though. >> there is a culture of intimidation. >> this is big government cronyism. >> trust is being eroded. >> part of it has to do with the intimidation that the administration is leaving. >> the assertions from the republicans that the president allowed this to happen is offensive. >> the nancy stathananny state what to do. >> political hate. >> if we start criticizing, you get targeted. >> they try to drag washington into a swamp of partisan fishing expeditions. >> really, obama, you said you heard about the scandal we you saw it on tv? i don't want to live in a world where you have the same sources as my aunt. >> i have a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing. one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is there's no longer any room for excuses. ♪ nobody going to slow me down >> we're actually going to go now to a live image from the midst of a tornado. you can see it there. obviously a large swath of the

nation across the midwest has been suffering over the last 24 hours. and that, as you can see, a live shot right now. and we will bring you more details on that combustible weather system as we proceed through this hour. but good afternoon, and welcome to a new day and a new week. and with a busy agenda, the president has no time to break stride. moving forward after a smorgasbord of scandal last week. just this afternoon, he's addressing the nation's international interests. meeting at the white house with the president of myanmar and making a phone call to his counterpart in lebanon regarding the ongoing conflict in sere wra. but as the president was negotiating on the global stage, his press secretary jay carney was facing questions about that irs report and just when the white house counsel was briefed. jay carney said they learned of the report on april the 24th but

there is still many unanswered questions. >> as we have said, the white house counsel, cathie rumler, learned during the week of april 22nd, the specific date is april 24th, the inspector general was finalizing an audit. we knew the subject of the investigation and the nature of some of the potential findings, but we did not have a copy of the draft report. we did not know the details, the scope or the motivation surrounding the misconduct. and we did not know who was responsible. >> carney emphasized that the president was not informed and that the white house did not and does not intervene in ongoing investigations. nevertheless, the president's republican critics are doing their very best to keep his administration mired in so-called scandal. and so the irs, well, that's the new benghazi. >> there is a culture of intimidation throughout the administration. the irs is just the most recent example. >> do you have any evidence that the president of the united

states directed what you call a culture of intimidation at the irs to target political opponents? >> i don't think we know what the facts are. >> that hasn't stopped you from accusing. >> no, of course it hasn't. and as mcconnell cried out against the thnanny state, paul ryan, he of the mythical land speed marathon record, chose to accuse the president of dishonesty and arrogance. >> this is arrogance. this is big government cronyism. and this is not what hardworking taxpayers deserve. people deserve a government that they can trust. that's honest. that's impartial. the quality before the law. that's not what we are getting here. so to try and suggest this is bureaucratic snafus, we already know that not true. >> now, i'm sure there's a soup kitchen with some clean dishes that could use a little bit of that righteous indignation just as there was during the presidential campaign. as it happens, a lengthy "new york times" report details

confusion and staff troubles rife at irs office in ohio. interviews and documents painting, "a more muddled picture of an understaffed cincinnati outpost that was alienated from the broader irs culture and given little direction." white house senior staffer dan pfeiffer had words for republicans' scandalicious appetites. >> we've seen this playbook from the republicans before. what they want to do when they're lacking a positive agenda is try to drag washington into a swamp of partisan fishing expeditions, trumped up hearings and false allegations. we're not going to let that happen. the president has business to do for the american people. >> as for americans allegedly outraged at the white house over the irs kerfuffle, well, the president's approval rating ticked up by two points. of course, that's probably one of those skewed polls. we as i started this broadcast, we have this picture of this tornado occurring right now. and we're going to go to the local affiliate station to hear

exactly where it is. and what's going on. okay. well, we were waiting, then, and we hope to have some local reporting from there. but obviously we've been seeing devastating scenes over the last 24 hours. this is a live image of a tornado, as you can see right now. and as soon as i get some more information about exactly where it is, i will bring it to you. the pictures are pretty remarkable, as you can see. of course, this new storm comes

after yesterday. vast regions of the midwest and plain states are once again bracing themselves a day after dozens of tornadoes brought death and destruction. we know that at least two people have died and 21 have been injured. oklahoma has been the hardest hit state, with 16 counties now declared disaster areas. tornadoes with speeds of up to 130 miles per hour ripped through power lines and leveled hundreds of homes across the state. there was a new round of tornado warnings, i'm learning, this afternoon. as you can see, i think there was some impact there on the bottom of the screen. let's see if the camera can retain its focus and then we'll be able to -- we'll be able to see in more clear detail.

as i said, the region remains on high alert with a tornado watch issued for several oklahoma counties. and i believe that's what we're looking at right now. the national weather service meteorologist and storm spotters were tracing a large and extremely dangerous tornado near new castle, and doppler radar showed this tornado moving northeast at about 20 miles per hour. this is a tornado emergency for moore and south oklahoma city, i'm being told. in addition to a tornado, there's a large, destructive hail. there's been large destructive hail up to tennis ball size that's expected as part of this storm. and locations, as i said

earlier, include the midwest city, moore, new castle, stanley draper lake, tinka air force base, and valley brook. we're being told this is an extremely dangerous and life threatening situation. if members of the public are watching this, you should find a place of shelter. remain within an interior room because this is very, very serious, indeed. as i said, this follows two deaths over the last 24 hours and 21 injuries. the central area of the united states, as i said, is expecting further weather, bad weather. severe storms were expected to pummel as many as ten states today. the national weather service says it predicts a 10% chance of tornadoes in parts of texas, oklahoma, arkansas, kansas, missouri, and illinois. as you can see from our map.

