>> a sich for survivors of the deadly situation in oklahoma. good morning, devastation in oklahoma. president obama set to address the nation on the massive tornado that has decimated moore at any moment. revising the total to at least 24 people early this morning, pulling survivors from mountain of debris. >> i don't know what that lady's name is, but she has three little kids underneath her. good job, teach. >> and the recovery begins, tod today, tuesday, may 21st, 2013.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, everyone. welcome to a special edition of "today." it's 7:00 on the west coast. it's 9:00 in the morning in moore, oklahoma. we got matt lauer surrounded by the destruction, everywhere in this community. we'll check in with matt. we got some headlines to bring you this morning. some good news at least for the time being. the medical examiner revising the number down to 24 people. we can give you the latest on this tornado, this is a depree path that was several blocks wide and we're told it stretched for more than 20 miles. tragically as you have probably heard by now, two elementary schools took a direct hit. some 50 children being treated at hospitals right now.

the twister is being classified as a ef-4. wind speeds up to 200 miles per hour and president obama has been in touch with local leaders, passing on his prayers. we expect to hear from him in any moment. as we await the remarks. we want to get to natalie morales who's in the helicopter for our affiliate kfor. natalie, good morning to you. >> savannah, when you see the path of the destruction the best analogy that i can come up, as it's torched its own landing strip right through the center of the city of moore, a populated area, over 40,000, 50,000 people live in this area. you can see the ground completely pulled up. the earth, the debris, then it moves through neighborhoods and

communities. as you know, two elementary schools completely leveled by this tornado in its path. the worst of the tragedy was at plaza towers, some of the worst casualties occurred. we also saw that briarwood elementary school, they were fortunately able to evacuate the children on time there and then as the storm continued right through the center of town, again, neighborhoods, homes, completely leveled, off their foundations. all that's left in some areas is just the foundations. you're looking at the highland east junior high school. part of the building still standing. off to the right-hand screen, that's where the junior high stadium was and off to the left of that is the football field. equipment strewn about and in what was a gymnasium now completely leveled. this is just an example of once again this wide swath of

devastation that we're seeing here up from above in chopper 4's john welsh here with kfor he's been up in this and seeing this all day long today and yesterday. it seems they're making some progress to get the recovery efforts under way here. >> definitely. what we have seen is a lot of emergency medicvehicles aren't as they were earl ellier. they're moving the debris out of the roadways. last night the main roadways were congested. trying to get out of the area, police did a great job of blocking people off north and south of it. you can see, we have tons of cars upside-down. the whole landscape is littered with debris. >> look at that tree right there. travis, if you can zoom in on that. look at that suv right next to it. just, again, you can't make out

what half of these things were. it's a very populated area. people moving about, milling about, perhaps, to see what is left of shattered lives here and the devastation right here in moore. and savannah, i'll send it back to you. all right, natalie, with a view from above. let's turn to matt who's got a view, vantage point, right there on the ground as we await remarks from president obama from the white house. >> savannah, good morning to you. we're awaiting the president speaking at the white house in just a couple of minutes. let's let our local stations let's let our local stations pause to regroup. >> announcer: this is a nbc news special report. welcome to this nbc news special report.

i'm matt lauer, reporting live from moore, oklahoma. i'm joined by savannah guthrie. in moore, oklahoma. it's been an incredible 24 hours here in this city, we now know that 24 people are confirmed dead following an ef-4 tornado that touched down here at about 2:56 in the afternoon, oklahoma time, yesterday. two schools were leveled. the medical center behind me was also destroyed. hundreds of people have been injured and as you can imagine, there are some missing and unaccounted for as first responders continue to go through debris, like the debris in the neighborhood around me, looking for any signs of life in trying to figure out how they can help the people who have been devastated by this storm. as i mentioned, it savannah is a mile from me at city hall. talking to local and state officials. savannah, good morning to you.

>> and the president has been on the phone with governor and others as well. we're about to hear from him. let's take a listen. good morning, everybody. as we all know by now, a series of storms swept across the plains in one of the most destruktsive tornadoes in history, sliced through the towns of new castle and moore, oklahoma. in an instant, neighborhoods were destroyed. dozens of people lost their lives. many more were injured. and among the victims were young children. trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew, their school. so our prayers with the people of oklahoma. our gratitude is with the teachers who gave their all to shield their children. with the neighbors and emergency personnel who raced to help as

the storm passed. and those who searched for survivors through the night. the hard work of recovery and rebuilding lies ahead. yesterday, i spoke with governor fallin to make it clear to oklahomans they would have all of the resources that they need at their disposal. last night, i issued a disaster decla ration to exhedete those resources. i just spoke with mayor lewis of moore, oklahoma. i met with secretary napolitan owe this morning and my homeland security and counterterrorism adviser lisa monaco to underscore the point that

oklahoma needs to get everything that it needs right away. the fema administrator is on his way to oklahoma as we speak. fema staff was first deployed to emergency center on sunday. in the first wave of deadly tornadoes. yesterday, fema activated urban search rescue teams to assist in the ongoing search and rescue efforts. a mobile response unit to boost communications and logistical support. their country will remain on the ground there for them beside for their homes and their their parents to console first responders to comfort. and of course frightened children who will need our

continued love and attention. there are empty spaces where there used to be living rooms and bedrooms and classrooms. and in time, we're going to need to refill those spaces with love and laughter and community. we don't yet know the full extent of the damage from this week's storm. we don't know both the human and economic losses that may have occurred. we know that severe rumbling of weather, bad weather, through much of the country still continues. and we're also preparing for hurricane season to begin next week. but, if there is hope to hold on to, not ju around the country, it's the knowledge that the good people there and in oklahoma are better prepared for this type of storm than most and what they can be

certain of is that americans from every corner of this country will be right there with them. opening our homes, our hearts to those in need. because we're in a nation that stands with our fellow citizens as long as it takes. we have seen that in joplin, tuscaloosa, boston and breezy point and that's what the people of oklahoma are going to need from us right now. for those of you who want to help, you can go online right now to the american red cross, that's already on the ground in moore, we have seen the university of oklahoma will have housing for displaced families. last night, the people of joplin dispatched a team to help the people of moore. so, for all those who have been affected we recognize that you face a long road ahead. in some cases, there will be nor

mouse grief that has to be absorbed but you will not travel that path alone. your country will travel with you. fueled by our faith in the almighty and our faith in one another. so, our prayers are with the people of oklahoma today. we'll back up those prayers with deeds for as long as it takes. thank you very much. >> president obama speaking at the white house this morning. or this afternoon, talking about this devastation in moore, oklahoma. we told the people this community, the people of the united states and the federal government are beside them and right behind them and he promised the full resources of the federal government to help in the cleanup and recovery here and he also said that we don't know at this moment, the cost in human lives or the financial cost. we want to clarify something,

earlier today you may have heard the death toll had been confirmed at 51, that has now revised, apparently there had been double counting through multiple agencies. we can now confirmed through the medical examiner that 24 fatalities. so 24 not 51. a sliver of good news, savannah, in what has been a difficult 18-hour period. >> the president referred to joplin, missouri, another town that us was suffering extensive damage, total destruction after a tornado on may 22nd, 2011, it was one year ago today that the president went back to joplin and delivered the commencement address at the high school there and when he said that, the story of joplin isn't what happened that day it's the story of what happened the next day and the day after that, so it will be here in moore, oklahoma, as well, matt. >> no question about it. some of you will be leaving us.

i want to tell you, we'll continue to have complete coverage of the devastation in moore, oklahoma. the rest of you will be sticking with us. this has been an nbc news special report. we're back now on what or what has become a dreary tuesday morning in moore, oklahoma, it had been sunny here for a while, but the clouds have returned. there is lightning in the air, although, for this immediate area, the severe storm warnings have been lifted. it's certainly not a cheery day at all. just take a look around me. i'm in a neighborhood here in moore that has been completely wiped off the map and the destruction is everywhere. these were homes that had been lifted right off their slabs,

you can see automobiles behind me that were lifted up and placed elsewhere. that's the moore medical center that was destroyed during this tornado. the people who were being treated in that hospital had to be vac waited including one woman who was in labor. savannah guthrie is joining us as well. she is at the city hall here in moore, oklahoma, and savannah, i don't know how the people here picked themselves up after 1999. and that terrible tornado that struck then. but they did and now it looks like as if they're being asked to face another challenge. >> that was incredible day. people here just call it may 3rd. everybody knows what you're talking about here. it was an ef-3 tornado. i was also told that this is far worse in terms of the destruction and the damage that we have seen. we have heard incredible stories of heartbreak, especially what

happened at those elementary schoolsened also this morning, stories of hope and survivalsur. one thing is clear, this town knows how to rebuild and they will do so. >> they did it in 1999. when you ask people where they were at may 20th at 2:56 in the afternoon of 2013, they'll all remember. >> reporter: one of the most powerful tornadoes in history touched down a little before 3:00 monday afternoon, leveling entire neighborhoods and leaving a swathe of destruction up to two miles wide. two elementary schools suffered direct hits, their walls torn apart by winds measuring up to 200 miles per hour. >> this is terrible. this is war-zone terrible. >> reporter: at plaza towers elementary, only some children emerged safely from the wreckage, images that soon contrasted with scenes of utter heartbreak. >> we had to pull a car out of the front hallway off the

teacher and i don't know what that lady's name is but she had three little kids underneath her, good job, teach. it ripped our house up. i still got a little girl buried in there so i gotta go. >> reporter: the older kids had reportedly been evacuated from the school before the tornado hit but children in grades k through 3 were forced to ride out the storm inside. >> i had to hold onto the wall to keep myself safe because i didn't want to fly away in the tornado. >> a line went down and hit me in the head and all the other girls were screaming and they were crying. >> i was on top of six kids. >> on top of six children and they're all okay? >> all mine are okay. >> reporter: as night fell, a desperate search and rescue operation at the plaza towers school turned into a recovery mission. the grim search for the bodies of students buried in the rubble. at nearby briarwood elementary, despite the destruction, early reports indicated no lives had

been lost. >> i thought the worst because of how devastating. >> reporter: have you seen the scene yet? >> no, but i did talk. >> reporter: the area had been under alert. but the speed within which the tornado approached shocked observers. >> abandon where you are if you cannot get below ground. >> reporter: in less than an hour sunny skies gave way to dark funnel clouds. local forecasters begged viewers to take cover. >> can't think or delay and act and act to save your life and your loved one's lives. >> reporter: the twisters left cars piled up in front of medical buildings and theaters. >> we thought we died. >> reporter: even homes with sturdy storm cellars were not safe. from the wind's fury. >> it ripped open the door and slamming glass and we thought we were dead to be honest. >> reporter: moore has been hit by tornadoes many time before,

including may 1999, when the most powerful winds ever recorded touched down in a storm path nearly identical to this. >> everything is gone. everything is gone, but the important thing is we're alive. >> reporter: now, another massive relief effort is under way as hundreds of homes have been lost and lives torn apart in just one afternoon. >> i came out and i saw the cars and i saw the houses and i just started crying so hard. >> seeing a lot of emotion around here. the weather has turned a little, al. >> people looking through the rubble, trying to salvage some of their belongings. as we look, we have a risk of strong storms hanging throughout the area. the strongest risk is down through parts of texas, northern mississippi and arkansas as well. rain moves into the pacific northwest as well. sunny in southern california. 76 in los angeles. showers through the plains. rain through the gulf coast, mid-atlantic states, down

through the southeast. that's your latest weather. we'll get your local weather after this message. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

matt. >> al, we got thunder and lightning around us now. much more ahead on a special edition of "today" on this tuesday morning, from moore, oklahoma, right af star command, i'm detecting high levels of happiness.

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getting busy here in moor, s savannah, people returning to their homes. military helicopter circling to assess the damage as well. >> our coverage continues after a check of your local news and weather.

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to make a donation to operation homefront to help support military families. you can help too. find out how at walmart.com/heroes. we should be learning more about the san jose pedestrian struck and killed crossing a busy street late last night. this all happened on the city's east side not far from james lick high school. police say it appears the victim mp&k when this accident happened. that driver did stop at the

scene. we're being told he is now cooperating with investigators. police also warning of a new south bay scam. one sunnyvale woman the victim of a burglary after a man came to her door pretending to be a contractor. a second man stole jewelry from her home. the woman did not ask for an i.d. which police warn everybody should always do. yes, it is decision day for the nfl. today, owners, team owners, announcing in just a few hours from now, if the 49ers new stadium will be shochosen to ho super bowl 50. the santa clara bid widely considered the front-runner over miami because of4sñ that $1 biln stadium you are looking at. representatives from each city will make their final pitches. if san francisco does not get to running for super bowl li. we will say good morning to

christina loren. good morning to you at home. the natural a.c. is back on and it is on strong. this is a live look from high atop san bruno mountain. plenty of low clouds moving onshore. this is sunol. they have reached all wait inland. we have a much cooler day on tap as a result. this morning, running very similar to 24 hours ago. by noon, you will notice the difference. only hitting 63 as he break for lunch in livermore. rounding out the day around 73 degrees. we are going to stay cool all week and warm you back up just in time for memorial day weekend. let's check the drive with mike. southbound 880 through fremont past the truck scales and tesla, a good flow of traffic building over the last 20 minutes as you head to the south bay. we'll show you. coming down toward the dumbarton and san mateo bridge. a tough morning. slow south 680 in there. >> thank you very much. we'll be back in half an hour with more news to tell you about. hope to see you then.

