that i mean jury selection my hair was past my waist and i donated it to locks of love, a nonprofit, which creates wigs. that was my third donation since i was arrested. if i am allowed to live in prison i will continue to donate to that organization for the rest of my life. over the years i have spent in incarceration i received many requests from many to teach spanish or american sign language. because my case was pending i didn't have the time. in prison i will. if i am sentenced to life i will live among the general population of women and will be able to share my knowledge with them. i may be able to start classes. if i get permission i would like to implement a recycling program. the women's prison houses

thousands of women and each week huge loads of waste are hauled to a land fill. a substantial portion can be recycled instead. it may create new jobs for the people there. this is one small thing that can have a far reaching and positive impact on the community and on the planet. there is a high rate of illiteracy in prison than in every day society. i know that reading has expanded my knowledge base and opening my eyes to new world and different cultures. i can help other women become literate. along the lines of literacy i would like to start a book club or a reading group, something that brings people together in a positive and constructive way so we can share and recommend other good books and stimulate discussions of a higher nature. additionally, i designed a t

shirt. this is the t shirt which 100% of the proceeds go to support nonprofit organizations which also assist other victims of domestic violence. some people may not believe that i am a survivor of domestic violence. they are entitled to their opinion. i am supporting this cause because it is very, very important to me. these are only a handful of examples. i have never been to prison. i don't know from personal experience what it is like there. i am certain that after i arrive i will find other ways to contribute to the women there. i would like to share a few things about me and a few things about my family. when i was little my mom took a lot of ppictures of me. i'm a first child.

she had her camera everywhere and took pictures. when it was sunny she would take me to the backyard and turn on the sprinkler so i could play. that's me attempting to dress myself. a few years later carl came along, my little brother and we became inseparable. my parents took us everywhere including sea world and hawaii. my fondest memories are of us goofing off at home on a lazy saturday making a mess of the living room in our pajamas. when i was 11 years old my little sister angela was born four weeks early. i was so excited to have a baby sister. i watched my mom's stomach grow. i watched angela come into this

world and after the doctor he turned to me and said do you want to hold her first? these are school pictures. on occasions my family would get together at family portraits such as these. in ninth grade i went back to san maria periodically to visit friends. this is my best friend for years. she was here last week to testify on my behalf. she didn't return today because she and her 9-year-old daughter were threatened and harassed if she came back to the state. i'm 21 years old here. after i moved out of my parents' house my relationship with my dad improved a little. this is my grandma and her twins. my aunt is on the left and my

mom on the right. these are my parents when they were a little bit younger. th this -- we are hanging out in our run down house that i mentioned previously. at times we lived there without power and phone. the winterers were freezing. my parents did not support this relationship. we were just trying to figure out life on our own. when this picture -- when i see this picture i am reminded they were the best of times. they were the worse of times. it was a difficult relationship but bobby will always be special to me. i'm 21 here. this is a photo taken a few months after we broke up, a few

months after he moved. as you know we remain friends and on this day [ inaudible ] darryl and i began seeing each other a little over a year after that. this is one of my favorite pictures of darryl. we were at a restaurant in monterey. he dedicated songs to us. we danced. darryl was a good dancer. when we began dating we started a yearly tradition. we would go camping every summer at this camp ground. it is in an area that the locals called the south coast. this is darryl, jack and i at the time. it's hard to see in this photo

but the ocean is in the background. it's on the terrace. after we bought our house in palm desert we settled in and made a life for ourselves. jack was always with us on the weekends. he took that picture of me. i made friends with my co workers. sometimes we would go out after a shift just to chill and hang out. darryl and jack and i did a lot of things together. here we road the tram. his ex wife took this picture. we were all at chuck e. cheese's celebrating jack's birthday. jack and i bonded. he is a great kid. i haven't seen him since june 3, 2008. i hear he is much bigger now, taller than me. my family and i still got together periodically for group portraits. these were taken at a park.

in 2010 my little sister gave birth to this beautiful little girl on the right. the tiny premature baby that i witnessed come into this world now has a baby of her own. she is a mature, responsible, dedicated mother. she is also engaged to a wonderful man. and his daughter, this gorgeous girl on the left, is my niece's new big sister. i met these girls only through a thick pane of glass. they get along but they have always known each other. i won't be at my sister's wedding when she ties the knot next year. i won't be her wedding photographer like we had always talked about. the same is true for my brother, carl, the boy i grew up with became a family man.

he and his wife married in 2010. i wasn't there to celebrate with them and i wasn't there to take their pictures and i have no one to blame but myself. a few weeks before trial they welcomed this precious little baby into the world. i haven't met her yet. until a few weeks ago i had huge hopes of becoming a part of these girls' lives some day. my nieces are the closest i will come to motherhood because i will not have children of my own. i will not become a mother because of my own terrible choices i have to lay that dream to rest. you have heard before that i'm an artist. i will never create another oil painting. these are some of my drawings. i'm pretty good with hands and nature and portraits.

elvis presley, elizabeth taylor. this picture is distorted but this is my niece when she was younger attempting to play the piano. my family and i have a lot of memories especially ones like this at christmas. we won't be creating anymore of these kinds of memories together. this is how i used to spend the holidays, with my family. it was carl's idea to hold my portrait in this christmas family portrait taken a few years ago. my parents were there, my siblings were there. my brother's wife was there. from now on this is how my family is going to spend the holidays with me. following my arrest i wanted so much to avoid trial, not necessarily the outcome although that is naturally not something

i was looking forward to, but trial. all of the graphic, mortifying, horrific details paraded out into a public arena. instead i was hoping to go quietly into the night whether i went to prison or the next life. with the amount of attention my case received early on i felt in my ignorancet that it was necessary to speak out. i got on tv and i lied. i lied about what i did and i lied about the nature of my relationship with travis. it's never been my attention to malign his name or character. it was a goal of mine to preserve his reputation. i didn't want to drag out travis' skeletons or mine. i didn't want to unveil all of those ugly text messages and e-mails in that awful tape, all of those things that stand as a public testimony to 18 strangers, in front of travis' family, in front of my family,

in front of what feels like the whole world. it's never been my intention to throw mud on travis name. many times i was quick to defend him in the same breath. i loved travis and i looked up to him. at one point he was the world to me. this is the worst mistake of my life. it's the worst thing i have ever done. it's the worst thing i could ever seen myself doing. before that day i wouldn't want to harm a spider. i would gather them up in cups and put them outside. to this day i can hardly believe i was capable of such violence but i know that i was and for that i'm going to be sorry for the rest of my life, probably more. i was horrified by what i had done and i am horrified still.