parts of four other states, wisconsin, indiana, michigan, and iowa have a 5% risk of tornadoes. the area at greatest risk includes joplin, missouri, which on wednesday, this wednesday, will mark two years since that massive storm and tornado that killed 161 people. the threat comes as oklahoma was still recovering, as i said, from that storm front that hammered the state yesterday. with blinding rain and tornadoes and including a half-mile-wide twister that struck near oklahoma city. >> don't have any time left, you can't wait any longer. it's got to be done immediately and just drive to the east away from it. it is kind of -- it may come into south oklahoma city near crossroads mall. we have a crew at crossroads mall and we can take them as soon as we can get them to come up. but it's going to come up, could go as far north as crossroads

mall. even up toward dell city and midwest city. let's go back to bob moore, chopper 4, with john welsh. go, john. >> yeah, mike, we're -- that's really the best picture that we can give you is because this thing is completely wrapped in rain and debris. winds are just absolutely killer up here. i'm at indian hills road and just about i guess, what, 48 southeast. i'm behind the, like, the alligators, the heyday if you're familiar with that area. this thing is tracking, as you said, continuing to go toward the moore, warren theater area. it's going right basically toward my house. so this is definitely something that you need to be aware of and get in your tornado shelter. get in your safe area. there it is, mike. look at that. hang on, travis. go back to the left. go back to the left here in a second. i got a better shot of it and this thing is -- it's huge. keep going left, travis. keep going left. right. there. boom. there it is. there it is, mike.

on the ground. easily. there might even be two of them. there might be two. i'm showing two dark spots with a white level in it. i don't think the first one's rain. i do know that the back one is definitely a tornado. the tornado looks right now like it's on, i'm going to say, either 4th street in moore or 134th street in oklahoma city. still no the oklahoma city area. and it appears it is probably one mile west of santa fe. it's tracking straight east. so if you're within south 19th street, 4th street, or 27th street in moore, or, you know, we're going to go 134th, 149th street in oklahoma city, if you're in that area right there, from santa fe, all the way to i-35, as far east as bryant, definitely be in your tornado shelter. be aware. be underground. or like mike said, just get out of there. because this thing is on the ground and it's continuing to track. it's almost like it's slowed down.

earlier, right before it crossed the river, that thing had some wheels on it and it was really going. now, i'm holding a hover and it's sucking me in at 38 miles per hour. so it looks like the inflow slowed down a little bit. it looks like the track's slowed down a little bit. it's definitely still on the ground. continuing to go eastbound. and right there on highway 4, i think it is, or 4th street in moore, there's that church. it looks like it's right there. it looks like it's going to be south of the south lake soccer fields and the south lake parks at this time. >> john welsh, john welsh, let me tell you something. the violent motion is at may avenue and south 19th. south 19th and may is the center of that one-mile-wide wedge tornado. it has turned more to the east. it's going to travel down south 19th to south 31st. the warren theater is going to get hit if it doesn't change path. right now, the warren theater is going to get hit. west moore high school will

either get hit or be on the northern edge. again, folks if you're listening to us, you need to be -- we're talking about these areas. you can't be in an interior closet or bathroom, don't lose your life. go below ground. storm cellar, basement, or saferoom. it's the only option you have. it's all heavy debris. see how it's turned now to the east. there's the warren theater. there's moore high school. this is south 19th, south 34th. it's going to go right down through the neighborhoods between south 34th and south 19th street. it will hit the warren theater. if it doesn't veer off, that's exactly where it's going to hit and cross i-35. go, mike bennett. >> tracking right down 19th approaching santa fe. we had to bail out of it because it was coming right at us. we're getting ready to turn south at south moore high school. you can see our video. it is just -- it's absolutely massive. it's just shredding everything in front of it. we're shooting out the side glass right here right now.

it's just tracking straight east down 19th street. tracking right over there where we was at. was within probably quarter to a half mile from it before we had to turn around and bail. violent, violent motion. a huge debris cloud wrapping around it. zoom in tighter on the debris cloud. okay. it looks like maybe, mike, it may be actually starting to lift a little bit more north now than east. hang on just a minute. we'll get out. >> tornado now is located between penn and western. it's a mile wide and covers the whole area between penn and western at south 19th street. at south 19th. this is a may 3rd type tornado. i would just venture to say it lo looks like it's about an ef-4, could be an ef-5. makes no difference, you got to be below ground, interior closet or bathroom is not going to do it. or get out of its way. storm cellar, basement, or saferoom. below ground of any kind. don't be in your car near the tornado.

drive away from it, if you have no option, to save your life. abandon where you are if you cannot get below ground. south 19th exactly at western avenue. right now is where that is. go, mike bennett. >> okay. yeah, still, it's still -- it's basically tracking down 19th street. i think it might be just a little bit north of 19th, but it's just pretty much moving east-northeast. it's just getting more violent. it just -- i mean, absolutely no signs of weakening whatsoever. i mean, we're probably -- we're probably at least ef-4 status here. as violent as this motion is. the huge chunks of debris thrown hundreds of feet in the air. whole trees floating hundreds of feet in the air. i can't -- the neighborhood it's moving through, mike, we're just probably a mile east of it right now. maybe east-southeast of it.

