the senate tomorrow will be running some legislation in the final days of the legislature to allow the state if it needs to to be able to access our state rainy day fund, our emergency fund, to help our various communities and certainly our schools that have suffered so much. but if we do need some money, we'll have some legislation that will allow us to do that. of course, we will be receiving some federal disaster relief. we anticipate it's quite obviously that we need it. i also want to mention that i have been in many conversations with state superintendent janet birisi. she has given me an update on the school systems themselves and keeping track of what's going on with the various schools. i think there have been five that have had some sort of damage during this terrible storm. >> thank you, governor, for coming down. i just want to say thank you to all of you that have come. first off, certainly our hearts and prayers go out to our

residents and our folks here in moore. as you know, we've been through this before, unfortunately. i can tell you, though, that our citizens are resilient. i can promise our citizens and i know our mayor will back me on this, that this community will recover, we will recover and clean up as soon as we possibly can. we are looking forward to that job, although we would rather not have it, it's here and we accept it and we will do the very best we can to get our community back to functioning normal as soon as possible. let me introduce to you fire chief gary byrd. >> my name is gary byrd. i'm fire chief for the city of moore. first of all, i want to thank all the mutual aid fire departments, ems services, all the emergency services that came in to help us in the city and we are greatly appreciative of your help and at this time, we do not need any more mutual aid response, and we will contact you if we do, and we do appreciate everything we've

received so far. we have plenty of help on scene at this time. i want to thank the red cross, the salvation army, everyone that's been involved so far and i especially want to thank the citizens for being so understanding with us. we are getting ever where we can, as fast as we can. we will do everything we can to help the citizens of this community. thank you. >> i'm jerry stillings, chief of police here in moore. i'd just like to reiterate that our thoughts and prayers are with those individuals who have been affected by this storm in moore, oklahoma city and everywhere. as far as the police department is concerned, we have a perimeter set up around the affected areas. we would ask that if people are in those areas, that they vacate that area as quickly as possible. before nightfall, if possible. there are a lot of safety issues, gas lines, power lines, things of that nature, that we

have to take into consideration and there's just not much else that can be done in there at this time. the search and rescue efforts will continue throughout the night or as long as they need be. so there is another reunification site at southwest 19th and eagle, at abundant life church. that's for parents of children at plaza towers elementary. if you need to make contact there, you can do that, as well as the st. andrew's church at southwest 119th and main. other students at other schools, who had been held over, if you have not been reunified, the parents need to go to the moore high school and contact officials there. that's where they're taking all the students from other schools. again, we want to thank everybody for their help and the other agencies involved, and we couldn't do this alone. we do appreciate all the help. thank you.

>> that's the latest information from local officials and the governor speaking tonight from moore, oklahoma. across the area, the death toll at this moment stands at 51. we'll be back one hour from now, another edition of "360" at 10:00 p.m. eastern. "piers morgan live" starts now. this is "piers morgan live." want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world to cnn's team coverage of what i can only describe as an unfurling nightmare in oklahoma. a massive tornado two miles wide rips across the oklahoma city suburb of moore. the devastation almost unimaginable. at least 51 people confirmed dead. that number expected to rise. we have no idea yet how many are injured or missing. >> like you took the house, you put it in a gigantic blender, put it on pulse a couple minutes and dumped it out. >> in a matter of moments, homes, schools, hospitals wiped away by a tornado that's been rated at least ef-4.

>> it was just unbearably loud and you could see stuff flying everywhere, just about like on the movie "twister." >> students from one elementary school told to hang on to walls as the storm ripped their school apart. teachers tried to protect students by lying on top of them. >> me and four other guys pulled a teacher out. she was on top of three kids. the kids were fine. she was hurt pretty bad. >> rescues still under way at this moment, becoming increasingly desperate. i will talk to witnesses and survivors and here with me in the studio is science educator bill nye. i want to begin with george howell in the devastated community of moore, oklahoma. this is getting worse and worse by the minute, isn't it? tell me the latest news. >> reporter: well, at this point, we are losing daylight. you do see that officials do have a light up over this scene where the search and rescue continues. i don't know if you can see that line there of investigators. they're going in there. we've seen more investigators

going into this area as they continue to look for people in the rubble, looking for children, looking for teachers, and here's the other thing, piers. in this neighborhood, people tried to go into the school, tried to help, also went into the homes trying to rescue people who were trapped in their homes or in storm cellars. want to bring in devin anderson and micah pearson. the two of you don't even live around here but you came here to try and help. you live in norman. >> yes. >> reporter: why did you come out here? >> i got a call from my girlfriend. she told me her family was trapped out here. so we came this way. then we heard news that her family was okay and then we just decided to stay out here and help because we seen the disaster and we went out here and tried to help, and we were walking across the yellow tape and we got told we can't go in with a hard hat and they have enough firefighters using the jaws of life trying to get the kids out of the school. they were trapped in a hallway. >> reporter: a lot of people did want to go in and help but they are turning people away because they have an operation that is currently happening. i want to also ask you, what did you see when you were over there?

