fema, everyone else in the administration to be available to assist. cnn's coverage continues right now with erin burnett. please stay with cnn for all the late environment information. we'll be live bringing all of the news throughout the night. we'll not leave the story, we promise you that. erin, anderson cooper, they'll be anchoring our coverage throughout the night. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room". >> good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett. a massive path of destruction across a suburb of oklahoma city. it was a two mile wide tornado that has torn through this area and happened late this afternoon. near lly 200,000 people were in the path of this storm. it was in a suburb of oklahoma city. the national weather service believes this storm was packing

winds of between 166 and 200 miles an hour. two schools and an entire swath of homes were completely leveled. you look at the pictures, you won't be surprised that locals in oklahoma who have been covering this story have said this is the worst they have seen and this one person's time 18 years covering tornadoes. we're now hearing that six fatalities from the tornado in moore, oklahoma, are on the way to the office of the chief medical officer and examiner. this is just in the past few moments. and with all this devastation, it is horrific that we're hearing about these deaths. but we have been hopeful that perhaps would have been a miracle. as we said, about six right now reported. you're looking at pictures of the elementary school. 20 patients, 12 adults are in

trauma rooms. a reporter described the damage as he saw it. >> it's completely destroyed. the houses are destroyed. they're completely leveled. >> that was the plaza towers elementary school. the picture we showed you a moment ago, one of two elementary schools hit by the tornadoes. and our affiliate kfor is reporting there were 75 students and staff at that plaza towers school when the storm hit. according to our affiliate, students in kindergarten through third grade are unaccounted for at this time. a reporter there described that scene. >> we do know that third grade class was, you know, in a hallway at a classroom taking refuge from the storm and that part of the building is completely gone. there are no walls standing of the school. it is wiped to the foundation. there is nothing more than a big pile of debris.

>> nick valencia is live from moore, oklahoma, right now. nick, you're awe few blocks away from the plaza tower school. >> what does it look like to you? >> it's completely ripped apart this neighborhood, erin. it's demolished. whether we got here, we got here before the first responders. in fact, some of the residents we saw when we first arrived on the scene, they were looking for their loved ones. a man, a young man and his friends. they were looking for his house. he couldn't find his home. it was completely blown away. you look behind me, the devastation just stretches as far as the eye can see. just in the distance there, i don't know if you can make it out from our signal, it's rough, but there is smoke billowing in the distance. that's the direction of where that elementary school is that was leveled and hit very, very hard. all around us, erin, you see the homes, walls torn down, telephone poles put on the side, cars with windows blown out.

i'm standing in a field littered with debris of the homes. i want to bring in a couple residents here who were in a storm shelter at the time the tornado hit. they took refuge. tell me what happened. >> we were in the storm shelter. and it sounds like a freight train coming through. and your ears get all clogged up. you can't hear anything but the tornado. and the handle was jiggling on the shelter. it cracked the shelter. >> were you prepared for this? were you ready for this to come through this area? >> no, not really. >> we were in there for a few minutes before, you know, we heard all the noise coming through. like she said, it sounds like a freight train. and we immediately got underneath the stairs. and then that's when everything just started shaking and the shelter cracked. i mean it was like the top of

the shelter. >> the wind was so hard it cracked the shelter? >> yeah, like inside. like where we were. >> most importantly, how you are doing right now? how are you coping with this? >> we were shaken up. we're going to go to a shelter. i need to make sure my other one is okay. >> you don't know where your son it? >> south moore heights. >> how old is your son? >> 17. my 12-year-old is okay though. they just got him. so i'm good. >> her 4-year-old goes to plaza towers. we were over there searching for her for how long -- an hour. we got her. >> yeah, she is safe. but there are still kids trapped. >> emily, we're hearing a lot of devastating reports about plaza tower and how hard it was hit. you just came back from there. what was it like? set the scene for us. >> there is the back of the school was still like the walls were standing. everything else was -- there's cars thrown on top of teachers.

