earthquakes or any region prone to mother nature's wrath? it is the luck of the draw for these folks, the unlucky part of the draw. that will do it. >> this is a fox news alert. extremely dangerous tornadoes have been tearing through oklahoma once again after lashing the state last night. you are looking live at pictures near oklahoma city. there is estimates one tornado could be a mile long moving 190 to 200 miles an hour. this is a very serious situation and we are keeping close watch on it. let's go live to shepherd smith in our newsroom. >> an extremely serious situation with reminders of may 3rd, 1999 in oklahoma city, outside oklahoma city where the devastation was unbelievable. let's go to pictures as they are coming in from moore, oklahoma just outside oklahoma city to the east. any live pick 250urs --

pictures in the control room would be preferable to this. if you can put them on the screen i would appreciate it. a storm, a tornado now believed to be as wide as two miles wide went ripping for more than 45 minutes across an area east of oklahoma city. the storm has flattened an elementary school. there are fires burning across the land scape. the number of injured and beyond is at this moment impossible to determine. the tornado touched the ground, and we watched it form during the 3:00 hour eastern time on fox newschannel. it dipped from a cloud very thin and looking not only thus at all and then the entire cloud formation made its way toward the ground. this tornado by local estimates from multiple sources over the last 15 minutes thousand said to be two miles wide. for the longest time it was going across an unpopulated area and then it got to moore,

oklahoma. the pictures now indicate much of the town of moore is leveled. neighborhood after neighborhood, block after block of nothing but rubble. the tornado sirens had been sounding for frankly a longtime. the warning was out from every television station this the area. seek shelter immediately. this is an area they are accustomed to bad storms. but if there has been anything like this at least since 1999, i can't remember what it would have been. there have been areas where we have seen widespread destruction, widespread casualties, but something of this nature i have not witnessed. i believe we are at the beginning of an epic event. this is a school that was not destroyed, but we have seen video and photographs of another school and elementary

school of which there is nothing left. two schools have been hit. home after home, from the initial look from the air, dozens an underestimate and hundreds would be safe. structures are nonexit meant. the storm never lifted from the ground. we watched it live from helicopters for a solid 45 minutes. it was not always over populated areas. but when it was it roared through. there have been pictures in the last 15 to 20 minutes of people inside an absolutely ripped apart school looking through the debris for anybody who might be trapped. it is our hope at this moment that everybody who was in this area made their way to storm shelters. it is our hope they did. if not, the casualties could be very severe here. the local news stations were all on the air as this

happened and most of them were showing live pictures of the tornado and these are the pictures we were showing on studio b and neil cavuto showed until finally and mercifully this storm lifted back into the clouds and the clouds lifted, and now there is a tornado warning for another area nearby. janice dean is in the fox weather center. janice, where is the warning right now? >> the warning is east of moore. if we can take maybe a split screen and i will show you the radar right now. there is our tornado watches. we are focused on oklahoma, but we could see destructive weather across authority texas and missouri. i want to show you, shepherd, we have seen these tornado warned storms for 30, 40 or 50 minutes. typically you see a tornado warning for 15 minutes, 20 minutes max, but these storms are holding together. these are super cells that don't have anything really around them. they have their own energy.

they have nothing to take the energy away. this tornado warning continues to move north and eastward. the pinks you see, that's reflective tee and we are seeing the potential for rain-wrapped tornado and hail. moving north and east, this is oklahoma, just in oklahoma in and around the oklahoma city area several tornado warned storms here. and then the storm that moved out of moore right there, there is oklahoma city so the pictures we are seeing of the devastating damage is from the tornado that now is moving north and eastward. it might be a separate super cell, but these -- this line of storms is holding together. that's the most dangerous news we can have in meteorology. if they hold together they will do more damage to more pop layered -- populated regions. as we go through the evening this is going to continue unfortunately throughout the evening and even to tomorrow.

a wide swath where we could see strong storms and then this area here in red where we think all of the storms will come together. you can see the line i superimposed the radar on. it shows the line of storms that moved through oklahoma city and with it the super cells and the tornado damage. >> janice, thanks. stay close if you will. back to live pictures from the oklahoma city area. actually this is video from moments ago, but live pictures are coming in as well. the choppers were up over these devastated areas for a matter of a few minutes. they have simply moved away from those areas now as search and rescue work is under way. this is from associated press, a mile to two-mile wide destroying homes for a second day as part of the weather outbreak that is expected to spread. a massive block by block crowd dragged across the landscape just south of will rogers world airport which is the international airport for oklahoma city.