in many ways my family has also suffered a great loss. their pain is fresh because they only learned about it two weeks ago, the moment the verdict was read, the moment their hopes of ever welcoming me home someday were dashed. my home was here today, was in california awaiting anxiously in front of the tv. my mom came to visit me after court that dark day. she had spoken to my dad on the way over and she told me that in the 34 years that they had been together she has never heard him cry the way he did that day. i caused them that pain. i will concede that with travis' family theirs is a much greater loss. it is my hope that with the verdict you have rendered that they will gain a sense of closure. steven said he doesn't want to look at his brother's murderer

anymore. if i get life he won't have to. i made many public statements that i prefer the death penalty. each time i say that though i meant it i lacked perspective. until recently i couldn't imagine asking you all to give me life. to me life in prison was the most unappealing outcome i could possibly think of. i thought i would rather die. but as i stand here now i can't ask you to sentence me to death because of them. asking for death is suicide. either way i'm going to spend the rest of my life in prison. it will likely be shortened or not. if it is shortened the people who will hurt the most is my family. i am asking you to please not do

that to them. i have already hurt them so badly along with so many other people. i want everyone's healing to begin and i want everyone's pain to stop. thank you. >> that is one of the more remarkable allocutions that you will hear in a death penalty case. in this particular case it was a mystery whether jodi arias would ask this jury to sentence her to death or sentence her to life. her choice has been yet again she lied to a local news reporter and asked for the death penalty on tv and then came to to this court and asked for a life sentence from this jury. once again jodi arias with a very public lie and yet somehow she has turned it around and made this request another thing that i think is very critical to point out that she has put to

this jury that it is about the pain now that her family, jodi arias's family would sfufr she is sentenced to death. she said she is hoping everyone's pain can finally end. paul calen standing by live. your first thoughts hearing this allocution which as an allocution goes unchallenged by >> i thought it was bizarre in a number of ways. three of the things she said she can grow hair was one. the second is she supports recycling programs and the third she was a cute baby, kind of surprising arguments to make to a jury pleading for your life. on the other hand it was an attempt by jodi arias to present her humanity to this jury, to say really i'm a good person and you shouldn't put me to death and try to explain away some of the bizarre things she has done

including lying on television and law enforcement authorities -- >> go ahead. >> one other thing i wanted to raise. what i found to be really bizarre is everything that she talked about normally you would call independent witnesses to establish. you would call a friend to the witness stand to say she was a great friend. she was always there for me. you would call her art teacher to say she has talent. she can bring something to the world. everything that she raised would be an issue that you could prove independently. why wasn't she able to bring witnesses into court to support her as opposed to her making this speech. that is the question the jury may be asking ultimately. >> remarkable allocution made by jodi arias here live in phoenix, arizona at the maricopa county courthouse. her family in the front row not

crying, not weeping at this point and maybe most importantly not standing up to make a mitigation appeal to this jury to save their daughter, their sister's life. a remarkable moment. she has asked for life. she has not asked for death one week after asking a television reporter that she would prefer for this jury to give her the death sentence. she said this is the worst mistake of my life. i can't believe how violent i was. she never said i am sorry for this murder. i did it and it wasn't self defense. she did not admit to that. as the jury continues to contemplate and the courtroom continues the process it is time for a quick break. we are back right after this. opportunity here. i can use walmart's education benefits to get a degree, maybe work in it, or be an engineer, helping walmart conserve energy. even

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sabra hummus. ó? >> reporter: good afternoon. i'm anderson cooper live in

oklahoma for the rescue efforts underway. just behind me, what is left of the local bowling alley, one of the buildings that stood in the way of this tornado just south of oklahoma city. a driving rain, thunder and lightning making rescue efforts more difficult right now. at least 24 people including nine children are dead. this is the tornado that caused the dev administration. two miles wide at one point with winds up to 200 miles per hour. people here just 15 minutes decide whether they would stay and ride it out or try to outrun it. one reporter found himself in the path of this tornado as he was driving to get his son. pulling over he shot this incredible video. watch.

this is the terror from the ground. once it hit the sheer size of the monster tornado ripped up everything in the path, buildings, home. you can see the debris. if it was fixed to the ground it was flattened. if it wasn't it was thrown through the air. crews are digging through remains of malls. the search continues for children and school staff. >> i had to hold on to the wall to keep myself safe because i didn't want to fly away in the tornado. >> we had to pull a car out of the front hallway off a teacher. i don't know what that lady's name is but she had three kids underneath her. good job, teach. >> there are no walls, only

rubble. the building gone. the playground left behind. earlier president obama spoke about the destruction to this school. >> in an instant neighborhoods were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives. many more were injured. and among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew, their school. so our prayers are with the people of oklahoma today. >> reporter: we are getting more and more images from different angles of this deadly tornado. take a look at this one. oh, man! >> reporter: dougilous sherman shot the video as he was rushing to get home. he joins me now. you were driving down the street and ran right into it. >> yeah. it was -- i was heading home and i was listening to the local

news and they said if you are pretty much above ground you won't make it. i was like this is not good because i was watching it and filming it. i saw so much debris. i thought i was more ahead of it than i was. i made that turn and i saw it coming right at me. i had to stop. i was like oh, man. >> you backed up. >> i hit it in reverse and spun around at the intersection. i know that is probably not the smartest thing to do. i was thinking safety first. >> how is your home? >> my house is fine. my family is fine. >> your sister lost a house? >> no. it was her best friend, her mom. it was a sad deal because i hate to see people that you know lose everything. i saw a friend of mine that lost his house. we are trying to figure out how to help him. >> you used to bowl at this