cheyenne's teacher said that a car was, like, laying on top of her and she was laying on top of cheyenne which was her daughter. >> our thoughts and prayers are with both of you. we're glad you survived. you have been through a lot tonight. >> thank you. >> erin, these are residents that put a human face to what's going on here. behind me, the neighborhood is just wrecked. we're on the edge of a cemetery. we had to take back roads to get here. i-35 was shut down. we drove through flooded streets. traffic lights were out. we saw first responders speeding. in fact, the traffic is so bad, traffic was impeding the first responders. so we're hoping that everybody in this neighborhood is okay. but as i mentioned, residents just sort of wandering around this area with blank stares and bewildered by what ripped through here. >> nick, we're hearing their story brings home the fact when you sthee devastation, so many are unaccounted for. they're saying still running to

look for their childrenment . i know that back in 1999 there was a storm that went through oklahoma that has been known for the ferocity ever since. and this one is at least twice as big as that storm. i know in that storm nearly auto people died. -- nearly 50 people died. >> reporter: we were listening to local reports on the way in to town, erin. local news reports were comparing the damage and catastrophe here, saying it was maybe two times or three times as bad that's 1999 tornado in moore, oklahoma, that cost more than $1 billion in damage here locally. residents were talking about that. in fact, when we were watching this storm develop and watching the tornado and that severe storm cell develop, residents said we were talking about that. they brought that up. they said this could be as bad as 1999. the funnel cloud was so enormous and just kept going. it just kept going. you tend to see tornadoes often time they hop scotch through

land and an area. this tornado just went right through this neighborhood. all around me, behind me. just all around homes destroyed in this area. leveled. erin? >> all right. nick, thank you very much. we're going to be checking back in with nick. but those women and how they're still looking for their children who are in school bring how frightening this is and how little we know right now about the human toll that these storms will take. let me bring in chad meyers. there are a lot of places under threat tonight. this happens. the storms we've been watching over the past week, right? when we saw them in north texas. now this hitting an area that has 200,000 people. it brings home the power of these storms in a way that we have not experienced. >> you know, you look at oklahoma on a map or go to google and you do the satellite and you see a lot of land. you don't see many cities.

but the cities you see are right in the way of a tornado like this. eventually a tornado is going to get there. it is almost like a random event. there is no such thing as a bubble over a city or a heat island that is going to stop the city from getting hit that just doesn't exist. it's been a long time since we had a big tornado hit a big town like this. it's on the ground near blanket and comanche. a tornado on the ground in east texas. one on the ground north of ardmore. this isn't over even though we don't have them in big cities and we don't them have on tv. there are still people being affected, not in the town of tulsa. that moved away. but a brand new watch has just been issued for st. louis for many more hours to come. any other cell like that one is by itself. they can become super cells. they're not arguing with any

other cells. they use all the energy for themselves. they begin to spin like a top. we do know this tornado was at least an ef-4. i have seen homes and i've seen many -- i've been watching the pictures for now hours. i've seen homes that are completely gone. there's nothing left except a slab of the foundation that they were built on. that indicates it could possibly be above 200 miles per hour, getting toward that ef-5 number. the weather service only watching the aerials at this point. they'll be on the ground tomorrow to make sure. >> chad, how big is this relative to the historical one in norman? this is tornado alley. but this one, you know, twice as big as the now mythical 1999 sfo storm in oklahoma. on wednesday it will be the two-year anniversary of joplin where 161 people lost their lives. when you look at what we're seeing right now, relative to

history, the pictures seem to indicate this is close to unprecedented. do the facts support that? >> absolutely. something else that is unique about this storm, erin, eight miles west of where it touched down, there was nothing. there was a thunderstorm. then five minutes later, there was a funnel. five minutes after that, we were ef-2. then five minutes after that, we were ef-4. this developed so quickly. the warning system worked. but the first moore tornado in 1999, people had an hour's notice. this was on the ground for an hour before moore. this time it was on the ground for 8, 10, 12 minutes before hem had to get underground if they wanted to survive. that is the difference. that's what caused this to be the unique one. it didn't last a long time. it was 30 miles. but it didn't give us a lot of warning. didn't get on the ground long enough for those people in a major city to get out of the

