now. this is an extraordinary image we're seeing. a real confluence of events here that continues to threaten millions of people. >> fred, it's been amazing to watch you and to watch the live picture, and to see a tornado actually on the ground hitting homes as we're speaking. live coverage of this tornado activity right now on cnn. fredricka, thank you very much. an interesting evening and it's going to get more interesting. this is serious, folks. this is serious now. we have been telling you since thursday or friday that there would be tornado activity happening this weekend, and that there would be severe weather. and now, here it is. many people facing the brunt of it right now in oklahoma, and if you were not watching cnn, you missed it. and you will probably see more of this, unfortunately, for the people in that area as we proceed throughout the evening here. we saw a tornado touching down. hitting several homes. a helicopter pilot saying, to his estimation, that this tornado that he saw, the one

you're looking at right now, look at that, about a half mile long and he said tearing up everything in its path. in wellston, oklahoma. also tornadoes in other parts of oklahoma, and this system is a humongous system from minnesota to texas, and anyone in any of those areas should be on the lookout right knew. look at this thing. this is unprecedented that we get to see something like this. and you can see the lightning and as this tornado went through and started hitting homes, you could see the sparks from electricity and from just debris on the ground there. we have reporters who are in the area who are trying to make their way. we also have affiliate coverage from our affiliate kfor, these live chopper pictures you're looking at now. again, fascinating to see this. very scary for the people who are facing this, who have to be in this path. and as we've been telling you, or fredricka whitfield, jennifer

delgado, they've both been telling you, you need to get to a place of safety, if you're in this particular area. cnn's jennifer delgado, meteorologist, has been following this. jennifer, unprecedented to see. a huge system we have been warning people about, and now it has come to fruition. >> absolutely right. we see these tornadoes popping up, these big super cells in parts of oklahoma as well as kansas all the tile. especially in the month of may as well as into april. the month of may, fairly quiet. typically we seen about 325 tornadoes for the month. right now we're running well below average. now, what we're looking at right now, this is our radar. we zoom into the area. oklahoma city, giving you an idea. then this is the area we're talking about. i think this is where we do have the tornado warning in place until 5:15. now what we're going to see is the storm. it's moving to the east as roughly about 30 miles per hour. and as it does, we're expecting it in carney at 5:15. earlier we we tawere talking

luther could be under the gun. the storm has taken a northerly track. as we go throughout the evening, we're not done with this storm just yet. by 5:40, kendrick and avery. we see the tornadoes coming through, these super cell, of course in oklahoma they are very prepared for this. you want to make sure you have a storm shelter. you want to make sure that you have a basement. if you don't have that basement, get into the interior part. don talks about this all the time. we've seen the video of the clouds out low are and see the tornadoes developing. seen some even in the last hour being rain wrapped. it's really hard to see. what we know now is this tornado warning actually look like it's been extended. aekd ago i said 5:15. now it's going to 5:30 central time and talking potentially 1,600 people being at risk of danger of potentially losing their lives. seeing their homes, like this tornado we're looking at come of our edmond and out of oklahoma city. we've seen power line, the

popping, these tornado getting wider. we've had reports of half-mile and it's not just oklahoma. we have, we saw these big tornadoes as well through parts of kansas. not far away from wichita. where we know that the national weather service office, the employee there's had to take cove, take shelter, because it was just too dangerous. yeah? >> jennifer, this tornado apparently hit wellston, in the wellston area. can you show us where wellsston is? >> in oklahoma. well, if you look over at our graphic here, this is wellston. this is fallous, where we're seeing the signature right now. just to the north of fallous. now, tighten back up a bit more for you to zoom back in. i think you asked to see wellston. and as we show you where wellston is, the worst of the weather has basically been to the north of that, but we still have that tornado warning in place. and we have actually several tornado warnings in place. we're looking at two. keep in mind we still have some as well in kansas. these are doppler indicated. the ones we're seeing out of

oklahoma, these are confirmed tornadoes. we're confirming them right now, dons, as we're watching them on tv as they're developing. we see the helicopter pilots out there. >> we want to make sure, as i said earlier, you're in the basement, somewhere in a center hallway, in a place away from windows. >> yeah. you want to be away from windows. make sure you're protecting your head. when we saw all the tornadoes coming through alabama, remember, two years ago, so many people were saying that, they would see less injuries if they had helmets out there. something to protect their heads. this is something else you can get. get into the bathtub, put that mattress over to provide protection as well. >> okay. so jennifer. >> yes, don. >> edmond. >> uh-huh. >> wellston, arcadia. >> yeah. track it one more time for you. hopefully ow producers can pull it up for you again. this is luther. some of these areas may not h e have, may not be very popular. may be open area, but what we're seeing, 519 to 538, potential,