>> oh, man, it's just -- it's like ground zero. you know what i mean? there's just rubble everywhere. it's people's lives just everywhere. we're just in there trying to find what we can, help people out. there's a lot of tears going on right now. people have lost family members, pets. >> any movement you hear, you run to that spot, try and dig and see if you can get somebody out. it's crazy. crazy. >> reporter: did you find people? >> we found dogs and we were digging and we were actually at a deaf guy's house and we didn't know if he was okay or not so we were banging on stuff trying to hear if we could hear anything from him. we got confirmation from the family they are out and they are safe. we didn't actually pull anybody from it. but i'm sure there's still people out there. >> reporter: guys, thank you for your hard work out there. thanks for being part of this rescue. a lot of people did their best to go over and find people, find animals. this continues, piers, and it will continue certainly for several days. it's a mess out here.

there are homes destroyed, for many people they're just getting out to this neighborhood to see their home for the first time. it's going to take a long time for this area to recover. >> george, for now, thank you very much indeed. i want to bring in cnn's nick valencia, two blocks from the plaza towers elementary school. clearly a lot of focus on this school. nobody seems to be too sure how many children may still be trapped inside there. what can you see, what can you hear? >> reporter: well, piers, we're about two blocks away from the school. we're in the neighborhood, one of the strike zones of the ef-4 tornado that just ripped through this neighborhood. you can see the devastation behind me, block after block. it just goes on. we've been hearing a lot of stories of the residents coming back here to go through and sift through the remains. i want to bring in the jones, their son-in-law and their grandson. you came back to your house, it's gone. >> there's nothing left. there's nothing left. a big pile of rubble. amazingly, though, our dog who rode it out and was buried in

the rubble is fine. >> reporter: what were you able to get here? >> a wonderful lady came by and said is this yours and this is a picture of our two daughters when they were babies. it's a very old picture, obviously. they're wearing dresses that my mom made for them. so it's a very special picture. we'll get it restored. >> reporter: sometimes it's the simple things that make a difference in times like this. you rode out the storm too, buddy, huh? was it scary? what was it like? >> it was like a big tornado tore up the whole place. >> reporter: you're a tough one for sticking it out. >> yep. >> reporter: piers, these are just very uplifting stories. family members that are sticking together, this community is banding together and that really is the uplifting note in this tragedy that struck moore, oklahoma. piers? >> for now, thank you. obviously a devastating scene down there. joining me on the phone is scott

hines, a reporter for kfor in oklahoma. scott, this seems to be a really horrific tornado and the full scale of what has gone on here may not be known for a few hours. tell me what you know. >> reporter: you know what, piers, it's complete utter destruction. it's been horrific. it's been deadly. been devastating. honestly, i've been in this market for about ten years and i've never seen anything like this before. we see our fair share of tornadoes. i mean, this is tornado alley. but this, whatever this was, we have never seen. you're seeing the pictures for yourself. it resembles a war zone. folks are shell-shocked. i'm shell-shocked. cars are thrown like toys, homes, businesses leveled and this was one of those tornadoes that people were not underground, if they weren't seeking shelter underground or in a storm shelter, then the chances of surviving this tornado, so grim. like slim to none. right now, more than 50 confirmed dead and that number

is growing. it's expected to grow exponentially. we have been focusing on several elementary schools in moore, specifically the plaza towers elementary. that's where 75 students and faculty took shelter. that school was completely leveled, wiped to the foundation. we witnessed rescuers pulling children trapped beneath the debris. third graders mainly. we were hearing that first, second and third graders, possibly kindergartners as well, those students were not bussed from the school, minutes before the tornado hit the older children were bussed to a nearby church that was out of the way of the direct path of the tornado. the other children, though, were not, it's confirmed that at least seven of those children were found at the bottom of the school in a pool of water, standing water. all of them had drowned. it's likely that there are 20 to 30 -- i get a little choked up talking about this.