way. sometimes you want to drive out of the way. you wouldn't want to be trapped in your car with a tore nid like that. >> that is incredible, 8 to 12 minutes warning. again with the two elementary schools and the one park towers as we've been reporting, they have not yet accounted for all the children. you're looking there at that school where they're trying to find those children. but people had said, gosh, how could that have happened? you just heard chad explain 8 to 12 minutes of warning. obviously, we're all hoping for some miraculous outcome for those children as we follow that story tonight. we continue our breaking news coverage of the devastation in oklahoma "outfront." that elementary school, desperate search and rescue mission under way. a representative from the red cross is going to be "outfront" with an update on what's happening at that school next. ♪ [ female announcer ] from more efficient payments. ♪

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and with responsive, dedicated support, we help you shine every day of the week. ♪ the one and only, cheerios and our breaking news tonight. a desperate search for survivors under way after a tornado has torn through oklahoma city. this is very much a developing story. a two-mile wide storm already in moore, oklahoma. officials say six people were killed. but at this point, we do not know the number. we do not know where those six people were when the tornado struck. we do know this. an elementary school was among the buildings that took a direct hit. and you're looking right now at that elementary school. rescuers spent the last couple

of hours pulling students from the debris. so there are survivors. but we do not know where some of the children are. witnesses tell cnn that teachers were huddled in closets with the students when the storm hit. often with tornadoes, can you get an hour long warning. in this case, they had 8 to 12 minutes. students were also told to try to hang on to the walls too survive. and we are trying to get an update for you on those children. as you can see, the first responders working desperately to find them and save them. ken garcia is "outfront" right now. he's from the red cross and in oklahoma city. ken, obviously, this situation right now is urgent and desperate one. they try to find these children. what is your understanding about how many children, how many people are missing right now in oklahoma city? >> right now we don't have that information as far as how many people are missing. right now we are in the process of trying to determine how we can help find a place for people to go after these storms have

moved through. our emergency management and our first responders are workinglesr search and rescue right now. and our main priority is to be a relief organization and make sure people have somewhere to go. and we have a shelter that is open in oklahoma city at the st. andrew's church. that is on southwest 119 in oklahoma city. the actual address is 2727 southwest 119. and it's also a family reunification center. the city of oklahoma city is calling it that. that's where we're encouraging folks to go. for those wanting to check on loved ones, we have a website, safeandwell.org. >> all right. ken, thank you very much. i hope everyone got that information for those watching in oklahoma city. and we know that many people are still looking for family members for friends and for children and schools. we have the information there which will make available on our

website as well. congressman, you live in moore, oklahoma. what you are hearing about that rescue effort that we're looking at live for our viewers where they're trying to find the children between kindergarten and third grade at the plaza towers elementary school? >> it's just devastating. mile and a half from my house. i know the school very well. and the people who live there. i've been this touch with both local officials and the governor's office and sadly we're very good at this. you know, we -- these are not infrequent occurrences. moore has been hit four times in 15 years. and so people on the ground, the police officers and the firefighters, first responders are very good. and the neighboring areas surround us very quickly. the national guard is deployed. they're very good at this. and frankly, people are

responding as friends and neighbors. we know there are injuries. i'm not going to speculate too much beyond. that i flipped through enough of these things. you see something this size, even when people do all the right things, if you're not underground and, you know, an f-4 or f-5 packs a tremendous punch. and so we can get out of this with only injuries that will be an unbelievable blessing. >> we're just learning that this storm could be dirve from all those other ones you mentioned in that in other storms there's been some warning. maybe up to an hour about the -- in this case, 8 to 12 minutes of normal. >> that is normal. the national storm center is south of there. they gave us 16 minutes. they're the best in the world. we get tremendous help from them. but that's not -- i mean most

