions to raise havoc. Population densities are generally higher, and the region has many manufactured homes that lack basements in which to take shelter.

    The United States has the highest incidence of tornadoes, with an average of more than 1,000 every year, according to the National Climatic Data Center. But other regions of the world have twisters as well. Canada is No. 2 with about 100 per year, followed by northern Europe, western Asia, Bangladesh, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, South Africa and Argentina. Britain has more tornadoes than any other country, relative to its land area. "Fortunately, most UK tornadoes are relatively weak," the data center says.

    Why do these tornadoes seem to be hitting all of a sudden?

    After a relatively quiet start to the tornado season, tornadoes have been erupting from Texas to Minnesota over the past week. A cold front advancing to the east appears to be to blame. That pocket of cold air has run into warm air from the Gulf, causing the warm air to rise and spawning powerful thunderstorms. "It's kind of like the perfect setup," Jeff Weber, a scientist with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, told LiveScience.

    The earlier calm was due to the fact that jet stream had been dipping farther south than usual for this time of year. That kept the Gulf's warm, moist air from advancing into Tornado Alley. Now that warm air is pushing northward, and the cold front has moved on to Minnesota and Wisconsin. As a result, the storm system that created Monday's big tornado should soon weaken, Weber said.

    Will climate change make tornadoes worse? More frequent?

    "The short answer is, we have no idea," Michael Wehner, a climate researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told NBC News. For years, Wehner has been studying the climate models for extreme weather, and he's a lead author for the next report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as the federal government's latest national assessment on climate change.

    One problem is that the observational record for tornadoes has not been uniform over time. "It has a bias to it, because more people are living where tornadoes occur, and more people are out looking for them," Wehner said. That contributes to the perception that tornadoes are happening more frequently than they used to.

    The other big problem is that current climate models don't have the resolution that's needed to simulate the localized, violent activity of a tornado. Currently, global models are built up from atmospheric interactions on a scale of 100 kilometers (62 miles). Improvements in computer power could soon bring that down to a scale of 25 kilometers (16 miles). That should make it possible for scientists to simulate the weather phenomena that give rise to tornadoes, but not the tornadoes themselves, Wehner said.

    On a larger scale, extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent in a warmer world, Wehner said. "The metric that I like to look at is the daily amount of rain for a storm that happens once every 20 years," he said. "That storm, in a much warmer world, would happen more frequently." For example, if the world follows a "business-as-usual" scenario, he projects that the average temperature would rise 11 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) by the end of the century, and that a once-in-20-years rainstorm would come around every five to 10 years on average.

    That doesn't necessarily mean tornadoes would be more frequent, however. In fact, the current projection calls for wetter spring weather in the northern U.S., and drier weather in the Southwest — with Tornado Alley right in the middle. "There's some evidence that there might not be a change" in the character of a tornado season, Wehner observed.

    Wehner may sound a bit apologetic about the lack of clear answers in the short term, but in the long term, he's optimistic. "The reason I'm optimistic that we can get somewhere on this is that supercomputing technology is driving this very hard," he said. "We're just getting into the sweet spot for these kinds of issues, with the largest mainframes that money can buy."

    More about tornado science:

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with him by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding him to your Google+ circles.

    John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, visit his website. 

    This story was originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 8:20 PM EDT

  • At least 51 killed, including 20 children, as tornado tears through Oklahoma

    By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

    At least 51 people, including 20 children, were among the victims of an enormous tornado that roared through the suburbs of Oklahoma City Monday, pulverizing entire city blocks and leaving behind miles of mangled cars and splintered wood.

    Officials warned the death toll was likely to climb, making it among the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history.

    Forecasters warned that more "large and devastating" tornadoes were possible Tuesday with cities including Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Shreveport, Texarkana and Little Rock potentially at risk.

    At one hospital, 85 patients, including 65 children, were being treated for minor to critical injuries.

    Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

    Sue Ogrocki / AP

    A monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving scores dead as the threat for more storms continues.

    Launch slideshow

    “The whole city looks like a debris field,” said Mayor Glenn Lewis of the city of Moore, which appeared to be the hardest hit.

    One of the many buildings to be totally destroyed was the Plaza Towers Elementary School where seven children drowned in a pool of water. The tornado tore the roof off the school about 3 p.m. local time. A teacher told NBC station KFOR that she draped herself on top of six children in a bathroom to shelter them.