and -- okay. why do we got to go? >> folks, over toward warren theater should be completely evacuated by now based on our warnings. again, you cannot delay. you can't think. you can't delay. you've got to act. you've got to act. you can't think or delay. you've got to act. and act. and act to save your life and save your loved ones lives. you've got to act. linda cavanaugh had important information about the school systems going on, linda, for the metro. >> we do have important information. parents are naturally worried. we are hearing from parents via twitter many students are being held at west moore. they obviously can't release them into the storm. we want you to be aware of that. also mid dell student, they will not be released from the school on buses until the storm passes. receiving many calls from oklahoma city residents. there is no public shelter in oklahoma city. police say shelter in place. >> we've just been listening to the local oklahoma affiliate kfor, but i'd like to bring in

now charles had lock who's on the phone in shawnee, oklahoma. charles, i believe you're about, something like 40 miles from the current pictures we're looking at. is that right? >> that's right. we were preparing to do a broadcast for "nbc nightly news" in shawnee, from last night's storms when suddenly there was a call the tornado may be heading in this direction. so as a precaution, everyone is stopping the recovery efforts here in shawnee and taking shelter including those members of the nbc news team. we are currently unplugging the truck and moving it to get it out of harm's way. >> yeah, you need to do that. and fairly quickly, i assume. as you've looked across the damage of the last 24 hours, what are your impressions in terms of the effect of this weather? >> well, this is life in oklahoma and north texas, martin. this is tornado alley, and people are used to it. they are resigned to the fact

there will be tornadoes and tornado warnings to disrupt everyone's day like it issed to. however, that being said, what we're seeing on the ground now in southern oklahoma city, approaching moore, oklahoma, is a very, very dangerous storm. an f-5 tornado. if you remember back in the late '90s, a tornado the same size, the same path destroyed much of the northern half of moore, oklahoma, killing dozens of people. >> and as i understand it, if that's an ef-5, we're talking about winds of over 85, 86 miles an hour, is that right? >> oh, much more than that. approaching 200 miles an hour. even topping 200 miles an hour when you hit the f-5 range. >> right. as we look at pictures, we've seen the odd spark where the impact is being felt on the ground. schools, and we're seeing these explosions right now on our feed from the local affiliate. >> yes, those are transformers and electrical wires that snap

in two when the winds come through. those are good indications that you're getting massive, massive winds. >> and also at this time of day, i'm asoupisuming there are plenf schoolchildren currently on school property, is that right? >> that is correct. and the school systems do have protocols for this type of weather. everyone knew this weather was going to happen for days now. everyone has been on edge about what happened yesterday and again today and perhaps again tomorrow. just to the southeast of here is where the danger point will be. but the school systems do have protocols, but let's hope that tornado misses everything. >> okay. charles hadlock reporting. something like 40 miles from the scene of that tornado. thanks so much, charles. and you get in your -- get yourself to a safe position. i'd also like to bring in my colleague, milissa rehberger, who's a native of oklahoma and can update us with the very latest. milissa? >> martin, i heard charles

talking about the may 3rd tornado, and i was there for that. i was works there at the time and covering it and i have to say that the pictures that i'm seeing on tv right now are very eery reminder of that. it was a monster of a tornado. it was a mile wide. and the sky basically looked exactly like what we're seeing right now. as you've been mentioning, you know, this is part of daily life in oklahoma, but there are problems that come with it. one thing is that many homes don't have basements. so many people died during that may 3rd tornado because they were hiding, you know, where they were told to hide. under a highway underpass if they were in their car, and got sucked out of the overpasses. people who were hiding in their interior closets and bathrooms died because it wasn't shelter enough. a mall isn't shelter enough. the only real shelter is to get underground. and because of the red clay earth in oklahoma, most houses do not have basements. sales of storm shelters skyrocketed after the may 3rd tornado. and you can only hope that as many people as possible in this

storm's path have one built in their home. >> milissa, stay with us. you're an expert as i just said in terms of this area. we'll come back to you in a moment. we're going to bring in the governor of oklahoma. governor mary fallon who's live for us on the phone. good afternoon, ma'am. >> good afternoon. >> as i understand it, this is an area that covers 55 million people, is that right? >> yes, it is. it's a major city that's right out of oklahoma city, and this is an area that has been hit before. the may 3rd tornado many years ago that devastated total neighborhoods and businesses and also has a major highway. i-35 that runs through that area. and from watching our news accounts right now, i'm at the capitol about 20 minutes away. it appears it's heading toward major shopping area and also major movie theater, and there's some schools are in this area. so we're praying that everyone will be safe. right now our media is doing a great job at getting information out, telling people to get

underground immediately. it could possibly be an f-4 tornado which is a really big one. one account says it could even be over a mile wide. and so this is a massive storm. it's built up really quickly. and, of course, after all the things we went through yesterday, we can't mess around with not taking action and getting to a safe place. >> and so what advice are you giving to residents, people in the community and right across the oklahoma city area? >> well, across the oklahoma city area, and throughout the state of oklahoma, we need to be paying attention to the weather, itself. whether it's listening with a radio, watching tv or certainly using your phone apps on your telephones. there are some communities close to this area that don't have power right now because of the storms that came through yesterday, and so in those communities i've been advising our emergency personnel to find ways to alert those people who might be going through their damaged homes and help them be

