stretches for miles in all directions. what is does from moment to moment is absolutely uncertain. and we watch along with you to wait and see what will be the aftermath of this incredible storm system. it is 9:00 on the east coast, 6:00 p.m. on the west coast and "n america where a major disaster is unfolding live before our eyes as we watch. the national weather service warning for two days today would be a horrible weather event. as bad a condition and as significant a storm trajectory as anything they have seen there in several years. they announced it would be the worst time of the day when they believed the massive systems would begin to produce tornadoes and right at the end of the window of time right at

6:00 central time they started t form and now they are racing across metropolitan oklahoma city. started west of the city, about 30 miles west. began a track that was first due east and then southeast and then northeast and then one of these tornadoes just went right along interstate 40 as it tracked right into downtown oklahoma city. tornadoes were falling from the sky in areas to the north and south of the city. arepáhto the west have been hit. we have eyewitness reports of mobile home parks being flattened, of people being injured according to authorities. a number ofxpeople said to be missing throughout the early evening there. reports froñ authorities that the rain clouds around the individual tornadoes in somñ cases have been so heavy that motorists have driven right into the tornado itself. we have multiple reports of semi trucks on their sides, widespread damage and a storm that is still on the move. if youn for "hannity" tonight, "hannity" made room for what appears to be a

historic storm that is now tracking across the heartland. q9here is our hope. our hope is they so much warning that most people went to ground but you just before the storm came through just before the sun is set we could see lines of cars stretching in all drrections out of the city of oklahoma city, especially to the the north and south as they try to get away from this massive storm system. casualties, we know there are some and we don't know how many. by casualties i mean injuries. we have no idea how many. we have no idea exactly where the damage is and we can't know exact le where the next tornado will land. look at radar are image in the small cube in the bottom right of the screen. all of the pink a as it gets and the fear is that the worst of this may not be over. lieutenant jay barnett of the oklahoma city police department is still compiling info. sir, and on the lien with us now.

what could you know in general -- what do you know iñ general terms? >> what we know right now is we do have significant damage and power losses inside the oklahoma city metro. we have a lot of that damage we can attribute to flooding and high winds. still parsing through the reports to try to "etermine if any of that is actually involved with a tornado touchdown in the oklahoma city metro. we had large rotations move through and we do have some damage. we don't have any damage at this point that i can report that would be consistent with a significant tornado touchdown. of course, that storm has continued southeast out of the metro into the bell city area. they had a touchdown in other parts of the oklahoma city metro. >> shepard: what do you know about the reports from the west? i know you are are hearing them like we are.

>> one of the big problem hes and what we saw out there, people running from the storm in their vehicles are not only exposing themselves to a great deal of risk but actually impede our ability to deliver emergency services and also our ability to restore utility services on the backside. so if you are running from the storm just as it is coming into the area you are way behind the if that was something you were going to do you needed to do that a long time ago. at this point we are asking people to please shelter in place, please stay off the roads so we can get emergency equipment and emergency services delivered to the areas that need them. >> shepard: lieutenant barnett, we were watching over storm chaser cameras as the oklahoma highway patrol was westbound on i-40 and shutting down exit after exit as clearly according to radar a tornado was tracking along i-40 like it was some sort of massive vehicle. it is was horrifying to watch.@

were you watching that? >> actually, i was watching pieces of that and i would agree with your description of it. it was certainly terrible to watch and we can only hope and pray that the injuries that are going to be associated with that are not as seve)e as what the images might indicate. >> shepard: i hertainly hope you are right because we have seen that in the past where are a storm just tracked along and these are pictures from earlier as one of the tornadoes was forming where they track alock and track along and looks awful and then after it passed you you realized it was only on the ground in a very small section and didn't actually end up hitting anything that was populated. are as bad as it seemed, people fared well, that is what we are hoping for. that is all we can do at this point. >> absolutely. and that is really what we are hoping for. and we have a lot of reason for that in the oklahoma city area right now. obviously this was a large storm and it was on the ground

for an extended period of time in some less dense any populated areas. we don't know what the damage out there was and again we hope that there was no loss of life or serious injury there. i don't know, i have not heard any confirmation on ank of those or not. i can tell you at this point we are -- i'm hopeful that we did not have a se significant touchdown in the oklahoma city area. even though we do as i said we have some significant power outages, we do have significant flooding. damage. but nothing -- and probably right along the track of the floor of the storm. that does not mean that we have had a tornadoic touchdown and again what we are seeing in the reports at this point we could not confirm any sort of a touchdown. >> shepard: i hope you are right. i hope there is not one to confirm. lieutenant jay barnett of the oklahoma city police department. all the best to you and your team. thankxyou, sir. >> thank you, shepard.