the video on television has shown this twister devastating parts of the city of moore. we do know a school was leveled there. we watched pictured live as folks were inside that school trying to rescue anybody who might be rescuable, and the pictures on the right hand side of your screen i believe tell only a small part of this story. everyone was warned, seek shelter, seek shelter. the hope is that everyone did. from these same storms that hit yesterday in the sact -- in the act same area one woman said she was in the storm celler and the tornado ripped the lid off the storm celler and she was afraid people would be sucked out of there. the hope is nothing like that happened today. janice was talking about the severity of the storm. they talk about ef3's and ef4's or whatever meteorologists talk about, but our understanding of things is in the preliminary stages here they believe that this tornado

produced winds up to 190 miles an hour. were that a hurricane the maximum sustained winds would be similar to that of the strongest hurricane on the scale. when this tornado came roaring through this area it leveled everything. we heard a report from the moore city hall right in the center of town where the public information officer said there is debris flying high in the air above city hall. what happens is these storms pick up the debris and then deposit it all over the place. those bits of debris become missiles. the fear is the missiles have been part of the day today. these are live pictures coming in now. there are a number of fires burning it is our understanding. most often these fires happen because the natural gas lines get punctured and a spark sets off a fire and look at the neighborhood beyond.

i believe we have natural sound coming to us from the chopper. if we do it would be better if we could track that natural sound coming from this chopper right here. it is unbelievable what we have been able to witness there today. we are switching back from one feed to the next and the next. this i would presume is coming from a storm chaser who is driving through the area. the live bug at the bottom of the screen indicates that these are live pictures coming in. fire after fire it is our understanding now burning in the area. if yo on twitter you know as i do that the damage is not like anything anyone expected. right now emergency crews are requesting that everyone stay out of moore, oklahoma. they are struggling to get help there. the task of putting out fires will have to be left for another moment. a fire truck simply cannot get through. emergency workers are trying to find people who are alive

and trapped in all of this. let's listen in here. >> an identical path and an almost identical destruction. all you have to do is pan up from this fire and now just pan up and widen out as wide as you can. there is the path, kelly. that's from here to the irway at moore and up to i-35. you can see the theater there in your picture and you can see the path across i-35 and it gets more narrow when it gets on the eastside of i-35 and narrows down again. i can almost bet that if you had a map from may 3rd, 1999 and over layed it on this tornado now it would be almost the same path. the only thing i can tell you -- the only thing it did trent on may 3rd 1999 is when it crossed interstate 35 it went more directly east straight toward lake draper. make 3rd, 1999 went toward

straight toward tinker and made a turn and went on the west side of tinker and then across i-40 and they had the same pile of cars we showed you earlier. >> we are continuing to listen in the background to this chopper noise. if you look from left to right across your screen everything is gone. they are talking about a massive system which broke out in 1999, may 3rd. there was some 60 tornadoes. the worst of it all in the town of midwest city in chickasaw, oklahoma. right here in moore where a storm in 1999 leveled everything around. it is the storm by which all are judged in this area. today the same journalists in many cases who were reporting in 1999 are seeing what happened in a stretch in moore, oklahoma and are reliving that moment in absolute horror. live pictures, i have no

context on this, but a little talk from the chopper is helpful. no context. please continue that. these are most likely residents who are coming to look through debris to see if they can find anybody who has survived and needs help. listen in. >> this is just -- this ain't good, that's for sure. people are digging through the debris. sorry, kelly, it just gets a little hard to talk here. >> what we are witnessing is a chopper reporter who was there in 1999 and now is looking from above and seeing all of these people trying to help who ever is trapped in home after home after home after home and it goes for miles.

we are witnessing an absolutely devastating afternoon in and around oklahoma city, oklahoma. this is in particular moore, oklahoma where we cannot even begin to guess and will not try the amount of physical loss of property and beyond, the staggering cost of what we have seen. and of course most importantly about all we can do is say a prayer and give a hope for the people of moore, oklahoma. where the tornado sirens blared and the weather men said please take cover that the vast majority did and the people of this strong region have managed to survive the likes of which we haven't seen in many years. joplin, missouri comes to mind, a town that was absolutely wiped off the map. that was about two years ago. joplin, missouri, however, was

a storm that didn't stay on the ground as long. a storm that was not as wide. and now the chopper reporter listening from above and looking as people search through that debris for anybody's mom or dad or anybody's son or daughter who might be in there and needing help. let's continue to listen to the live sound from the chopper. in a moment we will go to our correspondent who is not there, but nearby. actually kasey stiegel is in shawnee, oklahoma who was hit yesterday in a devastating way. >> i am standing outside of the casino right now where we have been hunk erred down. i am staring at a wall cloud as i speak to you. the cloud is off to our west and getting really dark. it is headed this way. it is sort of jogging, this cell right now, that went through moore, oklahoma where we are seeing this

