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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  May 21, 2013 8:00am-9:01am PDT

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welcome back to cnn's continuing live coverage of the aftermath of oklahoma tornadoes. i'm john berman standing in a neighborhood right now in the town of moore, oklahoma. you can see what happened to this neighborhood. simply flattened. everywhere you look there's metal, twisted metal debris like this on the ground here. the wood is splintered everywhere. take a look at this. you see this nail poking out of the wood. you see how dangerous something like this is as this wood was flying around in the force of the storm with winds topping 2 moon mil200 miles an hour. hardly a moment left standing.
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not that many walls left standing in the debris of this neighborhood. you've been hearing the story of moore, oklahoma. you heard about neighborhoods like this one where i'm standing. you've also heard about the schools, the plaza towers elementary school, which crumbled with students believed trapped still inside. so many third graders are there. overnight search and rescue crews continued to dig through the rubble of that building by hand. the briarwood elementary school where teachers protected the kids and there were emotional reunions and hugs with parents and teachers and students just after that tornado struck. at some points this tornado by the way was two miles wide. it tore a swath some 20 miles long through this town. the whole country is watching what's happening here as this city digs through the rubble here. a short while ago, president obama delivered remarks from the white house. >> in an instant neighborhoods were destroyed.
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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. our prayers are with the people of oklahoma today. >> the prayers of the entire nation with oklahoma. you are looking at people dig through their homes right now. that's a refrigerator they just got their hands on just one piece of the debris here. this neighborhood where i'm standing i suppose good news is we've been told by people who live here it's mostly a working neighborhood. mome most people were away at work when the tornado hit. they are asking people whose homes that live here to come back for a second to look around for a bit but please do not linger. they fear it is still too much of a dangerous situation. speaking of dangerous situations, i don't know if you can see behind me but clouds are very dark here. there is drizzle. we hear occasional rumble of
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thunder. we want to get a sense of where there will be more today? where is this storm center headed next? let's go to chad myers who is monitoring the storm system for us. >> there will be weather for you today but it won't be tornadic. you won't see weather with hail, wind, damaging tornadoes to you but there will be that type of weather from dallas up through little rock and even on toward the northeast of there. we're talking even the potential for severe weather chicago, detroit, indianapolis. we think about tornadoes as a southern plains kind of tornado alley thing. the truth of the matter is tornadoes have happened in every single state in the nation. here you go. we can get all of the way up into detroit, indianapolis, down into ft. smith and memphis where the heaviest rain and potential for severe weather will be dallas and shreveport. one thing that's going to stop the severe weather from being very severe in oklahoma is the fact that it's raining. yesterday at this same time it was sunny. we don't want the sun. the sun heats the ground.
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the ground is heating the air and that air is rising. rising air makes thunderstorms. we don't have that rising air today because we don't have a lot of sunshine. we do have showers and thunderstorms and lightning that may scare and make rescuers scatter but it won't be a tornadic day for oklahoma city today or moore. john? >> that is good news. i can tell you i feel the rain falling on me. we might see lightning. there is thunder. i don't know if you can hear thunder right now rumbling above me and there was lightning just a short time ago. doesn't seem too close. i promise you, i promise everyone including my wife and kids, we'll be careful out here and keep one eye on the weather as it develops. there are so many stories to tell you about in this town and one of the most interesting ones is at the moore medical center which isn't far from where i'm standing now. that's where we find cnn's pamela brown who has been there all morning. tell me what you are surrounded by there right now. >> you are right. i'm here at the moore medical
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center. as you can see behind me it was obliterated from the tornado that moved through here yesterday. this was in the direct path of the tornado and amazingly 30 patients that were inside moore medical center being treated were evacuated after the damage from the tornado. they were evacuated to surrounding medical centers. as i mentioned this is primarily an outpatient center. it's a small hospital in comparison. we've seen search and rescue teams out here today. there's a bowling alley to my left and they've been -- the cadaver dogs out here today searching for any humans that could be trapped underneath the rubble. i spoke to one member of a search and rescue team who said that because of this weather that you were just talking about, john, because of the lightning we're seeing and rain and weather conditions, they're in a holding pattern right now and they're not able to continue their search efforts here and they talked about the challenges of the chemicals and downed power lines and natural gas here at various sites around moore,
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oklahoma. there's been a lot of focus on the school, the plaza towers elementary school where seven children were killed after the tornado swept through yesterday. search and rescue teams have been there around the clock trying to find more survivors. we've seen dramatic images of parents rushing to the elementary schools. two in particular in the direct path of the tornado. one mother ran up and saw her son crouched down frozen on the ground with his hands over his head. he was terrified. other parents rushed to the scene and were unable to find their child. let's listen to one mother who went through an agonizing experience. you're looking for your son right now, aren't you? >> his name is dylan zachary hall. he was at the plaza school. >> so he was at plaza towers elementary. his name is dylan. >> dylan zachary hall. he's how old? >> he's 13. i haven't seen him since school.