safe, too. >> and i'm assuming that all of those rescue operations that began yesterday have to cease at this point because there is a vast amount of debris, wood, planks, other pieces that have been, you know, taken off from yesterday's bad weather that is now loose and can be picked up and thrown with terrible effect, in fact, this afternoon. >> that's very true. there's a tremendous debris field throughout various areas of the state and in these general vicinities where the storms are hitting right now. it didn't hit moore yesterday, but it did hit up around shawnee which isn't too far from moore. and also within edmond, itself. if the storms blow up a lot of heavy winds, it could certainly blow around the debris and create more havoc. but the tornadoes that were powerful that came through yesterday actually lifted up semitrucks.

certainly lifted up homes. and we just saw lots of devastation out this morning as we were touring around the various communities, talking to our businesses and talking to the people out in these areas. >> and what advice are you giving to parents whose children are in effect right at this moment in their schools? i mean, should the parents drive to the school? should they remain at home? what advice are you givie ining parents? >> well, that's a very difficult piece of advice to give people, bought basically i know the local schools will be taking action to make sure the children are safe. if there are some in some schools, themselves. i know the local law enforcement people have been going up and down the highways telling people to get off the highways. telling them to get out of the shopping centers. the media's done a great job advising people exactly where the storm path is. so they can get to the businesses and warn them. but i know i'm visiting with some of the law enforcement today as the storms were coming through yesterday. they actually drove up and down

highways through neighborhoods and to businesses with their lights and sirens and telling people to evacuate the area or to get below ground. so i'm hoping, and i believe it's what they've been doing this afternoon as these storms are moving through. >> are people generally heeding the advice to stay off the roads, to stay, it were, underground and in safe places? are they listening to that? do you find that people are not? >> i think they do a pretty good job of getting off the roads. a challenge is if you're a person traveling from out of state or in a different area and you're not listening to the news on your radio, you might not know that this could be a serious storm. and be out on the highway and caught. i know i visited with a man today around the shawnee area where they had the semi trucks that were blown over the sides of the bridges. he told me he was pulled off the side of the road right in front of the semi truck that got picked up. he got out of his car, he

climbed up the embankment right under the steel beams and the crevice of the bridge, itself, and was wedged way up underneath there. and the semi truck flipped over and another car flipped over and landed right on top of the car that he got out of that he'd left there on the side of the road. and he was a pastor. he said, man, i was just praying like crazy. certainly we're thankful he was safe and did make it out alive. >> gosh. i'm sure he was practiced in prayer. now yesterday we had something like 7,000 customers declared to be without power in oklahoma. i'm assuming that number's only rising by the second. >> yes. i think total yesterday we had around 21,000 homes without power and they had been able to lower that amount to about 7,000 today. but with these storms coming through, i'm sure we're going to experience some more power outages. and that is what was challenging in small towns i went through today. they lost total power. is you can't watch the news,

can't listen to your radio unless you get into your car. i was advising these local town people and law enforcement, you know, please make sure you have a system thought through for these towns without power that you can let people know if another storm is on the horizon. >> well, thank you so much. that's the governor of oklahoma. you be safe. thank you for all you're doing to serve your community and hopefully to continue protective and actions that will mean that there are fewer, if any, fatalities and so on and injuries. thank you so much. and we're going to go back now to the local affiliate in oklahoma. kfor. for more details on what exactly is happening. >> if you look in there, take a look at that. it's way out there. so the wind in front of this thing has got to be just whipping. so this thing is definitely something not to play with. and we're going to stay here and we'll keep following it. had to make a turn, so the skids are going to be in the shot for just a second. otherwise we're going to get too

far way. that's it right there going through moore. huge, huge tornado there, mike. >> south 19th. okay. so what it has done is it looks like it went from a wedge to a barrel. now it's back to a wedge again is what it did. it is on the southeast side of west moore high school right now. very -- excuse me, moore high school. it's on the east side of moore high school. and that is is going to be in the east-central sections of moore right now. so it has hit the warren theater complex. now it is a mile to the east-southeast of moore high school is where it is. we're talking about sunny lane and bryant, bryant, sunny lane, and sooner, at about south 4th street and north 12th street. it could go up to near the gm plant and it could go up to near tinker air force base. recall the may 3rd tornado, made a hard north turn and went up to hederberg drive and i-40. we don't know if this will do the same thing.