devastation. the cell crossed interstate 35 which is to the southeast of oklahoma city metro area. and then it broke up. it is starting to sort of reform again. the meteorologists have their eye on it. we have been watching the local weather reports. seasoned meteorologists from the oklahoma city market that have been sort of taken a back by what has happened this afternoon. they are keeping a close eye on this. we are about 30 miles to the east, southeast of oklahoma city. we came here because this was one of the hardest hit areas of shawnee where two of the fatalities were reported yesterday. basically we are at the casino near interstate 40 which is a major freeway running east-west in oklahoma. this new cell that produced this gar began shaw --

gargantuan tornado is jogging to the east along interstate 40. we are bat toning down the hatches. safety is paramount and as soon as these storms pass and we are out of danger we will try to get over to the moore area as soon as we can. it doesn't look good. >> i want to give our viewers updates on important matters we just received. we just learned that the moore medical center was among the dozens if not hundreds of buildings hit and has been evacuated. as for medical facilities in the city of moore, if there are any we don't know about them. we can further report, i mentioned an elementary school has been hit and in large part destroyed. that's briar wood elementary. there are pictures out of there at the moment, but no reports of any injuries from there, at least not right now. the word we are getting from

moore, oklahoma is residents who had taken shelter in their tornado shelters and others who have not been injured in this are just out by the hundreds if not thousands trying to help people who have not been so fortunate. so look at the house in the center of the picture there that is largely untouched and then the piles of boards next to it tells a story and so does this. it appears they have set up a medical triage center in the middle of what i believe is the parking lot of a school. if they have doctors there they are very fortunate. friend is helping friend and neighbor is helping neighbor in the middle of what most likely is the worst situation of their lives. some may have been there in 1999, but so many i'm quite confident were not. the pictures are coming in and out. these are not live pictures, but pictures from a moment ago, and these are live pictures coming in now from outside this school.

they are breaking up a little bit, but you understand with the weather like this our signals depend on weather not as inclement as this. and every time the chopper pans around you get a sense of the absolute devastation. there is an ambulance on scene which is a good sign. some houses are left standing. in someplaces we see piles of rubble. a few minutes ago the chopper was paning over an area where all you saw was foundation after foundation as if the tornado had picked up whatever once stood there and hopefully not who ever once was in there. kasey stiegle down the road in shawnee, without going too in depth been given an idea how far away this devastating weather is from you? >> it is less than an hour away. as i am standing outside, it is not raining outside, but we

are staring at a wall cloud. it is making the jog east. obviously so much attention focused on moore because we know that area has been just devastated by what you have been describing and what we have been seeing as well. certainly there are a number of communities that are by no means out of the woods yet. certainly shawnee, an area devastated just yesterday less than 24 hours ago is now in the cross hairs. shepherd, when we are talking about these winds starting to pick up, obviously it is way preliminary, but the national weather service has sort of been talking to some of the local reporters here. they can't really make a determination in terms of what the scale was of this thing if this was an ef4, an ef5, the way in which tornadoes are measured. we know an ef5 is the strongest, but indications look like this could be an ef5. winds in excess of 200 miles per hour. that's stronger than the

category 5 hurricane and that's why you have seen such devastation coming out of the moore, oklahoma area. and it is important to note that -- this is southwest oklahoma city. that's the issue here, shepherd. this is a densly populated area as i'm sure you know. this is an area that has schools in it, has malls in it, densly populated, a lot of homes, a lot of businesses. it is frightening to think of the casualties we could see here. >> when you look at these live pictures coming in, again all we can do is hope and pray. some information coming out of oklahoma city now. the national weather service was cautioning people in and around moore and ahead of the system because it is still on the move that there is not a tornado on the ground at this minute. the national weather service says it means absolutely nothing. just as we watched a tiny funnel cloud had come from a sky and out of the cloud and within 60 seconds became a

massive twister on the ground. it can and the national weather service believes will happen again. the national weather service was cautioning that the tornado passing through moore was so large that the people on the ground may not rec cog thighs it as a twister -- recognize it as a twister. they could not see the tree through the forest. it was so wide that it looked like an enormous cloud on the horizon. once the twister came upon them it would have been entirely too late. twitter is a buzz with all that has happened in this storm. the truth is emergency authorities are not able to get together to bring us information which indicates exactly how bad this has been. the picture on the left hand side of your screen may tell us all we need to know for now. here is a quite from moore, oklahoma. this is much more massive than may 3rd of 1999. that's from the reporting of kfor. the 1999 storm as i mentioned in this area was the worst

that anyone there has seen. it has cut a path across this landscape that forever changed these communities. today out of breaking news from the scene i cannot confirm, but from the scene we are told that this is a much more massive event, much more catastrophic event than the one we saw 14 years ago. janice dean is in the fox weather center. janice, there is more to come on this. >> there is, sheep erred p. watching the radar and oklahoma getting the worst of the weather. we are starting to see cells develop in and around west and south of dallas. of course we had the ef tour tornado earlier this week north of dallas. but oklahoma is in the bull's eye. we have several tornado warnings right now. one on the border where wichita falls is between oklahoma and texas and one south of oklahoma city. if you want to take a split