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. we're back now on a tuesday morning. the 21st day of may, 2013, and we're back in moore, oklahoma, for the people here the day after an ef-4 tornado struck their community, killing a confirmed 24 people. leveling a couple of schools. changing the shape of this community for the foreseeable future. the president vowing that he would support the people of moore with all of the resources of the federal government. telling the american people that they stand by them in their time of need. i'm matt lauer. savannah guthrie is over at city

hall. savannah, good morning again. >> good morning to you, matt. as we can see, the rain is about to pick up. a bit of a chill in the air. more than one resident said that they're thankful for that. it's that warm weather that often leads to tornadoes. as you mentioned a little bit earlier, we know the precise moment that this tornado touched down, 2:56 p.m. and what a swath of destruction it caused directly in its path, it was traveling about 20 miles in 40 minutes and directly in its path briarwood elementary school, plaza towers elementary school. moore medical center and theater. we spoke to a sixth-grade teacher to literally laid across

three or four students to protect them. saving their lives and i began by asking her to describe what happened. >> i was in the stall with some kids. it just started coming down. i laid on top of one of my little boys. we're okay. we made it out. when it finally stopped, we got all of the kids -- there was a dad there and him and i and one of my students, antonio pulled -- we were in the bathroom. pulled them out of the bathroom. everybody in our place was fine. >> as far as you know all of your kids are okay can you put into words what was going through your mind and how you were feeling in those moments you're using your body to cover these children? >> i never thought that i was going to die.

the whole time i just kept screaming to them, quit worrying, we're fine, we're fine, we're fine. i'm very loud. i hope they could hear me. i could hear them screaming. the little girl from my home room, is she was sobbing. i was like, we're going to fine, we're going to be fine. i'm protecting you. then i said a few prayers. god, please take care of my kids. we're fine. >> you lived through an incredibly powerful tornado, can you give us a sense of how it felt, how it sounded? >> you know, i don't remember what it sounded like honestly. it was like a freight train. but i don't remember much about it. it felt like someone was beating me up from behind. stuff was just coming down off, on my back, i thought -- i had

cuts everywhere. i had cuts on my feet from the flip-flops. pretty irrelevant considering what could have happen. >> you were saying, you were looking around, i want to see the students. i do have a student here who wants to say thank you to you. >> this is damian and his mom. >> i told you everything was going to be okay. >> i want to bring you all in here. i got a little group hug. >> i didn't have him. but he was under the sink. but i got him out, though. >> damien, how does it feel to see this teacher, you told me earlier, she saved your life?

>>d. >> kind of scared. >> i actually -- he's not one of my students. his brother is one of my students, he just happened to be in the bathroom with me. so -- >> brandi, was did it mean to see her? >> thank you so much. thank you to all of the teachers who were out there with them. >> i will tell you, i mean, mrs. simpson was on the p.a. with us until it literally hit. teachers do this. do this. they were running down the hall -- we have the best faculty and staff that any school could ask for, they were amazing. i mean, there's nothing that i can say to -- they protected us. >> thank you to all of you for being here. her hug feel pretty good? >> i know that miss crossway was

holding on tight, too. our conversation with sixth-grade teacher rhonda crossway. one of the everyday heroes who rose to the occasion in a big way. since we did the interview, we had some good news. the medical examiner has since revised it downward to 24 and that is where it stands at this hour. matt and al, send it to you guys. >> savannah, you have to understand in the wake of something like this there is so much confusion, there is panic, people reporting, others missing to different ayensies and sometimes those reports get doubled and multiplied and that's why we have people -- >> when those people check in. >> exactly right. we had people going through this neighborhood since al has been here since the last 24 hours. every time they search a building they'll spray paint an

"x" on the side of the building. and when they search a car, they spray paint an x" car on the ca. lot of people heeded the warnings to get out. even while we were still in hawaii, you were covering the first round of storms, you were telling everyone that this second round was going to be terrible. it certainly prove to be. >> it was one of those occasions you wished you were going to be wrong. it didn't work out that way. other areas getting bad weather as well. pacific northwest, a big storm system is moving in. on the radar, it is really dumping there. and we're talking about another 1 to 3 inches of rain the rest of the country, we're going to have more rain along the southeastern atlantic coast. rain in the northeast. we're expecting some showers and

thunderstorms, possibility of tornadoes. we're seeing some of that activity here as well. not as bad as they have seen. is sunshine cont >> al, thanks very much

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that hasn't been cleared yet. ♪ uh! i just want to celebrate [ male announcer ] every time you say no to a cigarette you celebrate a little win. nicorette gum helps calm your cravings and makes you less irritable. double your chances of quitting. savannah, i'm back here on southwest 6th street. the guy in the white shirt that's don bessinger, he lives you have to understand it's sitting in that field over there. and yet, don and his wife and son live here, in this home here. it ended up in the field behind. it's one of the symbols that shows you just how powerful this storm was, savannah. >> so powerful and i'm here at city hall, where they're starting to get these rebuilding efforts planned. they have been talking to people

in washington, fema administrator is on his way here and there's so much work to be done. in speaking to the governor off-camera this morning, she was showing me some photographs that she show from the devastation. she has seen her kind of destruction, everyone here is touched to the core by just the magnitude of this, matt. >> yeah, and savannah, as the lightning continues here, i think the best way to put into perspective the scope of the damage is to get above it and look down. natalie is in kfor's helicopter as she has been all morning and she's got the view from above. >> we're looking at the moore medical center, the hospital that was of course heavily damaged as well. as we look down below, you see here, what was, i guess, this is the backside of the hospital? that is completely destroyed. and damaged. you see the cars out there. i know you have been using this

expression, they do look like toy cars, matchbox cars, being tossed about. if you pan over to the left, travis, and show that pile of cars and john welsh our chopper pilot, he noticed that those cars were stacked up on the other side of the hospital, up against -- >> travis, if you'll back out and pan to the top. you can see the hole there where the physical therapy unit used to be. they used look they were in a river. i'm assuming they pulled those out so they can get the hospital through rescue efforts to make sure that nobody was stuck. just complete damage. they have been can checked. everybody's okay. just a complete destruction. >> i mean, it shows yothe remarkable efforts that are taking place here. just, you know, within the last 14 to 20 or so hours that they have been able to move all of

those vehicles, piled them up in the parking lot, go through everything, these checks going on door to door, they can't tell what some of these structures are at this point in time. we should report that it's believed all of the patients that were in that hospital were safely taken out of that hospital and moved to other locations. as dr. nancy sniderman was reporting from the university medical center. matt? >> and natalie, think about that, think about the calm that had to be employed by the employees of that medical center which is just behind me, as they got a few minutes warning that a tornado had touched down. one woman in labor, taken by ambulance to norman. just a few miles from here.

the fact that none of those patients were further injured and none of the staff members were injured is a testament of how well they behaved under pressure. it has been a heck of a day or 18 hours here in this area, it's a time period that the people of moore, oklahoma, will never forget. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function starting within five minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better. and that means...fish on! symbicort is for copd including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it.

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this is humira working to help relieve my pain. this is humira helping me through the twists and turns. this is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for over ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. for many adults, humira is proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira , your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection.

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devastating event. >> and as the president mentioned, savannah, the thoughts and prayers of the american people are with the people of moore, oklahoma, right now. they have been challenged in the past and we have to believe that they'll answer "the call" once again. here's how it unfolded over the last 18 hours. >> unbearably loud. you could see stuff flying. just like on the movie "twister." >> we thought that we died, because we were in the cellar. we locked the door. it got louder. the next thing you know, you see the latch coming undone, we couldn't reach it. it ripped open.

just glass and debris started slamming on us. we thought we were dead to be honest. >> we had to pull a car out of the front hallway off of a teacher and i don't know what that lady's name is, she had three little kids underneath her, good job, teach. it ripped our house up. i still have a little girl buried there, so i gotta go. ♪

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good morning. the time is 7:56. a search is underway at golden gate park and along ocean beach for a missing bay to breakers runner. bo rasmussen was on the way to the beach for a swim. his personal belongings were found at golden gate park near the beach chalet

workers at ucsf planning to walk off the job. many elective surgeries have been canceled as patients and technical workers walk off the job. the two-day strike focusing on a proposed new pension plan that requires more employee contributions. for a look outside, christina loren show-and-tell. 7:56. taking a live look. beautiful sky over san francisco. those winds are certainly picking up. they are winds of change. we are going to see temperatures tumble by 15-20 degrees from yesterday's highs. the reason why, the cool onshore flow. also, seeing low clouds transported all the way inland. a mix of sun and clouds for today. 73, livermore, 79, fremont. 62, that's it today in san francisco. down from 83. wednesday into thursday, we stay steady and we will warm you back up towards the end ostd weekend. let's check your drive with mike. >> traffic tuesday. very slow because of the volume of traffic here. westbound away from us on that san mateo bridge. look at the map. you can use the san mateo

bridge, the dumbarton but slow on highway 84 getting to the toll plaza. your drive over to the peninsula. the peninsula itself is okay. south 101 starting to bog down. the south bay, your northbound route starting to really bog down. 101 north in capital, not so bad up towards 680. 280 and 85 starting to build as you pass highway 87. coming up at 8:26. another local update. we suggest you stick around. hope to see you then.

and we are back now, 8:00 on a tuesday morning, 21st day of may, 2013, a special edition of "today" coming to you from moore, oklahoma, the scene of terrible devastation after an ef4 tornado struck this community at about 2:56 yesterday afternoon local time, leveling homes, leveling schools, leveling businesses, leveling the medical center and changing life in this town, one would think forever. i'm matt lauer in moore, over on southwest sixth street and telephone road and savannah guthrie is just about a mile or so from where i am at city hall. savannah, good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. this is where the rebuilding

efforts will begin. the plans are already under way. we're going to speak to the mayor of hard-hit moore, oklahoma, in just a few moments and remember at the top i showed you the front page of the "oklahoman" a lot of people point to "the monster returned." this was a monstrous tornado when we look at the images from the sky, matt, it's clear that the devastation is complete and we should just mention as a programming note we were all on our way to yellowstone, planning a special broadcast there when we received word of everything that had happened here and of course had to cancel that, so for those looking for that, we will continue to cover this incredible story all morning long, matt. >> yes, savannah i'm here with willie geist who is joining us in moore as well. it's a confusing scene. that was a 7-eleven just built, it's gone completely. you have cars here and even as

you look at them you don't know if this is where they were prior to the storm. >> in a lot of cases you don't even know if they were cars. we walked past the medical center i came up on a mass of twisted steel and i saw tires, there's an engine block in a yard over here. it's hard even to recognize this as a neighborhood at this point. essentially what you have along sixth street are driveways leading up to concrete slabs. sume what we were standing here is the kitchen area. you're lucky if you see a toilet standing, a water heater maybe but otherwise completely flattened. >> these were not shabbily built homes. they're made out of bricks, sometimes in neat piles you wonder whether a bulldozer has been through this area but we don't believe that's the case. sean reese, one of our producers was here just after the storm hit and he just watched people walking out with their pets, with their kids, with one bag,

maybe a duffel bag and getting out of the way, and that's the only way they could be safe. imagine the debris flying through the air as they were trying to run to safety. >> the injuries that took place are from flying debris, a measure of how serious and the scope of this. the people who lived in these houses feel lucky. lot of people not quite as lucky. >> we have a lot to cover this morning. back to new york, tamron hall has a look at the other headlines. tamron, good morning to you. >> good morning, matt and willie, good morning, everyone. former irs commissioner douglas shulman testifies on capitol hill as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle investigate the agency's improper targeting of tea party groups. the white house admits senior presidential advisers were aware of the situation back in april. the president was not informed and only learned that the tea party was getting special scrutiny from news reports earlier this month. meantime the republican national committee is saying that it is

not yet time to call for the impeachment of president obama. the obama administration is also taking heat for prosecuting a state department expert on north korea, and declaring that a fox news journalist committed a crime by disclosing information that was leaked to him, during its probe of the state department adviser, officials issued a search warrant for the private e-mails of fox news chief washington correspondent james rose within the fbi naming him a criminal coconspirator in the leak. his comings and goings from the state department were also tracked. no charges have been filed but fox news said he was acting within his rights as part of a free press. an arizona judge refused a request for a mistrial in the death penalty phase of the jodi arias murder trial after a long time friend of arias decided not to testify as a character witness because of threats. arias is expected to take the stand as the jury that convicted

her in 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend decides if she should be executed. apple's ceo tim cook testifies before a senate committee about the company's tax strategies. investigators reported apple holds more than $100 billion in cash overseas to avoid u.s. income taxes. it said an irish subsidiary that earned $22 billion in 2011 paid only $10 million in taxes. apple pays all of its required taxes and complies with both the law and the spirit of the law. it is now 8:05, back to matt and willie in moore, oklahoma. >> tamron, thank you very much. matt, willie and al roker who is here covering the storms the last couple of days. the skies are clearly slightly here in moore but i'm watching this system move and that means someone else comes under the gun. >> that's right we're looking at a wide area under a severe thunderstorm watch out of this system and the system is going to move to the east and to the

north and so friends in missouri and then on into illinois, indiana, parts of ohio, on into michigan they'll be affected by this thing but what we're really concerned about is the next round of severe weather happening and that's going to be to the south and west of here. you can see already on the radar we've got the heavy thunderstorms firing up but we're also watching on the futurecast this line makes its way, a risk of strong storms stretching from texas all the way up into michigan, but the real area that we're worried about is stretching from central texas into parts of southern oklahoma, arkansas, and on into parts of missouri. so a real strong risk of tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds out of that risk area. that's what's going on in the country. here's what's >> 8:06 now. beautiful day shaping up.

mostly cloudy conditions in san jose. we're starting to clear out in san francisco. those winds, they are strong. they are going to transport that cool ocean air all the way inland all day long. that means 15 to 20 degree cooldown from where we were yesterday. 71 in san jose. getting into the next couple of days, temperatures stay steady leveling off in the low 70s. saturday and sunday we'll warm you back up. seasonal averages for memorial day. >> and that's your latest weather. >> we are back and much more ahead from moore, oklahoma, from the air with natalie and from here on the ground with dr. nancy arriving as well. we'll be talking to her and have much more from savannah right after this. nah. okay. this, won't take long will it? no, not at all.