bowling alley. >> i used to bowl and i worked here when i was 17. >> you worked here? >> i worked here. >> the lanes were here and this was the pro shop? >> the pro shop. the lanes. >> there are bowling balls all around here. >> it's sad. it's a lot of memories there. >> you have been helping out with trying to help with search and rescue operations. >> i know as soon as i was heading there i didn't make it to the house. i shot all the way over from where i was at. i shot over to eastern. i came up eastern and i saw lights. i saw and there was nobody had gotten to the scene but there was a lot of people still running around. there was people saying my family is trapped. i pulled over to try and help. there was only a couple of cops there at the time. i was just trying to do the best that i could. >> do whatever you can. how difficult is it with the

conditions? you have the rain, thunder, lightning. >> that's the thing. i don't have a whole lot out here. i am trying to help out as much as i can. the big help, the military and law enforcement and everybody else joining in to help. everybody came. i was talking to a couple of people from joplin, people from dallas. it is awesome. those guys are great. they have the gear to work through this. i ain't got much but i got to give it to the guys that -- >> you are doing what you can. thank you so much. i wish you the best. i'm glad your family is doing all right. you stay strong. it is daunting to say the least. the tornado left a 17 mile trade of destruction as the arial pictures show you. when you are on the ground here it is a new horizon. instead of buildings and trees you see piles and piles of

debris covering the landscape. where there was two and three story buildings it is flattened. there is cars mangled and fused together. it takes time almost for your eyes to adjust to see what you are actually looking at. stephanie elam is joining me now. >> reporter: i was walking with a woman earlier who was trying to decide if this was her street or not. she couldn't tell. she was asking the officers for the name of the streets to get there. homes are not recognizable out here. and then to add insult to injury for a day that is already raw it is raining and it is really cold out here now. and you can see just how strong the storm was. take a look at this tree here. it looks like maybe a child's play area has sort of smashed through on top of this true. this sight we are seeing a lot of today.

and we did see residents coming back to look at their homes. but the problem is it started to rain so a lot of them left. they wanted to pick through what they have. and one gentleman who lives here was telling me that he lived through missouri, joplin. i asked him how this compares. this is what he had to say. >> it's terrible. little kids families with their homes gone. a lot of people around here don't have insurance in this neighborhood. a lot of people do. there is a lot of people that don't. where do they go from here? just got to get up and figure out a way. >> reporter: and we are seeing a lot of what you are seeing right here with this piece of wood how it is just smashed into the earth. i have seen that so many times here with the force of the winds smashing the wood right into the earth.

and a lot of wires here. that is another thing to watch out for here. >> it is obviously very dangerous area this entire area. that is why authorities are telling people if you don't need to be here stay away. if you don't have a home here or a loved one here stay away. there is not much you can do right now. if you would like to help more there are a lot of ways. visit our impact your world website. it is at cnn.com/impact. some remarkable stories of resilience from residents dealing with total loss. we will be right back. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 when i'm trading, i'm so into it,

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alley to see if anybody is left alive inside or if there are other fatalities. the death toll stands at 24 confirmed. it had been higher last night. state medical authorities had said it was higher than that. they have gotten organized and tried to locate people and figure out where people are. the people of moore are going forward with an astonnishing sense of resilience. what are you hearing from people? >> reporter: that is so remarkable especially on such a miserable day when people are coming back to these homes for the first time. this family is trying to find something. they are trying to find something, some keepsake, some family photo. you find on the ground things like this. this is literally a key, the ticket to the junior prom, may

21, 1988. this is somebody 50 years old, maybe this was sitting outside their home. people now speak of this like this. may 3rd, 1999. may 20 yesterday the storm hit a little under 24 hours. when you meet these families, we met these remarkable people who were in their house in 1999. they lost everything so they built a small basement. they survived with eight members of the family including a 2-year-old grand child in there yesterday. they say they will rebuild and stay right here. >> what happens now? >> well, we are just going to get with the insurance one step at a time. >> we like our neighborhood. we want to stay. >> we love the moore area, as crazy as it may sound, i have been to boston and connecticut

and i didn't have tornadoes but -- >> i grew up in dorchester. i know quincy well. >> but just love this area. >> born and raised here. >> we are just going to take a step at a time. we will just hang out and rebuild. >> you heard the phillips'. they say they will rebuild and stay nearby. i met a woman, renee myers who put her husband in the hospital because he was having heart trouble. she came back to the debris of her small home today trying to find her dog. i helped her son who came by, too, go through the rubble. i helped try to find the little kennel. we found the kennel and the door was open. renee says he could kick the

door open. she was hopeful. as you see people come back to the neighborhoods to nothing, to houses that are turned into splinters. that is what they are hoping for, maybe to find a pet or old china or jewelry, to find something for the memories. as you noted so many of them who have lived through this before including the big one in '99 this devastation here now they say they love this community. it's where they go to church and their kids go to school and they plan on staying. >> we are going to be talking to you more throughout the day as we hear from more people. john makes an important point, people searching not just for their family members but also for their four legged family members, their pets. a lot of people have come up to me talking to me about the animals they are looking for. a lot of shelters trying to collect the animals and reunite them. we are going to speak live with the governor who served oklahoma

in 1999 and talk about the recover from back there and whether these neighborhoods should be rebuilt. >> we saw it coming and got louder. next thing you know you see it coming undone. it ripped open the door. and it was glass and debris on us. [ goodall ] i think the most amazing thing is how like us these chimpanzees are. [ laughing ] [ woman ] can you hear me? and you hear your voice? oh, it's exciting! [ man ] touchdown confirmed. we're safe on mars. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ hi. [ baby fussing ] ♪