tornadoes are not like '99 which stayed on the ground for 80 miles. so you're not going to get an hour worng of warning very often. we certainly didn't in 2003 when we followed almost the same path as it did in '99. this is very close. that's one of the unusual things. in '99 we were told it was a once in 400-year event that you'd have one that closely. and this is pretty close againment we just clearly have had a tremendously difficult situation here over a number of years. >> all right. congressman cole, thank you very much. and we wish you the best of luck as you head back to your home as he said just a mile and a half away from the plaza towers elementary school. governor fallen of oklahoma just told one of our affiliates kokh that she believes as much damage has been done here in the oklahoma city as was done in joplin. and joplin, of course, 161 people died in that horrible tragedy which was two years ago

this wednesday. still to come, a storm chaser on the ground right now coming up to moore, oklahoma. comes "outfront" with what he is seeing. the pictures of watching this approach are some of most stunning you'll see. ♪ [ male announcer ] we all have something neatly tucked away in the back of our mind. a secret hope. that thing we've always wanted to do.

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tlnchts is a temporary flight restrictions over the schools in moore, oklahoma. police requested this so emergency officials on the ground could hear people who are calling for help, who are buried under the rubble and need help being rescued.

they didn't want the infeerns fr -- interference from the help couldn'ters in the air. that gives you a sense of how desperate and rapid and urgent this situation is on the ground in the oklahoma city suburb of moore. joining me on the phone is a member of the oklahoma department of emergency management. what can you tell us about this rescue effort? i mean obviously that gives everyone a sense of just how urgent this is. but you believe at this point you have a lot of people still missing, right? >> oh, yes. at this point we're still trying to coordinate with family members who aren't able to locate loved ones. search and rescue teams are faced with a monumental task of going to every home and picking the sticks off and trying to find if there's a shelter there, if there are people trapped inside and it's house-to-house, board by board. it is a monumental task when

there are so many homes. when a storm is a mile and a quarter wide and it tracks across the entire width of the city, there are thousands of people that are affected. and so we've got to find family members and verify it and now the conditions, we're going to be losing light here in an hour and a half, will become more difficult. like you said, they're going to rely on every one of their senses. so they want it quiet so they can hear people if they're shouting out of play for help. >> jerry, what can you tell us? we're looking at live pictures of the plaza towers elementary school. the children had almost no warning. elementary school, kindergarten through third grade. i know you don't know how many are missing. obviously we can see quite a few rescuers in that school. do you have any update on the situation there of how those children are as to how desperate that situation may be? >> the responders that are right

there with boots on the ground have not communicated with us directly. i haven't had any confirmation. obviously, they feel that there is a need to go through every square foot of that school to make sure that people are not hid in the voidz that were created during the collapse. if they felt like the building was totally clear rs they would have moved on. obviously they have concerns that they haven't been able to account for everyone. and, you know, every minute that passes, it becomes more desperate because of somebody is in krit. >> caller: condition, then the window of survival is reduced. you know, we need to appreciate how much pressure they're under to affect that rescue at the time. >> all right. jerry, thank you very much. in that picture you're looking for there, children between the ages of 5 and 8 years old. they're desperately trying to hear the cries and rescue those

children from the plaza tower's elementary school. they have been pulling children out of the rubble who have been alive to hand them over to families. but that is what you're looking at now. and they, of course, are racing right now to beat dusk and beat dark and try to find these children. we're going to be back in a moment speaking with witnesses on the ground. we're going to show you because as we've described, the governor of oklahoma said the damage in this case is more than what we saw in joplin two years ago to the day. and we want to show you, when you look at these pictures when we say unprecedented why it really is. we're going to show you the before and after after this break. hwelcome back.. nice to see you again! hey! i almost didn't recognize you without the suit. well, this is my weekend suit. weekend getaways just got better. well, enjoy your round! alright, thanks! save a ton on our best available rate when you book early and feel the hamptonality. little carrot. little bit of hummus.