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hurry in and try a small for just a dollar. ♪ 11 minutes after 8:00, we're live here in moore, oklahoma, which has been devastated by an ef4 tornado. winds of up to 200 miles an hour that have simply obliterated this community and one of the most heartbreaking aspects of all of this is that two elementary schools were in the direct path of the storm. i'm joined by my colleague lester holt who has more on that. >> good morning, savannah. how can we forget the images of children literally being plucked from the wreckage. two schools, both took direct hits leaving children as young as 5 and 6 right in the devastation. >> oh, my god! >> reporter: just before 3:00 p.m., winds of up to 200 miles an hour took aim at plaza towers elementary school in the suburb

of moore. >> this is terrible. this school is completely gone. >> reporter: in an instant the safe haven of a school became a pile of crushed walls and twisted metal, as kids held on for their lives. >> i had to hold onto the wall to keep myself safe because i didn't want to fly away in the tornado. >> a line went down and it hit me in the head and all the other girls were screaming and they were crying. >> reporter: emergency crews were in a desperate search to find children in the rubble, including this boy, pulled from beneath a collapsed wall. many of the kids who got out of this school alive have a brave teacher to thank. >> i don't know what that lady's name is but she had three little kids undernooit here, good job, teach. >> reporter: in fact that teacher protected more lives. >> i was on top of six kids. >> reporter: on top of six children? >> i was lying on top of them. >> reporter: and they're all okay?

>> all of mine are okay. >> reporter: not every child made it out okay. >> this is no longer a search and rescue operation it's now a recovery mission. >> reporter: under the debris seven children were found dead in a lower level of the school in a pool of water where they drowned. >> i understand they're going to start pulling these tiny victims out of the rubble here shortly. >> all right, lance. >> lance, i'm so sorry. >> reporter: less than two miles away at the briarwood school in south oklahoma city, the news was happier. the tornado ripped through classrooms but with no known fatalities. teachers comforted their students, at both schools moms and dads hugged their children, on one of the worst days ever. >> and then i came out and i saw the cars and i saw the houses and i just started crying so hard. >> it's all right, you are never, ever going to go through this again. >> searchers remain at the plaza tower school all night looking for victims and savannah one of the things they need most right

now is quiet, to be able to listen any sounds coming from that wreck as it might lead to a rescue. >> there was a moment where they asked news helicopters to back off because they wanted rescuers to hear if there were any voices. >> it's vital. >> lester, thank you so much. we'll head over to matt and al and see what's the latest there. hi, guys. >> yeah, savannah, hi again as we said about a mile from here in this neighborhood here that's just been basically wiped off the map and al and i have been walking around for the last hour or so and trying to be very, very respectful of people's belongings, but we've been looking through some of the debris, i saw a pair of binoculars and some shoes and mostly what you see is just complete destruction. we're standing on the slap b of what was a home. this was the kitchen, you can see the tiles. when the walls were ripped out obviously anything on the floor, whether it was carpeting or

something else was ripped out as well. we were walking a couple minutes ago and saw something that dropped us in our tracks. >> fireplace was here, a mantle about here and what fell was the folded flag of obviously a loved one who had served in the military and had passed, and you know, we don't want to touch that. >> right, the temptation is because this is, you know that is so valuable to someone in the history of their family to take it and take it to a safe place and then try to find who lived here and make sure they get it, but we decided we don't want to do anything like that. we're hoping they get to come into this neighborhood very soon and they'll be looking for that and i think the worst thing would be for them not to be age to find it. >> hopefully if they don't see this, somebody they know, some loved one knows and will tell them and they can come grab this, it's obviously something near and dear to them's sp eshlly afteshl eshl especially after something like this. >> as you walk through the streets in moore, it's a different perspective from

above. kfor has been hosting natalie all morning and let's go back up to her now. >> matt, you know, just looking up from aboveground here it's hard to tell as you've been reporting all morning long what some of these structures once were. as we look down below i'll show you what was a 7-eleven here and as we zoom in on that you can see almost the perfect track of that tornado there on the ground right below as it aimed directly for that 7-eleven and john welsh, our chopper pilot of kfor he was reporting on the scene and the reporter was out there trying to get to some of the victims, among the first casualties, first fatalities reported. >> natalie, she did.

she was, meghan alexander came down doing post damage reporting, the first ones on the scene and they went in there and pulled out the first four fatalities of this storm that we know of, and it was unfortunately it was a mother and we believe a 7-month-old and adult man and adult female out of that. they were trying to get in the walk-in freezer but unless you're below ground in this storm, nothing was going to be safe. the freezer is gone, the pumps are gone. the only thing left is some rubble and the asphalt. >> that's what i can't even make out what were once homes and structures. you know this area, you live here, you know those stores and you've been in those stores and when you see it reduced to that i can't imagine what you must be feeling. >> like we showed earlier, we were looking at that one spot, we brought it up on google earth to see it was a gas station and there was a store there because some of these structures are completely gone and these are, you know, code built structures.

i think we called this in excess of 300-mile-an-hour wind and unless you're below ground it takes everything up in its way. >> you see twisted metal, you see pieces of debris and cement and, go ahead, john. >> you can see the twisted and it's pretty much you can't even recognize it there. >> yes and this is just one area of what is a huge stretch of this city, heavily populated, about 51,000 people live in this neighborhood. you, yourself, have a house here and fortunately your home was spared in all of this, your own family, they were in their cellar. >> it was. i was reporting it's on fourth street and we live an eighth of a mile north of fourth street. luckily they were in the shelter, they were safe so it was a good story for my family but for most of the people here they're definitely affected by this tornado. >> savannah, i'll send it back

to you. >> all right, natalie, that view from above just shows that astonishing level of destruction of this community. i want to bring in mayor glenn lewis of moore, oklahoma. sir, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> thank you for being with us and our condolences for all that is lost here. >> we appreciate that. >> the death toll stands at 51. do you expect that number rise today? >> hopefully not. right now we're is doing search and rescue and optimistic we might find a couple people under the debris, we don't know yet. we're going to be optimistic today. >> what kind of resources are being brought to bear to find people? we heard reports yesterday that heat sensors searching through the rubble. >> our fire department has heat sensors and we've gone door to door, we'll start the process, this will be our third pass this morning and we've gone door to door looking for survivors and the thermal imagers are one of

the best things we've purchased in a long time, we're using them all today. >> one of the things breaking everybody's heart is the fact that two schools were in the direct path of this storm. with regard to plaza towers, there have been reports that some of the older kids, the fourth graders and older were taken elsewhere, they were evacuated essentially but the little ones were told to shelter in place. do you know anything how that came to pass, whether that's even true? >> no, i don't. the school system would be best to answer that question. the schools in the city are straightens. the schools cover oklahoma city as well as moore. it's a tragedy that this has happened. we're still looking into it. the fire department is doing an investigation on how this happened. we don't know. >> this is a town that unfortunately has seen so much devastation. you had an ef5 tornado may 3rd, 1999. is there an adequate underground shelter system? do a lot of the homes around here have that?

>> after the '99 tornado fema came in and offered rebates to do storm shelters so a lot of the houses do have, otherwise we'd be talking probably thousand or more fatality but right now we're looking at 50 and that's still way too many. >> i know the are power outages here. >> yes. >> you and i were looking at some of the damage that natalie was able to see from the helicopter in the air. how does this compare to what you've seen before and what is your message to your community this morning? >> right now we say hold on, we're in the process of coming to help you, if you need anything, the red cross is here, almost every church is open, they were open last night. just hang in there. >> there are so many people that see these images and they want to help. >> yes. >> they want to do something. what should they do? >> right now we ask they stay out of our way, stay home and keep the roads open so the ambulance and fire trucks can do

their jobs. >> mayor glenn lewis i appreciate your time on a busy morning. thank you and good luck with your work. >> thank you, appreciate it. >> we tush to i acouple of people, robert foster, excuse me sorry, we have dr. nancy snyderman, i got ahead of myself. you've been talking to some of the people involved in treating the injured. what are they seeing? >> we talked to the head of the trauma unit at university of oklahoma and she underscored the first responders have really been instrumental in making sure so many people's lives were saved, primarily injuries, crush injuries, impalements which is awfully gruesome and major lacerations. probably 65 people hospitalized right now at the university, another 55 or so at one of the other hospitals but everyone's exhausted. i can hear it in their voices, the doctors, the nurses, the social workers, the emts, people are not only recovering from the tornado earlier in the week with

in shawnee but this is a second sucker punch. >> there's a variety of different hospitals around the area. in the early days it's hard to get a handle on how many are injured but what, based on the reporting you've been able to do, what are we talking about in general? >> we've heard at least 140, probably closer to 200 and it's easy to underestimate the numbers because a lot of people are seen and discharged right away. what this city is good at is triaging people so the very severely injured were immediately taken to local trauma centers and those people who could be patched up and sent back home were. lot of people who could be patched up aren't even going back to homes. so the devastation, just the physical devastation here, people injured, psychologically traumatized, and then some cases they don't even have places to go home to. >> i was wondering actually, those who are acutely injured and certainly get the help right away, i wondered if there were

other people we read about the walking wounded, people walking around perhaps injuries that they don't recognize right away, something that a concussion, that kind of thing, are there any signs that people should just be looking out for along those lines? >> memory loss, headache, confusion, beyond the norm, anybody like that, or pain that suddenly wasn't there before, that's when you go back to the hospital. lot of times these decisions have to be made in the moment and yes sometimes people can be discharged inappropriately. i think in this case what happened in oklahoma they have brought people into the hospital and at least observed them for 24 hours, then slowly let them go home. they intelligently jumped on this right away, and the one thing i think the doctors and nurses have to worry about now is their own psychiatric help and making sure they're there for each other, even the surgeon said they've been crying. >> how could they not in the face of such devastation. dr. nancy snyderman thank you so much. we'll continue our coverage from

moore, oklahoma, which has seen so much tragedy this morning. we'll have a lot more of our coverage live it is 8:26. i'm laura garcia-cannon. a rash of violent crime in east palo alto prompting the chief to declare a crime emergency. on sunday night a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed, two other teens were hurt. police say that attack, one of more than 50 firemen assaults since january. starting today east palo alto police department will be under a crime emergency allowing the department to cancel days off and make patrol changes. the crime emergency will last 30 days. check the morning commute with mike. how is it looking out there? >> we're looking all right as far as the flow of traffic. tuesday, heavy flow westbound across the san mateo bridge. over the last 15 minutes i saw trafficost come to a

complete stop won again, then started flowing smoothly again. no crashes on the span itself. you saw the sign light up, talking about high winds. you do see on the peninsula side road weather index does show yellow highlighting meaning gusty winds. the south bay shows continued slowdown, 280, 101, 87 still have that commute, laura, thank you. >> thank you very much. another local news update in half an hour or so. have a nice morning.

from high above moore, oklahoma, we see the astonishing devastation that has taken place in this community just south of oklahoma city, after a category ef4 tornado ripped through this area, casting a wide swathe of destruction, a debris field shot through this community, the death toll officially stands at 51. we may hear that it rises later. the search for survivors we're told by officials in the last half hour continues this

morning. hope is still there. the president is expected to address the situation here in oklahoma at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, and matt is a few miles away, very close, hower it thinkable destruction is, matt. >> savannah, we've moved just about a half a block from where we were joining you from a little while ago i'm joined obviously by al roker as well. if the audio goes in and out we're stretching to the limits of where we can be from our camera but wanted to give you an idea of more devastation, that is the moore medical center. this car just behind al was picked up from someplace and deposited upside down. you can see the red xs spraypainted on the side, search and rescue teams looked and found no survivors and al describe the parking lot behind. >> all of the cars had been

upright against yesterday right up against the opening of the medical center there, all day long front-end loaders and bu bulldozers pushed the car away. they have the xs as well. right around here the smell of gas. >> it's everywhere. >> really strong. >> we mentioned the hospital did have patients in it at the time yesterday afternoon when this tornado struck. you can still hear the alarm of the hospital going off periodically. the ambulances came, they evacuated the people who were there in the hospital, including that one woman in labor. al, walk with me carefully for a second. savannah i want to give you an idea of the force of the winds here. not only does it pick a car up like this but take a look at this telephone pole over here and look what is now wrapped around it, a couple of coils like a spring around that telephone pole. i think that is part of the roofing structure or the framing structure from the medical center behind us and everywhere

you walk, by the way we're in a soggy field because they got so much rain. there are huge gauges in the ground that were created when some piece of debris touched down. there's one over here that's about six feet wide. >> probably from that car. >> it could have been a car that came by, glanced the ground, dug a ditch and landed a few feet away. it's a terrible, terrible scene. >> the other thing you notice is a lot of the foliage, the trees have just been stripped bare not only of leaves but of bark as well. >> i know the good news is the skies are bright ning here. what is the weather outlook? >> looks better for here. we have a risk of strong storms stretching from texas up into parts of the upper midwest. we're looking at heavy rain moving into the pacific northwest. showers in the northeast and atlantic coast. tomorrow the risk of strong storms moves to the east. rain in the mid-atlantic states

as well as florida tomorrow and a gorgeous day from west texas on into the southwest with above normal temperatures. that's what's going on in the coun 8:34 on tuesday morning. good morning, i'm meteorologist christina loren. taking a live look at san francisco's clear sky. camera shaking a little bit. winds are picking up. meanwhile mostly cloudy in san jose. let me show you what's going on. an area of low pressure north driving a cold front through the area. cold front already cleared, santa rosa down south to san francisco. mostly cloudy conditions from san jose to santa cruz. those winds picking up as the system moves out here. today, temps 20 degrees on average, low 70s, much cooler tomorrow. >> and that's your latest weather. matt we sometimes take these storms for granted but it's a complex system that develops when you find out how a tornado works. we thought you might be interested to know this is how

they form. the tornado that flattened this oklahoma suburb estimated to have been about two miles wide and reportedly on the ground for about 40 minutes. tornadoes like this one typically last only minutes. generally leaving miles of devastation in their wake. a tornado begins as a strong thunderstorm in order for it to become a tornado its winds at different altitudes need to increase and change direction. this is called wind shear, which creates a horizontal tunnel of air. if that air gets caught up in the upward energy of the storm it picks up speed and strengthens and the energy of the air goes from horizontal to vertical, causing a funnel cloud. when the rain from the thunderstorm hits the ground a tornado is formed. the national weather service classifies this tornado as an ef4, the second most severe classification on a scale of zero to five although that rating could be increased to an ef5 once more damage assessment

teams come out to look at the damage. and matt, the death toll in this, if it stands, it will be the second deadliest single day tornado, single tornado since 1953. >> you just said that teams will come out here and assess the damage to decide whether it was an ef4 or ef5. how exactly do they do that? >> they look at the amount of damage, they look at the damage field, the debris fields, they look at the amount of the scope of it and look at the rotation, like the wrapping of that girder around that telephone pole, and that's how they'll assess it. >> we'll have much more ahead on a special edition of "today" from moore, oklahoma, right after this.