this super cell moving through carney as well as parkland as well as into kendrick. let's hop over to some more weather science. this is going to kind of bore you. what we're looking at, far right screen, bottom left. base velocity. looking at storm relative velocity. here is our tv, tornado vortex signature there there is our inflow there. you can better see the development of that storm as well. again, there's luther, there's wellston, carney, yes, and you want to be on the lookout as well and, of course, meridian, hit with heavy rain. also reports of hail being 1.5 inches. >> jennifer, stand by. i'll need your help with this, but i want to tell our viewers. you are watching this unfold as we are. we're watching this with you and learning new information with you. we're going to rely a lot on our affiliates now. smac as a matter of fact, go to koco and live to their coverage. we'll be back. probably starting to pick up on trees on the reflectivity.

nonetheless, this is a huge tornado, and the amount of damage that it will do will be substantial. this will kill animals, farm animals. this is a very dangerous storm system that is moving through right now. so, yes. let's go ahead, and i know this is going to certainly do a lot of damage, humans, animal, farm equipment will get picked up. we need to watch this storm very closely. again, this is a tornado warning that is very serious. all right? it's a very serious tornado warning right here, and anyone in the path of this, if you're not below ground will certainly, certainly do quite a bit of damage. rusty what do you have? >> david, i have to agree with you. bottom line if you're not below ground you are risking your life with this tornado. that's how serious is. this is a high-end, long track tornado headed right towards carney. it's just northeast of fallous, west of farm road, north 3320,

and then the one to the east of that is north 3330, and then headed into the southwest sides of carney. i'll do a storm track from the center circulation. put it out going about 30 miles an hour if that's a little fast, that's fantastic. because we want to give folks a big heads up for this. so let me track this out at about 30 miles an hour here. and i'm going to have the zoom out, to give you the times of arrival. looking at carney, right around, i'll say even around 5:15. say carney at 5:15. trion at 5:30 and only agra 5:45. damon, right now, no stopping this. one other thing, steve and i just looked with a dual pole product, picking up a debris signature with this tornado. so it's been on the ground long enough. it's gone through enough populated areas, no doubt there's damage, damage is eminent with this storm. >> absolutely. i'm not surprised one bit that we are depicting debris out of this. as we mentioned, tree, farm

equipment, it's a very hilly area. so we are likely going to pick up all sorts of things. i can sooner see that right now within the radar. also want to just touch base on, not only this storm, also anymore storms that develop, which we are beginning to see. more storms develop just -- >> back with our affiliate coverage in a moment. live affiliate reporters from our affiliate koco in oklahoma. get now to our chief meteorologist chad myers on the phone. chad, a huge super cell and it has been whipping its way across oklahoma. you saw the live pictures on the air. described by the chopper pilot as a half-mile wide. >> reporter: right. you also heard that local meteorologist from coco, my home affiliate when i worked oklahoma. he talked about debris field. being the doppler radar, seeing things other than rain drops and hail in the clouds. seeing tree, seeing limbs. seeing parts of homes and shingles that the radar says, hey, wait. this is not a regular rain drop.

it's much larger. what we call debris. it can be insulation, anything out in the clouds. the storm has been on the ground for an amount of time. it is a stove pipe large tornado. if you are in carney, carney. now this is north of wellston and, don, wellston did not take a direct hit. it was a fuel miles north of the city. let me tell you, when you live in oklahoma, a few miles makes a tremendous difference. because even carney, about ten streets north to south, maybe six streets east to west. so less than square mile. if it misses by a square mile, you've missed the town. it muches such a difference in rural oklahoma. a couple of cells one under the word oklahoma city and one south of it, very close to norman. umm s i'm seeing potential for both of these to rotate. if they do, that will be in a

much more populated area. the chopper pilot is not in position to take a look at those cells but i'm watching them right here on doppler radar and will continue to watch them for you and keep you advised. >> chad, if you were looking just before 6:00 eastern time when we saw the tornado ripping through a neighborhood there, you saw the power lines being pulled up, you saw the sparks. describe to us what's going on, in that situation? >> well that was very close to the town of fallous, still northeast of oklahoma city. this current storm you're seeing with the word carney and all of those circulations is still to the northeast of oklahoma city and not moving back to the city. moving into the rural areas between oklahoma city and tulsa. so all of a sudden you see this tornado, and even away from the stove pipe, the vortex itself, power lines flashing, green, blue, sometimes yellows and oranges. those the power lines being ripped off the poles and then you see the big flashes when the transformers are going as well.