>> shepard: we have just gotten from the national weather service the best way to know exactly what happened is to wait for the national weather service to say it. the national weather service does not come out and say there was a tornado unless they are 100% sure meaning they have gone out and surveyed the area and someone who is on the payroll for them has reported it and it is confirmed. we have two confirmed now from the national weather service which now reports officially two tornadoes in the oklahoma city metro area. officially the touchdowns were 26 minutes ago and another one developing in del city. all of that now confirmed what we have been reporting is now confirmed from the national weather is service. jeff pietrowski's camera is live for us. rick reichmuth liv$r' the weather center. why don't you weather geeks talk this out for a minute. >> i would love to. tornado warnings stretched all the way towards st. louis. the folks at the national weather service office in st.

louis just had to exact because they are under a tornado emergency right there. obviously we have been talking about oklahoma city. a chaotic event when you you have got the tornadoes rotating so quickly around each other and so close together and we are also dealing with rain-wrapped tornadoes.p@ you have been on the storms now for well over at least 90 minutes or so. you earlier saw the one large wedge tornado to the west of oklahoma city around the el reno area. and following the storms to the east and through oklahoma city, were the tornadoes do you believe getting smaller or weaker as the energy split between the numerous cells? have any idea on that, jeff? >> i'm on i-20 west of mccloud. it's coming down. to answer the question there was a large very large tornado. they have gotten smaller because they have gotten rain dragged. west of the city they were not rain wrapped, they were large

tornadoes and they were some four and a half miles wide. a mile wide south of reno and utah. wide and devastating in -- in oklahoma city metro smaller but i have not been able to visually see them or see the damage. smaller because of the rain wrapped make them not impossible to be large but smaller bt can still do significant damage. >> what are you seeing out on the roads right now? we have been seeing the images of the cars stuck on the interstaáes. as you are out there right now i know you have a ton of traffic around you. still seeing people stuck out there in harm's way? >> yes, at tinker air base base, traffic is backed up, i had to go down the road to escape the tornado coming out of tinker. áhe traffic is backed up five to eight miles. tornado coming down just to the east. look at the live picture right now. you can see just the situation

is now west of me. rapidly rotating. should have a code ton momentarily. a visible cloud on i-40. a new developing tornado tracking down i-40. so in the air, just insane rotation around me. tornadoes rain wrapped. a number of tornadoes. a number of people injured. i'm hearing some on the westbound bad, cars being flipped and 18 wheelers flipped. personal friends of mine have been injured. not going say the names right now because of family members. we have been tracking the tornadoes as they go through oklahoma city. fall scale tornadoes right now in oklahoma city, tulsa on up toward the st. louis area. tracks southeast. and what is going to happen now as we get towards sunset is what we call the low level jets or are rick you can talk about that but the winds aloft are going to start intensifying so

the tornadoes will increase intensity as they move southeast as the low level jets start helping them to produce more violent tornadoes as we get towards sunset and that is the bad point the next three hours. >> you are right and that will be for the next few hours until we get into the late overnight hours where it will decrease a little bit. the klahoma highway patrol is reporting numerous peoxle trapped in their cars. this is to the west of the city around the el reno he are(y they have been having to rescue people &uáz and they are reporting multiple injuries. ow are to the east of the city and last week the day before the moore, oklahoma tornado there was the shawnee tornado. how far away are you from that area that took that direct hit a week ago sunday? >> okay, more breaking news. anyway, the tornado is tracking at -- i'm on i-40 now and i need the gps right now to tell

you the current location. i-40 toward meek cloud and tracking towards shawnee. i would tell the peple in shaw you knee to take cover. the rein wrapped tornado continues. just south of mccloud on i-40 and shawnee is just ahead of me. just off to the northwest of shawnee. about five miles. the tornadoic storm is tracking towards shawnee and there is a tornado developing now on the south side of i-40. it is tracking right towards shawnee. it will be in shaw you knee in probably 9 to 10 minutes. >> i'm seeing that same thing on the radar in the direction of this. shawnee took a direct hit a week ago sunday the day before the moore, oklahoma tornado and caused extensive damage and two fatalities in the area and now they are back in the direct path of this again. the storms seem to be right now 4ñ area and moving to the south but they are training and moving in the southward

progression slowly. in your estimation, how long do you thr'k until the overall oklahoma city metro area maybe down towards norman is out of this? >> probably about an hour. heavy rain but what the models forecast will happen is the low level jet intensifies and creating a barrier and send an outflow boundary back. the storms will develop north of the current complex and you will get new rain breaking out to the north of this. a low he level jet and new storms develop north as the whole banner tries to lift back north. >> so you think at least another three-mile-per-hours for the greater oklahoma -- three hours for the greater oklahoma city area? >> heavy rain will continue. as well as large hail and heavy rain as the storms continue to move into the heavier dew points here. the rainfall rates are one to three inches a.b. hour.

you are talking about torrential rains. flash flood warnings for the metro and tulsa. that is what the model continues to forecast. i wi&l continue to track a lowering down the cbs side of i-40. heading towards shawnee on i-40. i do not see a tornado on the ground. i say there is a strong likelihood that additional tornadoes potentially damaging making its way south and east of oklahoma city and it moves east of the oklahoma city area. >> jeff, i was just in the shawnee area last week and in many cases a lot of farmland but then there are the small towns dotted there. a number still in the path of this. on the left side what appear to be a few power flashes and a lot of lightning. seeing a lot of lightning and i would imagine big hail with these as well? >> i did have big hail earlier and some power flashes and widening as well. i want to go back to the radar. i have a developing tornado on

i-40. based on doppler radar, a new tornado developing new to the southwest of mccloud and also going to be the west of shawnee. coming down. a new tornado warning with the new tornado and tracking along i-40 and again it is going to be tracking between mccloud, south of mccloud and bethel acres and this the direction where the tornado happened like you said about two weeks guy. >> in the camera this you see right there we are seeing a few power flashes and a lot of lightning with the storms. so, i can tell you right now it certainly looks to me that incredibly heavy rain is causing massive flooding in the area. that certainly makes it a lot harder to get through. but you are also past sunset now so a lot of the pictures we are seeing is it fully dark at >> it is getting dark. it is slowly getting dark, yes, it is getting dark. >> shawnee which was hit before.

