captioning funded by cbs >> it is tuesday, may 21st, 2013. welcome to a special edition of "cbs morning news." a disaster in the heartland. a 200-mile-an-hour tornado kills dozens and injures hundreds. i'm charlie rose in new york. norah o'donnell is in moore, oklahoma. >> charlie, schools take a direct hit. two dozen kids are missing. rescuers have been working all night and we are with them. plus a mother and her young son reunited after his school was destroyed. just one of several stories of survival. >> we begin this morning with a look at today's eye"eye opener"

your world in 90 seconds. >> disaster in oklahoma. >> a monster tornado. at least a half mile wide roaring through the suburbs. >> in particular the city of moore. >> our car is where our house was. everything is gone. >> packing winds of up to 200 miles an hour cutting an enormous path of destruction. >> houses are completely leveled. >> more than 50 people are confirmed dead. the medical examiner says more bodies are being recovered. >> at least 20 of the fatalities are children. >> the classroom walls just fell straight over. >> plaza towers elementary school took a direct hit from the tornado. >> search and rescue efforts continue to find survivors in the rubble. >> there were people crawling out from everywhere and anywhere. >> the roof just came off. >> you can't really put it into words. >> i'm just trying to -- i can't believe it has happened. >> president obama has declared

five counties major disaster areas. >> five days in a row of dealing with severe weather outbreaks. we had a chance this afternoon of more tornadoes. >> all that. >> what made the heartache there was a moment of relief and joy. a survivor who thought her best friend was gone forever. >> he answered one prayer and let me be okay. >> and all that matters. >> parents that drop their children off just waiting to learn the faith while others are crying tears of relief. >> on "cbs this morning." >> we're going to try to clean up, help out, and move on. >> welcome to "cbs this morning." i'm charlie rose in new york.

norah o'donnell is in moore, oklahoma. norah, good morning. >> good morning, charlie. it is still a chaotic scene here. severe weather. we have rain. we've got thunderstorms. we have got a tornado warning this morning and there are still two dozen children missing. >> here is more of what we know at this hour. 51 people including 20 children are confirmed dead. officials expect that number to rise by up to 40. two dozen other children have been reported missing. the tornado destroyed two elementary schools and hundreds of homes. businesses and a hospital were also damaged. norah? >> that's right, charlie. this was actually the fourth tornado to hit this town in the past 15 years. yesterday a tornado cut through a path through the center of moore. forecasters say it had 200-mile-per-hour winds. anna werner has been with us

throughout the time. good morning. >> we were out in a neighborhood yesterday and people were walking the streets in shock trying to understand what had happened to them. their homes, their cars their possessions, all gone and some of them lost loved ones. >> oh my god. >> reporter: the deadly twister touched down around 3:00 p.m. on monday and didn't let up for nearly 40 minutes. >> this is not good. please, dear god, please keep these people safe. >> reporter: it stayed on the ground for roughly 20 miles growing stronger by the second. >> there's a huge flash right there. it's just ripping up everything in its path. >> we grabbed our motorcycle helmets and hid in the closet and prayed like hell and luckily the only room that was spared was the room we were in. >> reporter: the tornado raked across the town of moore with such force it crushed two elementary schools and wiped out entire neighborhoods. >> oh my gosh. it's just total devastation. there's nobody here to fight this fire. >> reporter: one man captured

the scope of the devastation as he emerged from his storm shelter. >> the lord giveth and the lord taketh away. >> reporter: block after block of homes were destroyed. cars were left trumpled like trash. >> kimberly and carlos moved here three weeks ago. >> weall of our kids' baby stuff is gone. >> reporter: even as homeowners were coming to grips with the disaster many tore through the rubble with bare hands looking for anyone that was trapped. the tornado which packed winds of up to 200 miles an hour is believed to have been an ef-4, the second most powerful type possible. it carved roughly the same fatal path as an ef-5 tornado in 1999.

for the people of moore it's not the first time they've had to start from scratch. >> we're going to start and try to clean up and help out and move on. >> in such destruction, norah, just finding anything the woman who we found her dog as we were standing there with her, which was amazing. you could see the look come over her face just such relief. her house is gone. everything is gone but her dog survived. that's something to cling to. >> something to cling to indeed. anna, some of the most heartbreaking stories have been elementary schools. we're learning that dozens of children are among the victims. most were inside school when that tornado touched down just before 3:00 local. >> after monday's massive tornado tore through moore, oklahoma. another blow was delivered. >> that may be part of the gymnasium. >> reporter: two elementary