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we're back with breaking news. if you are just joining us, a massive tornado has leveled a suburb of oklahoma city. here's what we know right now. nearly 200,000 people were in the path of that tornado. it was estimated to be two miles wide, twice the size of the last record tornado to strike oklahoma. at least six are confirmed dead at this point. that number will go up. it is unknown right now how many are trapped in the rubble. but volunteers and first responders right now are desperately searching. you're looking at live pictures right now as they're trying to

go through the debris. debris we are also seeing right now reports that debris from oklahoma city from moore has little pieces of it actually have been raining down on tulsa, oklahoma. ch is about 100 miles away. two schools were in the direct path of the tornado. the national weather service classified it as an ef-4. what that means in terms of speeds is it could have been up to 200 miles an hour. as we have reported, they received an 8 to 12 minute warning. as can you understand, that's why they are so desperately looking for people. it was not enough time for many people to get to help, to get to shelters. the picture you're looking at where you see the yellow clad first responders was the plaza towers elementary school in moore. our affiliate kfor is reporting there were 75 students and staff at the school when the storm hit. we do not yet know how many of them are still missing. some of them have been pulled out. we have seen of the rubble. we understand right now they're concentrating on one area in particular to try to find more

of those children who were between the ages of 5 and 8. a reporter for kfor described the scene at the school. >> we do know the third grade class was, you know, in a hallway in a classroom taking refuge from the storm. and that part of the building is completely gone. there's -- there are no walls standing of the school. it's wiped to the foundation. there is just nothing more than a big pile of debris. >> right now the faa has put a flight restriction over that school and the other school that was struck by the tornado in moore. the reason for that, they want silence. they don't want people with helicopters taking aerial pictures. they want silence so that they can hear the cries of people who are reaching out for help. that gives you a sense of how desperate the situation is right now as they are racing to try to find people before darkness. the debris field is 30 square miles. resear

search and rescue units are going door to door through that entire space to find survivors. as i indicated right now, it is a race against the clock before darkness falls. i want to bring in cnn meteorologist who is a storm chaser. we heard the governor of oklahoma say that this is worse than what happened in joplin two years ago, the horrific tornado in which 161 people lost their lives. we heard this described as unprecedented damage. what is -- how would you describe the magnitude of what has happened? >> unfortunately this damage is like you're saying, complete devastation out there. of course, everyone wants to know what are the speeds out there? what is going on? well, we have to wait until we really get past the stage of rescue. that's going to be the first thing. we want to make sure everyone is safe. save as many lives as we can. but then as we go forward in time, we'll be able to get surveyors out there. we'll be able to go out there and evaluate the structure damage. we'll be looking for, of course, when you see two store ji structures, when you see them completely devastated, that's when we get to the e-4, e-5

range. definitely complete blocks are missing. large buildings being completely leveled out there. unfortunately this definitely looks like that ef-4 where we've seen the damage out there really looking anywhere from that 160 and 200 mile per hour range. there is something as we go into the late evening hours, we're not in the clearment we have severe weather out there with us. we'll have to be monitoring some of the new cells that are developing as we still go through some of the rescue efforts overnight. >> and i know you, you know, with your experience as a storm chaser, describe a little bit what it was like to get so little warning. chad meyers is talking about the last two storms in oklahoma how they had almost an hour warning. now you're looking at a storm going through an area with 200,000 people. the schools and these children and they're getting maybe eight minutes warning. >> yeah. unf unfortunately, a lot of these places don't even have basements. it's very rocky terrain. even if you have that warning, where do you go? if you don't have anyplace safe enough or a tornado of this