    It was not clear how many children still were missing. Students in fourth, fifth and sixth grade were evacuated to a church, but students in lower grades had sheltered in place, KFOR reported. More than two hours after the tornado struck, several children were pulled out alive.

    The twister was a mile wide at its base, according to The Weather Channel. A reporter for KFOR said the tornado kicked up a cloud of debris perhaps two miles wide. The National Weather Service initially classified the storm as an EF4, the second-strongest type, with winds of 166 to 200 mph.

    “It seems that our worst fears have happened today,” said Bill Bunting, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Norman, Okla.

    KFOR television reporter Jesse Wells reports Plaza Towers Elementary school was totally destroyed. Most of the walls of the school have collapsed, and cars were thrown into the front of the building. Emergency crews continue to look for kids who may still be inside.

    Even before the death toll began to climb, television footage showed a landscape shattered — not the arbitrary damage of a tornado that leaves some homes untouched, but vast and utter obliteration.

    Emergency workers stepped gingerly around piles of wreckage left on the foundations of homes. Other people simply walked around, dazed. Fires broke out in several places.

    “I lost everything,” one man said as he walked through the ruins of a horse farm. “We might have one horse left out of all of them.”

    Tiffany Thronesberry told the Associated Press that her mother, Barbara Jarrell, called her and screamed: “Help! Help! I can’t breathe! My house is on top of me!”

    At one hospital in Moore, cars were “piled like Hot Wheels” in the parking lot, and police were searching them one by one and spray-painting X’s to mark them clear of victims, said Kurt Gwartney, news director for radio station KGOU.

    An Oklahoma emergency management spokesman said a hospital was being evacuated after sustaining severe damage, and 16 ambulances were being sent to move patients. It was not clear whether it was the same hospital.

    The tornado struck at mid-afternoon and tore a 20-mile path, said Rick Smith, another weather service meteorologist. He said it was on the ground for 40 minutes. Much of the storm’s rampage was captured on live television, perhaps alerting people in its path to seek shelter.

    President Barack Obama declared a major disaster, making federal aid available to people in five counties. Gov. Mary Fallin asked the people of Oklahoma for patience and promised: “We will bring every single resource out that we can.”

    NBC's Brian Williams and NBC's Al Roker report on the aftermath of a tornado, which is believed to have been up to a mile wide, and left a huge path of destruction as it cut across Moore, Oklahoma.

    Relief efforts sprang up. The Red Cross said it was opening a shelter, and the University of Oklahoma opened some of its housing for displaced families.

    In addition to Plaza Towers, Briarwood Elementary School was heavily damaged, KFOR reported.

    Grasping for comparisons, some people said it looked like Joplin, the Missouri town virtually wiped off the map two years ago when a tornado — this one an EF5 — blew through and killed 158 people.

    Joplin city officials said Monday they were sending a team of 10 officers and three firefighters to Moore to help. “Giving back in whatever way we can,” the mayor said on Twitter.

    For those living in Oklahoma, the ferocity was reminiscent of May 3, 1999, when a tornado registered wind of more than 300 mph, left 46 dead and damaged or destroyed more than 8,000 homes.

    Michael Welch captures dramatic video of twister from a KFC parking lot in Newcastle, Oklahoma.

    The tornado Monday also came one day after another cluster of storms in Oklahoma that killed two elderly men in the town of Shawnee. Tens of millions of people from Texas to the Great Lakes — an area covering 55 million people — had been warned to brace for the severe weather.

    The Sunday storms destroyed mobile homes, flipped trucks and sent people across 100 miles running for cover. In Kansas, a weather forecaster was forced off the air as a tornado bore down on his station.

    Watch live video of storms from KFOR TV

    NBC News' Alastair Jamieson, Jeff Black and Tracy Connor contributed to this report.

    Related:

    This story was originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:30 PM EDT

  • How to help Oklahoma tornado victims

    The Oklahoman, NewsOk.com

    A teacher hugs a child at Briarwood Elementary school after a tornado destroyed the school in south Oklahoma City, Monday, May 20, 2013.

    By Suzanne Choney, Contributing Writer, NBC News

    The loss of life and stunning devastation in Oklahoma City suburbs after a monster tornado ripped through the area are heart-wrenching. "The streets are just gone. The signs are just gone," said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, after she toured the area by helicopter Tuesday. And many, many relief organizations are getting the message out on how to help.