schools were right in its path. the first briarwood elementary was heavily damaged. amazingly there were no deaths. >> all of the desks were on top of us and the teacher got stuck and so somebody had to help her because the desk was on her leg. >> reporter: as students emerged from hiding many were stunned by what they saw. teachers carry the children away from the worst of the wreckage comforting them until thankful parents took over. >> he was so brave. >> reporter: a mile away at plaza towers elementary a different far more tragic scene. here the storm tore off the school's roof and knocked down its walls. at least seven children were killed. >> our hearts are just broken for the parents that are wondering the fate of their children that have been in the

schools that have been hit today. >> reporter: throughout the day neighbors and first responders pulled children from the rubble passing them from person to person until they reached a triage center. throughout the night, dozens of crews searched carefully in the mud and rain for those who were still missing but as the rescue mission became a recovery mission, many workers faced a grim reality. >> a lot of people are just very sad and as you can imagine having to pull anybody deceased whether it be children or adults is just going to be overwhelming for a person. >> and that recovery effort continues this morning and it is a grim morning here. people are waking up to see the full extent of the damage on the ground. mark strassmann is also here in moore. mark, good morning. >> good morning, norah. all night long we've been driving through some of the hardest hit areas. block after block, mile after

mile, what you see is a landscape of ruin. neighborhoods that have been tossed, homes that have been flattened, hundreds of abandoned vehicles like this one. this truck has been battered by hail damage all of the windows have been knocked out. there's a child seat in the back here. the mirror is gone and just to give you a frame of reference, five miles in that direction is tower plaza elementary school where there's a grim search going on right now. i want to show you video of that neighborhood where that search is going on. national guardsman using thermal imaging technology. they are looking for body heat under the rubble trying to find survivors. nobody has any real hard idea of where everybody who lived in that neighborhood actually is because people have been scattered and so they are using this technology to try to recover and find as many people as they possibly can. remember this tornado was on the ground for 40 minutes. 40 minutes. by one estimate the damage area is 30 square miles. imagine the search and rescue

that has to go under to account for everybody who lived inside that disaster zone. more bad news. we are under a severe thunderstorm warning for the foreseeable future. >> mark strassmann thank you. charlie, that's right. you heard mark mention that severe tornado warning. we've got lots of rain. we've got lots of lightning here in this area. and interestingly enough charlie, we were over near one of the elementary schools where there are still two dozen children missing this morning. the authorities actually evacuated us out of that area. not only are they concerned about the weather, but there's also natural gas leaks. one of the officers saying we have natural gas everywhere. natural gas is just spewing. that's one of the other big concerns in this area charlie. >> norah, thank you. we're joined now by larry mowry.

larry, the storm is still a threat? >> it's a slow moving storm system. we've had severe weather here in the heartland since friday of last week and this storm system is producing severe weather in oklahoma as you saw from norah a second ago. here's the satellite and radar view. a line of thunderstorms just south of oklahoma city right now that's slowly drifting down toward the south and to the east. that's what's generating that severe weather here in southern oklahoma. here's a closer view. this is real close to moore where norah is located. these storms will eventually drift into north texas producing severe weather here in north texas as we go into late morning and early afternoon hours. now, the setup has been just right for severe weather. big upper level low spinning in the northern plains and the spokes of energy are rotating around that upper level low. we had a cold front and a dry line draped across oklahoma yesterday. south winds blowing in. strong westerly winds aloft. that got the storms rotating and produced that tornado in moore,

oklahoma. it was an ef-4 tornado which is a rarity. we only see about 2% of all tornadoes in that ef-4 to ef-5 category and winds from 166 to 200. severe threat today from michigan all of the way down into texas. if you live in this orange area there's a threat again of some tornadoes during the day today. charlie? >> larry mowry, thanks. >> there are so many different areas of the city that have been destroyed. the tornado itself was very very wide. it just wiped out miles of areas and homes and businesses. it's probably the worst i've ever seen. >> worst than may 3rd, '99? >> worst than may 3rd, '99, i believe in looking at it. if you walk through the neighborhoods, if you go through some of these business areas and certainly when you see the schools, there are just heaps of debris. you can't tell what's in that particular location. it would be incredible if anybody survived any of those structures that were destroyed during this terrible storm. >> as you walk and have a

presence there, what do they say to you? >> there were hundreds -- i don't know how many people maybe even 1,000 people that were on the ground last night and remarkable to see how they are working and how they're cooperating which is always the key. any time you have a disaster like this and oklahoma did have the may 3rd tornado that struck through this area. hard to believe it could hit again. we went through the federal building bombing in 1995. i have to say that we have a great, what he call the oklahoma standard to work through terrible disasters like this and comfort our people and come out strong on the other side. >> you spoke with the president. >> i did speak to the president. i very much appreciate his phone call. he offered any type of assistance he could give. we appreciate the president and fema approving our emergency declaration so quickly last night. this will be a huge recovery effort and will take a long time to get the power, the lights, the debris cleared up roads