>> > welcome back to our continuing coverage of the oklahoma tornado here in moore, oklahoma. we just got a word from the national weather service that says the speed of the peak wind yesterday in this tornado that hit moore was 190 miles per hour. that is how strong it was. this is not the first time this area has been hit by a powerful tornado as we were talking about with john king back in may 1999 an ef-5 tornado hit the area, killed 36. it was on the ground for nearly 90 minutes. if you take a look at this map the path of the '99 tornado in red and the one that tore through here yesterday in green struck some of the same areas. the 1999 tornado destroyed more than 1,000 homes in moore.

another tornado hit in 2003. the death toll is 24 here in moore. the searches are still underway. frank keating was the governor of oklahoma when the ef-5 twister struck the area. you have been through this before. what lessons have you learned that would be most helpful. >> thank you and john for being there. i am in the wrong city. you are in the right city. we are grateful that you are there. the most important thing is to make sure that the emergency management folks know each other, coordinate, are speaking on the same frequency and can respond to a man made or natural disaster. you have a multitude of jurisdictions. other communities around to coordinate with fema as the governor has done, to partner with the national guard and the

local police. very important because people want a sense of security. we have no looting after the oklahoma city bombing. we had to my knowledge no looting after the 1999 level 5 tornado. i would hope this would be the same. people pitch in to help one another but you need coordinated professionals to help them, hold hands with them and make sure they can see the light at the end of the tunnel, something i'm sure is going on right now. >> and from a security standpoint we are seeing a lockdown in the area. there are road blocks and national guard troops. it feels pretty good from a security standpoint. can people prepare for a storm this powerful? if you are living in this area is there much you can prepare for? >> well, the wonderful thing about moore and also the challenge is that this is a community of many older people. i have been informed by some of

the social service providers that a number of the older people to save $100 a month, working class families, to save that $100 a month they cancel the property insurance. this is not good. there are a number of renters who don't have rental insurance. some people have let the property and casualty insurance lapse. what we are trying to do with the salvation army and red cross is raise the funds necessary to provide a bridge assistance to a lot of these families. to be prepared means you need to have property and casualty insurance with tornado coverage. virtually everybody does. to be prepared means in the future to have a storm shelter. they cost between $4,000 and $6,000 fully installed. to take your most precious possessions down into the cellar makes a lot of sense. there needs to be another

conversation after this tornado and its cleanup. for example, sheltering in place, how can we best secure the lives of children in schools. do we need to take another look at the structural soundness of the individual school buildings? those are the kinds of things we need to do and i'm sure we will do because very good people are in charge. >> that is an important conversation to have. i appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> it is an emotional moment caught on camera. we have seen so many. the emotions are running high. a woman searching for her dog in the rubble of her home got a great surprise live on the air. a bit of good news in all of this tragedy is next. [ male announcer ] this is betsy. her long day of pick ups and drop offs begins with arthritis pain... and a choice. take up to 6 tylenol in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief.

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when we have seen the wreckage around for block after block after block. you wonder how anybody can live through it. this used to be a bowling alley. obviously it was empty during the time. you can see the terminals where people would use to get the scores and play game. one woman actually found her dog while she was being interviewed live on television. it was a great moment that was

captured. take a look. >> i was holding my dog. i was sitting on the stool holding my dog. this was the game plan all through the years to go in that little bathroom. and the electric never went off because the electric went off in the bathroom about the same time i felt the stool come up out of the floor. and i rolls around a little bit. and when it stopped i was right there. the cooker is what i saw. >> you were lying there in the rubble. >> i never lost consciousness. and i hollered for my little dog and he didn't answer or didn't come so i know he is in here somewhere. >> the dog, the dog. hi, puppy.

>> bless your little bitty heart. >> help me. >> come on. >>. >> i thought god just answered one prayer to let me be okay. he answered both of them because this was my second prayer. >> her prayer was answered. an amazing moment. >> the rain is coming down pretty hard here for the last

hour or so. severe weather threatening other major cities right now. we'll bring you an update next. have hail damage to both their cars. ted ted is trying to get a hold of his insurance agent. maxwell is not. he's on geico.com setting up an appointment with an adjuster. ted is now on hold with his insurance company. maxwell is not and just confirmed a 5:30 time for tuesday. ted, is still waiting. yes! maxwell is out and about... with ted's now ex-girlfriend. wheeeee! whoo! later ted! online claims appointments. just a click away on geico.com. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. that was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again, and now i gotta take more pills. ♪

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continuing to rain and thunder and lightning here is making it a miserable day in moore for the rescuers and searchers who are out there combing through the rubble trying to find anyone who is still missing. chad myers, give us an overview of what the weather is like and what it will be like for the next 24 hours. >> it will get better for you. there is still a little lightning in your area. i'll show you where the lightning strike was. it wasn't far from you. most of the weather will be down south towards shreveport and little rock today. oklahoma city there is moore. the lightning strike was about four miles to the next northwest

of you. the northern part of central texas. other than that we are about done for where you are at this point. the u.s. has more tornadoes than any other part of the world, cold air in the mountains, a warm gulf of mexico and dry air out of the mountains. let me show you this picture yesterday at about 3:40 local time. here is oklahoma city. here is the debris ball, the debris in the air that the radar was seeing thinking it could be rain. we looked at it and we knew it wasn't rain but it was debris from the tornado. we are going to put this into three dimensions. you can see 17,000 feet, the debris flying through the air circulating around the tornado and falling back to earth due to gravity. an amazing shot of what this tornado looked at. we are not looking at hail or rain.

we are looking at debris in the air as it was sucked into the sky. we had reports yesterday in tulsa that they were finding post cards and pictures from this tornado almost 100 miles away, things getting sucked out of the storm into the sky and blown down wind 100 miles. >> and that debris, it is so dangerous, so deadly. here is a bowling ball, one of the many bowling balls laying around here from this bowling alley. you can imagine what would happen with this being picked up by the storm. an emotional moment involving navy reservists in the middle of the debris with an american flag. we'll show you that ahead. i had to hold on to the wall to keep myself safe because i didn't want to fly away in the tornado. >> we had to pull a car out of the front hallway off a teacher. i don't know what that lady's name is but she had three little kids underneath her.