roughly how long until you think the developing tornado might be in the area? >> looking at the norman doppler, not very far from shawnee. maybe 10-15 miles west of shaw you knee. a lot of emergency vehicles now. i'm running going to the eastbound here on interstate 40. >> i wanted to tell you, jeff, i wanted to tell you we had a tornado warning on the west side of town, southwest of el reno. that tornado warning has been dropped and turn inside a severe thunderstorm warning. likely big hail and strong winds. happy to see that tornado warning at least for now dropped off of that storm. but the new tornado warning is directly right over the shawnee area as well as heading right in towards norman, oklahoma, that is where the storm prediction center is located and they look like they are the next place in the path of this. >> a couple, yeah, they will have a very intense storm there.

i did see two circulations still on the doppler radar here in the area i'm located as well back to the west back over near norman. i have got a couple over the norman area as well. inbound outbound circulation on the west side of norman right now tracking southeastward and also a tornado developing on i-40. i do have a tornado developing based on doppler radar, a tornado just going to be west of shawnee and west of mccloud and i'm going to is stop the car and get out and look. >> jeff, i want to tell you the picture that we are showing up on the screen right now is from kwtv just outside of oklahoma city. a lot of the city has lost power. a ton of lightning flashes go through there. also saw you a lot of the area that lost power which is to be expected with this, it certainly looks like major rotation is in the area. you keep on referencing something called dual pole. and this is a new thing out there and for people listening

give an explanation about dual pole for everybody to understand what that means? >> well, dual pole radar is a new technology and actually years and what it does instead of the radar seeing the one dimensional it sees vertical at the same time. in the dual pole it gets the three dimensionl picture of the storm to see hail and how big it is. if it picks up it is not what we call hydrometers, not rain, not hail and not a normal precip type image. the radar says hey, this is not correct. there is a lot of check and balances that checks the system and says you know what, it is has got to meet this thresh hhold or this level in there. once it meets the thresh hold it trips the alarms and the only way you will trip the alarms is if you have debris in

the air. based on the dual pole, special radars within 50 miles of the radars. up to 5, 10,@&m00 feet trips the radar to say the tornado is right near. usually can't see it because of the rain around the tornado but we know the tornado is on the ground and doing damage. that is what we experienced in the oklahoma city tornadoes. >> shepard: rick and jeff quickly just in from the national weather service. the tornado threat is now decreasing. the national weather service out of norman, oklahoma says we may see brief weak tornadoes along the leading edge of the storm as it pushes southeast but stress weak, weak tornadoes on the edge of this thing, the leading edge. rick, it sounds like though no one is out of danger, please stay in your shelters and all the rest but the national weather service suggests that the danger decreasing.

>> i want to switch gears because st. louis now to the north of the city and south of the city both under tornado warnings. another one of our major cities in the country under tornado warnings at this point. >> shepard: and we will have live pictures out of there in just a few moments. also just got this from kokc radio and police in moore, oklahoma are now reporting cars have been overturned and power lines are down. it was last monday that moore got a direct hit and you all know the pictures and you know the outcome there. tonight, moore, the police are reporting cars overturned and power lines down. that is not to say that they he are confident that a tornado has hit there but the straightline winds, rick, we have been hearing reports in fact the latest one i got from norman from the national weather service was to expect 80 to 95-mile an hour winds. that will overturn a car are. >> certainly will. obviously some of that damage i think you are seeing today are rot reports you are starting to hear will be from straightline

winds. part the of it is the inflow into the storms. part of it is areas maybe not right in the center of the rotation but ff behind it where you get incredible downdraft and strong forcing of air downward toward the ground that then hits and moves out horizontally. there will be straightline wind damage. i think we will see the worst tornado damage will have been from this cell, the largest wedge tornado west of oklahoma city. the tornadoes now, i have seen some reports of some damage around the moore area but it has been slight. and that certainly is good news that the tornado wasn't that large as it hit right more in towards the densely populated oklahoma city area. >> shepard: the oklahoma highway patrol reported motorists hurt in the storm and other motorists now listed officially as missing. you can see the traffic is bumper to bumper getting out of the city.

this is exactly what the authorities had hoped would not the happen. once the storm get there's it is too late and that is a line of cars that stretches for miles to the north and south on the freeway there as people are trying to get out of town. and frankly, they waited too long. i-44 is the north and south -- well, there are a number of north and southbound interstates. i-44 is to the west of oklahoma city. i-35 just to the east of oklahoma city and that is southbound there on i-35 and i-44 north and southbound people just trying their best to get out of town. frankly, once they hit the roads at this hour it is too late, rick. >> you said it. there is no where to go. and if you are stuck there you have to wait for a mile to the next place to get off and get off at that road and completely stuck there as well. this is one of those times where this is too late. to be honest with you i'm a little surprised to see this. >> shepard: i am, too.