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i know his step nmom was in the cellar at her house. i lost cell phone contact with her. i can't find my son. >> reporter: we learned the fourth, fifth and sixth graders at that school were taken to a church. younger kids were in the hallway huddled together when the tornado moved through in drill position crouched down with hands over their heads. it's important to pay tribute to the teachers here. they are being hailed as heroes for saving some of these kids by shielding them and lying on top of them as the tornado moved through. pulling a wall off some of the kids that were trapped. we've seen some dramatic images there of teachers hugging the students so tight after that tornado you can just imagine how many times they must have practiced that drill and then to actually have to put it into play yesterday must have been a terrifying experience. >> it must have been terrifying,
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pamela, as you say. when you see teachers hug those kids, you know how much they care about the children in their classroom every day. it was a beautiful sight to see in so many ways. pamela brown, not far from us at the moore medical center. thank you so much for being with us. i want to show you live aerial footage right now of the destruction here in moore, oklahoma. you get a sense of the scope of this storm. as we said, at some times this tornado was two miles wide. it tore a path some 20 miles long as it passed through here. the wind speeds, an ef-4 tornado which means wind speeds were up to 200 miles an hour. you can see the destruction that it caused. we don't have an accurate count of the number of buildings damaged or destroyed. one of the reasons is that it is hard to count. you can see that from the air. you also get a sense of that from the ground. i'm joined here in this neighborhood where i'm standing by stephanie elam who has been here all morning walking through the debris here of these homes that have been flattened. >> it's unimaginable. even as you hear it and you see
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images, it's nothing like seeing it with your own eyes. it's unbelievable what these people have lost. if you take a look, i have to watch where i step because nails everywhere grabbing me on my pants. if you look here, you can see a personal artifact. things that have been tossed around like rag dolls along with wood just stuck out here. a blanket and stroller and bag stuck in that tree. one of the neighbors telling me that was a massive willow tree right there that got damaged. one other thing to point out over here is this right here massive piece of guard rail here. this guard rail, i asked one of the neighbors where this could have came from and he said that it probably came from the interstate which is not from anywhere around here. it got tossed around like it was just a little splinter and landed on these people's lawns. it shows you how dangerous it was to be out on the street at this time. >> we're not that near to the
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highway right now by the way. this thing must have traveled a quarter mile, half mile. >> think about how dangerous that would be to fly through the air and all things it could hit let alone people if they didn't make it into a shelter at times. gives you an idea of what these people were up against. >> we're standing in someone's front yard right now and this guard rail from the road has simply landed in their front yard here and again you can see these people digging through their homes trying to get what they can from these homes. >> one of the things that we did speak to one neighbor and his family also lived through joplin. i asked him about these tornadoes and how do you take it all in and hopefully we have that sound and you can hear what he had to say.