it is now east of moore high school at sunny lane sooner, and south 4th, and north 12th street. go, john welsh. >> yeah, hey, i'm going to tell you exactly where this is. this is right on my house. it's crossing right now bryant just north of 12th street. we're getting some highlights of some flashes in there. and there are antennas right there just north of 12th street. that's what we're hitting. it looks like from our vantage point it's right there. it looks like it's kind of weakened a little bit. travis will kind of push in there. it's still tracking straight east. looks like on 12th street. where you have -- it's fixing to cross, if it hasn't already, it's crossing bryant, fixing to cross sunny lane. it's going to hit the band in sooner road where they made the annex for the proposed lake they made years ago. that's where it's headed right now. straight east. looks like it's over 12th street. we're still getting tons of power flashes way in front of this storm. >> let's go to the north doppler

control room. we'll show you exactly where it is. the tornado is right here. there's sunny lane. here's sooner. this is going to be 12th and 4th street. there's moore high school. so it's exactly two miles now due east of moore high school on sunny lane. heading up for sooner. you see it clearly right there. and here's the gm plant. there's tinker air force base. this is midwest and douglas boulevard. so still very much on the ground. still quite large in the neighborhood of one-half mile wide right now. go, john welsh. >> yeah, there it is, mike. it's fixing to come across what appears to be sunny lane and 12th street. we're trying to get a little bit of distance here. look at all that debris in the air. i mean, that debris, it's 500 or 600 feet up in the air and it's going. so it's still grinding, still on the ground. it's, man, it is really ripping and it's probably right now about half a mile to three quarters of a mile from crossing sooner road. so it's on sooner road.

if everybody's got a map, you can kind of see that bend in there. that bend was for the annex for the second lake right next to lake stanley draper. it's coming right along this way. it looks like it's on track, if it stays right here eastbound, to go right through the center of hefner lake. get the skid out of the shot there. you can see this thing is grinding. it's ripping. and we're getting power flashes all the way down, like, to 149th street here. so this thing, it might have weakened just momentarily recycled, but it's back down on the ground and it is grinding. as you can see from our shot, it's probably an eighth of a mile right there from crossing sooner road. so sooner road and 134th street is fixing to be where it's exactly at. it's fixing to barrel across and it's going to come into the, some pretty much vacant land as it comes to the annex part of the lake and heads right toward draper and tinker air force base there, mike. >> centered right now between sunny lane and sooner at north

4th. north 4th. due east of moore high school. let's take the storm tracker. where is this headed? you see it is a giant barrel with a massive debris cloud and it is heading for south side of tinker, draper, over toward stella, twin lakes, mccloud and the casino dale over here to the east. it's going to clip, it's going to move into southeastern oklahoma county, red line, center line, for nuala. could go as far north as harris. still could turn up to the tinker diagonal on the southeast sides of midwest city. back to bob moore chopper 4. go, john. >> yeah, there it is, mike. it's fixing to cross sooner road right now. it's come into that annexed part of the like that they annexed. luckily for the time being, there's not -- there are very few houses in here, if any, i don't think. the think the city bought most of them out. it's continuing to track straight east and as you an see, this thing hasn't decreased in size any. and i'm actually kind of getting a little closer than i want to

be to it right now, but this thing is sucking us in at about 50 to 60 miles an hour right now. i'm tracking it. the inflow is still huge. it's sucking all that energy. but it's still continuing tracking straight east. it looks like it's crossed sooner, yeah, sooner road. >> we've been listening to our local affiliate kfor in oklahoma. we're going to go now briefly to a storm chaser, chris mcvee. chris, where are you, and what are you seeing? >> well, we are on the north side of norman, oklahoma, just minutes ago we watched a very wide, very large tornado cross western into moore, oklahoma, into a very -- excuse me, a very highly populated area. there was so much debris in the air. we're about to go into town to see what we can do to help. there are certainly hundreds of people that have lost their homes or are trapped. we're going do what we can do to get in there and help. >> and this is a heavily

populated suburb, is it not, of oklahoma city, moore? >> yes. yes. it is. very highly, very -- lots of residential area. lot of commuters that work in oklahoma city. it's, yeah, very highly populated. >> and we're hearing reports that even well-constructed properties are being leveled. this isn't just mobile homes. these are substantial brick buildings that are just being ripped to pieces. >> absolutely. this is such a strong tornado. it really reminds me of may 3rd, 1999, when a large similar tornado went through a lot of the same areas in moore. yeah. very sturdily built homes are surely heavily damaged. >> as you look out, what exactly are you seeing at this moment? >> well, we are repositioning to try to get north into moore. there's oklahoma highway patrol has a lot of the roads blocked off where it just passed through just for safety. we're going to get in and try to

help. we're just south of the storm. we can no longer see the tornado. it's so obscured by rainfall. but we're trying to get into the affected areas and do what we can. >> okay. chris mcbee, thank you. and help those that you can, but be very careful as you go about that. thank you so much. we're going to go back now to, as i said, to the local affiliate, kfor that's providing pictures and commentary for us. >> need to be in your shelter. this thing is not letting up. it's actually, it looks like it's decreasing a little bit. we've lost, i think, a lot of the debris so it kind of changed the shape of it. it gave it more of a barrel shape to not as much of a structure. you can actually see the shape of the tornado now because the only thing that it's got to rip up right now is trees. we're not getting all the construction debris that we had earlier that actually appears to give it a wider base than it is. it's continuing to rip. it's kind of got a big, like, a trunk down then it has a funnel right there tracking straight for 149th street in the southwest side of draper lake.