screen i can show you where the warnings are. several warnings in and around oklahoma city. you see the red, shaded areas of polygons, those are warnings. this is a watch until 10:00 p.m. local time. you can see these storms lined up, these super cells. also a tornado warning just north of oklahoma city and one north of tulsa and then we have another storm moving into the kansas area. this is an on going event throughout the evening and the heartbreaking part is it is moving into areas that were hit yesterday. the pictures you are showing in moore, oklahoma, i can just say my friends that live in oklahoma city he is a meteorologist and he said one spot of good news, many schools and buildings upgraded their facilities after may 3rd, 1999 and it saved a lot of kids today. we will continue to bring you the footage out of moore that seems to be the most devastated. unfortunately as we go through the evening hours and you know

tornado alley this is the ripe time for tornadoes. 4:00 central time, 5:00 central time and even into the 6:00 p.m. hour. that's when the daytime heating has taken hold and these storms really erupt out of no where. this will be an on going situation and even into tomorrow we have a bull's eye for this area for severe weather. >> janice, this storm is staying over the same area when normally they move east. >> it is a blocking pattern right now. these storms are not moving quickly and it will continue into the overnight and into tomorrow. the same areas are getting hit hard and shawnee which got hit yesterday, predictions are an ef4 in that area. they could have strong storms moving through there. people are trying to salvage what they can of their homes. the debris could just cause injuries. oklahoma right now is the bull's eye. oklahoma city, north of

wichita falls. we are seeing warnings around oklahoma city, so this is not over yet. to see them last 30, 40 minutes, you know, tornado warnings typically last a few minutes. to see these cells not move quickly and last so long is just heartbreaking for this area. >> it certainly is, janice. we cannot at this point report with specificity what has happened here in the way of casualties and property damage, but you can see the pictures that we are seeing. it looks like just an orange path that goes -- that's the path of the tornado which sat on the ground. janice mentioned the forward motion of the tornado was not fast. it is as if the storm was moving in a forward progress not quickly at all, yet the winds within the storm itself were very strong. the longer the strong winds batter one place the worse the

devastation is going to be. we talked about hurricane andrew which moved across south florida and came in at 30 miles an hour of the it devastated that area in south florida, but the winds were high. other hurricanes that come this very slowly and moving at 5 x -- 5, 6, 7 miles an hour, those are what we worry about because the high winds batter the same place for a longer period of time. this has been that situation. kokh, our news affiliate with live pictures now, listen. >> it is right over i-35 and 244 around that area. it is rotating would you say? >> it is not rotating. it is pulling itself together and then blowing itself apart. >> that's exactly what the radar is telling us. probably not spinning and circulating enough to produce a tornado or even a wall cloud or a lowering, but just enough to do like you are saying there. it is cycling a wall cloud and

a lowering right now. that's fine. we don't need anything spinning or rotating out in that direction. that storm has had a history of producing a large, violent tornado and tons of destruction. john slater heading south of per sell. purcel. >> we were south of 102. >> this is local coverage. they are surveying areas that are in front of it all and frankly for a national audience that is not helpful. i am able to give you specific information about two elementary schools. two schools have been destroyed according to multiple reports out of the area. it is our underst kids were down in storm shelters and local authorities said people had to be underground to survive this thing if it was able to hit your area.

most of those students if not all of the students were down in the storm shelters. that's not to say there are no casualties. it is too early to report on that. this is around a -- around moore, oklahoma. the camera lens has gotten blurry. it is difficult because of the water they have been through there. this is my belief one of those elementary schools. you can see on the top part of your screen a part of the school that did not get hit and the bottom part of your screen, the part that did. the buses are lined up out front and from the city of oklahoma city we are getting reports they are dismissing the elementary and middle school students that had held people thereafter class hours making sure that there was no more danger to them. the last place you want kids in the middle of a storm is on a school bus and getting live pictures in. all of these are live. we don't have a way of knowing exactly where they are. look at all of the people who

have come from nearby areas to see if they can find anybody down in all of that. people that could be rescued. the communication lines are down. cell towers have most likely been toppled. phone lines are down. roads are blocked. in many cases the way you help is by coming from your home to your neighbor's home. authorities can't get to all areas. the tornado came through and the helicopters were watching, circling. we watched for 45 minutes this massive storm. and it went across largely unpopulated and completely rural areas for the longest time. the hope is that's how it would continue. throughout we kept getting where moore, oklahoma is in the path of this. they were hoping at some pointt this hurricane could lift back into the sky before it got to moore.