>> because oklahoma city was so prepared for this. the one thing about it is i got some messages on twitter and facebook people saying well, it is perfectly sunny skies and generally you might get a 45 minute to an hour notice whether you see the storms is building. today the storms is went from nothing to an incredibly strong severe storm within about 15 minutes to the the west of oklahoma city. >> shepard: this is what we were seeing a moment ago is the trailing edge it is my understanding of the storm. at any rate, these cars that we were watching were on interstate 35 and highway 77 which goes right through moore, oklahoma. and if you remember, the storm was on the ground, the tornado was on the ground. it came from right across interstate 35 and did lots of damage. if people remember all of the reporting that was going on from the bowling alley and the movie theater, that was right off i-35. and the tornadoity isself went

right over the freeway. we though that it has crossed over the freeway tonight. but we don't know if it was on the ground when it did so. if it was on the ground the cars overturned and all of the rest on the freeway would be exactly what we would expect. the radar paints a picture now rick of the thing moving out of the area and the national weather service reminds us again the threat of tornadoes is thankfully now decreasing. >> if you pop up weather 8 some where are on the screen there you can see the majority at least the tornadoic warmed cells are are to the southeast of oklahoma city. to the south of interstate 40 and for the most part to the east of interstate 35. however, norman, oklahoma, about 18 miles or so to the south of oklahoma city that potentially is a tornado #ujuár'g right over interstate 35 at this point. you are absolutely right. we don't know for sure if there is complete contact with the

ground below. sometimes the tornadoes made contact with the ground and lift again and might make contact again 30 seconds or two minutes down the path. we don't know if it is on the ground exactly as it is crossing over there. seeing that traffic certainly if any cars are turned over or damaged nobody is getting off of that interstate any time soon. >> shepard: sometimes these things bounce along like a pogo stick. >> exactly. exactly. that is what i was just staying. they touch and lift back up and touch again. we had a tornado a couple of days ago in the northern areas of oklahoma that was actually yesterday afternoon around guthrie and it was on t$e ground for 30 seconds. did damage in the 30 seconds and then lifted again and then miles later. that is often the case with the rotation in these tornadoes and that is why we can't say for sure with the run crossing over interstate 35 that there is contact with the ground at this point. >> shepard: we are waiting for

more iñformation out of st. louis where we know there is a tornado warning but you i have just got then. the st. louis cardinals announced their game with the san francisco giants this afternoon is being postponed because of the forecast of the approaching extreme weather and they got this recommendation from public safety officials. the cards and giants postponed due to what is now a tornado warnen in the st. louis area. can you give us any more on st. q9louis? >> i'm glad to hear this they canceled that. the national weather service office in st. louis had to be evacuated and take shelter because the tornado potential tornado was headed directly towards them. it is in effect for northern it is just on the northern fringe of the downtown area. at this point, there is not a tornado that has been seen but there has been a funnel cloud weather spotters have seen a funnel cloud. we call it a funnel cloud until it touches the ground. then you call it a tornado unless it is over water you

call it a waterspot spot. a funnel cloud and a little bit of damage in the ton of saint anne according to weather spotters in the area. >> shepard: what is the forecast in the next 15-20, 30 minutes there in the st. louis area? >> the tornado warning going on 15 minutes. they are right under the gunñ@ exactly as we are speaking. >> shepard: saint anne i'm looking that up now. that's metropolitan st. louis, right? >> and just a little bit to the north and west. looking that up at the same time with you, shep. and just to the northwest alongent state 70 a little west of overland and to the northeast of maryland heights. along interstate 70. inside the beltway but right on the northern suburbs of st.

louis. >> just west of the inner belt expressway in the st. louis area. a long night ahead of us. in the central time zone tonight fast approaching 8:30. this picture on the left-hand side of the screen there is st. louis. that is the big park and you can see the lightning in the distance there. those pictures courtesy of ktvi or station in st. louis. on the right-hand side of the screen the watches an" warning areas in the oklahoma city area. rick, i know they say that the danger of tornadoes has diminished but this pink area over the oklahoma city metro area down into norman and headed east into shawnee, it is still awful. >> it is very awful. i would tell you for one thing there are probably going to be spots that get a quick 3 to 5 inches of rain. that is going to cause some you are -- exacerbates the problem if you are trying to

get out of the path what is going on here. if they are saying the tornado threat is diminishing a little bit that doesn't mean we couldn't still see a good ef2 and maybe ef3 tornado. maybe not as wide as what we saw to the west of oklahoma city but sill a tornado that goes over a population area, a mobile home park or housing development or are business the same damage will be done. >> shepard: we are reading the latest from the oklahoma city wires. and speaking with the storm chasers as well. it appears that the rain is coming down in a heavy way and there is -- there are flash flooding reports, rick, sporadically around the area and the big warnings now for the people in the oklahoma city area are if you see water ahead of you stop driving because you could be in a world of h hurt just from that. >> be very, very he stuck certainly in any of the low-lying areas. there is a lot of streams that flow right into the name of the river cutting through there is

escaping me but definitely we will be talking about very significant flooding right there. obviously a tornado is a more imminent danger to you. if you see that flooding stay away from it. but if you are anywhere near the interstate 35 -- >> shepard: it is 930 teem on the east coast. 6:30 on the west coast. 8:30 p.m. in the heartland of america. the sun has set over oklahoma city and the power is out over a wide swath of the area. the latest report is 31,000 people without power but we are confident that number has gone up since that report because the power go out fromwatching neighborhood to neighborhood. this is oklahoma city on your screen now where we know there has been widespread damage to the west of the city within the metropolitan area from the tornadoes that began about 30 miles west of oklahoma city and have raked across that area with violence like we have rare erly seen. an e-- rarely seen.