right toward the water treatment plant at this time. and it's really, it's really fizzling out as we're seeing. i'm going to do another turn here. i'm getting kind of far away. but it looks like it's roping out a little bit. and this is over like 149th street and maybe just the east side of air depot road. there it is. it's gone, mike. we're going to see here and see if it recycles. it's continuing to rope out as we speak right now. it looks like it's roping out. air depot road and i'm going to say 134th street, right in that area. so, man, look at that rope on that thing. it's -- >> it's going to dance here for a while. the whole updraft there is constricting and shrinking. it's going to sit there and dance for a while. the wind in that still could be f-4 criteria. it's just literally about 100 feet wide now and the vortex is likely still on the ground. it roped out mighty fast. likely still a vortex on the ground. look at how the debris ball is spinning at 100 miles an hour

all the way around that rope. >> oh, just -- yeah, mike. the -- as you can see, it's roped out. look at the very top. as travis will back out. go up to the top of the base there. you can see the whole base is continuing to rotate. the swirls and the rain is still cyclonic. it's still moving with it. so, you know, i don't know if this thing is recycling for another round. but the inflow, that feeder band is lowered. it's continuing to looks like suck in moisture. so this thing could just cycle for a moment, set back down, but, again, right now, i'm over -- i'm just south -- i'm at 164th and air depot road shooting pretty much straight to the north-northwest where that tornado just roped out there. feeder band is still there. feeder band looks like it's still pretty low to the ground. it's way lower than we are. so we'll just stay here and continue to watch it as these scud clouds continue to rotate pretty much where that band just broke free there, mike.

>> let's go to the storm tracker. let's go to the storm tracker. this is where that tornado, it may have lifted. might still be a little rope on the ground. draper right now, over to 408, fire lake casino, 4:21. dale at 4:24. it's going to go across the southeastern corner of oklahoma county or exit out of the far northeastern county of cleveland county. then basically head for the area that suffered the extensive tornado damage earlier. maybe a little further nor than that. there's the twin lakes area that had the f-4, f-5 tornado yesterday. this storm lifted. could be on the western sides of lake draper. further down to the south, we're getting tornado reports from reid timmer, from bray, oklahoma. reid checked in with us a while

ago. tornado warning for garvin county. tornado reported near bray, oklahoma. that one is heading for maysville and pauls valley down south. say that again? and you have reid's stream right there. there's reid looking at it. there's the tornado. do we have reid on the getner? there's reid's stream. this is a different tornado. that appears to be on the ground. this is reid timmer down by bray, oklahoma. i'm going to text him right now to have him call so he can give us an update on this storm that is down in the elmore city, lindsay, pauls valley, maysville, vilma, alma area. that appears to be on the ground or virtually on the ground coming into garvin county right now. that is a tornado warning for garvin county and northeastern stevens county. that does appear to be a tornado on the ground. at least intermittently at the very most. that circulation there is coming out of the northeastern corner of stevens county near bray,

oklahoma, heading directly for pauls valley. heading directly for pauls valley is where that tornado is heading. moving east-northeasterly at 40 miles an hour. confirmed stove pipe on the ground. you saw it from reid timmer. it shedding for pauls valley. the tornado is located in the northeastern corner of stevens county right there heading directly to pauls valley. that is reid timmer and the dominator there down in garvin county. let's go back up here to the lake draper area with bob moore chopper 4 and john welsh live. >> you know what, i don't even -- >> john? >> okay. as you know, we've been following coverage provided by our local affiliate kfor. my colleague, milissa rehberger, is in the newsroom. milissa is a native of oklahoma. i guess this is a reminder of that infamous event on may 3rd, 1999. >> you know, it really is. i lived there for about three or

four years and it was during that time. this is the same exact path, martin. moore, oklahoma, i covered that storm. moore, oklahoma, was leveled. i can't emphasize enough. this is a very heavily populated area full of subdivisions and schools and churches and malls and things like that. it is packed. moore got hit so badly during that infamous tornado on may 3rd so many years ago and that's where a majority of the people died. you hear the e perts talking about an ef-4, ef-5. that's 160 to 200 mile per hour circulating winds. the only way to hide from something like that is underground. >> yeah. >> back then i spoke with a man who survived, i kid you not, by hugging his toilet which was the smart thing to do. he had nowhere else to go. had no basement, no storm shelter. the pipes went into the ground. that is how he survived. there was nothing left of his home. the concrete slab of his foundation and the pipes from the toilet. that is how he survived. and that is how powerful these

things really are. and if you're curious at all why we talk a lot about the tornado, the good news here is there is so much science involved. these meteorologists you're watching on tv are the best in their field. they're amazing at warning people early in the morning when they know the conditions will be ripe for such a storm. you don't usually get one. you get several. something like this, you see at the top of your screen, that gigantic black cloud. that is what forms a tornado. it's called a wall cloud. and what it does, you can't see it from this angle, but it is circulating very, very quickly and it sucks every cloud in the vicinity into it until it build enough power to form the rope cloud, eventually the funnel cloud that will eventually become the tornado when it hits the ground. the reason why i'm telling you this is because especially during the daytime, there is warning for people. there really is warning, but as you heard the governor earlier say, if you're in from out of

state and don't know what to look for, it looks like a giant rain cloud, you have no idea what's coming at you. >> right. the oklahoma state, the house of representatives canceled its afternoon session based on those warnings so that capitol employees and state lawmakers could take shelter. going back to the area of moore and the pauls valley. how would you describe the general standard of buildings in that area? >> it's mostly newer construction. some of the older towns in oklahoma people survived that infamous tornado because it wases just so heavily built. they had tornado shelters and they had, you know, heavy brick construction. moore you've got more things like subdivisions, probably built in, like, the '60s or the '70s. i would not say that the construction, you know, compares to those heavily built buildings from, you know, a century ago. you have subdivisions that went up, you know, very quickly. and you've got malls that are, you know, glass and metal