it did not. instead after it left moore, oklahoma it lifted back into the heavens and left what you are seeing now on the ground. it is 5:30 on the east coast, 4:30 in oklahoma city. this is fox newschannel's continuing coverage of the massive tornado outbreak which no doubt will be known as the may storm of 2013 that as you can see on the other side of the screen has left much of the town of moore, oklahoma in ruins. the rescue helicopters are in the lower part of the screen. the news choppers fly higher and all you can see below is devastation. all of this debris had been taken up into the tornado, spun around and tossed away. in many cases cars are on top of each other. buildings are burning, homes in flames and we have watched as the chopper has gone

neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood of nothing but twisted metal and broken boards. jonathon hunt is joining us on coverage. we have no reports of casualties yet, jonathon which is heartwarming. >> it is heartwarming to see that. when you talk about these tornadoes we know they have suffered so badly in this area before back in 1999, and a lot of the storm shelters were rebuilt after that both in homes and importantly it would appear in schools. when you look at the pictures of the damage to the one particular elementary school it is terrifying to see. obviously it is more terrifying to be anywhere near. the hope right now is that everybody got those warnings, heeded the warnings and took shelter where they could and the casualties will be limited. we have no direct word on any numbers whatsoever at this point. everybody just hoping and praying that the numbers

remain as low as humanly possible though when you look at that damage you look just how vast it is and how widespread it is and how extraordinarily devastating. it is hard to believe we won't hear of some casualties, but we hope and pray for the best. >> we have gotten word two towns, moore of course as we have been saying and another nearby town suffering local authorities quoting devastating damage. i don't think we needed the authorities to tell us that. so you know the authorities are now weighing in and new castle and moore, oklahoma have gotten the worst of this. frankly they are telling us we can't get in there to assess this. new castle and moore and one official in this area has said this may be the worst tornado damage that has ever been seen. there is no way for one person

in one local area to make a comparison of this kind. if you live in tornado alley and you experience what these people did in 1999 and you have been rebuilding your storm shelters and watching these things with the keenest eye as someone in new orleans or south mississippi or in areas where andrew or hugo hit in the carolinas or south florida watch hurricanes, these people watched the tornado outbreaks and frankly so do people like me. i have never, never seen this. our chief meteorologist is on the line with us. rick, there is no way to know an ef this or an ef that as we are looking for people to save. >> you know, there isn't. what i can tell you, we have been out here following a couple of different cells throughout the day today. we got on a different one than the one that hit moore. however, the radio station is

cued into a local broadcast and they felt a couple of spotters were confident it was an ef4 or ef5. by the pictures you are talking about, that kind of damage it sounds like. >> and rick, the astounding thing about this is how slowly, according to the locals and from the pictures, it was moving in forward progress and how heavy those winds were. the longer is batters any one thing the worst the devastation is in the aftermath. >> if you have a storm with 200 mile-an-hour winds and it is in and out of there, it does a lot of damage. if it is moving about 10, 15 miles an hour which it appears this cell was, it just rips and shreds everything. nothing stands a chance when you have that kind of a wind for that longtime. >> i know you heard of reports out of the farm there. it is a 106 acre farm outside

of moore. 75 to 100 horses killed at what they call oar farms in moore. a massive farm that a lot of the locals are familiar with in and around. anything living in that area, it is our understanding was picked up in a way that -- if this tornado can pick up a home and spin it around and toss it in all directions there is no safety for humans. >> well, there isn't. you can see the types of structures, heavy vehicles that get tossed. we talked with a woman in shawnee and that ef4 tornado that went through there, she was hearing their debris was scattered to tulsa which is 70 miles away. from an ef4 tornado that went through quickly, very different than what you are seeing from this tornado hitting in a far more populated area. and it looks to be a much stronger tornado. >> it does. and rick we were listening to the public information officer for the city of moore as the

storm was coming by. and he said he could look up and see a debris field in the air. >> you certainly would be able to. this kind of debris is probably still being carried through the air at some point. there is probably still debris being scatter ited 50, 100 miles downstream. and sometimes not small debris. you can have heavy debris that is caught up in the air and carried for a long ways. >> news breaker is reporting that all of the classrooms at this elementary school, that they had done what they could to get people to shelter, but there were children still in the school, and it appears at least from what i get from multiple organizations they are trying to get the people who need help, help. i think we are just at the beginning of this. i remember the first pictures came on nbc news the morning

after hurricane andrew came across south florida. there were no reporters in south florida. everyone in miami and fort lauderdale and beyond thought oh this has been okay until nbc was the first to get its chopper into south miami-dade around there and you realize there is nothing there. when these choppers got away from covering the funnel cloud you can see on the right to covering what the devastation was from the funnel cloud you realize we can't know just yet what has happened except to see these buildings and the heros emerging to help their neighbors is paralyzing. >> you said it. i am hearing on the radio station here from one of the local broadcasts and there are a couple of reporters from local stations who are in the area and talking with people who are still trapped under debris and have -- not to be graphic, but impaled and