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some are personal possessions. take a look what navy reservists found last night amidst the debris. i'm anderson cooper live in moore, oklahoma. just behind me what is left of a bowling alley, one of the buildings that stood in the way of the tornado. rescue teams are digging through the rubble. the fire chief spoke about this rescue operation. >> we made it through i will say most of the structures, most of the homes. the ones that we didn't make it through yesterday we will make it through today. we will be through every damaged

piece of property in this city at least three times before we are done. and we hope to be done by dark tonight. >> at least 24 people including nine children were killed here. rescuers are not giving up hope, not by a long shot. they will go through things three times. so far more than 100 people have been found alive amidst the acres of destruction. that is an incredible number. more than 100 people found aalive. president obama spoke a short time ago pledging urgent government help for what he is calling one of the most destructive storms in the nation's history. >> we don't know the full extent of the damage from this week's storm. we don't know the human and economic losses that may have occurred. we know that severe rumblings of weather, bad weather through much of the country still continues and we're also preparing for hurricane season that begins next week.

>> more coming to us. the devastation two miles wide. one i reporter captured the terror from the ground. take a look. learned national weather service says the peak wind speed was 190 miles per hour. once it hit the sheer size of this tornado ripped up everything in its path, buildings, home. you can see the debris whipping around the car in the video. it is incredible there. our john king is in a different part of moore. he has been talking to survivors all day long. what have you been hearing from

people? >> i understand it is remarkable. i was in the early morning hours when it was pitch back. residents were not allowed then. residents have come back today. the family who lives here was back a short time ago trying to find anything. you see the random things left behind. you look this way i can see completely devastated. you can see this kitchen. families have started to come back. we are about three quarters of a mile from here and we met an elderly woman who says she tried to come back and was turned away. most important when she tried last night and there today to try to find her beloved jackson, boo, her dog. >> the only thing i lost is my dog. >> dog and a cat?

>> yeah. >> and the dog was a present from my kids for mother's day. >> it was on top of my bed. >> what were you able to get out? >> we found some jewelry. he is just digging around. i told him we have to stack it until it dries up and we can get cars where my other kids can help get it out. >> renee myers told us her dog would stay in a kennel. he is capable of kicking the door open. she said the dog would run to the door when she gets home from work. her son was sifting through the rubble. he got to a point where he couldn't move heavy things. i went in to help him. we managed to move heavy debris

and we found the kennel. it was the first time she said she smiled because the kennel was empty and the door was open. the wreckage was everywhere. there is a distinct possibility her dog passed away and is buried in the wreckage. because it was open she had some hope that after she left for cover she was unable to get her dog because she was leaving for the school she was working she was hopeful boo escaped and was looking through the neighborer health department hoping to find him as many residents are. >> we saw a video of an elderly lady who did find her dog alive in the rubble while she was being interviewed. are people staying with friends or at a shelter? >> she stayed with her son. he lives in norman. he lost his home in the big tornado back in 1999. some stayed in shelters. when i got in last night i was at one local church.

there was a very fitting sign out front. they put signs. you drive by them every day. it said when you have had enough and you have had more than you can stand, kneel. there were some people stay in that church. some went to shelters. many went to families. the first thing they tried to do at day break -- people were trying to get back in the neighborhood and the authorities wouldn't let them. today as they try to come back and the weather stopped raining at the moment, the weather complicating what is obviously a very, very difficult day for people as they get back. anderson you have been talking about it all day and you saw it last night. many went through it in 1999. they are going through it again today. they are resilient and their community has pulled together remarkably. even though it looks like this most people we have met say they want to stay and they want to rebuild. >> we have heard that time and time again. i appreciate it.

as the tornado descended on this city of moore, people only had a few minutes, up to 16 minutes to figure out whether to get in their vehicles and try to outrun it or hunker down where they were and get to a storm shelter if they had it or their bathrooms. a lot of people took incredible video capturing the storm's terrifying size. take a look at this. >> please, dear god. very large and deadly tornado. kevin, get the pictures, man. i'm getting the video. i have never heard a roar like that before. it's going just to our north. very large heading into moore,

oklahoma. hold on. it is going to our north. we're completely fine. >> get in the car. get in the car. >> i'll jump in when you guys are ready. we need to go. we need to go. we have lots of debris coming down. go north back behind it.

>> going back through the debris field. >> this is the damage path right now. houses are completely levelled. >> it is unrecognizable. >> houses are levelled. >> this doesn't look like it was ever a development. >> it doesn't. >> this -- >>o my god, guys. >> look at those people. we have to help them. >> pull over right here. this is like a daycare or school or something. look at all of the kids. >> it is so hard to believe. there is a strange silence here today. you hear generators and trucks backing up. you hear heavy earth moving equipment kind of moving some debris, people walk by having quiet conversations. but there is a silence. it's almost like a stunned silence. a lot of people kind of standing around. some are taking pictures.

some shaking their heads. they don't know exactly what to do or where to go. what step to take first. if you want to help more oklahoma you can visit our impact your world pag at cnn.com/impact. we will have more from a nearby neighborhood. john king is in a neighborhood and stephanie elam is in another one.