magnitude, sometimes things unfortunately put new a position where you're not really sure even where to go. that's why we talk about having this plan ahead of time. some of the other things we happen is several days of warning. people hear sirens throughout the day. cell after cell develops and people start to get numb to that. one thing i always wanted to hear is potentially the idea of different sirens for the magnitude of what is spotted out there. perhaps then people could start to reflect and hear what they're seeing and know, of course, not to go -- excuse me, to go to the safe place and not ignore the warnings which is something you commonly see. you drive around and see the warnings. people are just outside taking pictures, looking around. people really don't seem to have that need for urgency anymore. >> obviously seems to change. that thank you very much. and one survivor rode out the storm in a horse stall as stories come in of how people survived. he spoke to our affiliate about what he witnessed before, during, and then right after the tornado hit.

i just want to play you a piece of that to give you a sense of what it was like for people there. >> it was just all windy and stuff before the tornado came. i didn't have -- i had no idea it was coming. just figured it was like yesterday. you know, big storm coming through. and then it went quiet. when it did that, being from oklahoma, i came outside to see. i seen debris flying over that way. i thought i might have a little while. so i tried to let some of the horses get loose and free out of their stalls so they'd have a chance. i didn't have very long at all. i jumped into one of the stalls here. that's what these here used to be. and they clashed over on top of me and sat a puickup truck down on top of it and pushed it down this cement way. it is unbarebly loud. you could see stuff flying everywhere. just about like on the movie "twister." >> you were telling me that this right here is basically where

you lived. you not only worked here, this is where you lived? >> yes. you know, they used have to the saddles and other here. these were tack rooms. this tack room is write used to live at. as you can see my belongings. and then a couple fans for in the shed row. you know, lost everything. these horses are how we survive. these horses are what bring us our meals every day, what bring us our place to sleep and we might have one horse left out of all of them. >> you're looking at live pictures right now of the elementary school as we've been reporting where first responders are trying to find children. there were 75 people reported in the school at the time of the storm. some of them have been rescued. they're trying to rescue others. as we've reported, they have an

faa flight halt over that school so they can hear people calling for help. want to go to nick valencia. he is a block and a half away from that school right now. nick, at this point they've got a little bit of time, a couple hours before darknessme. they're racing for the light right now? >> erin, first responders are continuing to fan across the devastation. block after block after block, it keeps going. it is beyond awful. he saw people scrambling to recover possessions, just what little they had left anticipate what little they could. when we first got here, erin, there was a group of young men looking for loved ones. he was looking for his house. he didn't know if his house was still around. he couldn't find it. the smell of gas is also all

around us. you're seeing the pictures at home, erin. it's just as bad if not worse here on the ground. i've never seen anything like it. i'm standing in what were memories of one strong family's that lived in this community littered around. this neighborhood reduced to wood, plafrpgs, twisted metal. >> nick, you're talking to a family with another story of how they managed to ride this storm out and now with you. >> yeah. this neighborhood is full of stories like that. kurt rode out the storm with his wife. you were at home with your candy capped wife. you didn't have a storm shelter. what did do you? >> we went in the bathroom. and we prayed about it. turned it over to the lord. i told him, to my wife, i said it's going to be just fine. and it was. there was one small hole punched in the bathroom ceiling. it blew the end of the house

out. blew the room next out. blew the room next to her out. took out north wall in the living room. blew out all the windows. blew the garage down. but we were safe. the lord took care of us. >> we're thankful you're safe, kurt. what do you think of when you look at this devastation? this is your neighborhood. this is where you live. >> heartbreaking. that's all you can say, heartbreaking. there are families here that will never recover. they'll never regain. some of them will never capture again that sense of security that they had. but my security isn't in the things i own. my security is in the lord. >> do you feel cheated in any way? looking around here? >> my life is in his hands. everything i own is his. and so whatever he does with us, is fine. it all belongs to him. >> you seem as though you have a very strong support system, your pastor and another member of the church came here to get you out and your wife was evacuated earlier. >> yes, sir. >> how you are doing right now? >> i'm fine.