an enormous cloud with a leading edge that produced we can't even count how many tornadoes. weather çpotters around storm chase hes watching as tornadoes form first here and there. some in the oklahoma city area itself. some in the suburbs. lot of damage to the west. the highway patrol is reporting numerous people hurt in traffic crashes and actually the wind turning over vehicles. six semi trucks specifically reported in one area to the west of the city. a weather channel crew had damage to one of its vehicles and some of its people we are told by our storm chasers on the ground have been teak ton area hospitals -- taken to area hospitals and we are waiting for a report from them on that. again, the storm extremely wide and still moving to the east/southeast at about 30 miles an hour. these are live pictures coming to us from tornadoraiders .com. the traffic has been an absolute disaster throughout the air early part of the night

there and we have been watching as the national weather service is telling us the threat is diminishing for more tornadoes but the damage, the threat is still there. new warnings now from missá let's switch over to st. louis where tornado warnings have now about issued for the st. louis area. this is where the cardinals play. the ñictures courtesy of ktvi in st. louis, our fox station there. the cardinals cancelled the game tonight against the gyros which was scheduled to begin about an hour ago. they will postpone that. they were warned by the locals to do that. the national weather service in springfield missouri as of two minutes ago just issued now severe thunderstorm warning for southern camden county in central, missouri, dallas county in southwest missouri, la cleave county, forgive me if i got it wrong, all of that goes until 9:15 central daylight time tonight. a line of severe thunderstorms located a long line extending from 17 miles vj)utáu of

lebanon, missouri to 11 miles west of hazard. quarter size hail and 70-mile an hour wind gusts reported. the source on that was weather radar. hail damage to vehicles and crops expected. expect considerable tree he damage. wind damage likely to mobile homes, roofs and outbuildings. many different areas in the path of this including bennett springs, decaturville, dry knob, eldridge, extreme southwestern part of fort leonard wood there. falcon and lebanon. the list is long. if you are are in the area we recommend noaa weather radar and nws tweets if you are on twitter. also includes bennett creek state park and a long line of thunderstorms. another severe weather statement as of 30 seconds ago has just come in to remind us a tornado warning for western pp newton and western jasper and

eastern cherokee counties for another 15 minutes. the long and short of it is the watches and warnings are coming in faster than i can read them to you and from all across the st. louis area. back to oklahoma city as you will be able to see from the radar in the oklahoma city area, actually, looking at st. louis now. and you can see the leading edge again with that pink -- with the about pink area. this is st. louis we are looking at on the right-hand side of the screen. coming right into st. louis proper. the red boxes are warnings and the large yellow box is for severe thunderstorms. so if you are in the st. louis area right now even the cardinals aren't playing. time to get in touch and have a plan for you and your family if you are in the area right now. i want to get back to oklahoma city and reed timer who is a storm chaser for us is in flood waters right now t)ying to drive-thru, what, three feet of water?

>> areas back in downtown oklahoma city two, three feet he of water. cars halfway buried. trees down everywhere from a weak torna÷o that went through the south side of oklahoma city. we he saw a violená tornado a little further west of oklahoma city south of el reno and intercepted it with the armored vehicle and actually had the hood ripped off of the dominator, our armored vehicle. our rqáqp)ch vehicle. >> shepard: exactly -- >> hello? >> shepard: you had damage earlier to your own vehicle, didn't you, reed? >> we had the hood ripped off of the vehicle. it was a violent tornado. our vehicle is custom built to survive the winds of the tornado. the hydraulics dropped and spikes deployed. it was an intent tornado. a quarter, half mile wide and then came across the weather channel crew and ran to help them. saw my friend down there and they were okay. minor lacerations but we he carried all their equipment to the support vehicle and the tornado just expanded a lot faster than everybody thought

and it was a dangerous situation. we saw severe structural damage. looked like some where in the union city el reno a)ea and then the same storm went through south oklahoma city and we were communicating with mike norman in the oklahoma city area to keep everybody warned in the path of the storms and right now, i'm trying to get to my house in norman which was two miles south of the ef5 damage path. we are driving through the ef5 damage path, what was that ten days ago and the same area had tornado warnings and tornadoic winds move through again. definitely a really bad situation and our thoughts and prayers go out to the people here in oklahoma city. this is our own backyard. so people need to take all of the tornado warnings seriously in the st. louis area because you got to assume the worst case scenario. >> shepard: reed timmer thanks for your reporting tonigñt. stay in touch and stay on the

line. go back to the vehicle from the weather channel. they got hit just as reed did and this is what they call tornado hunt 2013 and it didn't go well for the crew. reed reports minor lacerations. we know that some of them went to hospitals. our hope that our good friends from over at the weather channel are fine. just in from oklahoma from the power company which serves oklahoma and western kansas, now 54,000 customers without power in the oklahoma city area. and i waná to get down to the the st. louis pictures now if we could because we are getting new reports come in from that area. remember that the enormous tornado that killed so many in joplin, missouri. the joplin globe newspaper is reporting that the tornado sirens are going off in joplin right this minute. we don't have any indication that a tornado is on the ground or that it is imminent that it is about to hit joplin but tornado sirens are going off now. so if you are in any of the affected area the best move is to go to the locaz station and