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have 24 confirmed fatalities. how many of them are children? i believe nine of them are children. 24 confirmed fatalities. nine of them are children. now, that number is tragic. that number is awful. that number may very well change. that number would have been a lot higher, whatever it turns out to be, if not for the work of teachers and educators all around this area right now who helped protect the children when the storm was hitting. this is something they train for. i want to bring in a teacher in from this area who has done so many drills and worked with students to try to protect them in just this type of situation. can you hear me? >> yes, i can. >> what is the training? how much do you practice for something like this and how do you practice? >> we have surprise drills every
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quarter. and just starting with the littlest kids. you just practice and practice and practice. by the time they get to sixth grade, they think they're experts. >> where were you when this storm hit yesterday? >> i was in the classroom. i'm a qualified high school teacher but i'm training to be an elementary school teacher so i'm assisting right now so i was with the third graders. >> one of the things we heard is that there was 16 minutes warning. there were 16 minutes between the time that warnings came and sirens went off and the storm actually hit. is 16 minutes enough time to do what you need to do to try to keep everyone safe? >> we got everybody to our shelter. i felt like our school did a
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great job communicating. we had one outlying building and they got the kids inside the main building really, really quickly. >> we heard stories from the plaza towers school to figure out -- we've been following what teachers have been doing here to try to keep kids safe and there are stories of teachers laying down on top of kids to protect them from the debris. thank you for being with us. this training that you do, this preparation does pay off and does save lives. it's a tragedy here but a tragedy that might have been much worse if not for your training. when we come back, we'll hear from the red cross as they try to help pick up pieces here and put this city back together. we'll be right back. [ phil ] when you have joint pain and stiffness... accomplishing even little things can become major victories. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. when i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel
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welcome back to cnn's continuing live coverage of the aftermath of the devastation of the tornado in oklahoma. i'm john berman in moore, oklahoma, right now.
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so many people are looking for ways to help out here. one of the best ways is to go to the red cross. visit the red cross or you can text donations to the number on the screen right in front of you. people here need that help so very badly. you can see behind me right now i'm in a neighborhood that has flattened. people are going through homes trying to salvage what they can. people are in high spirits consider what they've gone through. that man trying to save his washer or dryer that seems to be in one place. the chimney is gone but i believe that's the dryer right there. the dryer seems to be doing just fine. amazingly. things like chimneys, things like washers and dryers, they can be replaced. lives cannot. what people here care about the most is their loved ones. sons and daughters. brothers and sisters. mothers and fathers. and some of the most painful experiences over the last 24 hours have been at the schools that were affected and were in
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the path of this tornado. one of the schools was the briarwood school. this is a good story we have to tell you about right now with some amazing pictures, some hopeful pictures that will lift your spirits. this is of the reunions just after the storm, just after that tornado hit near the briarwood school. look at the teachers with the kids. look at parents with their kids after they found them. let's watch this video.
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>> all fifth graders right here! >> step over here. fifth grade! fifth graders! >> thank you. thank you. >> he was so brave. he was so brave. he was so brave. he was so brave. he was so brave.
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>> these reunions are so amazing. part of the good news that we see here in moore, oklahoma. you see parents who simply cannot hug their kids tightly enough. that's the local story here. this is already a national story, international story. thoughts and prayers streaming in from around the world right now. when we come back, we'll hear from the president. we'll get a report from white house correspondent jessica yellin into the white house response. what is the president doing right now to help these people here. we'll be right back. when you have diabetes...
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devastating tornado. i'm in moore, oklahoma, right now. the latest information we have from the oklahoma city medical examiner's office, 24 people have been killed, at least in this disaster, nine of those killed were children. i'm standing in this neighborhood right now. you can see it has been flattened by the storm here. the rain is falling steadily right now. this will hamper the recovery, the rescue effort a little bit, not make it easier on them. the people here need all of the help they can get, not just locally but also from the federal government. president obama just a short time ago spoke and promised to help. let's go straight to the white house now and our white house correspondent jessica yellin. >> reporter: president obama as you say came out to address the nation playing his role as healer and consoler in chief. he extended the nation's prayers and gratitude to the first responders and he promised that the u.s. and federal government
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will be on the ground to help the people where you are for as long as it takes. this was the president. >> the people of moore should know that their country will remain on the ground, there for them, beside them, as long as it takes for there are homes and schools to rebuild, businesses and hospitals to reopen, parents to console, first responders to comfort, and of course frightened children who will need our continued love and attention. there are empty spaces where there used to be living rooms and bedrooms and classrooms and in time we're going to need to refill those spaces with love and laughter and community. >> reporter: john, there is already significant federal presence there on the ground beginning overnight. there are teams that were