i'm hungry. no. i'm fine. i really am. i don't have any problems with it. you know, you look at all the stuff you accumulate if a laf time. i'm 72 years old. you accumulate a lot of junk in that time. so we'll get to restart over. but it's fine. >> erin, there is going to be a lot of people like kurt that are going to try to restart their lives. some will come back to nothing at all. as i mentioned, this devastation stretches for block after block after block. we got in here by taking the back roads. in fact, we're on the fringes of a cemetery we had to cut through a cemetery in order to get here. traffic was clogged up. impeding first responders from arriving on the scene. we got here before some of first responders did. the devastation is just everywhere. blank stares on people's faces. it is just incredible to see. erin? >> all right. nick valencia, thank you very much. we said a block and a half away from the elementary school where the on going search for children is going on. as you can see with those first responders trying to find the children. we have reported that there were

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to get a sense of how destructive this tornado, is you've got to look at the before and after images. right now obviously you're looking at a live picture of the search mission under way at the park tower elementary school where we understand that there were 75 people, some of whom have been rescued. they are right now desperately searching for other children. tom foreman is at the magic wall. tom, just start with that school, plaza towers elementary school. that took a direct hit from the tornado. you can see it is completely leveled now. >> yeah. exactly, erin. there is a lot of open territory around oklahoma. but this hit one of the areas that's not open at all. here is downtown oklahoma city. you move down to moore, 50,000 people live in this area. the school really is right in the middle of all of this. let me bring up this image. this was the school before it was hit. and this is that same school

now. just devastated by what came through there. let's look at a couple of other areas. here's the medical center not far away at all. this is a 3-d rendering of the medical center afterwards. can you see those before. there is after. there's before. there's after. tremendous amount of damage. a lot of the buildings still standing. that's encouraging. but still, an awful lot of damage there. and if you go to the theater, quite close by as well. that was another one of the complexes. this is that same facility. you see it in the image of before and after. there's before. there's after. all of the damage done here. a building over here completely wiped out. i want to give you a point of reference here that is really important. as we looked at all these images, erin, the epicenter of the damage is where the storm swept through right about here. this is where it did a tremendous amount of damage. we've been talking about this being a mile wide. well, it's about a mile from here to here. these are shopping centers in

here, all sorts of neighborhoods. it's about a mile square if you went to this area with the school right in the middle. and you have to have a sense of what the density is there because if we move in and i show you that neighborhood, here's the school right in the middle. in this picture alone, if we widen out and show you the whole screen here, there are roughly 350 to 400 homes right in this picture around that school. every one of these homes within earshot of the baseball field here, if you had a ball game going on. so that gives you an idea of how dense this area is and this is dead center where the storm went through. a tremendous amount of damage even if you remove the school from the equation, the hospital, the theater, so many homes and so many people will have to be looked after. erin? >> tom, a horrific twist of fate when you talk about that school being in the center. thanks to tom foreman. now you've seen the pictures. i want to bring in george howell. he is right across the field

from that plaza towers elementary school, as close as you can get to the rescue operation we've been showing you as you can be. george, what are you hearing, what are you seeing right now? >> right now, it's a line of people walking around us trying to get to that school, trying to help out. but officials are telling them that they don't want that help right now. in fact, they're trying to keep people away from the school property as that search and rescue continues. this is a difficult situation for everyone out here, especially laticia velazquez. we were talking a moment ago. tell people who you're looking for right now. >> i'm out here looking for my niece, nancy rodriguez. i had two nieces here at plaza towers. one of them, melissa rodriguez, has been found. she's in the hospital. i don't know of her condition right now but still, nancy rodriguez is still missing. also my sister, sandra