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...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. welcome back to moore, oklahoma. the cleanup is going to be long and hard here in moore. there is going to be a lot of hard days ahead, a lot of hard weeks. piles of debris, homes scattered for miles really. you can see the destruction in all directions. our stephanie elam is in one of the neighborhoods that took a direct hit. some of the things you have been seeing throughout the day, people, i always wonder what is the first step that people take to try to start to rebuild? >> reporter: it's unbelievable what these people are coming in

and finding, anderson. a lot of them are finding out that most of the walls of their homes are gone. we did find one shelter here that would have been underneath their car but they were at work. they would have been in here but they were in here. look what happened. if you look at where i'm standing their entire garage blew away. the entire foundation is gone. they came back. this couple got married in august. her wedding dress was gone. many things were gone including their dog. this is sugar. they are looking for their dog, sugar. this is the story of a lot of people out here where they are looking for their loved ones and a lot of times it means the furry ones. people calling for their animals hoping that they can find some ort of idea of where they could have gone. it is very heartbreaking for a lot of these people. >> no doubt about it. people are trying to really pick up the pieces as best they can, take whatever they can find and

then they are going to stay somewhere else. one of the things you keep seeing and it takes time for your eyes to adjust to what you are seeing. you look at something and try to piece together what it is. i took pictures of some vehicles that are just actually about a block or so from where i am standing right now. vehicles, that vehicle has been totally crushed. that is another one that has been completely crushed there. a couple of these vehicles are like fused together. they have been slammed together with such force they have melded into each other. at plaza towers elementary which we have been focusing on about 70 students and staff members road out the storm. at least seven of those killed in the tornado were students there. emergency personnel continue to scour the rubble of the elementary school. students were days away from

summer vacation. brier wood elementary you can hear the chaos as parents and teachers search for their

children. >> where is she? she's out? okay. >> all fifth graders right here. >> step over the wires. fifth graders.

>> everyone at that school has been accounted for. everyone. up next, the mayor says he is optimistic they are going to find more people in the rubble. brian todd has new information as cnn's special live coverage. we will be right back. >> his teacher is in the hospital. his teacher saved his life. >> who is his teacher? >> i have no doubt they lifted a wall off of these kids, several kids. >> was there a wall on your son? [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. it put me at ease that you could smoke on the first week. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior,

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welcome back here. we are live in moore, oklahoma. there has been a lot of confusion over the last many hours over the death toll. last night state medical examiner told me on the air that

the death toll was about 40 or so. that has been downgraded. now they are saying 24 is the confirmed death toll. brian todd was at a press conference a short time ago with an update on rescue efforts. what is the latest on how rescue efforts are going? >> reporter: they do still consider this a rescue effort and not a recovery effort just yet. much of this is still a rescue effort. one of the officials, the fire chief of moore told us a short time ago that they are going through every single piece of damaged property at least three times. and they haven't finished doing that yet. they are sending dog teams in. they are sending all sorts of specialists into every house searching every damaged house and building at least three times looking for survivors. this still very much a rescue effort and not just a recovery effort. you mentioned the death toll that was revised down this afternoon to 24 at the moment.

nine of them children. seven of the nine were in that plaza tower elementary school that was levelled. the figures are the latest we know about casualties from this tornado. another significant piece of information that has come up this afternoon at this news conference, the police chief of oklahoma city at one point overnight last night and into this morning they had about 48 people reported missing but the police chief said right now just about all of them have been accounted for except he said a few people in moore. there may be a few people in this town that was so hard hit by the tornado who are still missing but that figure revised down, as well. >> so we may not know this because there is confusion about locations of people, all of the kids woo were at that elementary school that has been the focus, have they all been accounted for or are there still some missing?

>> they are still searching around that area of the elementary school from what they tell us. as far as all of the children being accounted for from that school they are giving indications that all of them have been accounted for but again they are still searching. they are hedging it a little bit. they want to make sure that they have combed through every piece of debris, every pocket of debris. as you know you have been in haiti. you have been in japan. in these situations after earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes you have crevices in buildings and among rubble that you think there is nothing there, where they may be a pocket where someone could be possibly alive. they are still sending in k-9 teams. we were in a very devastated area of town a short time ago. they still have search and rescue dog teams combing through there. they are using infrared to get through structures and vehicles that are damaged heavily.

still very much an on going rescue operation. as far as accounting for people they say just about everybody has been accounted for. they are saying not until we go through every piece of damaged property at least three times. >> i understand it's important to be as thorough as possible in searching things three times. the weather has let up here. that is a little bit more good news. the rain and lightning and thunder has stopped. that will make the rest of the day light hours a little easier. dr. sanjay gupta will join us live next and what kind offa urgent care is needed. our special coverage continues in a moment. we went out and asked people a simple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much

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moore, oklahoma. you can see what the moore medical center looked like a little more than 24 hours ago. today the hospital building is half of what it used to be. it is unrecognizable from what it is on the website. it took a direct hit. no one was killed inside which is incredible. look at the structure. the front of it, the facade has been stripped away. two story building is now just one story. no one can be inside at this point. three other area hospitals have had to step in. our chief medical correspond, dr. sanjay gupta joins me now. you don't hear about hospitals getting direct hit. >> we have heard about it twice, in joplin the hospital was in the path of the storm. it is remarkable because they are trying to hopefully be able to care for people who have been injured by this and they themselves become part of the storm. 45 bed hospital. i was talking to some of the

doctors working there at the time. tla did all of the things you expect them to do which is move patients away from glass. you have so many other considerations, oxygen, for example, radio graphic equipment. nobody was even really injured as a result of the efforts. >> when you see the images of the tornado it's not just the funnel cloud itself, it is all of the debris around. there is pieces of wood here. something like this becomes a deadly projectile. we are by a bowling alley, bowling balls all around here. if this gets picked up by the wind this would kill somebody. >> you hear about primary injuries the force from the tornado causes the injury. fast winds can cause injuries to the intestines without external injuries. >> the wind? >> as a result of the force and

pressure differences. and then you have the shrapnel and impalements, puncture wounds. and then the bodies are moving through the air and into something else. at the big trauma center around here, a level one trauma center those are the exact types of injuries they have seen. one thing they pointed out is they didn't see the same number of brain injuries or traumatic head injuries that they would have expected. they did see spinal cord injuries, crush injuries and other injuries. a little good news there. exactly what you would expect as a result of this. >> to empty out a medical center and bring folks to another hospital -- >> in the middle of a storm. i'm always stunned. they have to take care of people. we saw this after sandy, for example, as well. at the same time that they could become patients these health care providers and nurses and doctors are trying to evacuate

patients. >> there is also still a continuing danger you have wind and water. you have the rain. you have all of these search and rescue personnel going through the debris. that is pretty risky. you can step on nails. you can easily get injured. >> i was reading a study about this area in 1999 when they had a string of tornadoes, at least half of the tornado related injuries took place in the few days after the tornado. some of them minor but still significant people were getting electrocuted. people were turning on generators getting carbon monox side poisoning. these are caveats that people know it is hard to get back to the home. >> authorities have been telling people do not come to this area unless you absolutely have to, unless you have a home here or a loved one here. we will have more throughout the day. up next we speak with someone who survived the storm

by sitting in her car at wal-mart. she became a first responder. this is cnn's special coverage live in oklahoma. ♪ [ male announcer ] purpose elevates what we do. raises it to a more meaningful place. makes us live what we do, love what we do and fills our work with rewarding possibility. aarp connects you to a community of experienced workers and has tools to help you find what you're good at. an ally for real possibilities. aarp. go to aarp.org/possibilities. diarrhea, gas, bloating? yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. live the regular life. phillips'.