    American Red Cross
    The Red Cross has set up shelters in various communities. You can donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund here, and the organization also suggests giving blood at your local hospital or blood bank. Fundraising efforts were buoyed Tuesday by a $1 million pledge from Kevin Durant, of the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team, via his family foundation.

    If you're searching for a missing relative, check Red Cross Safe & Well's site. And please register if you're within the disaster region. The site is designed to make communication easier after a tragedy like this. 

    If you want to send a $10 donation to the Disaster Relief fund via text message, you can do so by texting the word REDCROSS to 90999. As in the case with other donations via mobile, the donation will show up on your wireless bill, or be deducted from your balance if you have a prepaid phone. You need to be 18 or older, or have parental permission, to donate this way. (If you change your mind, text the word STOP to 90999.)

    The Red Cross also accepts frequent flier miles as donations. Delta, United Airlines and US Airways partner with the Red Cross throughout the year, which uses miles to help get volunteers and staff to key locations during disasters. (Note: The donation is not tax-deductible as the IRS considers it a gift.) For Delta, email: delta.bids@delta-air.com with your SkyMiles number, the number of miles you want to donate, and specify the Red Cross as the charity. You can donate miles online at United Airlines Donate Your Miles and US Airways Dividend Miles.

    Phone: 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767); for Spanish speakers, 1-800-257-7575; for TDD, 1-800-220-4095.

    OK Strong Disaster Relief Fund
    The state of Oklahoma, coordinating with the United Way of Central Oklahoma, on Tuesday established the OK Strong Disaster Relief Fund to help "with the long-term medical, emotional and educational needs of victims of the May 20 tornado in Moore and the May 19 tornado near Shawnee."

    Donations can be made online at UnitedWayOKC.org.

    Phone: 1-405-236-8441.

    Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
    The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, working with the Oklahoma Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, is seeking monetary donations. To donate, visit the regional food bank's website, or give $10 by texting the word FOOD to 32333.

    Phone: 1-405-972-1111

    Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief
    This organization says donations will "go straight to help those in need providing tree removal services, laundry services and meals to victims of disasters." 

    It is requesting monetary donations (It says clothing is NOT needed). For more information, and to donate, visit Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief's website.

    You can send checks to: BGCO, Attn: Disaster Relief, 3800 N. May Ave., Oklahoma City, OK., 73112.

    Salvation Army
    The Salvation Army is organizing disaster response units to serve hard-hit areas in central Oklahoma, including Moore, where it is sending mobile kitchens that can serve meals to 2,500 people a day, and to South Oklahoma City.

    In Little Axe, Okla., the organization said, the army's Central Oklahoma Area Command Disaster Service Unit was busy feeding breakfast, lunch and dinner to people, "even as one of our Salvation Army family member's home was destroyed."

    Supporters can donate online via the organization's website, SalvationArmyUSA.org. You can also text the word STORM to 80888 to make a $10 donation via cellphone.

    If you want to send a check, the Salvation Army asks that you put the words "Oklahoma Tornado Relief" on the check, and mail it to: The Salvation Army, P.O. Box 12600, Oklahoma City, OK., 73157.

    Phone:  1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-725-2769).

    Feed the Children
    Feed the Children has set up five locations in Oklahoma City to accept donations to help victims of the Moore tornado. The organization is accepting items including diapers, canned goods, non-perishable food, snack items, water and sports drinks. The organization is also supporting mobile canteens in partnership with the Salvation Army and the Red Cross.

    You can donate online, or make a $10 donation by texting the word DISASTER to 80888.

    Phone:  1-800-627-4556

    United Way of Central Oklahoma
    A disaster relief fund is being activated as of May 21 so that individuals can specifically donate to tornado relief-and-recovery efforts, the organization says on its site.

    "Financial contributions are the best way to help unless otherwise requested." Donations can be made online at

    United Way of Central Oklahoma’s Disaster Relief Fund is open.  Donations may be made online here. Checks, with a notation of "May Tornado Relief" can also be sent to the United Way of Central Oklahoma, P.O. Box 837, Oklahoma City, OK , 73101.

    Feeding America
    Through its network of more than 200 food banks, Feeding America, whose mission is to "feed America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks," says it will deliver truckloads of food, water and supplies to communities in need, in Oklahoma, and will also "set up additional emergency food and supply distribution sites as they are needed." You can donate online here.