our live coverage from moore, oklahoma, continues, and one of the reporters who was

first on the scene at plaza towers elementary school was lance west from affiliate kfor and gave viewers a gripping and emotional account of what was unfolding. take a look. >> reporter: i am standing where a whole bunch of folks are gathered. they're bringing out some boards, some stretchers, what looks to be like a whole lot of effort momentarily the national guard has arrived. i do have reason to believe that they have found some victims -- i asked -- >> lance? >> excuse me, i asked one of the medics if he could confirm that -- he just put his head down and said "i can't answer that." i ran down to the school to talk to emergency personnel and i have been told by some reliable sources here on the scene that this is no longer a search and

rescue operation. it's now a recovery mission. it is my understanding that there are up to two dozen children, victims trapped at the bottom of that school right now. this is eagle drive right here. we understand there could be as many as a half dozen more fatalities on this street alone in this area. the emergency personnel have backed out of the school, they're pulling in more vehicles, they're backing people away, and i understand they're going to start pulling these tiny victims out of the rubble here shortly. >> all right, lance. >> lance, i'm so sorry. hang in there, my friend. >> but -- >> and lance west joins us now. i think we were all with you in that moment when you realized what you have to report. >> it was one of the most heartbreaking events i've had to cover. we followed an ambulance, pig piggybacked into the area where the elementary school was, the first thing we saw when we got out of the car was a family coming out of their storm shelter, a mom, her daughter and a nephew, they were in tears

obviously seeing everything they saw around them, but the story they shared was heartbreaking, they said someone was pounding on the door to get in and they didn't have the strength to open the door because the wind was so powerful so who knows what happened to that family. those stories again and again are what we heard yesterday and then we navigated our way over to plaza towers and it was gut wrenching. you heard the emotion obviously and sometimes we're more human than reporter and that happens but images i will never forget. >> i can't imagine the scene as parents must have been rushing to the school. >> we got there right before a lot of the firefighters and the police and then about 15 minutes later parents started to show up and they were hysterical as you might expect. "my kids are in there. why aren't you doing anything?" we spent ten hours out there. the search and rescuers did everything they could to get the

little victims at the bottom of the rubble. it was heartbreaking to see the hopelessness and heartbreak of all the parents. it's just one of the things you never want to experience. >> we heard there was a time when they actually asked some of the choppers to back off because rescuers were walking through the rubble calling names, hoping to hear little voices rise up. >> right, and there was a lot of noise and they took a lot of the people that moved in the back, volunteers, people coming up to offer help, to be able to get victims out of the rubble and by the way i don't know if you know this or not we heard overnight they rescued 101 people alive in the rubble, and that search and rescue effort continues today. because of all the noise they had to move people back so that the experts could do the job they needed to do. >> this is a beautiful community to live in but one of the hard parts of it is tornado alley and this community has seen horrific damage before. how does this compare for example to may 3rd, 1999, which

is an ef5, winds of more than 300 miles an hour but it feels like this devastation is on a magnitude worse. >> i think the difference here is that this storm dropped from the sky so quick and grew so big and powerful, it became from a small tornado, a funnel into this monster grinder that was two miles wide and in many cases when we have tornadoes here you can get into a closet or you can get into a bathroom and you're okay. unless you were underground, you were not going to survive this storm. it was that powerful. >> do you feel like folks here have underground shelters? is that something fairly common, or only the privileged few? >> yes, i would say less than 10% maybe have a storm shelter here and most people they can survive hiding under a staircase or bathroom. sales of storm shelters will go up after this because this is what mother nature can do, unfortunately. lot of great stories coming out of that school. i think a teacher, rhonda, i had

a chance to meet her yesterday, she laid on top of six of her kids and saved their lives. >> we had a little boy on air saying my teacher saved my life. lance west you have been up all day, all night. thank you for your coverage and being such a poignant voice and such a terrible story, i appreciate you being here. >> thank you so much. >> we are going to have some more stories of survival and how do you survive in a tornado? that's coming up, but first, this is "today" on nbc. wow, the track looks perfect.

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both incredible and chilling but they do give you a sense of the fear that people must have felt with this monster storm bearing down. >> i was here when it went through, i was at the school. >> reporter: tony connor saw the tornado coming he went to the school to save his own life. he wound up saving many others. >> we got the kids out of the gym here and i heard people screaming over here, got one guy out right here and he said we two neighbors over here, we went over and got them out. >> reporter: the kids huddling together like jessica and crystal mcclary, it was a nightmare. 50 of them in one classroom, scared to death, jessica hid under a table. >> you could like feel it coming through. it was, it was terrifying. >> reporter: even more terrifying for the younger kids. >> i had to hold onto the wall to keep myself safe because i didn't want to fly away in the tornado. >> reporter: elizabeth raced home when the weather turned bad, worried about her dog,

ginger. the two rode it out in the bathtub. >> the twister was right there, i said oh no you're not going to get me. i cannot believe that we actually survived this thing. >> reporter: many people like jim bentley survived because they had shelters. >> with the storm shelter you feel more secure. best $2,000 i've ever spent. >> yes. >> reporter: while shelters may keep out the raging storm they can't keep out terror. >> we locked the cellar door once we saw it got coming, it got louder and next thing you know, you see the latch coming undone and we couldn't reach for it and it ripped open the door. we thought we were dead. >> so that gives you an idea of the power of this storm. these people actually had a storm cellar, were down in it, it's a metal dower and the power of this storm ripped off the door of the storm's cellar, they survived. >> we had an eyewitness inside his underground storm cellar and

described holding onto that latch for dear life so i think we are seeing what we see in the devastation, but in the witness accounts as well the fierceness of this storm. janet, thank you so much. >> yes. >> we have much more of our coverage. we are from moore, oklahoma, but first this is "today" on nbc.

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back here on a tuesday morning in moore, oklahoma, the site of this devastating tornado that hit here yesterday. representative of the american red cross came through this neighborhood a couple minutes ago and we stopped and talked to him, al roker and i did, and we asked what their plans are, what they're doing. he said of course we're setting up shelters trying to help the people displaced but to be honest the shelters aren't all that full because people in neighborhoods like this have been through these things in the past and when a storm like this hits, when a tornado hits, they tend to go to neighbors and friends and relatives and take shelter with them. but there are shelters up and running in neighborhoods around here. mike bettes of the weather channel took a visit to one of them. >> reporter: i want to you look down in here, this is their storm shelter. they jammed six people down in there. >> wow. >> reporter: their animals and all made it out okay. >> wow. >> reporter: stunning. you had to be underground in

order to you know survive this tornado. and a gentleman that was actually in that storm shelter joining us your name again, sir? >> gerald mobley. >> reporter: thanks for talking with us this evening. what was that moment like when this tornado came through? >> you can't describe it. all the wind just got sucked out. the trees became still, and then it was just, it was chaos when the tornado hit it pushed the door in the position the chain was jammed so we were able to slide it forward and get it undone and able to get our hands up to push stuff off. >> reporter: gerald when you came out of the shelter and saw all of this, what is going through your mind? >> where to begin. it's like the beginning of the end. my wife and i, we worked hard for everything we have, and we just now paid off our house. we were debt free h no house payment. >> people like that have learned by experience, they've been through these storms before, they know what they need to set

aside, they need what they need to stay safe and that experience is something that's been over the last several decades and we've talked a lot over the last day, al, about the storm of 1999. >> everywhere i went through the neighborhood i interviewed people and to a person, they all referenced the may 3rd storm of 1999. it's the tornado against which all others are judged. may, 1999, in moore, oklahoma. >> a very large maxitornado on the ground. >> reporter: right at rush hour an ef5 tornado, the strongest winds ever recorded on earth. >> about three miles. >> reporter: a funnel cloud trained on the plains. >> cars were tossed around, houses reduced to rubble, at least 60,000 people have been left without power. >> reporter: families with babies huddling under an overpass. >> wanted to keep them safe. >> that's the only part of the house left standing. >> reporter: this woman sheltered her husband.

>> the tornado was pulling him one way and i was pulling him in the closet the other way. >> reporter: it tossed pickup trucks like toys, ripped roofs off buildings, fractured lives. the irony of an open house and an open air kitchen. >> the devastation was unimaginable an ef5 tornado destroyed the moore area leaving this disaster zone. >> reporter: 44 died, 8,000 homes destroyed, more than $1 billion worth of damage. but determination to save what they had and rebuild all of what they lost. well, i got to tell you, this area, they're so used to these kind of storms, i was in at whole foods the other night when we first got here and they actually sell what they call tornado bins so that people already, these plastic bins that people keep supplies in, and when we were in shawnee yesterday, there were folks showing up with those bins to

help people collect the belongings as they were going through all of the debris. >> i was watching some of the footage, we got together in the hotel and i was watching the footage you and sean reish shot, the rain that came down we walked through the ground it's saturated with the inches of rain that fell and as we drove up here this morning it was probably 4:30, quarter of 5:00 in the morning along interstate 35, and everything looked normal until you got close to moore and then all of a sudden everything was dark, the power out here, and will be out here for days and weeks to come. >> we've already seen power trucks coming from neighboring states, they were already coming, pouring in here yesterday afternoon. >> a lot more to happen. lot of these people are just going to have to be able to come back to their homes, see whatever they can salvage. they're probably staying with friends and they're going to have to restore power, they're going to have to talk about how they'll handle schools, luckily it's the end of the school year.

>> the president is speaking at 10:00 a.m.. >> no question about it, a lot to cover and a special edition of "today," moore, oklahoma, and more of savannah. good tuesday morning. 8:56. i'm laura garcia-cannon. the golden state warriors may have fin i objected their run in the spotlight but doesn't mean they are out of the spotlight. the mayor dubbed today golden state warrior today, they will get a key to the city. the golden ray of sunshine coming across the bay area. cooler temperatures today? >> it is cooler.

we do have plenty of sunshine along the immediate coast. sorry about that. a little tongue-tied on a tuesday. what i can tell you is as we head throughout the next couple days, temperatures are going to stay steady. we don't have major changes after the 20 degree drop-off from yesterday and today. getting into the weekend, we're going to warm you right back up just in time for memorial day.

9:00 on a tuesday morning. and you are looking at the images of destruction in the to of moore, oklahoma, which saw an ef-4 tornado. a wide swath of destruction. in some cases obliterating whole neighborhoods in just a mere span of minutes. today the hard work of recovery begins. the death toll stands at 51. it may rise. hundreds have been injured. and there are still hopes that survivors will be found today. i'm savannah guthrie live in front of city hall in moore, oklahoma, where part of the

rebuilding plans will begin. and matt lauer is at the center of some of the destruction that we've seen, and the stories that we've been hearing have just been incredible, matt. >> yeah, savannah, you talk about the fact that there is still hope that survivors might be found. everywhere you look in this neighborhood where i'm standing, southwest 6th street and telephone road, you see cars that have red spray painted xs on them. that means some sort of searcher has looked in them for someone to be trapped inside. the buildings all have the red xs on them as well. the headlines, of course, from these storms, the two elementary schools that were destroyed, just leveled. the brierwood elementary school, severely damaged as well. this was an ef-4 tornado, that means the winds in this thing were about 200 miles per hour. and because of the devastation that you see around me, the president of the united states, barack obama, has declared this

area a major disaster area. they've been through storms in the past here, savannah, that monster storm in 1999, but you can bet from this moment on, people will remember what happened here on may 20th, 2013, at about 2:56 in the afternoon. >> oh, my god! >> this is not good. >> reporter: one of the most powerful tornadoes in history touched down a little before 3:00 monday afternoon. leveling entire neighborhoods, and leaving a swath of destruction up to two miles wide. two elementary schools suffered direct hits. their walls torn apart by winds measuring up to 200 miles per hour. >> this is terrible. this is war zone terrible. >> reporter: at plaza towers elementary, only some children emerged safely from the wreckage. images that soon contrasted with scenes of utter heart break. >> we had to pull a car out of the front hallway off a teacher. and i don't know what that lady's name is, but she had three little kids underneath

her. good job, teach. it ripped our house up. i've still got a little girl buried in there. i've got to go. >> reporter: the older kids had reportedly been evacuated before the tornado hit. but k through 3 were forced to ride out the storm inside. >> i had to hold on to the wall to keep myself safe, because i didn't want to fly away in the tornado. >> it went down and hit me in the head. and all the other girls were screaming. and they were crying. >> i was on top of six kids. >> on top of six children? >> i was laying on top of them. >> and they're all okay? >> all of mine are okay. >> reporter: as night fell, a desperate search and rescue operation at plaza school turned into a recovery mission. the grim search for the bodies of students buried in the rubble. at nearby brierwood elementary, early reports indicated no lives had been lost.