but there are 20 to 30 more little victims there, children, so that search and rescue mission has now transitioned over to recovery as dusk sets in and i don't know, it's pretty chaotic. i had another co-worker, she had just arrived on scene and she witnessed first responders pull out of the rubble a seven month old baby and with that seven month old, the baby's mother, both lifeless. they were trying to seek refuge in a giant freezer. we're also hearing stories of heroism. there were teachers at that elementary school who were using their body as a human shield and literally covering the children with their bodies and because of those teachers, those heroes, they are now, those children are still alive and we're still trying to confirm the status of

those teachers. but it's devastating. utter destruction. >> i can tell from your voice, scott, this is clearly rocking the whole community very hard. just want to make it clear to our viewers, cnn has not confirmed the fatalities that you are directly talking about there but clearly, we can see the pictures and it's a very, very serious situation and the death toll, as you said, has been rising very fast in the last few hours. we can only hope and pray that the search effort as it is, as we can see on screen now, is successful in finding at least some people still alive there. tell me this, scott. we're told there may have been a 16-minute warning. is that right? which if that's true, would be slightly above the normal average time. >> reporter: it wouldn't surprise me. our meteorologists, the national weather center, we've been projecting this storm, putting the warning out there for days

now. like i said, this is tornado alley. this is something that we're, you know, we live with, especially during the month of may. i will say that may 3rd, 1999, which was -- which went down as one of the deadliest tornadoes we have experienced here in oklahoma, pales in comparison to this tornado. this tornado, our chief meteorologist in his opinion, this tornado, of course not confirmed, but this tornado in terms of deadliness, the damage that was sustained, three times more powerful and deadly than may 3rd, 1999, and that tornado hit late in the evening. so families were at home, they were glued to their television sets. in this case, it hit early in the afternoon and so children were at school, parents, some at home, others at work, so there was just this utter chaos, you

know. on top of the schools trying to figure out the best mode of protection for the children, i know that an e-mail was sent out by moore public schools to families, to parents, notifying them that these students were taking coverin the confinement of the school, and again, at this hour, that mission no longer a search and rescue mission, but our sources and rescuers, first responders, telling us that they fear there could be another 20 to 30 more children still beneath that rubble who have not been rescued. >> scott, in terms of the scale of the devastation to property and so on outside of the immediate school areas, we're told it may stretch as far as 20 miles. is that your understanding? >> reporter: yeah. we're hearing that the track of the tornado spanned about 20

miles, but that the level of destruction or the reach of destruction actually reached 30 square miles, and that's not just damage -- that's not f-4, f-5 damage. that's all degrees of damage, obviously. but that's an overall affected area by flying debris. that's something that we've never, never experienced here. i just saw on twitter and facebook that there was -- there was debris that was being recovered in tulsa, which is about 90 miles away from oklahoma city, and i wouldn't be surprised if some of that debris made its way on into arkansas, which the track of the storm was headed directly east, east-northeast. >> incredible. incredible. scott hines, thank you so much for joining me. i really do appreciate it. >> reporter: my pleasure. >> what apocalyptic scenes and reporting from scott hines. updating tonight's breaking news, in oklahoma, at least 51 people are dead after a huge

tornado two miles wide struck near oklahoma city this afternoon. search and rescue efforts continue tonight, houses, schools and hospitals were all leveled. a state of emergency is in effect and the threat of more severe weather is far from over. i want to bring in ken garcia of the american red cross. ken garcia, thank you for joining me. i've just had a really shocking report there from a local reporter talking about this being potentially two, three times the size of the terrible tornado in 1999 in the same area. what is your understanding of the scale of this? >> well, this is a very large, destructive tornado that moved through moore, oklahoma and our hearts go out to the families that have been impacted by this storm. it is absolutely horrible what has happened. the red cross is beginning the process of getting into these neighborhoods right now, a lot of the roads are not even passable. i know that the tornado went over interstate 35 which goes right through moore, and some of

the roads are still closed off. so we're waiting and trying to get into these areas. we do have a shelter that is open at one of the local churches. it is st. andrew's united methodist church that is open for the shelter and we are currently in the process of identifying five more shelters for this area. there's going to be a lot of people needing a place to stay, somewhere warm, a nice warm meal, and something to drink because it is still warm here and we just want to make sure everyone is taken care of and again, our hearts just go out to everyone. we here in oklahoma, lot of our volunteers have friends and family who live in the city of moore. i had a staff member in my office here while we were watching it, between when we had to go and do our own storm shelter here in our office, she was saying that her bible club members live in that area and she was able to hear from them so she knows they're now okay. so you know, it is definitely very, very tough to see on tv but we're resilient. oklahoma is a resilient community.