waiting to be helped. this is the ultimate crisis situation. we are trying to get there right now, but there are a couple of things. for one, there is a tornado dropping in front of me between me and moore. so i am trying to go in that direction, but there is another tornado that is forming here. that is making it difficult. i was in tusk ask you loose saw sh -- dash task loose saw a couple hours after that one and the an of damage it did. all of the trees are scattered all over the road. you walk down a street you recognize it because the road signs and all of the debris goes and you have no idea where a street is any longer. you have no idea any reference point. it makes it difficult for emergency officials to get in there because the roads are not even recognizable. they initially have to get in and get the roads passable so the first responders can get

in and begin to get people. the media, it is hard for us to get in and so many people in the media want to help, but it is difficult even for people -- they are saying we don't need people in the area and they need to let officials do the work they are doing. >> i know you are not near a monitor, but they are watching what is happening on the screen in utter horror. people in their short sleeve white shirts and yellow shirts and blue jackets who just a little while ago lived in a town with their neighbors and sent their kids off to school are now on top of piles of completely unrecognizable debris and pieces of plywood and insulation and sheet rock and in the center of it all are working with extreme

urgency and you wonder concentrating on one area and you wonder are they hearing sounds from beneath this? are they digging in this one place because they know of somebody who needs help? there is no ambulance roaring to the rescue. there is no fire truck, no police department coming with lightning speed. there is no way for that to happen. roads are blocked and phone lines are down, cell towers are off, fires here and there and schools have been leveled and residents are trying to help their neighbors and removing this and that and the other thing hoping to find somebody alive. we can hope that when all of this is over every resident of this area across all of these

many miles in an area that is as wide as two miles at some point, that every single person made it to shelter and that every single person is fine. but it would be safe to assume that with of something of this magnitude the reports of days to come are maybe quite sad indeed. you don't even know what this pile was. one thing i can tell you with absolute certainty is that when you see it from the air, you cannot know how bad it was because the camera lens is not wide enough to show you how far and wide it stretches. you can only know that if you sit there and process it yourself and realize it traveled this far across this densly populated area. and in the screen which i can see right now which might

be -- maybe this is 100 yards wide that shot just the cross of a front of a building, i can see cars where they don't belong and debris from elsewhere, a roof ripped off. and as the chopper camera widens out i can see people wandering about and debris from somewhere and as you continue to pan eventually i see another neighborhood where home after home after home after home is reduced to rubble. how do you begin to coordinate a rescue? many are tweeting how can i help in moore, oklahoma? what can i do as i watch this unfold all afternoon? so many of you i am quite sure at about 15 minutes to 4:00 this afternoon eastern time turned on the television and watched with us in horror as a tornado dipped out of the sky. at first you thought this funnel cloud, that's cool, a wide open area. i am seeing a funnel cloud develop and then turn into a tornado when it hits the ground maybe for the first

time ever. we don't live in tornado alley. then it is wider and deeper and goes farther and farther and suddenliy there is a city and you are still watching. yousuddenly the tornado has passed and this is what is left behind. there aren't enough choppers to show you the area. we know some areas are fine. those are the areas the tornado skirted, but the areas where the slow-moving monster of a funnel cloud actually went through are left in many cases reduced to nothing. we know two elementary schools have been hit and now if we can take the left side full we can see the path it took. when you see the orange area that's what you are seeing there is the earth being turned up and the debris field scattering in all directions. these are live pictures as we look into what i believe used to be people's homes. one after another and a car on top of a building and rescue

workers cannot get in yet. the only way in and out of some areas is by air. so you drive as far as you can and then you walked within the area and you try to help who ever might need help. you go into storm shelters and you make sure everyone is there and if you smell gas you try to find a way to turn the gas line off. if you know of people who are elderly or infirm who may not have gotten to a shelter, you try to get to where you knew they lived. and as you move through these neighborhoods where the destruction is more intense you look for street signs which no longer exist. in hurricane andrew in the early going there wasn't a street sign for block after block after block. just finding where the people you know were is turned almost impossible. janice dean -- >> i will be right back. >> okay janice will be right back.