rodriguez, is missing. i haven't heard from her and the situation out here is just devastating. it is very bad. one thing i do want to let all the people know that have lost someone or has a person missing out there, that the last thing we lose in a situation like this is faith. we have to hold on to faith and trust god every moment. >> thank you. if she was in that school, yes? >> she was in that school. >> thank you for taking time with us. guys, i want to show you where we are, try to give you a look at what we see here. you can see over here where officials are set up. that was the front of the school, we presume. then if we pan over here, you can see people walking around the perimeter of the school. in fact, you can even see the playground equipment there. this is where the storm came through and the search and rescue continues at this hour. we have daylight so we can see what's happening. again, a lot of people are coming out here and they want to help, but officials are telling

them not to do it. they are trying to clear this area. there are a lot of people trying to drive into this area. people who just wanted to get back to their homes. can we pan around and even take a look over at these homes over here? i don't know if we can or not. just to give you a sense of what it's like in the neighborhood. there's so much debris everywhere. you've got roofs that have been ripped off, trees that are down, power lines that are down, we had to maneuver around power lines. the power has been cut off but again, it's a difficult situation out here just trying to figure out, get our bearings and get in here safely. that's what people are also trying to do just to see what's left over after this terrible storm. >> george, just seeing all the rescue workers, have you seen more people like that woman there who was looking for her niece and sister, looking for their children? we understand, we're not sure exactly how many were missing. there were 75 in that school.

>> you know, laticia and i just started talking. i'm sure that there are others. there's a line of people. in fact, if you want to come around us, you can. there's a line of people passing through this area to get over to that school. you know, this will go on through the night. we also know that the police department are expecting -- planning to have a news conference here in the next 35 to 40 minutes to give us some information at city hall, some information on where we are right now with the search and rescue but again, you can see what's left over out here. not a lot. homes are destroyed. this school, you can tell, there are a few walls standing but barely that. we've seen from those aerials these rescuers doing their very best to go through this debris to try to find survivors. we just wait and see until we get an update. >> george, what you've seen on your way there, how would you describe the devastation? as you've talked about in oklahoma, we just saw tom foreman, there is so much open

space, yet this storm, this tornado, came and hit right in the middle of where 200,000 people live. >> you know, when we were driving into the neighborhood, we started to see -- you start to see the debris in the roads, then you keep going, the roads -- traffic gets worse. it's harder to get into the neighborhoods because people again, as i said, are trying to get into the neighborhoods themselves to see if their homes are still there. then you start to see this sort of stuff. you start to see homes that are destroyed, you see roofs that are ripped off, you see trees that have been plucked out of the ground. the force of this storm, it is quite apparent here at this spot. and you also see people just walking around, neighbors talking to neighbors, just trying to figure out, trying to assess where people are, and that's what's happening right now. people are still in the point just making sure that people are accounted for after the tornado came through. >> george howell, thank you very much. george, as you can see the field behind him, right behind him is

where the park towers elementary school is where right now they are in a desperate search to try to rescue children between the ages of 5 and 8 right now who are still missing before darkness falls in the suburb of oklahoma city moore, where this tornado struck just a few hours ago. our live breaking coverage of the tornadoes in oklahoma continues after the break with anderson cooper. see you back here at 11:00. ♪ [ female announcer ] from more efficient payments. ♪ to more efficient pick-ups. ♪ wireless is limitless.

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good evening, everyone. the losses are great. the words to describe them seem so small. right now, crews are digging through the remains of a school, plaza towers elementary in moore, oklahoma. searching for children, searching for school staff who sheltered in a hallway. now in a large part of this school there are no hallways to speak of, there are no walls left, only rubble and rescuers still hoping to find survivors. this is the tornado that did the damage. massive. more than two miles wide, estimated winds at least 166 miles an hour, possibly much higher than that. it stayed on the ground minute after agonizing minute, leaving mile after mile of wreckage like this, hundreds and hundreds of homes and buildings believed to be destroyed. a hospital damaged, evacuated. all from the worst of several storms today. there are at least ten deaths that we know of at this hour in the town of moore alone. we don't know if any were from