we're definitely going to bounce back from this. red cross is here to help. >> well, best of luck with all your efforts, ken garcia. thank you for joining me. chad myers is at the cnn extreme weather center. he knows the oklahoma city area very well. also joining us, indra peterson who is tracking the tornado's path. chad, let me start with you. you know this. how bad is this? it looks horrendous. >> it's devastating to the people that live there and to all the communities around it as well, because now you've cut the city basically in two. half the city between moore and norman and the points south, and then to the points north, i-35 slices right through that part of town, and people can't get from one place to the other. i believe that that's why some people are missing, because they just can't use the cell phones. the best thing to do, you can do right now, is to text your friends or text your loved ones, because texts only need a nanosecond. a cell phone call needs an entire free line so always text during emergencies like this. but this is bad. almost 4,000 homes devastated by

this. and you and i were looking at this damage. we're looking at pretty close to f-5 damage. >> we're talking about damage that we were seeing out towards joplin and of course, we compare it to tuscaloosa. you talk about these homes being completely wiped off their foundations. that's where we start saying this could potentially be stronger than an ef-4. we're also looking for multiple level buildings and when we're seeing those completely leveled, that also indicates there is the chance here that that could be as high as ef-5. >> weather service already saying at least ef-4. just give you an idea, 166 to 200 miles per hour. that's at least, that's what they're saying. they haven't even gone out to look at it yet because they don't need to go out and look at it. they need to let the rescue workers rescue people. they don't need to be in the way. there's your scale. ef-5, total devastation, nothing left of the home. i did see some slabs, concrete slabs, with not a house on it. >> amazing. >> this is something everyone has been talking about. they did have lead time into this storm. how come everyone didn't get out. there's a lot of reasons for that. chad was also talking about shelters, a lot of the terrain

here not really great for getting an escape. also, in tornado chasing one of the things i do notice all the time is the congestion. very popular especially with tornado outbreaks, for people to be out there, a lot of amateurs are out there and something we call spotter traffic. you cannot move on these major highways. unfortunately, i did see that as something that actually played into this. >> something you don't understand because it doesn't make any sense, there's no way to get a real basement in oklahoma. it's just too expensive. it takes dynamite and backhoes. it's a rock right under the soil. so people don't dig basements. when we say go to the lowest level, that slab is the lowest level. it's dangerous. i wish we could do better. but if you can build an interior part, you've seen these safe houses. >> absolutely. it needs to be that bottom level. we say this all the time. not even talking about a bathtub. it's not just a bathtub. it needs to be the most interior room on the lowest level. it's one whole picture. that's what we need to get out there. this is oklahoma. you would think they had shelters but not everyone does. for this reason, you have to

have a plan. whether you have 13 minutes or 45 minutes of lead time, there has to be a plan for reasons just like this. >> you saw the damage last night. that was shawnee and those were mobile homes. what we see today were not mobile homes. these were real house built structures, nailed to the foundation or to the slab, and they were devastated just like those mobile homes were yesterday. this is a big tornado. >> that's exactly what they will be evaluating of course, is between the ef-4 and whether or not there is a threat for ef-5, is how strong the buildings are. not just whether or not the building is gone. it's how it's built. >> thank you both very much indeed. the destructive power of a tornado is hard to imagine if you never experienced it. i want to bring in science educator bill nye to try to make sense of what happened here. we have spoken many times about natural disasters. this does seem to be particularly appalling. >> well, it's huge. the thing that strikes me about this one is the width of the storm. everybody's talking about the scales, the enhanced fujita

scale, the ef, is based on the destruction of buildings. it turns out if you understand the buildings well enough, and you see which ones are destroyed, it gives you a lot of information about the strength of the storm. but this thing was not just going 30 miles across oklahoma, but it was two miles wide. >> it was down for 40 minutes? >> yeah. they travel usually less -- well, less than 35 miles an hour so it's going half of highway speed for most of an hour. >> from what you're seeing and hearing, is this on the scale of joplin? is it worse? >> it sounds like it's worse. sounds like it's worse because of the width. the air's moving across the midwest, as it goes over the land, it drags on the surface and it will start to tumble. then as the air mass comes up from the gulf, warm air mass, it will start to essentially tip the thing and since everything's rushing to where the air's rising from the warmth, you're getting squeezed up by the cool