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deployed from pima, the nation's top emergency response system, the top executive that runs the organization is on a plane to moore, oklahoma, right now to help orchestrate the federal response. i will point out one thing the president did say. they did activate urban search and rescue teams from texas, nebraska, and tennessee. now these are specially trained people who are not just experts in urban search and rescue meaning pulling the kinds of debris and damage you get in city environments off of people and helping them in a crisis but they've been deployed to haiti in the past, to sandy and now they are there in oklahoma at the president's behest. >> that experience will be so crucial here as the people here in this city try to put pieces of their lives back together. we've seen the federal presence here. i see national guard driving through the streets overnight and well into this morning. jessica yellin at the white house. thank you so much for being with
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us this morning. again, as we look behind us right now, people going through their homes trying to salvage what they can. the aftermath of the storm just simply devastating. 24 people killed. nine of them children. we'll bring you the latest updates on the devastation here in moore, oklahoma, when we come back. i have low testosterone. there, i said it. see, i knew testosterone could affect sex drive, but not energy or even my mood. that's when i talked with my doctor. he gave me some blood tests... showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number. [ male announcer ] today, men with low t have androgel 1.62% testosterone gel. the #1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy increases testosterone when used daily. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor
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welcome back to moore, oklahoma, everyone. i'm john berman. i'm standing in what used to be a home. we've been standing in front of this home for a while. we had to come back and talk to the people here who have been
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digging through this debris all morning. this is chad. he grew up here. your parents still live here. let me first ask you, are they okay? >> they're over there digging in the rubble right now. >> your brother is there and your wife is there. everyone is here hard at work. >> yes, sir. >> what's this like for you right now? >> i don't think we've really processed what's truly happened. we're just trying to salvage everything we can. what we can carry out. we can't get a vehicle in here. we're trying to carry everything out. pictures, keepsakes, memento sm. >> i saw your brother trying to push out a dryer. are you trying to save that? >> no. we don't care about that. just irreplaceable stuff. >> we're standing on things like the great recipes cookbook. it's your childhood here.
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>> yep. like i said, we have been here since '91. we're just trying to get the 20 years of stuff out of here that can't be replaced. >> since we've been here i've seen your family. i don't think i've seen a frown on any of your faces. you have been smiling and chatting as you go through this. how do you keep your spirits so high? >> being thinkfankful that ever is okay. the stuff that got broken is replaceable. we saved a lot of pictures. almost all of the photo frames. all of the important stuff. things handed down from my grandparents. we've saved all that. we're thankful. >> where were all of you when the storm hit? >> i was on my way back into w newcastle. we turned off and let it pass.
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it was in front of us. my kids and wife were in the storm shelter. it turned from our house and hit my parents. they were well away from it because they were at work downtown. >> what was it like when you found out how bad it was here. >> we were watching the news coverage last night. we couldn't get back in here. as we were watching the news we saw the hospital across the street, the movie theater, the 7-eleven were all leveled. i told my parents to be prepared for the worst. >> i can't imagine anything being worse than this in terms of your home. i don't know -- you can't see from where the camera is but a there's a lazy boy. there's a sofa down there somewhere. there's a cabinet over there. i don't know -- what is this? >> this used to be a wall between the dining room and living room. >> used to be a wall between dining room and living room. >> we're in the middle of the
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living room right now. dad's chair. mom's chair. sofa over there. >> okay. thank you so much for being with us. we're so glad that you are okay. so glad your family is okay. we wish you the best of luck. is there anything you would like america to know? any help you would like? >> just send your donations to the red cross. there are a lot of people that need your help. we're good. thank you. >> appreciate it. chad was saying the hospital is not far from here. that also suffered just terrible damage in this storm last night. let's go to pamela brown who is at the moore medical center right now. hey, pamela. >> reporter: hey there, john. the search and rescue teams have their work cut out for them. the conditions out here are picking up. we've seen lightning. the wind is picking up. we're seeing debris, loose debris right behind me here. and it's really a dangerous situation for the search and rescue teams. i spoke to one earlier who said not only do they have to deal with these new weather conditions but also the concern
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of chemicals downed power lines, natural gas in a lot of these sites and right behind me here is a bowling alley and there are bowling balls throughout this area right behind me here. you can see the whole structure of the bowling alley just thrown apart from the tornado here yesterday. emergency exit door over there. the base, the entire infrastructure is completely obliterated from the tornado and over here to my left this is where my bowling alley used to be. this is just one example of so many throughout here in moore, oklahoma, of what we're seeing. another are in that we spent a lot of time focusing on is the other elementary school that is in the direct path in the tornado. that is plaza towers elementary school and that's where we learned that several children were killed there and search and rescue teams have been there sifting through the rubble nonstop looking for anymore survivors. we've been speaking to parents who had kids in school yesterday at two elementary schools in
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that direct path. one mother said she ran to the scene and saw her son crouched down just frozen there on the ground with his hands over his head. another mother was frantically searching for her child. here's what she had to say. >> you're looking for your son right now, aren't you? >> his name is dylan zachary hall. >> he was -- where was he? >> he was at the plaza school. >> so he was at plaza towers elementary. his name is dylan zachary hall. he's how old? >> he's 13. i haven't seen him since school. i know his stepmom was in the cellar at her house. i lost contact with her. they are supposed to send people over there. i don't know if she's still in the cellar or not. i can't find my son. >> we can see here -- we're going to take a live look here. the search and rescue team that i was speaking about earlier here on the scene.