structures that simply don't hold up to something like this. >> okay, milissa. i'm going to interrupt you. we're getting a look at the first damage. we're going to lock in again with the local affiliate, kfor. >> off to your right, we're going to pan back toward the south and we have houses in that addition gone. we have the moore administration building. it has heavy damage done to the back side and the roof of it. the houses behind it are completely gone. the brink junior high school just behind it, there's the, i believe it's the gymnasium building. that building is completely trashed right there in the center as you can see. the track from here, it went south of 4th street and it's going to go right toward the -- i'm getting hit by some heavy rain here. it's right toward the walmart, the neighborhood market. the neighborhood market is on southeast 4th and eastern. the track went just south of it. we're getting hit by some rfds.

this track went south of it and went straight to the west. it's going to cross another housing addition right there. i believe it's apple creek. it's going to come up on passing not telephone road, passing tower road and cross the train tracks there. from the train tracks, we're in between 12th street. we're between 19th street and 4th street. it went straight across there, hit those houses. it went right along the highway. and looks like it went over, if you'll go to your right, travis. we'll go from lowe's to the warren theater. looks like it tracked just north of the warren theater. it hit the warren theater. it hit the bowling alley. it hit the bank. it hit the post office. right there on the corner is the norman regional health care center. the hospital right there on 4th and telephone road. it hit that. we're going to continue to go to the west. we have several housing additions right here. we have a trailer park, and this thing just completely destroyed

right here as we go from santa fe and, again, i'm between 19th street and 4th street moore. we're still headed west. let me zoom in here. and look at that school. look at that school, guys. oh, my god. right there. keep coming. back to your left, travis. keep coming back to your left. if you guys can see this, i don't know how to explain it. how to describe it. this is -- this is terrible. this is war zone terrible. this school is completely gone. now we're going to stay right here. it's right to the right. if you'll pan back to the right. you're going to see the school. that was it right there. that's what's left of it. you can see all the housing additions that are, just this house right here is completely destroyed. you know, guys, we're going to have to definitely -- police and everybody en route. that is the school.

no, that's the storage unit. come back to your left. if you guys are still with me here, this damage path is right there on the top right of your screen. there's the school. i'm un for sure the exact name of it. that's going to be on, it's going to be south of 4th street. it's going to be east of santa a fe. whatever school that is, it is going to be, it is, like you see, completely destroyed, as kids run up to hopefully their loved ones. but this whole area right here, guys, is -- it's completely destroyed. the houses are destroyed. they're completely leveled. we're going to just stay right here in this area. this is the hardest hit area. police have folks stopped right here on santa fe in between 19th street and 4th street. this is by far the hardest hit

area. you can see we have more police out there trying to find everybody or, you know, doing what they do best, rendering aid. and all the kids are running. we'll stay here for a little bit. see if we get some damages or if we get some, a report of how everybody's doing. i'm just going to talk to you as we kind of stay on this shot. as we continue to look back toward the west, this whole area is just completely demolished. every house in this area is leveled. i'm fixing across -- i'm just north of 149th street and this whole area right here, this neighborhood, in between santa fe and western -- >> john, can you hear me? >> police are driving through there looking for any. >> yeah, i can hear you, linda. can you hear me? >> john, we want to let people know they're going to set up a search and rescues headquarters at the warren theater. we saw the video from before where the karen theater is in relatively good shape compared to the buildings around it.

you're doing a great job of bringing home the misery of what's happening right now. we need the prayers for everyone of moore, oklahoma, again. they're telling me this is parents reuniting with their children. i'm told that's a school in the background. see police officers all around. look at the ground. on that shot previously before he pulled out. go ahead, john. >> let me show you, let me show you another school. it's right out my door. travis, if you keep coming around. perfect. straight down and to your left. right there. that's another school, linda. >> oh, no. oh my goodness. >> that one looks like -- i don't know what to say. that one looks harder. it looks harder hit than any of them before. >> oh my goodness. >> as a parent, this is kind of hard to report on. >> horrific. >> we're going to stay in the air. we're going show you -- i mean, these pictures tell everything. the orr family farm, if you guys are familiar with that, it's going to be -- it's like on penn i think and 149th. it's right out the left. >> john, have travis pull back into that school. those appear to be the first people who have been able to

make it to the scene walking carefully through that debris. you see others people now, they're gathering. of course, we're trying to find out if the kids were being sheltered there or someplace else. our thoughts and prayers are with everybody in the moore area. the devastation is complete. one of our cameramen called it atomi atomic-bomb-like devastation. >> it's unbelievable. again, we're trying to figure out right now, were the kids there? of course, they're looking right now, looking for -- we hope they're not looking for fatalities or survivors. we're hoping the kids were gone. we're not sure at this point. we're getting as much information in as we can. >> second of two schools destroyed in moore, oklahoma, along with a huge section of residential housing. if we go back to those shots in the future, you'll see that the ground literally is nothing but mud. there is nothing on the ground. >> it looks like may 3rd. what we saw on may 3rd of 1999. >> go ahead. >> i'm being told, guys, that is the plaza towers elementary schools. if you guys find out -- plaza