air, it doesn't come in symmetrically so it starts to spin. this enormous storm. the question is if it's four times or let's say two and a half times as wide as the storm in 1999, does that have -- does it have ten times the energy and is that the future. then what are we going to do in the midwest? >> let's take a quick break. i want to talk to you more about is this the future. many people are saying after hurricane sandy in new york and now this, people are saying what is going on with the weather. we'll come back and also have more on the search for survivors in moore, oklahoma. [ jake ] summer always moves fast. and out here, we squeeze the most out of every second with leinenkugel's summer shandy. it's crisp, refreshing beer, brewed with the natural flavor of lemonade that's perfect for summer days. and nights. our family's been brewing in chippewa falls for six generations. we craft lots of great beers... but this one says summer.

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cnn's george howell is back with me now outside plaza towers elementary school. george, i'm a father of four children. i can't even imagine what these families are going through, not knowing what has happened to their kids at this school. do you have any more on any kind of account of how many may be being brought out alive? >> reporter: piers, the latest number that we have, seven children that were in that school, that's the latest number that we have of the 37 killed in

this area. but i do want to go ahead and bring in some people who have another side of the story, a good story. rosa, norma and maria rodriguez. their children were in the school when this happened. i would imagine as parents, you are incredibly thankful to have your children right here, right now. >> yes. i thank god that i got there in time to pick up my nieces, my nephews, my son, because i don't know what i would have done if he would have been one of -- i mean, i can't -- i'm speechless. how did this happen? why did this happen? my son, how do we explain this to the kids? how are we going to wake up tomorrow and everything's missing, the school, these houses, their friends. nobody knows where anybody is. we can't contact anybody. hopefully if anybody's listening, you know, we're okay, i'm from wisconsin and again, if anybody's listening, my son and i are okay.

my sisters, my nieces and nephews, my brother-in-law, everybody's fine. but there's very many people that are left without houses. their cars, everything. everything's gone. in an instant, everything -- everything's gone. >> rosa, i wanted to ask you, what was it like for you, you know, in those moments after the tornado to come out here looking for your child? >> i was scared. i was stuck at work. i work -- we were hiding, waiting out the storm and i was told the kids couldn't leave without a parent coming to get them so i was scared that my sisters probably were not able to get my kids. and there's no communication so you're frightened for that moment and finally somebody from work [ inaudible ] which is on the other side of the school to pick up my daughter and -- i mean, just bad. it's bad. it's bad. >> reporter: norma, i know your son wanted to talk to us. mind if we ask him a question?

>> sure, go ahead. >> reporter: julio, what was it like to be in that building at the time? >> it was scary. and a lot of my friends were still there when i left. >> reporter: what did your teachers tell you to do? you showed me a moment ago. >> go ahead and show him what you did. >> you duck and you cover your head with your hands, and all of my friends were hot and sweaty because we were all bunched up. >> reporter: you did that through the whole storm? >> yeah. >> until i picked him up, they were all, all the children were down and as soon as i walked through the building, i was a little hysterical, i was running through the building barefoot and just screaming their names. each one of my kids stood up and they came with me. >> reporter: maria, what's going through your mind? >> you know, i heard that the storm was coming towards us, i heard that it was coming towards the school. i just thought about my daughter, i thought i have nieces and nephews in there, i had to get them out, and i saw it, i saw it from over the

houses that it was coming, it was about to touch down. i'm like i got to get them out and i'm glad that we did get them because what's left? there isn't much left. we went through the office and there are so many cars just inside the office. just like what happened, i mean, just, you know, a couple hours, the kids were there and teachers and you know, there were so many kids still there when i picked up my daughter. and the teachers were there and there's so many people that were still in the building when i left, you know. that's just horrible to think how many kids -- just horrible to think. >> reporter: do you know of any others that didn't make it out at this point? >> i know one. >> reporter: you're worried about your teacher right now? >> he's worried but we don't know for certain. >> one of my friends' mom, they were looking around for her -- his son -- >> there's a lot of people wandering through the streets and just asking, you know, do you have a child in this grade, do you know anything that's going on and we're helping out