it's hard to see this tornado. a lot of rain wrapping around it. it was an easier pick cheture t the tornado. trust me, there's one in there, you can't see it because of the rain coming all the way around that storm right now. people in oklahoma, you need too pay attention. you always do. the noaa weather radio is the safest and most reliable thing you can also do. buy an app for your phone. it knows where you are. gps certify and know, you're in that, the big square, that big purple square and driving down i-44, you don't know the county, but your phone knows where you are, and it knows whether you're in the tornado warning and in danger or not. >> do you know oklahoma well? large city center, tulsa. tell us how far we are from those particular towns. those particular cities being in oklahoma city. >> well i think to say it would be a stretch. you're 70, 80 miles even at 30,

40 miles per hour. this is hours away. typically storms don't last that long, they will cycle, kill themselves. come around so hard they'll cut off their own circulation and it will die. in other storm, further south, kln charlie as we call it the next storm to the southwest will develop, and somewhere after dark, these storm will all line up. they will all connect to reach other, and the tornado potential will go down significantly. right now, there are three big red circles. one, two, three. those are circulating super cells. they are not attached to each other. so any one of those cells could rotate and put a tornado down. we know the northern one right now still happen that tornado on the ground. >> chad myers, can you stand by and just a moment here. i'll get back to you, i promise. i want to go to jason maclachl n maclachlan, oklahoma. a storm chaser. what are you seeing?

do we have jason? jason, are you there? >> yes, i am. >> jason -- don lemon for cnn. >> we can hear each other a little bit. okay. >> again, as we talk to jason, this is unfolding, you're watching it happen just as we are, and we understand in weather situations there can be issues with, technical issues in hearing people, getting pictures up. back to jason now. jason, a storm chaser, what are you seeing and hearing there? >> i have now -- i'm south of the circulation. i can no longer see it. it's still on the ground. i'm trying to reposition, but there was just roughly a half mile wide and that touched down. it stayed on the ground for as long as i could see it, which was around 10 to 15 minutes, and it was very near the community of carney right now. i'm back south of it trying to get back into position, but when the first tornado touched down it touched down near edmond and there was home damage occurs right underneath it and just a

lot of debris up there. >> and now as you're repositioning, how far away do you think you are from it? how close were you to it when it was happening? >> i was close. i was -- within a mile, of the half-mile wide tornado. i have top say i'm probably al goodell six to seven mimes south-southeast of it just trying to get back so i can get back into position and warn the people as it seems to move eastward towards the tulsa area later on. >> jason, be safer and stand by. i want to go to chad myers now. we can see a little more clearly this picture. look at the size of this thing now. >> yeah. it's a little difficult, don. i cannot see rows on the ground to know how large that tornado is, but clearly now, if you zoom into it it looks a lot larger. you'll notice, i'm seeing little pieces of debris in the sky rotating around the tornado. we know it is certainly in contact with the ground. you're in the town of carney or

anywhere neither northeast of carney, take every precaution you can. put on the helmets, your motorcycle helmet. get underneath anything strong. underneath the stairwell. most homes are on slabs. they don't have basements. they just don't. so very difficult to build a basement. you literally need to use dynamite. most are just on a slab concrete. get as low as you can on that slab in the middle of your home. put as many walls between you and the outside as possible. an outside -- inside wall. closet wall, make tlees. fantastic ways to stay safe. when you notice a tornado-damaged home, make one or two walls standing. you want to be inside one or two of those wall there's. you can see here, koco, the circulation is still on the ground, not that stove pipe, not wedge on the ground. winds in excess of 130, 140 miles per hour, i would say, don, as a meteorologist pointed out, pieces of debris flying in the sky. >> some might be confused why

the words are not going with the person on the screen. shop say voice of chad myers our meteorologist on there. chad's talking. this is a meteorologist from koco in oklahoma and he is on the air reporting live. the big thing, swirling thing that is a tornado that has touched down near wellston there, and in oklahoma. and this -- this is just east now. just getting new positions. just east now of carney in oklahoma, chad myers, continue. >> that's right. and we also are going to see this storm continue to cycle on and off. so even though you may not see a tornado on the ground now, that doesn't mean it's not circulation in contact with the ground proper. there just may not be the funnel all the way to the ground. the funnel is really just debris that is pictured up by the tornado itself. whether it's dust, wheat, any kind of brasses or shingles what we begin to see as it touches the ground. cycling on and off, up and down

and will continue for quite some time. oklahoma city is in no danger at this point from this storm, but there are more storms back out to the west of this storm, some of the more populated areas we still have to worry about, don. >> stand by, chad myers. we have you covered. chad myers, our meteorologist here in atlanta also our affiliates there. a number of affiliates. you see one on the air reporting live in koc oechlt. they've got you covered as well, they've got our backs we've got yours and we're watching and our meteorologist in-house, jennifer delgado. new information on the path of these tornadoes in the system. what do you have for us? >> update everybody. this tornado warnings we're watching and looking at in parts of oklahoma. this is going to last until 5:30. we're talking central time. now, since the last hour, a lot of these have changed over from the tornado warnings now to thunderstorm warnings. this is some new development. as chad just said for oklahoma city, yes. you can start to relax a bit, because we're looking at severe