certainly national weather service radio and nws tweets by twitter for the latest information in the local areas. from our vantage point mere a thousand miles away it just looks so widespread that it will be a hard time and going to take awhile to get a handle on exactly what happened. this from medical facilitiesyuw saying they are preparing for a major flood of patients. "we are gearing up to start receiving patients" said is spokesperson brooke cayotte. sent a code yellow which means an in flux of patient patientss expected. our belief that the worst of the damage is most likely to the west of oklahoma city in area not quite as heavily populated. the tornado first camexfrom the sky 30 miles west of the city and began tracking east. generally, though not exactly

along the route of interstate 40 and then as it got closer to the city of oklahoma city itself it was tracking directly above the interstate, interstate 40 there which goes east and west across most of the country. and the authorities there were shutting down interstate onramps and off ramps trying to get people off i-40. they wanted people to go south or north if they had to be out. the hope was according to authorities that they would stay at home but many people headed to the highways instead which turned out to be a very bad idea. the oklahoma state patrol are reporting numerous and we don't know how many but we know at least a half dozen though the number is dated by now, semi trucks over on their sides. we know a number of people in passenger vehicles have been injured as they were on the roadways and we know that a number of people from an hour and a half ago west of the city of oklahoma city are are still missing unaccounted for now. we know that the storms have a way of picking things up and taking them other places and we just got to hope now that that didn't happen to any people.

these are live pictures courtesy of kokh in oklahoma city coming to us from a roadway there. do we have any context on this in the booth? apparently we don't. the storm so wide that the tornado threat has diminished. i want to bring rick reichmuth in on this. the weather radar out of oklahoma city shows the leading edge of the storm, rick, is where the greatest danger though diminishd, the greatest danger of tornadoes exist now, right? >> there is only one tornado warning in the greater oklahoma city area. pretty far out into the suburbs about 30-40 miles east now and that is the one that is on still along i-40 includes the shawnee area where a week ago sunday took a hit the day before the big moore tornado. but the other cells moving to the south of interstate 40 now warned with the severe thunderstoñm warning. that means winds possibly up to

around 80 miles an hour are which will do plenty of damage and probably still some hail maybe between golf ball and tennis ball size. very big hail. but the heaviest rotation is not being picked up any longer so the tornado warni'gs dropped there. that is certainly great news. >> shepard: no doubt it is. back to st. louis if we could. it sounds like there is an imminent threat there. >> yeah, and i think the storm is crossing probably right about over the river right now and getting back crossing into missouri, most of st. louis is on the kansas side and now cutting over -- excuse me, missouri cutting over into the illinois side. louis on the eastern side of the mississippi river there into illinois. same goes still to the south of st. louis. but that is heading in towards the millstat area of ell. edwardsville, illinois, island illinois those are the towns that need to be taking guard.

saint anne we talked a couple of minutes ago just to the northwest of st. louis. a little development there. an area that took a hit two years guy with the same tornado that hit lambert airport. this is the same kind of the exact same path from that tornado. so as we move forward probably in the next 10-15 minutes we will get some information if there was any additional damage or damage to the same areas that got hit two years ago. jrrx9d: word from st. louis county operation emergency management that the worst is passing in st. louis county but still extremely dangerous, rick. >> i think it is moving in towards illinois. the storms are about to cross over. they are still on the southern side of this storm. if you pop up weather 8 real quick maybe on to the screen some where. you can see two cells. one to the north of st. louis over edwardsville and that is in illinois. and one you see the bright pink in the last frame just below

the saint of st. louis there. that is the other tornado warned cell and about to cross over into illinois as well. south st. louis right now, would be the area getting hit the heaviest at this point potentially with a tornado right there. >> shepard: the office of emergency management in st. louis county says the most dangerous area now are near and east of flouriscont i believe you pronounce it south of i-55 and i-270 intersection. if you know the area alton on the north, st. louis on the south. everything to the the middle and to the east in illinois that is the danger zone in the st. louis area. what a night, rick. >> yeah, it is a really active night. taking a look at some of the reports that we have been seeing coming through, at this point let me he just refresh thq page here. nine reports -- well, that has got to be wrong. showing nine reports. it is it clearly far old because there have been more tornadoes if not more showing

up there around oklahoma city. a big system. dnáornado warnings today all the way up towards area of wisconsin. in fact, a tornado warning in wisconsin now around the nellsville area just so the east of eau claire wisconsin to the northwest of the dells. tornado warnings this illinois. a tornado warning in joplin, missouri. and the torna> shepard: st. louis county office of emergency management is saying that the latest tornado which asáu mentioned has moved to the east is classified as large and extremely dangerous. man, they are -- you know, when authorities use these sort of exaggerated words they do it for a reason because there is exaggerated damage, exaggerated danger. >> you said it. if fact, there are some kind of regulations as to when they use

the language in the last year after the joplin and tuscaloosa tornadoes they went in and decided to change the wording with some storms and there are tornado warnings an" then there are tornado warnings that they will give exaggerated language to as a potentially life threatening and extremely dangerous situation. so that certain tornado warnings can have certainly people take them a little more interesting. if you live in the areas sometimes you can spend all spring dealing with tornado watches and warnings and sometimes you can become a little complacent to it so they added additional language to make sure people have the exact expectations and are warned when they are a little more serious than other tornado warned storms. >> shepard: the governor of oklahoma, mary fallon is on the line with us now. i was listening earlier as you were trying to get home and do your mom duties as you put it

and then head back out to try to make sure people were heeding warnings. what is your sense of things? >> it has been chaotic because the storm has been big. it had a wide swath and hit many communities. still lightning and raining here in oklahoma city. i'm right next to the capitol, the governor's house. the power has gone off four times in oklahoma city alone. and many other communities all around oklahma city experienced the storm itself. i have had a report from the oklahoma highway patrol we had at least two fatalities on i-40 west of oklahoma city and there have been some people taken to a local hospital. that is all the information i have at this point other than we have been monitoring twitter and facebook and the social media sites and have not had any call calls from various communities to send help yet.