as much as we can because we've got kids in all different grades. but we can only help so much because we took our kids out before the storm hit. >> reporter: thank you. thank you. i didn't mean to cut you off. i don't want to put any names out there at this point until we know those people. but we really appreciate you guys talking to us, taking time and as parents, i can't imagine what's going through your mind right now. thank you so much for taking time with us. piers, you know, this is going to continue through the night. we do know that parents are staging at southwest 19th street and eagle. that's where parents are staging who are looking for their children. as you heard these parents say, just across from us here, that's what's happening. parents are just trying to find their children. relatives are trying to find people who were in that building. we're staying on top of it trying to get the latest from officials but this will continue for some time. >> george, thank you very much indeed. oklahoma governor mary fallin wasted no time declaring a state of emergency and activating the national guard. on the phone with me now is oklahoma lieutenant governor

todd land. lieutenant governor, thank you very much for joining me. this is a truly awful scene and we still don't know the scale of the number of fat jalfatalities indeed, the number of injured. what is the latest that you're hearing? >> piers, it's absolutely horrific. thanks for getting the word out and sharing the news of what's occurring in oklahoma. 51 deaths confirmed at this time. it's unfortunate that that number is going to rise with the enormity of this tornado, the severity of this tornado. that number will increase. of that 51, seven are children that we know at this point and the search and rescue continues. we've got probably 20, 25, maybe 30 minutes at the most of daylight left. lights have been brought in, generators have been brought in. the search and rescue will continue throughout the evening and of course, the enormity is quite large in the city of moore, parts of oklahoma city. moore's a suburb of oklahoma city, it's all one metropolitan area. the search and rescue crew is

going throughout the area but a real concentrated effort of course at that elementary school that was flattened like a pancake, still looking for at least the last, from what i heard, roughly two dozen students, elementary students located in that elementary school. >> absolutely appalling. it is just a heartbreaking situation. as you say, the lights coming in, the rescue search will obviously be more difficult in the dark. tell me, lieutenant governor, people are comparing this to the massive tornado of '99 and saying this may have been considerably more powerful. what is your belief? >> well, i saw the devastation in 1999 and then just four years later, 2003. piers, this is the third time the city of moore and parts of oklahoma city have been hit with this path that the tornado took this afternoon. the third time since 1999. i think this tornado when it's all said and done, and i hope

i'm wrong, i hope i'm wrong, i think this tornado will be greater devastation than the previous two tornadoes combined once we do the final numbers as far as loss of life, injuries and property damage. >> it's just heartbreaking and shocking. our thoughts go out to all those poor families, many of whom still have no idea if their children are alive or dead in the rubble of that school. we can only just hope and pray for them tonight. lieutenant governor, thank you very much for joining me. >> piers, thank you. >> just an awful, awful scene. when we come back, more on the massive rescue effort under way and stories of survival in the devastated oklahoma community. plus a storm chaser who headed into the twister. [ male announcer ] every inch. every minute. every second -- we chip away. making the colors of earth and sunset skies into rich interior accents. or putting the beauty of a forest in the palm of your hands...

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breaking news now on the tornado that's devastated an oklahoma community. joining me is major general miles l. deering of the oklahoma national guard. major general, thank you for joining me. you're in charge of this operation. i understand 204 of the oklahoma national guard are currently involved in this. what can you tell me? >> well, first of all, we're in support of the first responders who initially came on the scene during the tornado and you know, the role of the guard is to support those first responders and those guys and ladies always do a great job, and they need

help and they need assistance and wherever we can provide that, we will. >> in terms of the scale of what has happened here, we're getting more and more disturbing reports about the damage to human life, to property and so on. what do you think from your assessment? >> well, the devastation is just indescribable. you know, obviously, the loss of life is heartbreaking and especially with the kids. but in order to gain a perspective of what's been done here and what this tornado tore down, you have to have a perspective first of what it was. and i'm not sure that anybody who hadn't seen it before could really describe the devastation and it's just literal devastation. but this is where oklahomans come together. governor fallin and albert ashwood are in our department of emergency management did not