thunderstorms right now, but no warning indicating tornadoes. that's good, but the area that we're watching to the north, west of chandler, that is still an area we're looking at with a tornado warning. tornado signatures spinning around nap threat will continue but we're seeing weakening on the radar and we track this for you, into avery, 5:49. the 6:00 hour, as chad mentioned, we are going to see this lining up and start to see some of that threat diminishing as we go into the late evening and overnight hours. >> we hope so. we hope it diminishes but you never know and we will continue to watch it. meteorologist jennifer delgado and chewed myers joining us. we heard from jason maclachlan and our affiliates there on the ground. if any of our viewers are in danger, we're on the air for you. make sure you stay tuned, much, much more on this super cell that it's making a way -- making its way across a big part of our country right now. those are the live picture, and we saw a huge tornado touching

down just moments ago, live here on cnn. we'll also have this -- some are saying that this past week, one of the worst of president obama's term. has he lost support of americans in the process? meantime, he and the first lady speaking to college graduates this week. both had some rather blunt words for tomorrow's leaders. what's the message behind the messages? we'll discuss it. all business purchases. so you can capture your receipts, and manage them online with jot, the latest app from ink. so you can spend less time doing paperwork. and more time doing paperwork. ink from chase. so you can. ♪ fly me to the moon ♪ let me play among the stars

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okay. i cannot tell you how serious this is, and you have to listen to us. if you're anywhere in the oklahoma area. i don't care where you are, pay attention, because you are potentially in imminent danger right now from a super cell of tornadoes. as a matter of fact, there is a new tornado warning out now, our meteorologist jennifer delgado has the latest for you. >> that's right, don. we just talked about this over the last maybe five minutes ago. now we're seeing, here is norman, oklahoma. we do have a new tornado warning in place, keep in mind, this area is highly populated. this is more than 100,000 people here. what we're going to continue to see as this tornado warning is in place until 5:45. there is our rotation. there is the area that's under the tornado warning. you can see it for yourself. that includes norm's as well as into new castle. we're seen numerous tornado warnings popping ut throughout the evening and continue to see that as we go through the next couple of hour, but the problem

is, when these storms go through, and this one is moving roughly at about 35 miles per hour, these are potentially dangerous, of course. they cause widespread destruction. we've seen individual video fro koco, and rain wrapped damage. i want to point out, for 5:34, keep's in mind, this storm producing a tornado indicated on radar could be in norman by 5:44. carl park, 5:48 and into parkland. this tornado warning in place until 5:50 local time. as we advance a little more for you. we've been talking, following things on radar, roughly how it's rotating and then the direction. as we zoom in a bit more for you, and remember chad talked about this earlier. how he said we'll see the cells going through the evening hours. then as we get later into the evening and the morning, we're going to start to see a line and then the tornado threat starting to diminish.

as i put this into motion for you and we start it off by 5:00 a.m. and through the morning, we're still talking about a severe weather threat as we go through tomorrow. as well as even into tuesday. anywhere you're seeing it in red, this is the area from texas all the way up towards minnesota. these are areas right now that are now dealing with tornado watches. these are going to last until 11:00, and that why i said to you, once we get late into the evening, as well as into the overnight, we start to see the storms losing punch, that's when we see it settles down. >> everybody is in danger. >> protect yourself. >> jennifer, stand by. we're all over the situation happening in oklahoma. a huge storm cell. a huge cell ham formed a wedge. >> lart wedge tornado. >> hail and tornado making its way across the country. our jennifer delgado all over it. cnn as well. new pictures, being told by

producers, getting it new pictures in. stand by. we'll get them back. there we go. new pictures of damage, jennifer. >> we saw the video earlier of some of the power lines popping. and we saw that debris and talked about this earlier. how we could see debris showing up on radar. proof that these storms moved through and potentially could cause this same teiype of damag in norman, oklahoma. not sure that was out of, don. maybe you have more information on the damage of the homes. this is a reality that happens through tornado alley and we saw scenes and reports like this earlier coming out of kansas as well. this is going to continue i. would venture to guess i don't know exactly. but i venture to guess where we saw the tornado earlier. >> oklahoma city. >> yeah. from our affiliate, kfor near carney and this is what happens. just listen. a matter of 30 to 407 minutes ago. >> absolutely. >> this place was completely intact and people were going about their days.