>> have you seen them yet? >> no, but they're fine. >> reporter: the area had been under alert, but the speed with which the tornado approached shocked even veteran observers. >> abandon where you are, if you cannot get below ground. >> reporter: in less than an hour sunny skies gave way to dark and deadly funnel clouds. local forecasters begged viewers to take cover. >> you've got to act. and act, and act to save your life, and save your loved ones' lives. >> reporter: the twister left cars piled up in front of medical buildings and theaters. even homes with sturdy storm cellars were not safe from the wind's fury. >> it ripped open the door. just glass and debris started slamming on us. we thought we were dead, to be honest. >> reporter: moore has been hit by tornadoes many times before, including may 1999, when the most powerful winds ever recorded touched down in a storm path nearly identical to this. >> everything is gone. everything's gone.

but the important thing is our lives. >> reporter: now another massive relief effort is under way, as hundreds of homes have been lost and lives torn apart in just one afternoon. >> i came out and i saw the houses and i just started crying so hard. >> reporter: and despite the fact there was so much devastation, we are hearing stories of heroism, and we'll hear more of those as the survivors come out of what has to be a state of shock and begin telling more of their stories. savannah, over to you. >> well, matt, we are about to hear one of those stories of heroism. i have rhonda here, a 6th grade teacher at plaza towers. we've heard your story this morning. we've already had a student talk about how you laid on top of several students to save them. can you tell me what happened yesterday? >> well, we just -- we were in the halls, and mr. ayers, a 5th grade teacher said, you have to get the students in the

bathroom. i was in a stall with some kids. and it started coming down. one of my little boys said, i love you, please don't die with me. please don't die with me. but we're okay, and we finally made it out when it stopped. there was a dad there, and him and i and one of my students pulled everyone out of the -- we were in the bathroom. pulled them out of the bathroom. we had one kid with a head cut, but he's fine. >> as far as you know all your kids are okay? >> all my kids are accounted for. >> can you even put into words what was going through your mind and what you were feeling this those moments when you're literally using your body to cover your kids? >> i never thought i was going to die. the whole time i kept screaming to them, quit worrying, we're fine, we're fine. and i'm very loud. i just hoped that they could hear me, because i could hear them screaming. the little girl that was --

she's in my home room and she was sobbing. i was like, we're going to be fine. we're going to be fine. i'm protecting you. and then i said a few prayers. god, please take care of my kids. and we're fine. >> there were so many prayers going up in that moment. you lived through an incredibly powerful tornado. can you give us a sense of how it felt, how it sounded? >> you know, i don't remember what it sounded like, honestly. it was like a freight train. but i don't remember much about it. and it felt like someone was beating me up from behind. stuff was just coming down on my back. i thought -- i have cuts everywhere that i didn't even realize i had. i had flip-flops on. i have cuts on my feet from the flip-flops. but pretty irrelevant considering what could have happened. >> before we came on this morning, you were saying, you were looking around and saying, i wish i could see my kids. i do have a student here who

wants to say thank you to you. >> oh. >> and his mom brandi. >> i told you we were going to be okay. >> let's get a little group hug. >> he was under the sink. i got him out, though. >> damian, how does it feel to see this teacher? you told me earlier, she saved your life. >> she did. >> kind of scared. >> he's not one of my students, his brother's one of my students. he just happened to be in the bathroom with me. >> brandi, what does it mean to you to see --

>> oh, thank you so much. thank you to all the teachers that were out there with them. >> i will tell you, we were -- i mean, miss simpson was on the p.a. with us until it literally hit. teachers, do this, teachers do this. mr. ayers was running down the hall telling us -- i mean, we have the best faculty and staff that any school could ask for. i mean, they were amazing. i mean, there's nothing i can say that -- >> good job. >> that protected us. >> well, thank you to all of you for being here. that hug feel pretty good? it's so good to have you. thank you for being one of the bright spots here. >> thank you. >> and i know -- >> just doing our job. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> we will take -- we'll go back to new york. tamron hall has the other stories of the day. >> good morning, savannah. well, president obama has spoken

by phone to the governor of oklahoma and has declared the city of moore a major disaster. kristen welker is at the white house. >> tamron, white house officials said president obama will receive regular updates on the devastation in oklahoma throughout the day. this morning he was briefed by his top advisers in the oval office, including homeland security secretary janet napolitano. monday evening, he called the governor of oklahoma, to express his condolences. federal assistance will be available to those in the five hardest hit counties immediately. mr. obama addressed the nation earlier today, and vowed to stand by the people of oklahoma. >> our prayers are with the people of oklahoma today. our gratitude is with the teachers who gave their all to shield their children, with the neighbors, first responders and emergency personnel who raced to help as soon as the tornado passed.

and with all of those who, as darkness fell, searched for survivors through the night. >> fema officials have been dispatched to oklahoma, including search and rescue teams. there are also crews on the ground with ipads ready to help those who need to sign up for federal assistance. for information about how you can help, you can logon to today.com. tamron, back to you. >> all right, kristen, thank you very much. the former head of the internal revenue service faces tough questioning on capitol hill today. lawmakers are getting their first chance to ask douglas schulman about agents who targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. members of the senate finance committee want to know why schulman did not inform congress even after he was briefed. the obama administration also taking heat, for prosecuting a state department expert on north korea and declaring a fox news journalist committed a crime for information leaked to him. during a probe of the state

department adviser, officials issued a search warrant for the private e-mails of fox news chief washington correspondent james rosen, with the fbi naming him a criminal co-conspirator in the leak. his comings and goings from the state department were also tracked. he said he was acting within his right as part of a free press. police in utah reveal new details in the susan powell case monday, even as they announce that they were ending their three-year search for that missing mother. investigators concluded that husband josh powell was definitely involved, but stopped short of saying he murdered his wife. josh killed himself and his two young sons in an explosive house fire last year. they also said josh's brother, who committed suicide in february, probably had intimate involvement in susan's disappearance. and that the brothers had exchanged encrypted electronic messages that the police were never able to decipher. the keyboard is one of the

founding members of ground-breaking rock band the doors has bdied. he formed the doors after a chance meeting with jim morrison back in '65, giving a signature sound to some of the most famous rock songs of the era, including "light my fire." he was 74 years old. it is now 13 minutes after the hour. let's go back to moore, oklahoma, to check in with matt and al. >> all right, tamron, thank you very much. the sun was out for a while. it seems to have gone away for a little bit. >> we see stray dogs over here, probably they've been lost, haven't been able to find their owners or vice versa. which is a scene being repeated over and over again here. the good news is, all of the tornado watches, thunderstorm watches have been dropped in this area. that's really good news. let's look on the radar, though. there's still a lot going on today, on into tomorrow. you can see there's a wide area of thunderstorms stretching all the way from little rock,

arkansas, up to the west of detroit, making its way slowly to the east. in fact, you can see we have a risk of strong storms from san antonio all the way to detroit as far west as green bay. we also have a strong risk from austin, waco, dallas, texarkana, and shreveport. this could be developing strong tornadoes much like we saw yesterday here in moore. so there's a big concern for a big part of texas, on into parts of missouri, and also into arkansas as well. can you see high and mid level clouds streaming into sunol. all the way inland, cloudy conditions. clouds aren't going to play a role all day long. a weak disturbance coming through. the immediate coastline already getting nice and clear. our wind gusts are picking up as the disturbance moves out of the bay area.

watch out for the wind. otherwise temperatures will be comfortable, upper 60s, low 70s. the next couple of days, level off, staying steady. hope you have a great day. >> okay, that's your latest weather. >> mr. roker, thank you very much. we'll be back covering this tornado in moore, oklahoma, right after these messages. [ male announcer ] erica had a rough day. there was this and this. she got a parking ticket... ♪ and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's got the citi simplicity card. it doesn't charge late fees or a penalty rate. ever. as in never ever. now about that parking ticket. [ grunting ] [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee, ever. go to citi.com/simplicity to apply.

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[ camera shutter clicks ] ♪ ♪ [ camera shutter clicking ] ♪ [ male announcer ] meet the best low-light smartphone camera. [ camera shutter clicking ] better than iphone. better than galaxy. the windows phone nokia lumia 928. ♪ we're back here in moore, oklahoma, now. we talked about the fact that people in communities like this had 15 or 16 minutes' warning, at least that they knew the tornado had actually hit the ground and was heading toward them, but in terms of predicting these storms and these storm systems, the warning was much longer than that. >> we started talking about this both on the "today" show and the weather channel last friday, and the people were hearing about it all weekend long and in fact i

know jim cantore was ready at the ready to go storm chasing because he knew this was coming. >> and jim is actually joining us now from a section of moore not far from where we are about a half a mile off the path of the storm, where a lot of the debris has landed. jim, good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. i heard you mention the sun went out, same thing pretty much happened here, your he not too far from us. we did talk to lieutenant govern tom lynn this morning and some good news, 101 survivors pulled from the rubble last night which is incredible. they had no idea how many more were in there. this is a search and rescue effort. i'm about half a mile to tloo quarters of a mile from the core of the tornado. i want to take you back yesterday, these are shots from the air, obviously when the tornado was going on you could see the rapidly rising air motion and circular motion when you have a violent tornado like this, 180, 200 plus-mile-an-hour winds and that is debris being

centrifuged out of the storm. that's where i am, i'm probably about a half mile, three-quarters of a mile from where some of the debris has been centrifuged out and some littered through here. we heard stories of a paper found from moore, oklahoma, all the way up into tulsa, oklahoma, that is 100 miles away. i would be very shocked, guys, if this was not at least a 200-mile-per-hour tornado as the national weather service will be on site later on this afternoon to assess the damage but really all that matters is they account for everyone and that's very much the effort that is going to be concentrated on today and probably a good part of tomorrow as well. you've seen it, there's a ton of debris everywhere. >> jim cantore, thank you. al and i will have much more from this devastated neighborhood in a couple of minutes and we'll check back in with savannah guthrie, who is over at moore city hall on a tuesday morning, right after this.

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that can only be best foods. bring out the best. good morning to you. it's 9:26. i'm laura garcia-cannon. we are planning to learn more later today as a san jose pedestrian struck and killed crossing a busy street last night not far from james lake high school. police say it appears the victim was in a crosswalk when it happened. the vehicle stopped at the scene and is cooperating with investigators. a man came to her door pretending to be a contractor. while she was in the backyard with a man, a second man stole jewelry from the home. the woman did not ask for id, which police say should have been done. decision day for nfl.

santa clara bid, widely considered the front-runner over miami. this morning representatives from each city will make their final pitches to the nfl if san francisco doesn't get to host super bowl l it's in the running for super bowl li in 2017. we'll have a look at weather and traffic right after this break.

welcome back. the time now 9:28. the sky is clear over san francisco. we still have clouds hanging out over sunol, courtesy of low pressure dragging a cold front through the area. much cooler weather as a result, only 59 in san jose. you can see that area of low pressure. you can actually see where the clouds are located right now, mostly over the south bay, east bay pushing into the central valley. wind gusts are fierce. keep that in mind especially in the areas with friction, immediate coast, higher elevations, temperatures much cooler, 72 in livermore, 61 for san francisco. staying nye nice and steady all the way through sunday. lets check on that drive with mike. >> take you to the east bay where most of the

construction -- actually slow down. we had an earlier crash, couple of them, coming down east shore freeway. west 80 moving smoothly. look at traffic towards the bay bridge, slowing through berkeley, toll plaza, starting to build, clear for half an hour. seeing this fill in, back to the end of the parking lot now. oakland 880, northbound traffic, bottlenecking around town. slow drive past the coliseum, toward town 580 looking a little smoother than it was. also showing a smooth flow as well coming bought area past the san mateo bridge. back to you. >> a little smoother.