hesitate to declare a state of emergency and the first responders were on the scene just instantaneously. but you know, it's just a recovery effort now. it's going to take not just days, but it will take weeks and months to work our way through this but as oklahomans, the heart is there. they'll recover from this and they'll move on and we'll write another chapter in our history. >> major general, thank you for calling in. i wish you all the very best with your team in the operation that you're involved with tonight. >> thank you, piers. >> this tornado is unlike anything most people have ever seen. joining me is a man who has seen the extraordinary power of a twister close up. storm chaser jeff pietrowski is on the phone. we have spoken before. where does this rate, this tornado, from your experience in terms of size and power? >> well, we're waiting for the national weather service in norman to rate the tornado and they've got damage assessment teams out late this afternoon and all day tomorrow, they'll have teams coming into norman

with damage assessment. it's definitely going to be on the high ef scale, greater than ef-3. you know, i hadn't toured all the city. i saw massive damage in shopping centers, i wouldn't be surprised to get ef-4. i would hold off going any higher at this point until the official damage assessment tomorrow. >> we're looking at pictures you yourself have taken as you've been driving around. fairly apocalyptic even there. these are live pictures, actually, i have just been told. so this is right now in that area. what is the scale of the damage in terms of mileage? we're hearing as much as 20, maybe even 30 miles. >> yeah. the tornado was on the ground, it set down on the ground near newcastle. that was the same area on may 3rd, 1999, the other f-5 that become the benchmark in oklahoma city, it took a very similar path, starting in newcastle but

across moore and the areas that got hit in '99 were also hit in this event. the main thing that made this one so terrible is a lot of the schools, which i'm near an elementary school on the west side of moore which has had a number of injuries and some fatalities at this location, what i'm being told by people working the scene, that a lot of schools, shopping centers were full. we have a shopping center on the west side that collapsed. we have malls that collapsed with people trapped. you name it, we've got the problem here. it is massive, it's long, it's about a mile wide roughly. i've had reports of two miles, i can only confirm about three quarters to a mile wide at my location, west i-35. but the damage here is massive. it's very similar to the may 3rd f-5 tornado. in some places it's worse. in some places, not as worse but very similar. >> jeff, to put it in some kind of context for viewers, the united states has on average about 1,000 tornadoes reported a year. according to the national weather service, in 2012, there

were 70 tornado related deaths in america. it's pretty clear now i think that the death toll from this one tornado is likely to exceed that. where exactly are you right now? >> i'm on the west side of moore just west of i-35. i'm literally in the middle of the worst damage. i'm in the ground zero of the worst damage on the west side of moore. i have only been able to go about three miles during search and rescue. i pulled in here about an hour and a half to two hours ago now. they are still pulling people out of rubble, some alive, some not alive. several people told me it's been very gruesome, the stuff they're finding. i think they've got a lot of people out. in certain locations, there is search and rescue still under way. i don't want to divulge but there is still search and rescue under way at this time. >> jeff, thank you so much for joining me. i'm sure we'll talk again. thank you so much. when we come back, more from the disaster zone as we go back to oklahoma. when our little girl was born,

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coming up and more desperate by the minute. joining me now is heter moore. she was in her basement when the storm hit. when she came out, she tried to rescue her neighbors. it sountz like you've had a terrifying experience today. tell me what happened. >> well, i was leaving work and i got off the highway and i saw the tornado coming. so i rushed over to my grandmother's house, my family and her sell lar in her backyard.

i knew it was coming straight for us. it came, you know, it sounded like a freight train came over us. everything got real still after that. we got out and rushed over to the front of her house, which faces kind of highland east junior high on fourth street there. this is on the east side of moore, not the west side where santa fe and the armory is. it was pretty bad. we got out. we rushed over, we jumped over power lines. trees were down, cars were undertrees. it was really devastating. at this point, it was still really devastating. we just kind of had the people in their house. >> and, in terms of all of the houses around you, what was the devastation like. >> across the street from where

i was, there was some houses that were completely gone. i've been through three tornadoes, actually. it was very, very similar. cars were turned over. some houses were half gone, some houses were full gone. cars were thrown around like toys, all the trees were gone, all the power lines were gone. there's blankets, mattresses, pictures. there was jerseys everywhere. there was jerseys in my grandma's trees. they were everywhere. >> and to somebody who's now been through two of these huge tor nnado tornadoes, 1999 was the other big one, what does it feel like to be in the eye of this storm. >> it's really, really terrifying. you kind of knew it was going to come all day and i had a feeling all day that it was going to be bad. i was near the shelter. it gets real hail.