open. we have a tremendous amount of structural damage throughout this area. there were five schools hit by the tornado. a major hospital. businesses. it's just a huge wide path of destruction. our thoughts and prayers are with the families today. there are so many families that are hurting. last night this were parents that didn't know where their children were. >> what do you say to those parents? >> we say to those parents that our hearts of broken for you. we know you're suffering tremendously and we'll do every single thing we can to help the families get back on their feet. certainly we're still in the rescue and recovery stage right now. we have tried to go through every single home. i haven't had a report yet but i'm sure they went through every single facility that they could last night. there were literally just hundreds, maybe even 1,000 people, up here last night. >> what's your greatest concern at this moment? >> the greatest concern is that we recover people that if there is anyone under the debris that we find them.

we're in the recovery mode itself. we also want to make sure that the perimeters are protected. we had strict curfew that was on last night. we had lots of law enforcement, national guard, patrol that were stationed throughout this wide path of destruction. it was almost 11 miles long. some areas it was almost two miles wide. we cordoned off the area. we have high danger here because there's so much debris. you have to walk through a lot of wood and debris and metal and glass and especially those areas where the epicenter of debris field fell. >> governor fallin as you know the eyes of the world are on oklahoma this morning and with you and others they have great sense of your loss. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. we appreciate your prayers. >> president obama declared a major disaster in oklahoma. he's sending federal help. major garrett is at the white house. major, good morning.

>> reporter: good morning. the president will convene an oval office meeting in a couple hours with his top homeland security officials based here at the white house and the department of homeland security to oversee the federal response to this massive disaster in oklahoma. about 10:00 this morning, the president will address the nation about the loss of life and his efforts to coordinate a federal response to work with state and local officials. the president is also asking that his head of the federal emergency management agency fly directly to oklahoma to oversee all federal efforts along the front of dealing with the disaster. the president as we just heard spoke with republican governor mary fallin to coordinate those efforts and already fema has sent teams to oklahoma to do the following things. help in search for urban rescue those who are trying to be found in the rubble to create logistics hubs and to begin the damage assessment because once you have the damage assessment federal aid can begin to flow to those affected. it's a massive rescue and recovery effort. the president is coordinating and will talk to the country in three hours here from the white house.

charlie? >> major garrett, thanks. much more ahead on the tornado. right now let's look at some of this morning's other headlines from around the globe. "the wall street journal" says apple went outside of the united states to avoid paying billions in taxes but a senate investigation found apple did nothing illegal. the company paid little or no taxes on $74 billion over the past four years. apple chief tim cook testifies on capitol hill today. "the washington post" says senior white house officials knew the irs improperly targeted conservative groups nearly one month ago but they did not inform the president. the senate finance committee opens hearings today. >> chicago tribune says united airlines is flying the boeing dreamliner again. a united 787 made the first flight in four months landing in chicago yesterday from houston. the dreamliner was grounded because of batteries that overheated. "the new york times" says the state department plans to beef up security at some embassies. dozens of extra agents will be sent to missions thought to be at high risk. the improvements come after last

year's deadly assault in benghazi libya. they will cost more than a billion dollars. and full train service from connecticut to new york resumes tomorrow. 72 people were injured last week and 300,000 commuters depend on that rail line. time now for your local weather. >> announcer: this national weather report sponsored by subway build your better breakfast.

a morning of tragedy and a dramatic search for survivors. rescuers tear a house apart piece by piece after hearing tapping. >> one of the survivors saw one of his neighbors under a pile of bricks. his truck was tossed eight blocks away. we'll talk to the man who had to run for his life. and we'll show you the city once faced the strongest tornado ever recorded.

our special coverage of the oklahoma tornado disaster continues on "cbs this morning." stay tuned for your local news. >> announcer: this portion of "cbs this morning" sponsored by charmin. we all go. why not enjoy the go. >@l"bé@o[a@ hmph! [ female announcer ] charmin ultra soft is made with extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent. plus you can use four times less.ttvwkun+og#wvs#q'ppu;v?2v.ac=uújef