we have a split screen -- are both of these pictures live? the left hand side of the screen is live and the right hand side of the screen is video we thought you might find of interest. our job here is to bring you perspective and context on what you are seeing. the fact of the matter is i can't do that very well because there is just no reporting to be had. james moody is across from a school that was destroyed. james moody is on the line with us from moore. describe what you are seeing and what this school is. >> i am actually looking at the school right now. it is splays wraw towers -- it is plaza towers elementary school. >> describe what you are seeing if you could, james. >> there is a red car on top of the school that was tossed there. there is children all over the place and parents trying to

find their children. there are children still in the school that they are trying to locate. that's one effort we are trying to take care of right now. everything in my sight is completely gone. it reminds me when i drove through joplin, missouri when i went to see my parents where the heart of the f5 hit, and that's exactly what i am looking at now. everything i can see is gone. it is sad. it really is. >> james, it is my understanding that your home was hit as well. >> yes, sir. i'm looking at it. we just got to go in. we saved our wedding pictures and the kids' stuff is all gone. i told my daughters, well this is just an opportunity for you to go shopping for new clothes. but our house is completely gone. there are emergency vehicles

all over the place. gas smell is rampant. they are in the process of trying to get the gas turned off. we just gave all of our towels and blankets to people to cover up the children. i am not sure what those were used for, but they took them down the street. there are all kinds of children sitting on the curb from the elementary school and they have them blanketed up. we are over here trying to get -- just see if we can hear any kids. >> james, do we know how many of those kids are hurt? >> from what i can see down the way, there are some emergency responders. it doesn't look like any of those children are hurt. >> they had a huge shelter for this school, right? they are prepared for this sort of thing. >> to be honest with you, i

can't answer that question. i don't know. >> were you there in 1999? >> no, sir, i was not. >> i'm sure you know of the storm. after that storm i know that underground shelters, the number exploded all over the area. the school systems were going to be able to get students underground when this sort of thing happens, and we can only pray that's what happened. >> well, yes, sir, that's what we can -- just sitting here my eyes are being drawn to -- of course there is a smoke haze and something is on fire in the distance. i'm a believer in jesus and by the grace of god me and my children are alive and our house is -- we can repair it, but what is available is relationships. right now i see a lot of people hurting, a lot of people. >> james, as you look around,

as we look from the air there are some areas wiped out and some areas okay. do you see anything still standing? >> well back to my east there are houses that are standing. they are right down there. i think they are okay. neither. >> tell us what happened. >> there was just a family that walked up and asked about one of my neighbors if they are okay. >> have you checked on the neighbors. >> yes people walking up to see. if you had a number i can shoot some pictures and send them to you like the car on top of the elementary school. >> you know sadly, james, i am watching -- we were just watching moments ago and this video of the car on top -- >> hold on. sir, thank you so much. were you inside? i am on the phone with fox national news. >> that is the car which he is speaking. that is the elementary school about which he was speaking.

that is a horror for those little -- what mom or dad doesn't hear that and then -- >> well i couldn't get in here awhile ago. >> just the position of the kid on the -- the sight of a moment we have no reports of injuries to those children. and it's our hope that's how it stays. james moore, are you still talking to the neighbors? are you available for us now? >> i'm watching a child going away on a stretcher right now. i don't know if they are hurt badly. [inaudible] [child speaking] >> there is a kid that just got taken away on a stretcher. >> shepard: ambulances are able to get in there? >> i don't believe they can get in here right now. >> shepard: i guess somehow

they got a stretcher in there, at least. >> yeah, some type of emergency provider got in here. i just walked back in my house for a second. i have got something i need to take care of. i have got water pouring down inside my house. >> shepard: we will let you go. james moore. stay on the line for a second if you have time and our producers want to talk to you otherwise give us a shout back. james moore who is outside the elementary cool -- james moody, i'm sorry, who, in moore, oklahoma. and it's my understanding from coverage from reputable news organizations in the area on twitter and beyond that a number of children have been taken out out of there. as we watch them pulling the debris from what was the top of that school, some children had been trapped there and they were able to free some of those children. and even still we don't have reports that any of those children were even badly injured. the reports will continue to come in throughout the

afternoon, no question. we are witnessing an absolutely catastrophic event. and a very sad day for oklahoma and for all of america. as an absolutely unimaginable storm has just devastated this town. kokh, our network news service affiliate and fox affiliate there on scene with live coverage. listen. >> parents are walking several blocks to check on the kids over at briar wood. and we just arrived here. we just parked our cars. so, still gathering information, but we will keep you updated on what everything looks like here in moore throughout the evening. >> briar wood elementary also a concern at this hour. and priscilla is our first one to get into moore at this hour. we will continue to get more live pictures for you and more information as the story develops. at 5:15 we will be talking to bill warren. >> shepard: i have now, as i was able to stop talking for a moment, i have been able to gather a little bit more information.