we do know that we had large power outages probably from straightline winds and a lot o of circulation. some cyclones and possible tornadoes that hit the ground. no communities that called and said we hav been hit hard, come help us. we are still in the midst of the storm itself and we still have echos standing around the area south of norman itself that we are keeping a close eye on plus just the general storms going on. >> shepard: the governor of oklahoma. mary fallon. mentioned the first two reports of death. we were reporting on this on "the fox report." a mother and baby injured west of the city of oklahoma city around the part where the storms first developed where the tornadoic activity developed 30 miles west of the city. we now know that a mother and baby have been killed as the tqtdnáupáe. the car off thent sad to report.

governor fallon, one thing you have been crystal clear on throughout the tornado emeñgencies for the last couple of weeks is once the strms are on the way the last place you need to be is on the highway. >> absolutely. and that is what is driving me crazy tonight is that the storms, we gave people a lot of notice. even on the highways. as i was driving back from the moore/norman area earlier to oklahoma city, about 4:30 or 5:00 tonight we had a sign up on the highway that said dangerous storms possible, heed weather alerts and had that flashing on the electric billboards over the highway on i-35 just right around moore where it hit. so we were warning people and telling people the last several days and all day today just to be aware of the weather because the storms come up really quick. they just build suddenly. and when i was leaving norman around 4:30 to 5:00 it was just overcast. but then the storm was here by

6:00 so we just built very, very quickly. ñ%nd we don't want people in it their cars on the highway. it is dangerous. we saw that especially during the moore tornado and it is important for people to find shelter some where. unfortunately, because it was sitting around -- hitting around the traffic hour time we saw the major intersections really clogged up. i called the highwayñpatrol and called our national guard and our emergency management team andñi said i don't care what you got to do, get the highways unclogged as much as possible. whn you have people just in rush hour traffic trying to get home there is only so much you can do. i know there are local law enforcement and highway patrol and department of transportation were doing everything they could to tell people drive the opposite direction of the storm as you get off the highwayç and they were trying to block roads so that people wouldn't go into areas that the storm was heading to. >> shepard: i-40 westbound from the city sounded like an air aria of great chaos.

if you look at the interstates which go north and south directions out of the city, just a parking lot. i know you have been watching it on local television. it was heartbreaking. as the storms are crossing over the interstate hopefully up in the air, not down on the ground, we can't know. it was like a parking lot there. it was unbelievable. >> it was. i literally called the commissioner and, of course, he was saying i got so many people out right now. we got the lights and sirens and carp and down the highways and highway patrol cars and local law enforcement putting their own lives at peril to get out and tell people the storm is coming. hopefully people had their radios on. dnr# you are on a highway and backed up in traffi(hp'd not close to an exit it is just a very dangerous situation and you have to get out of the cars as we saw from the moore tornado. >> shepard: speaking of moore, we now have reports out of moore of widespread power

outages. of cars problems with vehicles and the west. man, moore they have just been in the worst way. >> they really have. and we do know there is a lot of power outages around the norman area adjacent to moore. there was debris flying around in moore and he could see it. of course, it could have been debris that was already debris. >> shepard: i didn't mean to interrupt you, go ahead. >> we weren't sure if it was really strong winds or an actual cyclone of some sort. >> shepard: as you have been speaking i have been looking around the map from the greater oklahoma city area. and i'm not seeing any reports from law enforcement officials or emergency managers or hospitals or any one of an area of widespread destruction. certainly nothing like we saw in moore. i don't see any area where it looks like a tornado came down

nd took out neighborhoods. thunderstormally hours into the storm we would have the reports from ambulances, from emergency medical responders. from fire departments, police departments, community centers, schools and churches and malls. and we don't have that. at least at this point that is encouraging. >> that is encouraging. and i just had a phone call a second ago from my emergency management director and he said i'm monitoring all of the social media sites and emergency command center is all over different agencies and we are not the getting requests for emergency aid at this particular moment. now, the storms have hit i don't know how many communities, maybe seven or eight communities in the central part of the oklahoma area. it may be slow coming in other than we knew we had problems on the highways and we know we have power outages. there certainly were a lot of spinning and looking like the clouds could drop a tornado. we saw a tuna looked like they

were hitting the ground. -- we saw a few that looked like they were hitting the ground. we certainly have all of our people out and we are still in the midst of a storm that we are still watching at this point in time. >> shepard: the governorxof oklahoma, mary fallon on the line with us. governor, your state had been through you so much. i have to tell you, i'm sure you already though this, but the people are moore and surrounding areas were an inspiration to us all. >> oh, thank you. >> shepard: the strength with which they responded to this and the way they were with their neighbors and the first day gettyng in there the hours after the storm are hit, watching residents who didn't have anything happen to them taking cold drinks and blankets and clothes for the neighbors ñ%nd pitching in in a way that you almost always see in the heartland, it was inspiring, governor. >> thank you very much. i'm very, +ery proud of our they have been courageous, resilient. they had tremendous compassion. i heard stories of someone's