9:30 on a tuesday morning, and there it is, the tornado that has sucked a path of destruction over the town of moore, north carolina, a community south of oklahoma city that has been hit hard before but residents have told us all morning never like this. we have heard of untold damage, death, destruction, and today the recovery begins. good morning, everyone, i'm savannah guthrie, standing outside city hall in moore, oklahoma. matt is not far from here and really matt you've been at the center of where this destruction really occurred. >> you know it's hard to tell if i'm in the center, savannah, because there's such a wide path

of destruction but i'm about i guess judging from how long it took me to get here after i left a mile from where you are, i'm very close to the moore medical center, completely destroyed by the tornado. i'm joined by al roker. we're on southwest sixth street and telephone road the intersection n a neighborhood that really took a direct hit. i was saying to al earlier if there's a scale of one to ten in terms of devastation, what we're seeing around us right here is a pure ten. >> it really is, and this goes back for about two miles this destruction, the school where those children were found dead about two miles away from here it really is one of these things where you just look, you shake your head and wonder how will these people pull it back together again. >> what's so shocking, savannah, is we're standing in this neighborhood where these houses once stood and it almost looks as if there have been bulldozers that have come through here and moved all these houses off their

slabs. we're standing on a cement slab that once was a home. there is nothing left of it. there are just some piles of bricks over here to our left and actually a driveway and a garage area over to our right. we've looked around seen some personal belongings, binoculars and shoes, we saw a folded american flag in a plastic case, obviously something given to one of the families here, they had a relative who died a member of the military, it must have been on the mantlepiece. the flag came down on the heart of the fireplace so you're seeing things like that all over. i saw willie geist just a second ago he said a couple of residents are returning to their homes on a street just over from us, so it's going to be a long morning here and a long couple of days as well, savannah? >> matt, it is such an interesting perspective you give. you think about it, 24 hours ago

if you were standing just where you two are stabbing right now what a different scene it would be and al as i turn to you and we talk about the weather we've seen a kind of shifting story this morning. we saw quite menacing skies early in the morning, it started to clear up and now i see those gray skies again. >> that's right, this is just kind of the back side of this system pushing through and it's going to again the good news is the severe weather for this area is over. it may crop up again later this afternoon, but for the most part, i don't think we're going to be seeing what we saw yesterday. there are other areas that may see that especially down to our south, we're also looking at strong storms again tomorrow. that's what's going on in the country. . here's w

good morning, 9:33. taking a look at wind speeds across the area. on shore breeze starting to pump up. temperatures are going to be cool and we'll have a windchill factor as well, gusts 35 to 45 miles per hour. the strongest wind expected between 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. 7 did in livermore, 69 in fremont. getting into the next couple days, we're going to stay steady, hovering in the low 70s. hope have you a fantastic tuesday. >> and that's your latest weather. savannah? >> all right, guys, we'll check in with you in a few moments. as we mentioned part of the heartbreak of this story is the fact that two elementary schools were in the direct path of this storm. nbc's jay gray is at briarwood elementary school with the latest there. jay, good morning again to you. >> reporter: hey there, savannah, good to talk to you again. we're just a couple blocks away from briarwood at this point. you can see the destruction

here, a pipe from this house has been broken, and has been this way and spraying this water since right after the storm, when we arrived. take a look inside of what's left of the home here and you can see the kitchen area just has been devastated here. most of the walls in this house are gone, most of what was inside has been lifted and thrown out and that's the scenario, the scene that's playing out for miles along the debris path here, savannah, so this is the kind of devastation that families as you talked about are getting a chance to come back many for the first time to see. it's going to be a tough, an emotional day in this neighborhood. >> jay gray, thank you so much. we're just getting word this morning from the medical examiner in this area now revising the death toll down confirming 24 dead at this hour. we will continue to monitor these developments as our live coverage from moore, oklahoma, continues right after these messages. check it out -- a new way to clean, from windex. get outta here!

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good morning to all of you. i know you grew up in north carolina and the family -- excuse me, moore, oklahoma, the family home is here and tell me robert normally when you have a tornado situation the plan is for all of your family, your parents, your brothers, everybody to meet at that home. isn't that right? >> yes, that was our first initial response we have to get to mom and dad's, get safe. all of us are in an apartment so it's not like it's super safe, we were all planning to go over there. >> yesterday you were on your way, chris, you were on your way, your parents were on their way, too, is that correct? >> um-hum. >> as it turns out, you didn't get there until after the tornado and when you came home, what did you find? >> well we were running to the cemetery, like we had jogged five or six miles to get there and didn't know what was going on. we got to the cemetery and just saw flat and when we finally got there, our parents were in the driveway. our first initial reaction was just hold each other and we all were just crying, we didn't know

what else to do. >> when you got there, chris, your home you grew up is basically gone? >> gone, there's cars rolled over and neighbors had a car threw their house. there's just nothing left. everything's gone, flat. the whole neighborhood, mowed over, gone. >> i can't fathom the chaos of that moment when you didn't know where your grandma was, where your mom and dad were. can you tell me, robert, how you were feeling in those moments and how long it was before you were reunited? >> well we were initially told, my father was in his truck so we didn't even know, my mom was on the way to pick up my brother so we didn't know where anyone was so the moment we were able to, we booked it over and so i mean, we're all kind of stressing out trying to get down the road as fast as we could. it was unbelievably stressful. >> and maggie, where were you during all of this? what was your experience yesterday? >> i was in moore. we didn't have any communication with anybody. we didn't know anything for

maybe six hours, me and his wife were sitting at home with the kids and we were just waiting for a phone call, we were waiting for internet to come back on, we were waiting for everything. we didn't know anything until k at nig 8:00 at night. >> chris did you think had you been able to enact your security plan, the plan you always had, meet at home to be safe, how things may have been so different? >> there's two-by-fours through the closet we're supposed to sit in, my wife, children, brothers, family, we'd at least have been severely injured if not have died. the only reason we didn't get a chance to leave the sirens went off so we just stayed put. >> robert, to walk through your neighborhood, a place where you grew up in and see what it looks like now, what goes through your mind? >> well, we were trying not to cry as we were going through because i mean there's nothing. people are walking up and down the street, there's just, it's really upsetting to look at, because i mean we grew up there.

it's our whole childhood and it's all flattened now. >> chris you told me you went to the towers elementary school. >> there's nothing left, all of our childhood memories, friends that went there, we grew up there, it's just gone. nothing's there. just a memory. there will be a lot of years to recuperate from the damage sustained. >> what about your grandma, robert? i no he she doesn't live with your parents but lives nearby as well. >> she lives around the corner, and we didn't know what was going on, we didn't have any contact with her, and then well we finally got to the house, we found out she had gone to the shelter down the street and she's on oxygen, so we were all freaking out because we didn't know what was going on. my grandpa lived a couple blocks away, we had no idea what was going on. >> she's okay, though? >> yeah, they're perfectly fine now. >> did she lose her house, too? >> yeah the house is completely gone, everything's gone. >> we appreciate so much you coming on and sharing your story. i know you've lost a lot, but

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back here in moore, oklahoma, on this tuesday morning on southwest sixth street. i'm matt lauer along with willie geist and this is don bessinger and he is one of the people who lives in what was the home just behind us. don, how are you doing this mo rng? >> i morning? >> i'm doing fine. >> you had quite an afternoon. >> quite a night, too, couldn't sleep. >> tell us about the story you and i were just chatting. you got in the bathtub first thinking that was a safe place and changed your mind. >> yes, i was fixing to go to the bathtub, i had it on channel 4 with mike morgan and he said, it come across he said do not go to -- you got to be underground is what he said. he says will you not survive unless you're underground. and then about the time he did that the power went off, and so i come out to the front street

and i kept calling my neighbors, because they have a storm shelter. they wouldn't answer because they were down in the shelter, and the phone wouldn't, no reception. so i had another guy across next door to him we decided to just go in there after we saw the tornado and heard the roar, we took off and about a minute after we got inside, it did hit. and it was devastating. it was just like they say, a roar. >> we're standing on the slab of your neighbor's home and al and i saw a second ago the folded american flag that ended up on his hearth. tell me a little about him. >> he is a transfer somewhere from california, he's working for boeing down here, and he's only been around about six, seven months. >> retired military? >> i think so. >> and you actually helped get him out of his house? >> him and his wife, went to the bathroom and from what i was told he laid on top of her, and

then when the direct hit, it took him out in the field and he was hurt pretty bad. >> do you have any sense of his condition this morning, have you heard anything? >> i haven't heard a thing. we were very concerned because it took him a long time to get over here because they were taking care of the people in the hospital behind us. >> and your wife and your son are behind us here, and they're kind of going through what's left. have you found anything? >> just a wrench. nothing really. she found a couple pictures. that's about it. she's got a cousin that lives in chocktaw, oklahoma. she called my wife last night and she found a picture that caught on her fence of my wife's mother and she passed away about seven years ago. isn't that ironic? >> don, do you have any sense at all for how long it was from the time you finally got into that shelter until the tornado came

through here? >> it seemed like about four or five minutes. it wasn't very long. >> close call then? >> all the debris was hitting the door on the shelter and we thought it was trying to take the door up. we didn't know, so we moved over to the corner of the shelter, because we thought the door was going to take off. it's -- i don't know, it's unnerving. you don't know what to say. >> we're happy you're alive. >> thank you. >> and your wife and son seem to be okay. >> they are. thank god they wasn't here. >> thank you for talking to us. >> you're welcome. >> our best wishes. >> thank you. >> just one of the stories that you find here along southwest sixth street in moore, oklahoma, as people try to pick up the pieces and pick through the debris, trying to find anything they can salvage and of course there's a lot of worry for their neighbors as don bessinger said this gentleman in this house was severely injured and not exactly sure what the outcome will be. >> yeah, these stories are developing now on every slab as we've come to call them this

morning on this street as the neighbors come back, sifting through. it's hard to imagine there would be much of anything in any of these houses but as we said, don just said he's happy he's here with his wife. >> much more from moore, oklahoma, right after these messages.

if there is good news coming out of moore, oklahoma, this morning, it's that the death toll has been revised downward. we were reporting 51 earlier. it's now according to the medical examiner 24. so that is moving in the right direction and we hope perhaps there is more good news in the coming hours. >> absolutely. what we can see so far this morning as the sun comes up over this town, people are trying at least to get back here and you can tell people like don bessinger they'll work hard to get it to what it had been.

>> and savannah, they likeen this to may 1999. >> may 3rd, 1999 is seared in the memories of the people who live around here and now there's another date to add to that, this devastating tornado that has taken so much. as we've seen so often in these situations it has not taken the spirit of these great, wonderful, generous people who are talking this morning of all that they still have this morning, that they have each other. we will continue our coverage here, continue to follow these stories of heroism and of survival, recovery, and rebuilding. but on a tuesday morning, a check of your local news and weather. crystal geyser is always bottled at the mountain source. crystal geyser. crystal geyser.

crystal geyser. then we deliver it directly to you. good morning to you. it is 9:56. i'm marla tellez. in san francisco, a search under way at golden gate park and along ocean beach for a missing bay to breakers runner. 27-year-old man was last seen at noon sunday at the finish line

of the race. he told friends he was on the way to the beach for a swim. that was the last they saw of him. his personal belongings were found in golden gate park near the beach chalet restaurant. workers at five uc medical centers statewide are walking off the job. at uc san francisco elective surgeries canceled as technical workers walk off the job. the two-day strike focuses on the proposed pension plan that requires more employee contributions. a big difference in the forecast. lets get a look at it with meteorologist christina loren. good morning. >> good morning. what a difference a few hours makes. see low clouds blowing in, a cold and breezy day to get through. temperatures running cooler than 24 hours ago. yeah, somewhere in the vicinity of 5 to 15 degrees depending on where you live in the bay area. if you live near the coast, you'll notice that difference. 57 in san francisco, 64 in livermore and comfortable conditions as we head throughout the day today temperatures are going to ramp up into the 70s.

won't be too bad. won't need that ac, 72 santa treres teresa, staying steady all week long will check the drive with mike. >> a heavier traffic flow on the peninsula, up until a few minutes ago saw slowing southbound away from us on the camera 101 in palo alto. just seeing a smoother drive past university heading toward mountain view and that area. we'll look also at the roch coming off that san mateo bridge. we'll see a smooth drive. look, the camera is shaking a bit, what christina is talking about. the winds have changed shaking the camera. chp says watch the high-rise, a stall westbound causing this from the hayward side. >> tough. we'll be back with the next update at 10:26.

>> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today," with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb. live from studio 1a in . hi, everybody. it's tuesday, may 21st. very, very sad day. our hearts and prayers go out to everybody in storm's way and that death count will change sadly and many of them have been the littlest victims, children caught in that school. >> it's one of those things when a tornado hits, there is never a good time for a tornado to hit. this hit at 3:00, around 3:00 central time when kids were still in school, when people are in between things. no one is tucked in at home.

this one did hit at a very bad time. it was a huge tornado. and a lot of people who live in tornado alley are used to these kind of things. >> as much as you can get used to them. >> this thing was a monster. its width was about a mile, but it spread to two miles. on the ground for 40 minutes. they say it's like a freight train. >> and they hop scotch. you can see how wide it gets and ultimately smaller and smaller and then ropes up to a thin lined a dissipates. but what was left behind looked like the apocalypse. when you look at cars strewn, horses strewn, brick homes. >> and cars on top of buildings. >> and there was an element it tak elementary school and the this is where the focus of the story is. one of the reporters was saying out by the school, there was a

teacher or someone with a mega phone calling out the names of the kids present. and as the parpents waited, you can only imagine what that would have been like. >> it reminded me of newtown. and when your child's name is not called, can you imagine the horror? >> and i have to say, you always look for stories of hope in things like this. >> you have to or else you give up sometimes. >> right. plaza tower elementary school is the one. the teachers are incredible. i don't know how else we can describe them. because instinctively teachers go right to that protective mode. savannah was actually talking to a teacher who was in a bathroom and she had six kids and she was literally laying on top of these kids. and let's just watch a little bit of the interview. >> i was on top of six kids. >> on top of six children. >> uh-huh. lying on top of them. and all mine are okay. >> and i do have a student here

who wants to say thank you to you. and his mom, brandy. >> i told you everything would be okay. >> it was such an emotional moment to see that. she said he actually wasn't one of her students, but he was a kid that was in the bathroom with her. the resilience of these teachers and of these kids, i mean -- >> and that their first instinct is to just lay down your life. we hear so much in new york about the teachers who are disappointing, but that's not the majority. the majority don't go into this business because they get paid so much. they go this because they love to teach, they love children. and you're right, we need to look for stories like this that

encourage you, that even though these devastating events happen in life, they do tend to either bring out the looter in someone or the hero. you know? >> seems like in this case you can't -- it seemed like every single person that you saw on tv, if they weren't devastated, they were helping. and that's -- >> and people got in their trucks and things and came from everywhere to help. that's it that part of the country, though. you were born in norman, oklahoma. i went to college in tulsa. that is the heartland of america. they are communities and they go to pot luck sunners together and ball games. it's not a statistic. these are people they know and love. or even if they don't like them, they will be there for them and dig them out of the rubble. >> one of the reporters who was there, lance is on the phone. i know this is a very personal story to you. a lot of these homes that we saw were brick homes. and i can only imagine the school would seem like the oasis to go to. the biggest brick structure in

town. but lance from k fcht okfor rngs about the shelters and why people don't have them underground, things like that. >> well, probably several reasons. number one, shelters are expensive and the soil here in oklahoma is not real conducive to the shelters. i would say about 10% of people have a storm shelter. and quite frankly, tornados of this magnitude are rare. we see a lot of tornadoes here. you can hide under a staircase, you can hide in a closet or bathroom and be okay. this was a monster grinder, 200-mile-per-hour wind, and unfortunately, the only place to be to survive this type of storm is underground. >> very little lead team on this. >> they knew there would be big storms, right? >> i heard there was like 16 minutes lead time. what were people supposed to do in that 16 minutes? >> you know what, it's not a lot of time. we normally have hours.