>> going about their day. >> all of a sudden, here you go. this is what happens to your property when a tornado comes through. it doesn't get anymore real than this. look at the tops of those trees. sheared off. the roofs of the homes completely gone. >> snapped off. >> and what's left of their belongings, maybe theirs are at the neighbors or mile as way stuck on trees, on power lines, and we saw people walking in this area just to the left of that a moment ago, and jennifer, stand by. chad myers. it's sad to see this happening, but, again, these are people's lives, and this is what's left of what they own. >> yeah. what you're seeing it, you're seeing damage created by an ef-3 or ef-4 tornado. an ef-2 take the chiang manies off the house, maybe a few 4x8 pieces of plywood from the roof. this roof tress, depletely goco

gone. 140 mile-an-hour winds, taking the top of trees and spinning them completely off. this is what we talk about, going through carney and back towards the southwest where it came from. moving to the northeast, towards agra. if you're in the agra area, this is going to be a difficult storm to see. i do not walton you out there looking for the storm. it is wrapped in rain. you won't be able to see it. >> let me stop you. i just got -- hearing from our affiliates. this is wellston. sorry, chad, sorry about that. >> the same parent cell. we talked about this tornado system we had in texas on -- on wednesday. and there were 16 tornadoes that's pretty amazing. four storms skipping tornadoes up and down. maybe four tornadoes per storm but four parent storms. the parent storm, the parent

super creell here is i believe e one that did damage on carney and towards agra and will continue towards the northeast wrapped in rain. i want you to pay attention and look more at the storm to the south and more in new castle and into norman. because this is. >> now where more people are actually located. many more family, many more homes. it is not an ef-3, 4 tornado going through that area but it's just still developing, still getting stronger. we should go to jennifer with that. >> jennifer has been talking about the path of this. we have been saying it's going to weaken over time, but it's certainly not the end of this. and, listen, this is what -- these people are going to wake up to see the sun is about to ge down and now they're standing out looking at their property, or their neighbor's property, whatever it is, and this is just heartbreaking to see. >> absolutely. we are looking at that video. people walking around surveying what's left of their homes there. we talk about this all the time, don. if you have a basement, yes, get

to the basement. when the storms blow through, they blow out the glass. you can suffer more injuries when you're not in an interior part of your home. looking at video coming in. you're seeing those roofs ripped off. chad just said, he is an expert at this. says it looks like potentially an ef-3, much like we saw coming out of areas of dallas just late last week, ef-3 and ef-4. keep in mind, ef 4, talking winds 200 miles per hour. now, as we go back over, and as chad said to you, we want to talk more about the storm. >> hey, jennifer, i want to stay on the pictures as long as you can, before we talk about the -- let's talk about again, according to affiliates, this is wellston. >> wellston, uh-huh. >> if you want to know what it looks like in your attic, you just saw it, with the air conditioning, and the cooling vent just completely exposed there, and this is -- >> trees down. >> this is happening as this thing really run rough schoshod

this neighborhood. people there with backhoes trying to clean up the mess off the streets. this structure, whatever it is, who knows. could be new construction, i'm not sure. whatever it is, it's completely flat. you can see the insulation from the homes. this is -- these are matchstricmatchstrick matchstrick -- match sticks that once stood no longer than 40 minutes ago. looks like he's trying to clear the roads possibly for people to get back into their neighborhoods and for emergency workers to come in. you can see what happens with a tornado as it comes through. you guys know more about this. it can skip over a neighbor's home, or the house next door to yours and they will have zero damage, and your house will be completely demolished. >> right. absolutely. that's right. when you see these storms picking up and tracking, picking up, they can skip over homes. what we're seeing in the video

of the damage, of course, widespread trees down. a lot of times you can aumtz see the direction, when you see the direction the storm came through. looking at video. we do know this is confirmed tornado, as we come back over to our graphic, we're looking at, don, and hopefully you can see this. looking at two areas. to the right of your screen and bottom left. our velocity. we can see, there is our tornado. this is norman. keep in mind, now, red. when you're looking at the different directions. red away, green towards. this is an area of indication that shows us where we have rotation on the ground. now, as we go back over to our graphic here and as you said, we want to track about how the storm is going to potentially affect more people, and the direction of it, and your looking at some of the meter ol ologists there, pinpointing all the damage there. keep in mind, we're still not out of the threat. this is going to last until 5 who 457. n -- 5:45. the storm is moving east roughly