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they're at moore medical center. we were just listening. they were motivating each other saying hang in there. stick together. if conditions pick up, you know, be safe. go to a safe area. here at moore medical center, we know that 30 patients were evacuated here yesterday after the tornado. after the damage was sustained, the patients were taken out. most of the patients were here for outpatient reasons. again, this scene here that we're seeing is what the picture is all over moore, oklahoma. john? >> you see the size and scope of this rescue and recovery effort. in some cases you see scores of workers picking up the pieces sifting through rubble and then you come to a place where i am where you see a family picking through the pieces trying to sort through their belongings, recover pictures, and the like. one of the things that's made the job a little more difficult
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over the last several minutes is it was raining here fairly hard. that rain seems to have passed right now. we want to get a sense of where the moore severe weathe is headed. could there be more storms on the way here? let's go to chad myers now in the weather center. chad, what's in store? >> there's more weather coming to you. it's not going to be a tornado. there's more weather developing in western oklahoma moving your way. if you stand outside right now and you're in oklahoma city or moore, it's 60 degrees. it's humid. it's 60 degrees. that's not the 85 or 90 that you had yesterday. the air mass has changed. potential for tornadoes will be well south into texas into southern oklahoma. that's where our first tornado watch box is. back out here to the west. this is about weatherford another storm coming your way. there will be lightning. there will be wind. there may be small hail. this is the setup that we had yesterday. the cold air was here. right through here, through the plains, that's where the severe
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weather happened. that's where the tornadoes happened. today this entire front has moved to the south 150 miles so the severe weather will be down into parts of shreveport, into dallas, little rock and points north from there. this is how it will set up. biggest area waco back toward austin. this is moderate risk. highest risk. there is still risk. chicago, detroit, indianapolis, st. louis it paducah, this is a large weather system. thousands of miles across making severe weather today from all of the way from ontario to texas. john? >> that is a large swath of the country that should be on the lookout and be extra careful today. thank you so much. appreciate it. you're hearing more pieces and glass being sprayed everywhere as this family picks through their house. our live continuing coverage of the aftermath of this oklahoma city tornado continues right after the break. [ male announcer ] a guide to good dipping.
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welcome back to cnn's live continuing coverage of this devastating tornado in moore, oklahoma. i'm standing in a flattened neighborhood right now as people pick through pieces of their homes to find whatever they can amid the devastation.