our meteorologists have been preparing people for this particular storm for several day, but it dropped out of the sky and it got big fast. and at that point, there was nothing really anybody could do. it was either get out of the path or get under ground. and that's why there are so many casualties. >> we've heard so many people mention the last devastating one this 1999 that i i gguess was a category 5 and this is a 4 but yet there is more devastation. is that because of the width of it? >> the other tornado was on the ground a bit longer. but this tornado was so wide and it moved so slowly and it just churned up everything in its path. and i think the lead time, the warning time was not nearly as it was before. >> you live there and you know the people there. just in listening to some of the people on the air, and, lance, let us listen to this one dad's

sound bite and then we'll come back to to you. >> we had to pull a car out of the front hallway off a teacher. i don't know what that lady's name is, but she had three little kids underneath her. good job, teach. a the girl was buried there. i got to go. >> lance, when you listen to sound and men like we just heard, you wonder how a community can rebuild and pick up. what's the feeling there today? >> well, we like to say oklahoma is strong. people here are strong, resilient, and when mother nature is at her worst, mankind is at its best here and people are rallying around each other like i have never seen before. and we'll rebuild and we will rise through all the devastation. but it will be a long tedious, emotional process. but we're all in it together. >> and we're in it with you, too, lance. >> and all of america no matter

where the trenlgagedies happen,s amazing how we become one. red cross has set up and they suggest you give blood at local hospitals or blood banks. sglnd a i thi . >> and a lot of people are still looking for relatives because without cell phone service, you can't get in touch with people. and they say that you can go to redcross.org and there is a site on there if you're missing a relative, they may be able to help you track that person down. and you're right about the 1999 one because everyone talks about it. in fact on the front page of the local paper there, it said like worse than may of 99 because that's a moment etched in their memories. >> and those children have probably heard stories about that, but of course none of them were born at the time. i know with the america that we had here, sandy, we've lived through so many hurricanes at

our house that we tend to think just another hurricane. even though we knews of going to be a massive storm. i think the tendency for people is to stay in their home. they want to protect what they have. they worked all their lives for it. they have got even through a bunch of storms in the past and that can-do spirit. but it seems like at least there should be one place in every community that they have the resources towards having a safe place. an underground spot. especially in an elementary school or school. one of hospitals was destroyed. so where do you take the injured. >> there was one extra one i guess about four miles away. >> it was always weird because one minute you're watching devastation and then on tv comes "the voice" or a show and a lot of people were probably at home watching other things, too. and it was weird because "the voice" is a live program and blake shelton is from oklahoma. and he was saying just how strange it was to be sitting there and how it was breaking his heart.

and i think he felt out of place. he was in l.a. doing a live show. but we'll leave you with this. blake shelton actually just talked a little bit about what happened in oklahoma. >> they're going through hell there right now. finally when we went live, i hat to set my phone down. bad news just keeps coming. a lot of fatalities and a lot of children, you know. and it makes it hard to actually sit here and do this tonight. but i have a job to do and the team is counting on me, so here i am. >> is your family okay? >> luckily they're all okay. ♪ how great thou art, how great thou art, how great thou art, how great thou art ♪

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[ female announcer ] pin for your chance to win a weber grill at kraftgrilling.com. we've got a true hollywood legend with us. we're live. michael caine has appeared. he doesn't like to be called sir michael caine has appeared in nearly 200 films, but millions of his fans know him as alfred the butler in the batman series. >> and he starred as the butler in "miss congeniality" and he starred in "hannah and her sisters." and it was his role in "cider house rules" that earned him his second oscar. >> and he's back making magic in his new film "now you see me." >> so nice to see you again. >> it's great. haven't seen you in ages. >> this movie, i'm not a fan of magic, but this movie, it's about that, but not really. it's fascinating.

>> what fascinated me with the script when they sent it to me was that i have been in a couple of films with magic, so well take a card and -- >> right, right. >> but this is so gigantic you cannot, it's a spectacular. it costs millions to make and these tricks that these, it's -- >> it's like the cirque du soleil of magic. >> yes and these young guys who do this, they do this incredibly enormous show and rob everybody all the way round during the show. >> what's your role, you're not a imagine m&a jigs, obviously. >> no. >> but you move the pieces around. >> i'm the villain, i'm the money behind all of these kids. >> you're an insurance agent. >> an insurance agent. what could be more dishonest than that? >> a little joke for some friends whose father is in the insurance business. >> look at you and morgan freeman together in that scene. tell us your connection with him in the movie. >> he's the good guy and i'm the

bad guy. he's trying to get, get into how they are doing these tricks. these incredible tricks. and i must say i've never seen tricks like that in -- i've read the script. you don't read all that description stuff. you know what i mean -- >> it's brilliantly made. >> louis le ferier, he's the director, he's made a lot of big-budget movies. >> what made you select this film? >> it's based on an old mafia thing, you have to make me an offer i can't refuse. it's either a great script or something like this. we're not going to win an academy award for this but it was such fun. such a big thing. i had never seen anything like it before. >> the cast is terrific. >> and i have a movie coming out called "lost love" in october which i made in paris. with a lady, german lady

director called sandra neffelbech. about an old american in paris and a relationship with a young woman which is neither romantic or sexual. >> what is it? >> it's loneliness. >> oh. >> loneliness, she lost her parents in a car accident, yeah. >> i love that. you can play anything. >> i try to. i grew up in repertory theater where i did a different play every week for a year. so when people say what sort of an actor are you, i say i don't know. give me the part and i'll show you. >> we're going to have, we got to play a little game. we have a couple of seconds. >> a fun game. >> it is called -- name that batman. you and kathie lee are going head to head. are you ready? here it is, clue, he once played a psychoand went on to -- >> christian bale. >> it can't be christian bale. >> did you see that? >> no. >> he was in "american psycho."

>> okay, here's number two. he was actually the third actor to play batman, though many people think he was the first. >> not george clooney then. >> for the answer, don't look east -- >> adam west. >> adam west. >> he did not. >> that's sir michael caine. he's very fancy. >> for the tiebreaker. >> once named the sexiest man alive by "people" magazine. the actor got a big break in the emergency room. >> who? george clooney played batman! >> you think a guy with a face like that would put a mask on? what is he, nuts. >> he's the only guy that had nipples. >> i never saw that batman. i know george, i thought i had seen everything george has done. i couldn't imagine putting a

mask on that face. >> you've got to rent it. >> i will rent it. >> "now you see me" opens in theaters may 31st. they're ready to talk romance. >> the boys are back to tell you everything a man is thinking when it comes to your relationship. when it comes to your relationship. >> howi'll be right back.michael booop. hi, listen i think you could do better. oh no, he's a nice guy. no i'm talking about your yogurt. see dannon oikos is so rich and thick and smooth. so smooth. in a national taste test dannon oikos fat free strawberry flavor beat chobani 2 to 1. mmmm. stamos? look babe - i'm doing better. she means the yogurt. join us babe. try it for yourself. dannon oikos greek nonfat yogurt. ♪ dannon

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i can't afford this child. i just want the child support. i won't divorce you, honey, but please -- >> next up, comedian and actor rick younger, who is married with a son and he has a hurt hand today. >> he has an ouchie. >> last but not least, the single cosmo bachelor of the year, ryan shenever. >> first up is donna from georgia. >> hi, how are you? my question? i'm sorry? >> that wasn't the question. >> why do men have trouble multitasking as well as women? >> men can't multi task. >> that's the question. >> juggling. >> right now, we're juggling to think and answer the question at the same time. so -- that's something in our brains. >> i think from a biological standpoint. it's been proven that we're thinking about sex all the time.

that's the priority. >> yeah, i would say that. >> let's go to -- >> multitasking. that's not our thing. >> and he's smart, too. >> jillian. here's the question from jillian. what do you men notice first about a woman even before she says a word? >> well that would be the silence. actually for my wife, it was her eyes. she has the most beautiful eyes. >> is that still the thing you love the most after all of these years? >> she was eating some shepherd's pie and she got up and walked away and i noticed she had a very nice butt. that was the second thing i noticed and that's why she's my wife now. >> ryan, what do you think? >> i think it's the smile. can you light up a room with a smile and that, honestly it's the deal-maker for me. >> everything. all the superficial stuff. >> at least you're honest about it. >> that's what i'm saying. >> we're going to come back after a commercial, we have more questions, guys, stick around.

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this is an nbc news special report. devastation in oklahoma. here's david gregory. good afternoon. we're coming on the air to bring you the very latest from oklahoma. governor mary fallin is briefing reporters at city hall in moore, oklahoma, with other state and city officials on the latest on search and recovery efforts. we're going to listen in. >> if we work through their agency head, we are going to

give our state employees that have been affected 15 days of administrative leave. they will have to take their vacation or sick leave to be able to get back on their feet and take care of their personal needs. this is with our secretary of health and human services. we have been working with our local hospitals and our nursing association and also the state panel directors. and we have plenty capacity in our hospitals to take those that have been injured. we estimate there have been around 237 injuries so far that we know of that have shown up at our various facilities. we also are working to set up mental health counseling centers in our various shelters. and we'll be working to establish a 1-800 number for those who need some counseling that have lost loved ones or just faced some stress from all that's going on. we don't have any firm numbers on the number of deaths that we have experienced.

we know that there are people whose bodies have been taken to the medical examiner's office. but we have also heard that there may be bodies that have been taken to local funeral homes. so we are working real hard right now to try to get a more accurate count of the loss of lives and hope to have better numbers on that. our department of transportation has pulled together over 400 people around the state that are on standby to bring in various bulldozers and equipment. when the time comes that we need to begin the process of helping to clear the roads better, certainly to keep those safe and we will be certainly allowing people to do what they need to do to get their valuable possessions. and through the lost property that they have experienced. but we also have the resources available to begin clearing at some point in time in the

future. og & e is working hard to restore power. we have had 38,000 residents at this point in time that are without power. 20,000 in moore and oklahoma city. so we're working to get that power back up. challenges that we have faced throughout this time period has been problems with communications with cell service and the telephone lines have been down. at&t and verizon have set up some mobile units to allow better communication for us. the department of agriculture and forestry has also brought in heavy equipment to help when the time comes with debris clearing. and i just want to add that for those that are calling and offering help and resources, please make contact with our various charities through the red cross for donations or volunteer help. and also with the salvation army. they're the best source right now to get information to you. i'll turn it over here to

administrate hugh gate. thank you very much for coming to oklahoma. we so appreciate your help. >> thank you, governor. let's be clear. fema's job is to support the team. local fire, police, volunteers. the govrper has called out the national regard. the disaster response is being led by governor and first responders. our job is to support. it's unfortunate that we are once again seeing what the tornadoes can do. but you're also seeing what the investment in public safety and the commitment in training exercises does when disaster does strike. so let's get some practical stuff out here for the public. those people that have been affected, you've had losses due to the storm, go ahead and call 1-800-621-fema. the governor asked last night, and the president made the declaration. this was pretty quick turnaround, but it's because of the devastation and the evidence of how bad it was that the

president concurred and issued that last night. so it's important that people start registering. we know a lot of people are staying with friends and family. some of them are probably staying in their cars right now. we can provide some assistance, rental assistance. we want to get people a place to stay. so the first step is to register so we can start that assistance. 1-800-621-fema. or they can go with their mobile device if they have any connectivity outside heavy hit areas, they can go to disasterassistant.gov and register online as well. second thing, still a lot of congestion on the cell systems. still a lot of towers down because of power outages. unless it's an emergency, use text messaging. stay off the phones. allow people that need to get through to get through. if it's not an emergency stay off the phones till the system comes back up. third thing, let people know you're okay. one of the challenges with this type of event is because the devastation is so bad, it's difficult to get a handle on how many people may be missing.

so if you have -- you did live in the areas, you were impacted, let people know you're okay so we're not looking for people that we don't need to be looking for. as the governor points out, they're going through that debris and we're going to keep looking till everybody's found. but you can help just by letting people know you're okay. red cross does have a safe and wellness site where you can check in. you can also check on people. let people know you're okay. last thing, as the governor said, if you're not in the area and you want to help, the best way to help is to give generously to the volunteer organizations that are active in disasters. there's a variety of folks from red cross, salvation army, southern baptists, that do great work. they can definitely use your contributions. but if you're not in the area, the best way to help is to send your help through those organizations. that is our -- that's the lesson we've learned time and time again. stuff isn't as great as cash when it comes to the longer term needs for a lot of folks that lost everything. thank you.