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back live in moore, oklahoma. the storm carved a trail through the area as much as two miles wide, 17 miles long. the peak wind was 190 miles per hour. finding survivors in the rubble seems almost impossible. more than 100 people have been pulled out of the rubble alive. joining me now is the mayor of moore, oklahoma, glen lewis. >> we are still looking for

survivors. we have two areas pretty much like this mostly in residential neighborhoods that we are seeing and going through with the thermal imagers and the dogs. the fema people are on scene. they have over 100 people to assist us with the dogs and cadaver dogs. >> fema search and rescue teams -- >> fema is on the ground. the director of fema is already here. they have established contact with us. we have had a meeting with them. we are fixing to go into cleanup mode as soon as we get done with the rescue effort. >> do you have a sense of a time table? >> as far as cleanup? >> yeah. when you are able to go into cleanup mode? >> we will wait a couple of days for insurance people to take photographs. we will start immediately. if you go across the street we have rooms that are getting the debris out of the streets. we have graders making sure the roads are clear.

this is the area you can get to. over by the school the lines are still down. >> i didn't realize how thermal imaging equipment is at each fire station. >> we do. we have that through the department of homeland security. they have been really instrumental especially at night. that's how we got so many people out of the rubble. back in the '99 tornado we didn't have that available. we may have missed some people. i think this time we have done a pretty good job of searching. we have had so many people help. when there is children involved you get volunteers from all over. we have multiple municipalities helping us. we are getting calls at city hall about one a minute. >> what is the situation at the school? >> all of the kids are accounted for. they told me. as far as i know that is what i was told a while ago about 20

minutes ago. so they are still going through looking for anybody that might have been left from a housing addition. we know that or think two of the people that were killed actually the lady who was picking up her child at the school, taking him out of school and got caught in the tornado. it was out in a field across from the school. other than that i think everybody has been accounted for now. there was a report that there were quite a few unaccounted for because the rolls at the school were lost when the tornado hit. >> i talked to the state medical examiner last night and they had double what the death toll is now. they may have miscounted. >> i don't know. i can't explain that. >> it is good news. >> i am glad that it is down in half. 24 from 51. five of those were in oklahoma city and the rest here in moore. >> when you look around this is the bowling alley.

you survived in '99. how does it compare? >> this is a little bit more devastation. the tornado in '99 was actually stronger. it was 317 miles per hour winds. we had the highest recorded wind speeds on earth here in moore, oklahoma. this was right at 200 miles per hour. you can see the devastation. this hit diagonally across the city. it is a lot more cleanup. >> do you think things need to be built differently? is there a lesson? >> the last time we did it we made them attach hurricane clips to the structures as we built them. that is about as strong as you can get. those with hold 100 miles per hour winds. a lot of people have purchased safe rooms after the '99 tornado. this time we will probably require them in new houses. that is something that we have talked about but we have never done because it is big brother thing.

i would like to say thanks to the president and the governor they sent tons of help. >> i wish you the best. >> thank you very much. appreciate you coming out. it is cold and rainy. thanks for coming. >> trying to do our part. someone road out the tornado in her car. now she says she has had enough of the storms and wants to leave oklahoma. [ male announcer ] does your prescription medication give you the burden of constipation? turn to senokot-s tablets. senokot-s has a natural vegetable laxative ingredient plus the comfort of a stool softener for gentle, overnight relief of occasional constipation. go to senokot-s.com for savings.

search and rescue efforts continue here in moore, oklahoma. john king is here. >> reporter: we want to show you live pictures, the moore fire department have come in to help them. they are here moments ago. you see a cadaver dog coming into the picture. moments ago a haz-mat team came through to make sure there were no open gas lines and no severe structural damage so if the guys came through a building would fall on them. you heard the fire chief promised to do a second and third swing through all of the homes. you see the homes are devastated. they were marked off last night or early this morning with the first wave through. they are picking through the debris. there are three or four dogs

with this team in this neighborhood. i have two of them in my line of sight now. this is the meticulous difficult painful work. we have been out here for a while. it was a cold driving rain not that long ago. that rain has stopped which has made this work i would say more bearable. it is painful and difficult and most of the fine gentleman are exhausted. the neighborhood is devastated and the dog just stepped on a nail. this is what you see happening. god bless the first responders and these brave animals. that one you see in the shot just stepped on a nail and his care taker is trying to make sure he is okay. this is the day after. they are hoping against the odds probably to find someone, to find someone and at least if they can't find anyone alive to help narrow down the list of those unaccounted for. >> and some dogs are cadaver

dogs and others are trained to find people who are still living. could be a mix. we don't know at this point because we are seeing different groups all throughout. there are a lot of different search and rescue teams here, some trying to find the living, some trying to recover anybody who may still be underneath the rubble and to at least bring them back home to their families. has that area been searched before? i know the officials here are saying they want to search at least three times every piece of debris. >> reporter: every house in this neighborhood was marked last night. you can see if anyone watched the coverage of tornadoes notices the red markings. you make a key point about the dogs. some of them have search dogs and some have cadaver dogs. you can see straight ahead here