    Phone: 1-800-910-5524.

    Operation USA
    The international relief group, based in Los Angeles, says it is "readying essential material aid — emergency, shelter and cleaning supplies" to help Oklahoma's community health organizations and schools recover.

    You can donate online here. You can also give a $10 donation by texting the word AID to 50555. Checks should be sent to: Operation USA, 7421 Beverly Blvd., PH, Los Angeles, CA 90036

    Phone: 1-800-678-7255.

    Convoy of Hope
    The Missouri-based nonprofit organization has done work in other disasters, including the Haiti earthquake, with a mission of getting food and water to those after disaster strikes. Now it's doing the same for Moore, Okla. You can donate online here. Convoy of Hope is also going the crowd-sourced route, using HopeMob, a site similar to Kickstarter but for raising money to help disaster victims and others in need, which charges no fees to the organizations that use it. Convoy of Hope's goal on the site is to raise $15,000 in seven days to help Moore.

    "Why 7 days? In these first 7 days the town of Moore, OK will be consumed with clearing out destruction and accessing their needs," HopeMob says on its site. "Once those needs are known we want to be able to give them the funds to help them rebuild in the long term."

    Phone: 1-800-988-0664

    Direct Relief
    The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based, non-profit organization provides medical assistance and personal hygiene items to those hurt in disasters, as well as in other circumstances.

    "So far we have heard from health center partners responding in Oklahoma and are preparing an emergency shipment to help support the efforts there.  Direct Relief has been receiving requests for emergency supplies, personal care and protection items — including hygiene supplies, infection control products, gloves, soap, shampoo, deodorant, sanitary napkins, diapers, wipes and formula," said Kerri Murray, Direct Relief vice president, in an email.

    To donate, visit DirectRelief.org.

    Phone: 1-800-676-1638

    AmeriCares
    The Emergency Response team for AmeriCares is in Oklahoma, "coordinating deliveries of emergency aid and assessing the needs of survivors and health care organizations in the disaster area."

    Since 1982, the Connecticut-based nonprofit has delivered medicine, medical supplies and aid to those in need around the world and across the United States.

    You can donate online here. You can also give a $10 donation by texting the word LIVE to 25383. Checks or money orders can be mailed to: AmeriCares, 88 Hamilton Ave., Stamford, CT 06902.

    Phone:  1-800-486-HELP (1-800-486-4357)

    Operation Blessing International
    Humanitarian organization Operation Blessing International, which last week coordinated more than 500 volunteers in Granbury, Texas, after that area was hit by a tornado, is working with The Home Depot and dispatching a construction unit, mobile command center, trucks with tools and supplies and a team of construction foremen to Moore.

    Late Monday, Operation Blessing International also "loaded and deployed two tractor-trailer truckloads of food and emergency relief supplies from its warehouse in Dallas, Texas, in partnership with the humanitarian organization, Mercury One," said a Operation Blessing spokeswoman.

    The Virginia Beach-based group's online link for donations is here.

    Phone:  1-800-730-2537

    Samaritan's Purse
    The international Christian relief organization focuses on cleaning and repairing damaged homes and sent two disaster relief units from North Wilkesboro, N.C. to Oklahoma Tuesday. "The tractor-trailers are stocked with heavy-duty plastic, chainsaws, generators, and other tools and equipment. The units also will serve as command centers for the response," Samaritan's Purse says on its website.

    You can donate online here. You can also give a $10 donation by texting the word SP to 80888.

    Phone:  1-800-528-1980

    United Methodist Committee on Relief
    The committee works with local United Methodist churches and trained disaster response workers to help with cleanup and rebuilding, pastoral counseling and support for children and youth who have been through trauma.
     
    You can donated online here. You can also give a $10 donation by texting the word RESPONSE to 80888.

    Phone: 1-800-554-8583

    LifeChurch.tv
    Life Church.tv, which describes itself as "Oklahoma's largest evangelical church," says its Oklahoma City metro locations will accept donations of items over the next week, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and distribute them to tornado victims. Among the items needed: Toiletries, diapers, wipes, formula, baby bottles, new clothing, new shoes, and bags, backpacks or plastic tubs for carrying items.

    You can also donate money online by visiting LifeChurch.tv, or by texting the word RELIEF to 86613, and selecting an amount you would like to donate.