and 75 kids -- you heard the warnings before the storm hit. shelter in place. if there is not a place to which you can go, stay away from the windows. go to the center of the building. get in a bathtub. put a mattress over your head. all of those things we have heard all of our lives. 75 children at theament tri school at plaza elementary were sheltering in place in safe spot as they have been taught for some years when the tornado hit plaza elementary school. the roof came off it. the walls were collapsed around them and they were trapped beneath the debris. those 75 are still working to rescue all those 75. many are out and free. assess the kids were pulled out of the plaza. it is unclear may be hurt. another local report in fact. all the reports are exactly the same on this matter. the number of fires in the

area has supposedly increased according to the reporting of fox there and others. most likely because gas is he escaping it is almost always the case that the gas lines don't shut off and they have to get in there and shut the gas lines off, which causes fires. but hopefully people are away. and the latest we have is that cbs is reporting -- well, cbs is reporting that some people have lost their lives in this. and, of course, it would be hard to imagine that they did not. but we can hope that the number remains small. we know 15 children are unaccounted for at plaza elementary school. a fact which we can explain away in a million different ways getting lost or separated in this area in the middle of all of this chaos of kids trapped beneath boards and bars and parents searching for them and neighbors through the chaos trying to figure out who is where and where is my child and oh here is your child. that 15 will -- are

accounted for could we can't get them accounted for. until we know otherwise, we will hold on to that that said, there are multiple reports of multiple fatalities out of this area. one person missingor farms outside of oklahoma city in moore there and 75 to 100 horses said to be among them and now the reports of fatalities are coming. in i don't see the need for getting into specifics at this moment. a small child here, an elderly person there. we can see how wide this tornado was. we can see however this tornado traveled. the devastation this tornado wrought. the fires in its path. we see the heros pulling rubble away from what was an elementary school looking for little children who shermted in place in the hallway and must, at this moment, be as confused and scared as ever in their young lives. being taken away to some place of shelter impassable

roads and areas to which medical personnel cannot travel. just an absolutely horrible scene. but, i was in oklahoma city after tim mcveigh brought down oklahoma city federal building and watched in awe and just mesmerized by their greatness as they were able to pick themselves up by their boot straps. hug each other and make their way to a new day and they were heart land strong and a beacon for all of america and, frankly, for all of the world in the heels of the devastation they have suffered. today they will be that beacon for us again. first they have to find the missing and bury the death. rick reichmuth is in the area now. rick, what do you know? >> driving north, the tornado in between us and moore about 35 miles between us and there, that is past.

the road is cleared. it's very wet but we are on our way in to try to get there and get there and get some information auer out or pictures out as well or additional pictures. you know, a scary thing, there is a number of tornadoes still going on in the area. that's a big concern because it depletes the resources for everyone. even more difficult for people to get in and out. but we right now still have about six or seven tornado warnings right here across areas of oklahoma. east of oklahoma city and norman where that tornado hit. >> shepard: thank you. kwtv and other local television stations are reporting a 3 month old baby and 4-year-old child are among the dead in moore, oklahoma. the only way we would thee this at this early time amid all of this devastation is if they were able to if medical

examiners and others were able to confirm such a thing. it's our understanding that is what has happened. as we look, this is the order of the day. this is the urgent matter of the day to remove the debris and make sure that there are not living people below. who are still in great need of help. this tornado first dipped from the sky as a funnel cloud at about, if memory serves 7 or 8 minutes until 4:00 eastern daylight time. so 7 or 8 minutes before 3:00 there in oklahoma city. and in this case in moore. it was just a sliver of a thing coming out of the clouds sort of thing i have seen over and over again working as a reporter in florida or as a kid in mississippi. the little slifers come down across much of the country. but in this part of the country, sometimes those slifers come down and widen and widen and widen that's what we watched.

this one widened on the ground 1 to 2 miles. the same tornadoes hit in this area yesterday are said to have according to rick reichmuth carried debris from the place they were uprooted more than 70 miles. tornadoes so massive and so powerful that it's able to lift pieces of buildings and all the rest, carry them in a cloud above and eventually deposit them elsewhere. and it's our belief that that is what has happened today. by the thousands out working on rescue efforts at this moment. by the thousands they will do so as darkness begins to fall. it's fast approaching 5:00 eastern daylight time and in around moore, oklahoma and other areas where tornado warnings are in effect, you realize the power of mother nature and you realize how fragile all of this really is and with 75 kids in the image thereof in the middle of that hall in their safe space when it all crashed

down around them. i'm shepard smith. our will continue throughout the afternoon and evening. "special report" continues with bret baier. i will continue with the fox report one hour from now. our best and prayers from oklahoma. >> bret: i'm bret baier in new york. this is a fox news alert. a mile wild tornado packing wind speeds of 1 0 miles per hour in the oklahoma city area is reducing neighborhoods to rubble. leaving cars and trucks crumpled on the sides of highways. that monster twister has also leveled two schools. emergency crews are scrambling to get anyone who might be trapped inside of any of the buildings out. correspondent casey stegall is live on the phone in moore, oklahoma with the latest. casey? >> yeah, bret, good evening to you. we are on i-40 heading west into moore where we have seen just utter devastation this evening with this massive storm that swept through spawning a tornado. really, some things that are sort of unheard of, we have seen with t