house that would get hit in moore by a tornado and they would come out of the rubble okay and then run to the next house and see if the neighbor was okay and then find out they were okay and keep going on down. they lost everything and they were even injured themselves. people were taking care of other people first and foremost. an encouraging week and i want your listeners to know that tñe tornadoes i mean certainly states have bad weather, whether it is hurricanes or flooding, whether it is earthquakes or tornadoes but you oklahoma is an absolutely wonderful place to live and this weather has just been unusual this last couple of weeks and f5 tornadoes, a % to 2% chance of even happening. just want people to know we are a great state. the weather is not always like this at all and we have wonderful, wonderful people and if you are going to live some where and something is going to happen, oklahoma people are the best kind of people to take care of you.

>> i witnessed that days after the bombing in oklahoma city and in the last two tornado event there's in moore and i'm with you 100%. governor fallon of the great state of oklahoma. all the best and thank you so much. >> we appreciate your prayers and your help. >> they are here for you without any question. five minutes to 9:00 in the central time zone. we have major event brewing in st. louis, missouri. a tornado warning has just been issued for bond, madison and montgomery county in illinois in effect until 9:15 central daylight time. for the next 20 minutes. kmov, channel 4 in st. louis is reporting multiple tornadoes with serious damage. storms moving into the metro east area and they have live coverage there. rick reichmuth in the extreme weather center. it soufju like st. louis is getting it. >> there are.

i have been looking at numerous reports from spotters saying there was a large tornado on the ground as it move is latitude. all appears it crossed the northern side, are the northern suburbs which is where lambert field is, the airport there. that airport was hit two years ago and did significant damage to that airpozt. looks like there are a number of areas there that sten sustained some -- sustained ome significant damage. seeing different reports on it, i won't go into too much until we can verify more. a number of areas with damage and all of the cell now pulling off toward the east. all cutting into illinois. there are five different tornado warnings western illinois just to the eastern side of the mississippi river right there kind of across from st. louis and just to the south and just to the north of the st. louis area. >> shepard: two completely different events. earlier the storms first, the tornadoes first began to form west of oklahoma city around 6:00 central time. just as "the fox report" was going on the air tonight.

and oklahoma city was the focus of the world for hours on end and now as we approach 9:00 in the central time zone, this separate system in and around st. louis is causing serious problems. radar showing hundred mile an hour winds in western madison county not the long ago, whether that is a tornado on the ground or not we can't know yet. but we -- straightline winds can become that severe or that strong in this sort of a storm event. i'm reading information from people all over including monitoring the different television stations and trusted outlet there's and sounds like there is damage. i'm not sure how widespread. i know there have been injuries as well and a people are sheltering in place in basements and st. louis count operation of emergency management says that the tornado one of the tornadoes on the ground is classified as large and extremely dangerous. and rick, for the st. louis area especially east across the

river, this is still in full force. >> it is. moving into illinois. important to say that because we have been talking for the last three hours about oklahoma but you these storms are cutting across area of missouri. southwestern o missouri. joplin now had three different tornado warnings right there. one tornado -- the same way they have been developing and cycling through in oklahoma city that is happening now in xp the joplin, missouri area. keep in mind two years guy they had the monster tornado. and now the same story a little bit more of a bunch of single tornado warned cellç moving across the st. louis area. i don't think we will see a lot of significant development behind this first line in st. louis. but now western illinois in on this and we have been seeing some tornadoes up into wisconsin. it is all part of the exact samt storm system we have been dealing with for about the last four days. tomorrow we still have this, shepard. not as significant of a threat tomorrow but you stillñhave it down across areas all the way

down throughout much of texas, towards big bend and northern area of mexico through dallas. again, through arkansas and through that mid mississippi ryver valley and ohio river valley. stretches up towards detroit. sunday towards the northeast. neither as significant as today but a threat for tornadoes continue with us for the next two days also. >> shepard: i know it is may and approaching june now tomorrow. this is the time of year when it happens. maybe it is because of social media order rest but this teams like more activity than is common. >> these is vice president really strong tornadoes and -- have been really strong tornadoes. when the jetstream hits the high pressure it can't continue to move in a straight fashion. it buckles up to the left and makes a leftward turn and it has been doing that right in the central plains for the last three kay days. the same pattern that we had set up last week. a very significant turn to the

jetstream. that jetstream is where the strongest winds are high up in the atmosphere and that is what storms develop. that has been continuing with us for days. >> rick reichmuth in the ex-he team weather center. thank you, sir. it is 10:00 on the east coast. 7:00 p.m. on the west coast and 9:00 p.m. in st. louis, missouri where are an enormous storm system is blowing through the metropolitan area and across into illinoiáhpj fox reports live tonight. imi'm he ship ship witimi'm. >> shepard: imimshepar" smith e from new york. "hannity" and greta have been preempted. we are getting significant damage in and around st. louis. one particular holiday inn which has apparently been struck. i found out about this recently but i now have it from multiple sources there are damages in ear