    Phone:  1-405-216-7054

    Jewish Federations of North America
    The Jewish Federations of North America is working with the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma, which is coordinating efforts with a local food bank, Habitat for Humanity and the Red Cross. The Jewish Federations of North America has established an Oklahoma City Tornado Relief fund. Donors can contribute online here.

    Checks can also be sent to the JFNA national mailbox at: The Jewish Federations of North America, Wall Street Station, P.O. Box 148, New York, NY, 10268. Please indicate "JFNA Oklahoma City Tornado Relief Fund" on all checks or in the designation box online.

    Oklahoma Tornado Relief 2013
    The Oklahoma Tornado Relief 2013 fundraising effort is being done through a crowd-sourced effort using Fundly, a website for fundraising, akin to HopeMob, mentioned above. On the site, you'll find various fundraising causes to help tornado victims, and can choose which you'd like to support.

    DonorsChoose.org
    DonorsChoose.org is creating a special online fund to collect donations for the teachers and schools of Moore, Okla., to help respond and rebuild. Donors Choose will work with the teachers of Moore to assess what they need for their classrooms and allow them to identify the real-time solutions and supplies their community and their students need: everything from clothing for their students to first-aid kits. 

    To donate, visit www.donorschoose.org

    And a note of caution ...

    Emotions are running high, understandably, in light of the awful news from Oklahoma. Many of us want to help in some way. But this vulnerable time is also rife with and ripe for scammers who want to prey on your emotions and wallet. They may seek you out via email, knock on your door, or even try to get you to give money via Facebook. 

    The Federal Trade Commission has guidelines about charity donations, including these tips:

    • Donate to charities you know and trust. Be alert for charities that seem to have sprung up overnight in connection with current events, like the tornadoes.
    • Ask if a caller is a paid fundraiser, who they work for, and what percentage of your donation goes to the charity and to the fundraiser. If you don’t get a clear answer — or if you don’t like the answer you get — consider donating to a different organization.
    • Don’t give out personal or financial information — including your credit card or bank account number — unless you know the charity is reputable.
    • Never send cash: you can’t be sure the organization will receive your donation, and you won’t have a record for tax purposes.
    • Check out the charity with the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator, Charity Watch, or GuideStar.
    • Find out if the charity or fundraiser must be registered in your state by contacting the National Association of State Charity Officials.

    Ben Popken and Devin Coldewey also contributed to this report.


    Related:

  • Tornadoes tear through Kansas, Oklahoma

    Trucks near Shawnee, Oklahoma, are tipped over and homes are damaged after a tornado touched down late Sunday.

    By Jeff Black and Hasani Gittens, NBC News

    People in two states took shelter amid wailing warning sirens Sunday as tornadoes touched down in Kansas and Oklahoma as part of an extreme weather system plowing through the nation's midsection.

    KFOR via AFP - Getty Images

    Damaged structures after a tornado ripped through Wellston, Okla.

    The system, which stretched from North Texas to Minnesota, also heaved hail -- dime- to softball-sized -- as well as heavy rainfall. 

    Near Oklahoma City, a half-mile-wide tornado was reported, prompting an an unusually blunt alert from the Weather Service: "You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter," the advisory said. 

    Around Shawnee, Okla., three large tractor-trailer rigs flipped over, one that had apparently been blown off a highway overpass, NBC station KFOR TV in Oklahoma City reported. 

    Across central Oklahoma, where multiple twisters were seen, homes were blown apart and off their foundations with some of the worst damage seen in the Twin Lakes area just outside Wellston, according to KFOR. Power lines were downed and trees uprooted.

    Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency in 16 counties.

    St. Anthony Shawnee Hospital in Shawnee, Okla., treated 11 patients, hospital information officer Carla Tollett said. One victim was in critical condition, she said; the remaining 10 were to be treated for minor injuries and released.

    Oklahoma's Department of Emergency Management confirmed four injuries in Lincoln County, but no fatalities. Officials were still surveying damage in many areas. Damaged buildings were confirmed in Edmond, Norman, Lincoln County and Pottawatomie County, which declared a state of emergency. 

    KFOR in Oklahoma reports that there is damage after an apparent tornado hit the ground near Shawnee, Okla., on Sunday.

    Residents in downtown Wichita, Kan., were told to seek shelter Sunday afternoon after a tornado was confirmed on the ground – with its presence cloaked by thick thunder clouds and heavy rain.