it gets real rain. you close the door to the sell lar cellar and it feels like a train passed over you. and then you get out and it's like it never happened and everything is gone. >> you must feel very lucky to have got out alive today. >> yeah, i feel very lucky to have helped people get out of their houses across the street. >> heather, i'm so glad that you made it. i'm so sorry for the others who didn't. thank you so much for joining me. >> thank you. >> the 51 people have been confirmed dead in today's tornado tragically, including seven elementary school children. he's from moore in oklahoma, the very center of the devastation. and the congressman joins me on the phone now. congressman cole, you're from moore, what is your reaction to

what has happened there today. >> it's just devastating, piers. 53 people, likely to be more, quite frankly. and, you know, this is our fourth time in ten years, '98, '99 and '03 before this one. fortunately, we're awfully good at handling these-type-of-things. good first responders from the surrounding community. had the opportunity to talk to the president tonight. trying to be more supportive and reaching out and assuring me that the appropriate federal response will be there. we're going to get through it. but it's going to be a very difficult time. >> what can you tell me is happening at the plaza tower school. we now know that seven children can be confirmed dead, believed to be drowned in water. do you know if that is true? do you know how many more may be trapped in the rubble there? >> no, we don't know how many more.

and i'm always careful not to try and get ahead of the official count, if you will. but we know that the people on the ground did exactly the right thing. that's the tragedy. the teachers did the right thing, the children did the right thing. the neighborhood around the school is totally devastated. and the school was the most secure structure. they were in interior and reinforced walls. but an f-4, f-5 rolls through, and, again, we've seen this sort of thing in more before. there's simply nothing you can do. if you're in the way and aboveground, even in what's apparently a very secure structure, you're apparently very likely to be injured, if not killed. and certainly, that's what happened here, piers. >> congressman, finally, how does this compare to the other tornadoes that you've experienced in that area. >> again, we've had many. it was the first-recorded f-5 in

history. but just in surveying the damage, i would say it's probably worse. it's sernlly worse in terms of loss of life. we lost 42 people back in '99. but they wmpbt all in moore. that particular tor nado was actually on the ground longer than this one. but this one, the devastation is much more located. we have other devastation districts. so in terms of loss of life and structural damage, i have to say that this is much more worse for moore. >> we're looking at live pictures that have just come in. seven children confirmed dead, but many more believed to be still under the rubble there. we just don't know at this stage how many. but the search is on going. and, obviously, it's now darkness there paking it even harder. congressman, i wish you all the very best and the constituents and everyone in moore and the surrounding areas. it's almost going to take a

number of days to try and resolve any of this. >> well, thank you so much. thanks for the prayers and the first responders in a time like this. honestly, you're lucky to be an american because the sources for the federal government were there for you just as they were for sandy victims, and ckatrina and oklahoma city bombing vic m victims. >> you do have our thoughts and our prayers tonight and our very best wishes. >> thank you. >> when we come back shlgs i want to go back to the elementary school in oklahoma where the dramatic search continues. for heartburn? yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief! [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. angie's liat angie's list, i autyou'll find reviews. on everything from home repair to healthcare

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live pictures of the plaza towers elementary school in moore, oklahoma, scene of the devastating tornado earlier today.

we go back to george howell who is outside of the school. george, many conflicting reports about how many children may or may not still be in the wreckage there. what can you tell me? we know that seven are confirmed dead. >> piers, you know, we're keeping up with the latest information that we've confirmed through cnn. that is the latest number that we have, seven. that's where we're holding at this point, obviously, staying in touch with these officials to get the latest word. it's hard to get reception out here, but we're doing our best to keep up with those latest numbers and pass that on as we get that information. piers, i just went over there a minute ago, crossed over this bridge and i got a better sense of what is over there. you find cars that have been thrown around. you find playground equipment that's all over the place. walls that have been torn down. it's a mess over there. fair to say it will take investigators some time to clean this up and find those victims

inside the building, piers. >> george, thank you very much, indeed. that's all for us tonight. we'll be back live at midnight with the latest on the devastating tornadoes in oklahoma. >> piers, thanks, good evening, everyone. the plaza in moore elementary now working under flood lights. they just brought in heavy earth-moving machinery. they're searching for children and school staff who may be underneath the rubble. children who took shelter in a hallway that likely no longer exists. many of the classmates survived, but some didn't. seven children confirmed, so far. in all, at least 51 people across the area now confirmed dead. we've got some new video. what the tornado looked and sounded like from closer than most people would care to get.