chris turnerer our photo journalist is working hard today. they are picking threw are the rubble. where there is a storm basement they look in. where there isn't one you try to get a head in there to listen to see if you hear anything. sometimes you hear them shouting things to see if anybody shouts back. we have been in the neighborhood. all of the homes were checked once but in a very preliminary way and they didn't have as many people in the immediate minutes and hours after the storm. so they are coming through now that people have come in from all over the country to help them out. they are coming through to make a second wave and a third wave as they go through it. it is difficult work. they are exhausted and it is hazardous because of all of the debris. there is broken glass, nails, buildings as you can see are mangled and destroyed and worse. the teams are doing pretty thorough job going through now. they just came into the neighborhood a short time ago

and have pick axes, the animals and the work will take hours if not days. >> it's gotten a little easier in the last 30 minutes now that the rain has stopped. the thunder and lightning has stopped. it was miserable for about a two hour period. let's hope the weather holds so it helps the first responders in their work. i appreciate the report. jake tapper talked to a family whose 11-year-old daughter was evacuated. next. and humidity or the parts that purify the air. together, these parts can cut your heating and cooling bills in half. which is quite comforting. and here's the best part... call now to get up to sixteen hundred dollars back or 12 months deferred interest on select lennox home comfort systems. offer ends june 14th. plus download our free lennox mobile app with an energy-savings calculator. ♪

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the tornado turned survivors into searchers. whatever their training or background many became first responders running anywhere there were cries for help. our i-reporters snapped these images yesterday. she stayed in her car with no other choice. the tornado forced her back and boyd went on the move along with others. she joins me now live. you work at a doctor's office. >> yes. >> you got out early but you were in the parking lot in front of the walmart. >> yes. >> and in your vehicle when the storm basically hit. >> yes. i didn't really have much of a choice. i couldn't get out. the wind was too strong. it seemed better just to stay where i was rather than brave the wind and chance getting blown away. >> what kind of vehicle do you have? >> an accord. >> not like a big vehicle.

no. it could have gotten blown away if the wind was stronger. >> you were just hoping that the storm wouldn't hit. >> hoping and praying. there was a second funnel cloud sort of toward me. clouds were coalescing into this mass and they got sucked into the larger tornado which is what scared me, which i was hoping would just go the other way. you know, just hoping -- >> it went behind the walmart. >> it did. i got incredibly lucky. it did go behind the walmart. >> the amazing thing, though, is allot of people would have just gone home. you were on your way home. you saw a guy in the road handing out gloves. you pulled over and asked if there was anything you could do to help. >> it seemed like the right thing to do and i would like to believe that anyone in that situation would have done the same. >> you think from then on you were going around the neighborhood trying to do whatever you could. >> yeah. there was a residential area behind the highway and a lot of

homes were leveled and there had to be people trapped. so he told me and another person, you know, you're going to see a lot of stuff. you just need to be focused on what you need to do. keep your human emotions aside, and get people out. >> and this is your first tornado. what was it like for you? >> it is. >> to see that, people in distress like that? >> people in distress, it was difficult to realize that there were some people you couldn't help, you know. you had to wait for professionals. you just had to tell them it's okay. you know, there will be help on the way. and then there were others that you could get to easily and it was just you had this feeling of guilt for leaving the people. that you couldn't get to. >> you did what you could. thank you for that. >> thank you. >> really great to meet you. >> thank you. up next you'll hear from form survivors, more storm survivors in their own words. we'll be right back. in their own words. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] doctors trust calcium plus vitamin d

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we are hearing more and more stories from people who have survived this tornado. here are some in their own words. >> reporter: this is a very intense tornado. we have watched it go from a very thin rope-like tornado to be what aappears to be debris. >> this type of tornado will just level towns. this is getting very scary.

right now this storm is almost 3-quarters of a mile wide and turning into western side of moore. it is coming in. >> try to open the door. it caved the door in. once it ended we, of course, got out and i looked. my car is gone. i cannot find it. when i got home i realized there is nothing left of my house. >> i grabbed my dog and laid down and here we are now. it's destroyed. i was asking god to spare me and he did. he saw fit to see me through to another day. >> we grabbed our motorcycle helmets and hid in the closet and prayed like hell and the only room that was spared is the room we were in. >> what did you do to keep your family calm with all of this going on? >> i talked to them and was laying in the bath tub with the mattress on top of us. didn't say a whole lot.

just road it out. >> over at the school, if you stop and think about it, we had a small area of building that was completely devastated. we can't put people on top of the debris because we know little people are under the debris. so we are trying to meticulously pick up stuff. >> it was pandemonium with children crying everywhere and teachers and so forth. but very quickly things started coming together. everyone worked together to get the kids reunited with parents. at least for the kids at that school things worked out for the most part real well. >> everybody was trapped. it was crazy. we pulled boards and trash away. you basically ran from pile to pile and waited for someone to scream. >> it is like a battle zone. there is nothing standing. no trees or houses.

landmarks, you don't know where you are. >> we are getting hundreds of requests to check certain addresses and officers can't find the street or the block. there is no reference points. there is no addresses. so it's almost just kind of going area by area and searching those areas. >> our prayers are with the people of oklahoma today. our gratitude is with the teachers who gave their all to shield their children, with the neighbors and responders who helped as soon as the tornado passed. and all of those who searched for survivors through the night. >> the president speaking earlier today. some of the many survivors we have heard from so far. there are so many more stories to tell. this is still very much an unfolding situation here. our coverage continues throughout the day and the night. i will be back at 8:00 eastern

time and 10:00 eastern time. jake tapper starts right now. >> i'm jake tapper and this is "the lead" coming to you live from moore oklahoma where there is the lead, the race to find survivors. search and rescue crews are going through the debris, these homes on the southwest sixth street here in moore. you can see the rescue effort going on over my left shoulder. the rescue crews said they would be back in this neighborhood for a second and third time to make sure there was nobody needing rescue and recovery. the mission is daunting. rubble along the 17 mile long path carved by one beast of a tornado. it is at least two miles wide at points. we know that 24 people died when it touched down