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the oklahoma city medical examiner's office say they have 24 confirmed fatalities. nine of those are children sadly. those numbers could change over the next several hours. there have been 145 people hospitalized. a lot of injuries to talk about. a lot of danger literally flying through the area. let's go to cnn's elizabeth cohen in atlanta right now. elizabeth, give me a sense of what kind of injuries, what kind of damage normally you will see from a tornado like this. >> people have actually studied this. what they found is that people are either injured by debris, by things flying at them, or they're injured from the actual impact of the tornado, the tornado picking them up and putting them down. the injuries are sort of roughly half and half they found in some studies. it's a huge array. you could be injured just a scrape or you could have a crush injury, a part of your body could actually be crushed. so it's a really huge array and one of the most common injuries is actually stepping on nails in
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the aftermath in this phase of a tornado. >> funny you should say that. standing right by my food is this log with these nails sticking up here. i don't know if you can see that. i had to look out as i saw this. that's a common injury. you have to be careful here. overnight people have been digging through the rubble here, elizabeth. we were speaking with the lieutenant governor of oklahoma earlier this morning. he said he didn't want to get caught up in rescue versus recovery effort but at this point what hope is there for survival? >> you know, as we've seen in other catastrophes, john, people can survive for quite a while. i remember being in haiti and it was many days after the earthquake and they found her alive. it does happen. you don't want to say it's easy. you don't want to say it's common but it does happen. we saw in bangladesh in that
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terrible catastrophe with that young woman that lived long after anyone thought any one could live. each situation ishope. no one here is giving up hope. it doesn't mean they're not realistic. all it means is that they continue to dig, continue to look for survivors here and they are working as hard as they possibly can. elizabeth cohen in atlanta, thank you so much. >> elizabeth talking about some places that has been through experiences like this, awful experiences like this. one of those places was joplin, missouri, where two years ago tomorrow, i believe, they lived through a horrific tornado. more than 100 people were killed there, what lessons did they learn and what did they have to tell the people of moore, oklahoma now? when we come back, we're going to speak to the city manager in joplin, missouri. stay with us. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle --
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welcome back, everyone. this is cnn's continuing live
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coverage of the aftermath of the -- stating tornado in moore, oklahoma. standing in the midst of it it's almost too much to believe. these homes flattened, barely a wall standing anywhere you look in this devastation. as i said, almost too much to believe. but there are several places around the world that do believe that because they've lived through it before. joplin, missouri, the tornado struck there two years ago tomorrow. some 158 people were killed in that devastating tornado. they know what moore is going through right now. let's bring in mark moore, the city manager for joplin, missouri, right now. mr. moore, thank you so much for joining us. appreciate it. let me just, first, ask you, what's your message to the people here in moore, oklahoma? >> well, they're involved in a long process and it's going to take some time to get back any sense of normalcy. and that they have friends out there that are going to help
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them. they're going to need some assistance from the others in the nearby area throughout the country and throughout the world. and we're ready to respond and help them to whatever degree we can, whatever assistance they need. >> you are already have sent assistance a team from joplin, missouri, was sent down here to moore to do whatever they can to help. i have to ask you this, it's been two years now, two years of recovery for you in joplin, missouri. still, what's it like to see these images here in oklahoma? >> well, they're eerily familiar with when we went through here in joplin. we empathize with the citizens of moore. we think we understand, to some degree, what they're going through right now based on our experience and like i said, if there's anything we can do at all to help them based on the things that we've been through, we stand prepared to provide that assistance. >> what's the most important
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thing for people here as they pick through pieces of their homes and try to put their lives back together? >> that there will be a better tomorrow. there is a road to recovery and that things will get better and do not give up hope. there's a lot of people out there that are saying prayers for them and formalizing plans to provide assistance and that assistance will thereby for them and hold on to that hope and realize tomorrow will be a better day. every day that goes on, things will get better. >> every day that goes on things will get better, mark rohr, two years after the disaster there with a message of hope for the people here in moore, oklahoma. mark rohr, thank you so much. cnn's coverage of the devastation here in moore, oklahoma will condition. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol
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welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm chris cuomo in moore, oklahoma. we are tracking the situation here from a devastating tornado that struck this community at 3:00 p.m. yesterday. we'll give you all details and the latest on casualties and the efforts to recover. >> i'm ashleigh banfield, live in phoenix, arizona, a half hour from now jodi arias is expected to stand up and address a jury that's expected to decide whether she lives or dies. this is really the last-ditch effort, her last appearance before this court, determines her fate. i'm going to bring you the latest throughout this hour, as well. chris? >> all right. ashley, thank you very much. we have a two of tiered system here of what's going on. as soon as jodi arias is going on, as ashleigh told you, we'll switch over to that. for now we're here in moore, oklahoma.