    The National Weather Service in Wichita warned of a large and “extremely dangerous and potentially deadly” tornado late Sunday.  Weather spotters confirmed the tornado 7 miles northwest of Haysville and moving northeast at 30 mph, the Weather Service said.

    The tornado later passed south of the city in Sedgwick County in southern Kansas, but rain and thunderstorms continued to batter the area, NBC station KSN-TV in Wichita reported.

    Travis Heying / MCT via Zuma Press

    A tornado touches down southwest of Wichita near the town of Viola on Sunday.

    The warning, which covered downtown Wichita as well as the surrounding area that includes Haysville, was lifted in early evening, KSN reported.

    Power lines were down and at least three homes were damaged near Wichita, one with its roof blown off, KSN reported. Authorities said there were no injuries to report.

    Other tornadoes were confirmed near Udall and Emporia, and danger remained in many parts of southcentral Kansas with residents told to seek refuge in storm shelters.

    At least one massive tornado was confirmed on the ground near Oklahoma City, KFOR reported. The Weather Service reported that that twister was seen by spotters near Luther and was moving east at 30 mph.

    The Lincoln County sheriff's office reported damage from three tornadoes that touched down, but the extent of the damage was not immediately known.

    The Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., is forecasting tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds over parts of the central Plains into the week.

    Some of the largest cities in the Midwest are under alert in what could be a long night for the country's heartland, The Weather Channel's Kelly Cass reports.

    Low pressure in the Plains states will keep things "very unsettled and stormy" as the week goes on, The Weather Channel reported.

    On Monday, the severe storms threat moves down to North Texas and Oklahoma, through northwest Arkansas, southeast Kansas and Missouri into parts of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes, according to the Weather Channel. Large hail and damaging winds are possible.

    By Tuesday the large system is expected to be moving slowly to the east, from eastern Texas to the southern Great Lakes.


    The storms are being generated by a dip in the jet stream combined with moisture moving north from the Gulf of Mexico, Kim Cunningham of The Weather Channel reported on NBC Nightly News.

    The danger follows a series of tornadoes that struck northern Texas on Wednesday night, leaving six people dead and dozens injured. One of the twisters was preliminarily classified EF-4 by the National Weather Service, meaning it could have had winds up to 200 miles per hour.

    Overall, tornadic activity has been slow this May, typically a bad month for twisters, said the Weather Channel’s Tom Moore.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

    Authorities are telling people from Iowa to Oklahoma to prepare for powerful storms. NBC's Janet Shamlian reports.

  • Mother, four kids die in Oklahoma City house fire

    By Joe Myxter, NBC News

    A mother and her four children died in an early-morning house fire in Oklahoma City on Wednesday.

    The children – three girls and a boy – were between the ages of 2 and 8, said Major Tammy McKinney, spokesperson for the Oklahoma City Fire Department. A man, the mother’s boyfriend, is in critical condition at an area hospital.

    The fire was accidental, McKinney said, caused by a space heater being too close to combustibles.

    There were no functioning smoke detectors in the house, she said.

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  • Okla. teacher accused of photographing girls in lingerie arrested

    By NBC News and news service reports

     

     

    A third-grade Oklahoma teacher who resigned this week after parents accused her of dressing their daughters in lingerie and photographing them at a Christmas party was arrested on Thursday.

    Kimberly Crain, 47, of Shawnee will face charges of manufacture of child pornography and lewd acts with a child, said District Attorney Richard Smothermon. He said she will be arraigned Friday and that he plans to request $1 million in bail.

    Crain had been an elementary teacher for six years in McLoud, Okla., about 30 miles east of Oklahoma City, when she allegedly invited third- and fourth-grade girls to her home last month for a pizza party. She is accused of having the girls dress in holiday-themed bras and panties, then photographing them.

    The FBI has seized computers used by Crain and recovered deleted files from her cell phone, said Smothermon.

    A phone call to Crain's attorney was not immediately returned.

    McLoud public schools had placed Crain on administrative leave before she resigned Monday.

    A group of parents has filed a lawsuit against the teacher, NBC station KFOR reported.

    "I think there are significant civil rights that have been violated for these little girls, privacy issues," Joe Vorndran, an attorney for six families, told KFOR. "The level to which some of these photographs that may arise border on pornography."

    This article includes reporting by Reuters and NBC station KFOR of Oklahoma City.