>> my name is albert ashwood. state director for emergency management. i'd like to reiterate what craig said. we have a very simple job. that's to support our local jurisdictions to make sure they have everything that we have to offer to help them get through this emergency phase of this disaster and help them to effectively respond. we'll also begin recovery as has already been stated. we're looking at setting up assistant centers or an area that we can have many assistant centers to help out with various individuals, where they can go to. some of the challenges we're facing have to do especially with getting the message out. communication. it's very easy for us to stand up here and talk about mobile apps that we have or talk about calling 1-800-621-fema or going to websites. if you've lost your electricity and your phone is dead and you don't know where to go or what to do we go to an old school method. we'll look at flyers, things like that that we can get the

message out to people who are in the debris and trying to stay with their property and trying to get back into their property so we can get that message to them. we'll be working on that throughout the day. according to local jurisdictions. and making sure that they have everything they need. i'd like to introduce at this time the fire chief. >> hi. i'm the fire chief for seymour. this is updated information. we've had over 200 responders out in the field last night. we stayed at the school overnight going through the school. we stayed in several different locations, back and forth, changing men out. and we had to call off several times because of weather. but then we went back out. we are out. we started with the primary search yesterday and secondary search. we made it through most of the structures, most of the vehicles, most of the homes. but the ones that we didn't make it through yesterday, we will make it through today for sure. and a second and third time. we will be through every damaged piece of property in this city

at least three times. and we hope to be done by dark. i want to thank everyone that's come in to help. from all over oklahoma and all over the nation to help, too. thank you. >> jerry stillings, chief police here in moore. again, i want to thank the other agencies. we just could not have done this without them. couldn't do this without them. we have 75 static posts that we have officers stationed at. and we obviously couldn't do that on our own without these other agencies. the one thing i just want to emphasize is that we have to have people out of those affected areas so that we can do our work and get it done sooner so that we can shrink that perimeter and let people back in. and the other issue is, please, try to stay away from fourth street and 19th street when you're driving.

it's just bogging us down. we've had traffic jams. if you don't belong in the area, please stay away from those areas. santa fe is the same way. telephone. telephone road. so those are -- have caused some big issues for us. if we could just get the public to cooperate. if there's not -- there isn't anything that you can do there at this time. and there are a lot of safety issues there. if you will give us time, let the search and rescue take place, we can get you in there a lot quicker. thank you. >> i'm major general miles gering. i just want to say, first of all, it's an honor to support the first responders. and that's what we're here for is to support the first responders and fill gaps in the capabilities that they have with either our resources or the resources we can reach out and

gather to support this effort. it's just been a phenomenal effort thus far. but it's going to be a long time before we totally heal from this and recover. but we're here to support. >> mr. thompson? >> i'm mike thompson. i'm governor fallin's cabinet secretary for safety and security. i'll echo what the police chief said. if you don't have a reason to be in the affected area, please avoid it. we want to be sensitive to the people who are looking for their lost ones and loved ones and trying to look at the area here. but still it just slows down the recovery efforts. so if you don't need to be here, please avoid this area and let us do our work. we're going to be here as long as we need to to get this community back. and we're going to be very sensitive to the people that were affected by this loss, but we do know collectively we've got a tough job ahead of us. and we're going to be here to help the community as long as it takes.

>> first of all, i'd like to say thank you for everyone who's here today. i apologize, the air conditioner's not working. we're on generator power. so just bear with us. i have a lot of thank yous to say. first and foremost, is the president of the united states who sent me a fema director. i couldn't do without him. the governor who's been here on site ever since this happened. and i just appreciate her and her staff. all the city employees. all the other agencies that have come from all over. we appreciate their support and assistance. i want to say thank you to the city of oklahoma city. the city of norman. without them we couldn't do it. and this has been quite an experience. i was the actual mayor here on may 3rd, 1999. so this is not my first rodeo with this. but it doesn't get any easier. especially with the loss of life. and with that, i'll turn it over

to the mayor. we'll answer questions in a little bit. thank you. >> first, i want to commend the city of moore and the resources that they've put into this. this could easily have overwhelmed an ordinary group of public safety officials. and they have not only been up to the task, but i think have performed valiantly and were immediately on the scene. there are, you know, a number of organizations that probably deserve some level of mention today, including the media, whose technology provided excellent warnings. no doubt saved hundreds of lives. i was able to tour the site this morning. and, you know, one of the ta takeaways that a person receives in that situation is that no one could possibly have survived this. yet, we know they did. we know people crawled out of that rubble. we're talking levels of debris that's four feet high as far as you can see. we're talking about cars that are upsidedown and school books and children's toys and trees

without bark. this was the storm of storms. and the fact that so many lives have been spared, i think, is a great testament to the technology of the media and the public safety officials whom have been mentioned. largely from the city of moore and the city of oklahoma city. but larger, other municipalities and county officials as well. i do have one bit of new information to pass along. it appears that we have the power restored to the water treatment plant. if not by now, in the next few minutes. it takes a little bit of while for the pressure to build up in the system. so residents should expect waterpower to increase throughout the afternoon. we could be at full usage later on today. wouldn't be a bad idea for them to use less water than is necessary for the next few minutes, next few hours. but the system should be back up and running very, very soon. and, again, i want to spread my thanks to governor fallin and her staff. of course, to the federal

officials who have come here in our hour of need and been with us. thank you all. >> chief of city with oklahoma city police department. as usual, the response has been overwhelming by all the -- all the partner agencies, in public safety, all the volunteer agencies from the state, local, federal. it's just overwhelming as usual. we've come to expect that. obviously we've dealt with this in the past. right now oklahoma city in and of itself, which has a much smaller task than moore has. the area that's been affected is only about eight square miles. about four square miles down we actually have cordoned off. right now we're only allowing homeowners to go into those areas. at least to try to get to their

homes to see if they can salvage some things if they may be able to. those are the only ones being allowed in those areas. we will be in that area. we'll be in those areas securing those areas for quite some time. probably for a week to two weeks just to protect property and make sure everybody has the opportunity to -- to get back to their -- get back to their property and do what they need to do. in oklahoma city, we've had a confirmed four deaths. i think overall, the medical examiner has actually confirmed 24 deaths. but four of those are in oklahoma city. the remainder would be in moore. obviously, as the governor spoke, there could be obviously others in coming days. the search is still going on. heavily in moore. because they have such a larger area to cover. so we could expect more possibly. so we have 24 right now. there could be more. all the people that have been reported missing, we had it initially last night about 48. all of those have been actually

found. except for -- i think there's a few left in moore that they are working on to try to locate that have not. if there is still somebody out there, if there's anybody out there, citizens, that have not found loved ones we'd ask them to go ahead and call us at 297-1129. at least report that. have the opportunity, maybe, to locate them. again, i want to thank the media for their cooperation. and all the state, local agencies that have worked together to really make such a tragic event handled as well as possible. so thank you. >> keith brian, fire chief, oklahoma city fire department. just to add to what chief of the city just said to you about the operations in oklahoma city, as the storm was forming yesterday afternoon we activated the state's urban search and rescue

task force. and so we actually had those assets and those personnel assembling as the storm was approaching oklahoma city. so, therefore, when the storm did strike we could have those first assets in place very, very quickly to start beginning search and rescue operations. as of last night about midnight, we had completed a primary and secondary search of the affected areas in oklahoma city. the task force set up a base of operations next to briarwood elementary school. they still continue to operate out of there. currently, what we are doing is going through the list of registered storm shelters in the affected area in oklahoma city. and double checking those to make sure that anybody that may have been in a storm shelter and wasn't able to get out. other than that, we have oklahoma city fire the president task force that is dedicated to

the affected area. so if any fires were to break out, any emergency medical needs arose, we're there so we can respond very quickly to that area. and, again, working just with the state task force in that area to make sure that we thoroughly search the area and, again, be able to respond quickly to anything that may arise since the storm occurred last night. >> good afternoon. i'm cleveland county commissioner gary stacy. this is county commissioner rod cleveland. first of all, i want you to know we grieve with our fellow residents of cleveland county for the loss of life and the -- those that were injured. absolutely devastating. we've -- it's been a rough few days for cleveland county. as you know, we started on sunday. and initially we had storms and tornadoes that hit the east side

of our county. our crews have been out 24/7 since that time. and we've been involved in absolutely every aspect of that, from cleanup to search and rescue to we're actually opening up in cleveland county at our fairgrounds so that we can take livestock there. but every kind of aspect that you can think of, we're trying to be involved and help the residents. we're going to be in this until the very end. this is our county. and we will heal together. as you've heard, this is a very resilient county. and the citizens here in moore and norman have been through this before. and they know what to do. we'll be together till the end, and we'll heal together. thank you. >> one of the main concerns that we have is sheltering the people that have lost their homes. and you can contact red cross. i've been in contact with them. they have a number of shelters available. there are shelters in norman that's available. they have food and water. journey church is trying to coordinate. there's harvest church in

norman. the other thing is, just like they said, commissioner stacy, the fairgrounds in cleveland county. the bellis foundation and moore shelter. moore animal shelter is set up there to take pets and help with -- with food and cleanup for their pets. so we appreciate all your help. thank you. >> my name is gary cox, director of the oklahoma city county job in public nt. health is to keep people healthy and well and to prevent further loss of life and further disease. and so we're doing a number of efforts along that line in oklahoma city and oklahoma county. with our partner, blue cross/blue shield we will have three mobile vans that will be giving tetanus shots to those that might be doing cleanup and have injuries, puncture wounds or other type of wounds. so those will be available in oklahoma city and oklahoma county. and could be available in cleveland county if they're

needed. >> you are listening to city and state officials from moore, oklahoma, on the devastation from oklahoma as a result of this hurricane. some of the hard facts here, 24 dead at this point. these numbers may change including 9 children, 237 injured according to governor fallin of oklahoma. the awful work of trying to recover bodies and search for those who may just be missing and have survived in this unbelievable landscape of rubble. this all goes on, and it has been pointed out by craig fugate from fema among others that they want people to be in touch. if people who have been missing have been found, so they're not looking for folks who they don't need to be looking for. this has been the storm of storms, says the mayor of oklahoma city. this community banding together. people from around the country now helping. of course, there is just the inconvenient task now of dealing with the fact of cell service is down, and power is out to some 38,000 people. so such difficulties as search

and rescue folks continue about their work. we hear story after story about those efforts. and just story after story of how much has been lost. the fema director saying, as people want to help, rather than sending stuff, send cash. all you have to do is look at these pictures to understand the long-term damage and the long-term needs of people in this community. the former governor of oklahoma, frank keating, telling my colleague, andrea mitchell on msnbc, could be 20,000 families who are displaced. we will continue to follow it all throughout the day and on "nightly news" tonight, msnbc on cable as well. for now, i'm david gregory in washington. have a good afternoon.

our girl sara ventured around manhattan for a little star-gazing. >> we heard you hit all the celebrity hot spots. >> you probably heard about all of those hollywood bus tours in california. well new york city has a tour of its own, launched by none other than the celebrity outlet, tmz. and my host was harvey levin from tmz. >> we're glad you could join us! >> people can't get enough of tmz. what is this obsession in our culture right now with celebrities? >> i think the reason that they're interested in what we put up is, it's not the publicity machine of hollywood that's putting all the stuff out. it's real. >> are we going to see lindsay lohan. >> this is going to be my first time on the bus and the guys said every time they drive around they see stars. they see pete r dinklige all th

time. >> i love him. >> i will bang on the window. >> let's do it. >> so exciting. >> as the bus takes off, our official guide, aaron, entertains us through our first stop, times square. his goal? to show us as many celebrity hotspots as possible. >> welcome to chelsea, guys, one of the hippest neighborhoods in manhattan. speaking of the stars living in chelsea, see that building? katie holmes lives there, she paid over $15 million for that place. >> the meat-packing district is next and in true tmz style, a true celebrity sighting. >> to find out i'm not the father. which maury povich celebration are you going to do? >> hey, josh? harvey levin with tmz. how you doing? >> how are you? >> this is the inaugural tour of the tmz bus. >> tmz tour in new york. >> wow.

this is low rent. >> as hellos were made, i had just enough time for my paparazzi moment. >> got everything, here's a camera, guy. >> i got nothing. >> i got one. >> boxers or briefs? >> you went with both? >> like -- yeah. >> "the today show" gets so down and dirty. >> i was trying to tmz it. >> i like it. >> she did well, that was good. >> how do you think the tour going? >> i don't want my money back yet at all. >> we had a celebrity sighting, that's huge. on the right is where she had her 30th birthday party. >> and don't forget tribeca. >> ghostbusters go there. >> here it is, coming up on our left. if you look outside, there's j and b's place. the gold brick place with the trim around it. >> lastly, a location that could be the mother lode for tmz.

>> welcome to bar pitti coming up on your right. >> where celeb sightings pretty much occur nightly. as we return up town after an afternoon of star-studded scenery. hey, look, i've spotted something else. >> oh, this is my old apartment. >> they're not covering it for some reason. >> why don't you break the story. >> she wouldn't stop bothering him. >> i hope you have a great day in new york. >> i think they saw the tour just to see where i lived. >> there's harvey in the flesh. >> he's a big fan of both of you. >> harvey has been working out. he looks darn good. >> i like that. >> nice. >> thanks, sara. we have a big show coming up tomorrow. what is in it? >> my good friend's book called "divine intervention." >> and we're getting ready for the memorial day weekend. get ready, get your song on!

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it is decision day for the nfl. any minute now we will find out if the new 49ers stadium will be chosen to host super bowl l. widely considered a front-runner over miami. nfl owners voting right now. when a decision has been made, we will bring that to you right away. good morning, thanks for being with us. i'm marla tellez. >> i'm jon kelley. we'll have more on the 49ers super bowl bid coming up. first to our top story, the complete devastation down in oklahoma. at least 24 people now reported dead, several of them children after a tornado just rips through that. a scene a lot of people say looks and feels like a war