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charlie, you can see some of the ominous, dark clouds this morning here in moore, oklahoma. we have severe tornado warnings this morning, lightning this morning, a dangerous situation as search and rescue teams are

racing to find survivors, charlie. >> norah, the interesting thing about this it seems to me is you have a 15-minute warning at this kind of thing and secondly the agony that you have as you wait not knowing where your missing relatives, especially children might be and the power of these tornadoes is incredible. 200-mile-an-hour winds plus destroying everything in their wake. >> that's right, charlie. this tornado touched down just before 3:00 and many students had just 15 minutes to brace themselves. you heard the governor talk about five area schools including at least two elementary schools and this morning the concern is the two dozen missing children. >> the extraordinary thing on may 3rd, 1999 this town how rare it could be for a town to be hit twice by a tornado even though there have been other tornadoes in the area. it's an incredible story that we're covering this morning from moore, oklahoma. >> the lead of the paper says

the monster has returned. we'll have more coming up from "cbs this morning." >> your realtime captioner: linda marie macdonald nothing that your mind can really prepare you for. as a father, it's humbling. >> a deadly tornado leaving a path of destruction in oklahoma. dozens of children and adults are killed and now a midwest town wondering how it will ever recover. good morning, it's tuesday, may 21. i'm frank mallicoat. >> and i'm michelle griego. time now 4:26. block after block leveled and left in ruins in the oklahoma city suburb of moore. >> at least 51 people have been killed including 20 children. that death toll is expected to rise by as many as 40 more. now, the massive tornado flattened entire neighborhoods

and crushed two elementary schools in its wake. search-and-rescue efforts continued throughout the night and crews are still trying to find more survivors right now. now, some cell phone video shows just how massive it was at times up to half mile wide with winds up to 200 miles an hour. it was so devastating because it was on the ground for up to an hour. this is the path that it took across oklahoma moving into moore from the west and running right through the center of town. cbs reporter bigad shaban on the frantic effort now to find survivors. reporter: flashlights scanned back and forth across the rubble as rescuers worked through the night looking for survivors of monday's massive tornado in moore, oklahoma. isabella rojas was trapped in her classroom. >> i really got stuck because all the desks were on top of us and the teacher got stuck. >> reporter: searchers focused much of their attention on plaza towers elementary school which took a direct hit. >> our hearts are just broken

for the parents that are wondering the state of their children that have been in the schools that have been hit today. >> reporter: some children were rescued but dozens are feared trapped in the rubble. >> we are very hopeful that we're going to be able to find those individuals tonight and that we're going to get them the medical treatment that they need. >> reporter: officials designated this church as a meeting area for parents of missing children to come and wait for any news about their kids. for some, it's been a long and anxious night. >> this has turned into a massive tornado, as you can these live pictures. >> reporter: the twist started just south of oklahoma city and quickly gained strength. quite some time it hit moore, it was a mile wide -- by the time it hit moore, it was a mile wide and packed winds to up 200 miles an hour. the damage stretched for seven miles. for that is no stranger to destructive storms. the town was devastated in 1999 when a tornado with the highest winds ever recorded made a direct hit on the community.

bigad shaban, cbs news, moore, oklahoma. president obama talked on the phone with the oklahoma governor mary fallin telling her he has declared five oklahoma counties a federal disaster area. the president is expected to address the nation about the disaster at 7:00 this morning our time. meteorologists will be on the ground today and lawrence karnow is in the weather center. lawrence, this is a strong storm system. >> yeah. this is that time of year, unfortunately, where we see those tornadoes developing across the u.s. unfortunately, this one making a dead hit on the city. here's the storm as they rolled through yesterday. of course, this is that time of year we get all that cold air coming down from the north and you have all the warm, moist air coming up from the south and they meet in between. these are the storms that produced those terrible tornadoes. this morning, they are still looking at the possibility of more severe thunderstorms, tornado watches and warnings down for now. but again, probably coming up toward the afternoon. again, it's that boundary between that cold air mass coming down from canada. you have that moist humid air coming up from the gulf of mexico. and it's that clash that meets

right in the central united states that causes these storms. for this afternoon, again, we're looking for the possibility of more tornadoes in texas, arkansas and also louisiana. it doesn't look like the threat is as severe as yesterday, although it still could be a very, very dangerous and very scary afternoon for many folks in that part of the country. we'll have more on your weather coming up in a couple of minutes. >> thank you. 4:30 now. so far more than 50 people are confirmed dead in the oklahoma city area. officials said this morning that number could rise by as many as 40. kpix 5 reporter cate caugiran in our newsroom with a further look at all the damage. cate, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. the video and images we have seen are just devastating. an emergency responder described it like the aftermath of a war zone and this morning several people in oklahoma are simply beside themselves as they look at this. even seasoned journalists had a hard time believing what they saw. one helicopter pilot was clearly distraught as