30 miles per hour. much slower than we saw near the oklahoma city area. 100,000 people are in danger of this storm and norman, as chad just said, familiar with the area. these are highly populated areas. right up and down interstate 35. we're still looking at the threat of this storm as we go through. >> jennifer, uh-huh. >> i want to listen in to koco. they know that area better than we do. let's listen in for a minute, guys. >> -- a roof completely gone. more of a business with aluminum on the siding there. you know, that home was completely destroyed. i'm going to say this. this tornado is still significant. is still a tornado warning on, and this thing is headed towards the cushion and drumwright areas of payne county, and on the western sides -- look at that damage, damon, just ap tremendous tornado. quickly on the norman tornado, i have not seen that circulation tighten up, very tightly, but this is now crossing i-35.

you see the stream on the right-hand side now, keep a close eye, downtown norman, including the university of oklahoma. >> absolutely, yeah. so you can see the damage on the right, and this is the damage that came in fro lincoln, county there, a tornado that went through carney. unbelievable. we're focusing oun attention on what's going on right now no norman. looking at the right-hand side there, you can see that's jimmy -- jimmy's stream right there. thatting loose like he's having what appears to be a wall cloud coming down here. if we can go full, jimmy's shot, and put this on the right-hand side here. i want to focus what's moving into norman. that appears to be a wall cloud that is beginning to develop here. so we are getting a -- we are continuing to see rotation. right over i-35 here. it looks like we're probably going to see a little mini areas of circulation here, but it looks like right now -- >> okay. you that you damage. that damage in carney. we saw damage from wellston

earlier. the damage you just saw on your screen now is from carney. and it look like it was hit severely. severely hit by this tornado that up it had down there. chad myers on the other side of the break, we'll survey the damage and find out where this system is headed to next with chad myers and jennifer delgado. back in a moment. u 8

okay, everybody.

don lemon, cnn. these pictures speak for itself, of the horror and damage that continues to happen in oklahoma right now. looking at sadly, now live, people who are arriving back to their homes near carney, oklahoma, to see that moment of it, much of their homes, are completely gone. we don't know the extent of injurie injuries, if any. if there are any deaths. we certainly hope and pray that there aren't any, and you can only imagine, if you were nowhere near this, you can only imagine what these folks are dealing with now. carney, oklahoma, 5:38 p.m. central time. and they are coming home to structures, structures, such a clinical word. to places they've lived and have memories, where they've spent christmases and thanksgivings, and holidays, graduation

parties. and now this is what's left of all of that. nothing but the memories. this is new carney, oklahoma. we are also getting pictures from severe damage in wellston as well. our storm chaser has been following all of this. and he has seen the damage in wellston. he has seen the damage in carney. and he is still chasing that system across oklahoma. his name is jason maclachlan and he joins us now. jason, this is horrendous. do we have jason? >> hey, i can hear you now. i'm sorry. i can barely hear you. >> jason, this is horrendous. >> yes, it is. this is just a very long, very long track, violent tornado that still appears to be on the ground. i'm trying to reposition myself back in front of this a little bit. i'm actually approaching the west side of tulsa. obviously, a major metropolitan

area, a potential tornado could be headed there shortly. >> so as you were chasing this, jason, and you, starting with wellston, and we saw what happened there, describe what you were seeing, as were you going through, from wellston to carney? i believe wellston was hit first, right, and then carney? >> i didn't head in that direction. i faded out of that damage path to try to reposition myself, but you could see the destruction. it was moving across, there was debris being thrown up in the air nap was wrapping around the entire circulation. which was very large. i mean it was at least half mile wide, and it could have been larger. it was just, what's the word, embodied environment that was around it. >> and you are out of harm's way now, we certainly hope. because you put yourself in this danger so we can get an idea of what happens with these storms and really for research as well. pts not just the thrill of being

a storm chaser. this helps every single time at getting people out of these situations and responding to these situations. how far out of town are you? do you know? >> southeast of the town. radar says roughly 15 minutes. heading towards a community out about 15 miles west of tulsa. probably coming pretty close to. we're out here, the chasers, to try to save lives. we give a lot of warning. a good 20, to 30 minute warning before the first tornado actually touched down and began doing the damage. definitely saving lives and hopefully know as much as we do it, it still happens, losing property and lives. hopefully we can stay away from that as much as possible throughout the rest of the evening. >> jason, we want you to be safe. stand by. if you get closer, we'll come back to you. is chad myers there? chad? >> i'm here, don. >> look at this, chad. it's unfathomable.

i know we cover these stories all the time, but from moment to moment to moment, it's amazing how quickly your life can change, and then here it is on your screen. >> let me just put it in perspective for people that have never lived in tornado alley. here's what i see. i see people bond. i don't see search and rescue. i don't see ambulances. no panic. i don't see people digging through rubble for loved ones. and you can put all of this back together, but you can't put lives that are harmed back together. and it's -- the fact that i don't see panic in anything here. i don't see people scrambling or returning. they're probably walking and understand that this is -- it doesn't happen to you, but it happens every single spring in oklahoma, kansas, nebraska, iowa, missouri and any part of tornado alley. the fact that i don't see rescue squads trying to recover people

is the best thing that i can see on all of these pictures. >> yeah. and, chad, these are new live pictures from kfor, and i don't know what this is of. imagine it's a home. it's a pretty large -- not a home. maybe it is. i'm not sure, and i don't know the exact location, but it's a rather large home, or a business, and the roof, you can see there, has been damaged tremendously. and those are the folks standing outside of their now surveying the damage. i think it's really important that you don't see chaos and you don't see people searching through the rubble, and that's a good indication. correct? chad? >> it is. it is. there was enough -- jason talked about this. the storm chaser just talked about it. how much preparation, how much time was between when the warning went out and there was the hit. everyone knew it was coming. if you're there, you hear sirens, there are sirens everywhere. sometimes you get in cities

around other parts of the country, you don't know it's coming. you don't have radio, tv on. the people of oklahoma, with a day like today, they knew it was coming. they over got out of the way, underground, or just -- two or three minutes ago i saw a picture of a two-story home, don, and the second story was almost completely gone. the bottom story was still intact. why we seek to the lowest level. the higher level get into the higher winds. you don't want to be upstairs. if you live in an apartment complex, say new castle, find your neighbor on the first floor. knock on the door, may i please come in. i'm on the third floor. it's not safe up there. that's what you have to do to stay safe, stay alive. >> chad myers, thank you. don't go anywhere. and jennifer delgado is with us, and our storm chaser, jason. that is a panel truck and motor

home, and they have just been tossed aside, like something just came and pushed them over, obviously. tornado winds did as if they were nothing. that they weighed nothing, and there you go. that is just a small extent of the damage. we're going to continue to follow this until everyone is out of harm's way. look at that. a super cell, making its way across oklahoma. our weather team on top of it. cnn severe weather center on top of it. we'll have live coverage for you. meantime, other news is happening. we'll gelt back to that. despite the recent controversies, the obama administration, the president's job approval numbers are holding steady even showing a slight increase. according to a new cnn poll, 53% of americans approve of the job the president is doing. 45%, however, disapprove. the survey was conducted friday and saturday, and cnn's last poll in april, the president's approval rating was at 51%. 51%, in april, when we last checked. this comes on the heels of what could be the worst week of the

obama presidency. the irs scandal. benghazi e-mail, the justice department secretly season phone records from the associated press. the without is juggling three different kroefrgs controversi now. rene, the white house is on the defense. president obama's approval numbers yet are on the upswing. how is the white house reacting today? >> reporter: right, don. 53% approval rating is welcome news for the president, but it is so clear that the white house is ready to move on. the president's senior adviser dan pfeiffer, appearing on all five sunday talk shows saying that they won't be distracted from the important issues, like jobs, and they won't participate in "partisan fishing expeditions." now, on cnn's "state of the union" pfeiffer said that even though top treasury officials were aware of the irs investigation last year before the election, the white house did not know until a few weeks ago. >> here's the cardinal rule when

you have situations like these. not just for this white house but all white houses. you do not interfere were an independent investigation and you do not do anything to get off the appearance of interference in an independent investigation, but the treasury department knew. >> as they should, because they oversee the irs. >> all right. and the majority of americans say that what the irs did was unacceptable, but the majority of them, 55%, also believe the irs acted on its own when they targeted conservative groups. but the president did not do so well when it came to benghazi. the majority said they were dissatisfied with the way he handled the attack in libya, don. >> before you go, i've got to ask you this question quickly. some democrats saying republicans are playing politics with these controversies. are these scandals translated to a political gain or loss for republicans? >> reporter: well, according to our poll, it ind dhats more than

50% of those questions say that republicans are actually not overreacting, and they are actually just phied in taking action concerns both the irs scandal many as well as benghazi, but, don, the administration already working to shift the focus back to issues look immigration and jobs. we should let you know, this scandal not going anywhere anytime soon. top irs officials involved, they will be testifying again on capitol hill this week. don? >> thank you so much. appreciate that. it is common for commencement speakers to challenge college graduates, to inspire them. but the words this week from president obama and the first lady have been pretty strong. even blunt. have you been listening to them? have you listened? we're talking about the message behind the message, next. queer going back to tornado alley here on cnn because we want to make sure everyone is out of harm's way and see how people are dealing with this huge super cell that's moving through oklahoma right now. the pictures are incredible.

the damage is tremendous. we're live with it, right after this break. and do you know your... blood type? a or b positive?? have you eaten today? i had some lebanese food for lunch. i love the lebanese. i... i'm not sure. enough of the formalities... lets get started shall we? jimmy how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? happier than dracula volunteering at a blood drive. we have cookies... get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. ♪ fly me to the moon ♪ let me play among the stars ♪ and let me see what spring is like ♪ ♪ on jupiter and mars ♪ in other words [ male announcer ] the classic is back. ♪ i love

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kfor. earlier. and not that much earlier ago because keep in mind this happened just before 5:00 p.m. eastern. 4:00 p.m. central time there. and you can just see this is really unbelievable to watch right after many times, many times these things happen in the darkness of night, in the dark of night and then we don't see it until morning light. and now we are seeing it in full force right now. we'll get back to that if there are anymore watches or warnings or anything to update you on. keep it right here. we'll get it for you right here on cnn. in the meantime, this is supposed to be a season of inspiration. it's graduation season across the country. it means lots of speeches. the president and first lady have been delivering straight talk the past couple days. the president braved a thunderstorm to address the morehouse college class here in atlanta, class 2013 on today. we're going to let you hear some of those remarks in a moment.

you're going to hear that. michelle obama spoke at buoy state in maryland. she had very blunt advice for her audience an the rest of us. we have gathered three of our favorites to listen to their remarks and give us their reactions. first up, anna, elzy, for cnn. you know their story. you watch them every weekend on cnn and other platforms as well. terence moore is with me as well, longtime writer and columnist and a sports contributor to cnn.com. so i want to start, and the first lady's comment, everyone, struck many people and some of the first lady's remarks at buoy state. a historically black college in maryland. here's one that got everybody talking. >> as my husband has said often, please stand up and reject the slander that says a black child with a book is trying to act white. reject that.

>> you write about that all the time as a columnist. >> that's exactly right. you know, that's been going on for years, don. this is nothing new. years ago -- >> i don't think we've heard the first lady and the president be that blunt. is it because it's not an election year anymore? >> i'll use a sports analogy. barack obama was jackie robinson in 1947. okay. the first year, you got to hold back, okay? now it's not 1947 anymore. he can say what he really wants to say. one thing about specifically about what they said, that's been going on forever, where in the black community a lot of people have who spoken well, they're considered to be kind of white in the way that they approach things. okay? and we've always had to get over that. >> okay. listen, guys, we don't have as much time that i'd like to spend. i want to spend a lot more time. we have breaking news and that's obvious. just so quickly, elzy, how did that comment sit with you? were you offended by it? or is it the first lady telling

the truth here? >> first lady is telling the truth. terencce is right. it's the conversation we've been having in the community. it's a conversation every community has. there are many immigrants having this conversation about how to you succeed in this country while still maintaining your own individual culture which is important? and how do you achieve at a high level without making it appear as if you're leaving those that you come from behind? as a parent, i constantly struggle, do i send my child to a predominantly white private school or a school in the neighborhood which is more diverse and not as good? do i want my son to grow up to know what it means to be black? what does it mean? it's an ongoing conversation. it's right and smart to bring it up. >> you're there in chicago. as i understand, you're relocating to chicago and will have to consider that with your child. we know the situation that is happening in chicago right now with the schools and with violence. anna, you heard what l.z. said. he said it's not just black kids, perception of black kids. hispanic kids as well. you're acting white because you

speak properly and you read. >> a think a lot of it is economic. i think it happens even in poor white communities. certainly it happens in hispanic communities. you knows don, i spent some time with michelle obama. i've met her several times. spent some time with her when her husband was a candidate. this is a very authentic woman. a very grounded woman. and a very blunt speaking woman. this is how she's been her entire life. this is the way i've known her. i've heard her tell the story about her father many times. and i think there's something to be said for the way she said it, for who she was saying it. this was a necessary wake-up call, tough talk, straight talk. we can't forget what some of our fore fathers and fore mothers have done to open doors for us. >> right. >> you know, there's four minority right now on tv because people came ahead of us and broke glass ceilings and were pioneers. so she could not not say what

she said, particularly where she was saying it, and to whom she was saying it and because of who she is. >> she's right. she said, listen, one in three african-american students are dropping out of high school. only one in five african-americans between the ages of 25 and 29 has gotten a college degree. we're going to talk about this conversation more on the other side of the break. don't go anywhere.

okay. breaking news here on cnn. there's been some horrendous damage in oklahoma. just before the break, i promised you that we'd have more on the president and the first lady's talks. we don't have time for that right now because this is such a severe situation. i'm don lemon. very close to the top of the hour. about 20 seconds away. you're in the cnn newsroom. i want to get you up to speed on what's happening right now. tornadoes are raking across oklahoma right now. warnings are sounding in the