towers. and i'm un for sure of this other school here. it's going to be on, like, 149th and in between penn and western. the orr family farm, if you guys are familiar with that area, is right behind that. the family farm is trashed. this whole area between, this, between, like, penn, you have western and santa fe. those three miles, or those two-mile sections right there, guys, everything is leveled for almost the whole mile. because we're just -- travis is kind of showing you some wide shots here. this is unbelievable. >> john, this is reminiscent of the may 3rd, 1999, storm, that moved through the moore area and literally tore out entire neighb neighborhoods. >> that's what it looked like. >> we pray to god those people were somehow under ground when that hit. on may 3rd, 1999, people were diving into manhole covers trying to get away from the storm. if they didn't have underground shelter. mike morgan was warning these folks, at least an hour, at least 30 minutes before the

storm hit, to leave the area if they did not have underground sheltering in place. we hope that that's the case. we hope the death toll does not resemble that may 3rd tornado. >> mike, was that the exact path of the may 3rd tornado? was that the -- >> this was just along the exact path and then as it came deeper into moore, it's a little bit on the southern sides of the may 3rd path. and i don't want to make comparisons too much to may 3rd, just in terms of, well, what i'll say is this tornado i believe is wider. we're going to find there are many more structures hit compared to may 3rd from what you and i are e seeing right now live from bob moore chopper 4. may 3rd took some areas that weren't developed back in 1999 through moore. i think the total was 6,000-some-odd structures that were damaged or destroyed. i believe the amount may be more. with this particular tornado today. >> you look at that scene of destruction there and the small figures of those rescuers

working frantically looking here. where do you begin? i mean, that's the question. where do you begin on something like this? >> mike, how long was that tornado on the ground? >> well, it was on the ground for just under one hour, linda. it set down just southwest of -- west of new castle then went to that large wedge. i think the peak width on it was about a mile and a half wide. that's one thing i'm noticing looking at these pictures is the debris path appears to be significantly wider through moore than may 3rd,1999. most of this path is on the southern sides of the may 3rd path. >> we just saw somebody there obviously in distress. as any of us would be. walking up on a scene like that looking through the rubble there. >> again, let us repeat, warren theater is going to be the staging area for search and rescue. we know a lot of people are going into that area. but please, only people who are supposed to be there in terms of search and rescue. fire departments, police. stay out of the area otherwise.

it's nothing but dangerous, and the police need the room to be able to get in there and try to save anybody who may be in that debris. that, of course, right now, is their utmost importance. >> and, again, we're looking at the plaza towers school is what we're being told that is. we do not know if the kids were in there or not. we're hoping they weren't, of course. we'll continue to try to get new more information on that. >> john's moving back around to the other side. >> that is a huge destruction path. >> but there's still trees there. i'm not sure that that the destruction. because on the other shots there were no trees anywhere. that's what we're looking at. he's -- mike? turn up mike's mike. there we go. >> let me break away here for just a second. let's go to what we have going on right now. i need to talk about a couple areas here. i'm going to talk about the areas of the most danger right now. i will tell you this storm is recycling now in southeastern oklahoma county. let's go to the north doppler and take a look at it.

tornado warning does continue south of harrah right now and to the southwest of mccloud. it's recycling. this is the same storm. still has a tornado warning on it. the hook now is right on i-40 and it is heading for the area near the fire lake casino. again, mccloud, harrah and up toward meeker and prage and dale and north shawnee. hook with a tornado warning in effect. that storm is still very dangerous and may put down an additional large tornado as it comes through southeast oklahoma county, the northern pottawattamie county and southern lincoln county. back to you. >> all right. mike, we have some urgent requests coming from emergency officials in the moore area. you see the destruction there. they are trying to get people in there. if you see a flashing light, if you're going to be out and about any time soon, if you're listening to us on one of our radio family members, if you see a flash of light, get out of the way. they're trying to get down there. they're saying a lot of people are trying to go down there and help. but it's clogging up the traffic. please just let emergency officials get in there right

now. and then those who want to go down and lend aid can come in after that. but even those who are trying to help are kind of starting to clog up the road. they understand. >> you can see right there, they can't get by because of the debris on the road. the emergency personnel are stopped where the debris is covering the road. we know so very many of you are anxious about your loved family members and friends who are in that area. we can assure you, police will be down there. there's a whole stream of red and blue lights heading to moore, oklahoma, right now. at this point, there is very little you can do. very little chance you'll even be able to get into those areas. so parts -- >> absolutely. they said we appreciate those who want to help, and those who are frantic about family members, but they've got to get in there right now. >> a post-tornadic fire, here we go, coming to your left. >> okay. john is reporting a post-tornadic fire that may have broken out? >> post-tornadic fire. >> yes. >> there it is. >> gas leak. it's a gas leak.

>> okay. so, please, this area remains dangerous. stay out of the area. we don't know exactly what is on fire there. >> it looks like it's a structure. >> it's a house that's on fire. >> it's a house. john's reporting it's a house. john, can you see emergency crews getting into those areas at all yet? >> yes. you know, here's the deal. the toughest part and the hardest part that they really need to get to, there's so much debris that, i mean, you need a monster truck to get through. there's cars upsidedown. there's, you know, debris. there's houses. there's whole houses in the road. so the hardest part they need to get to they can't get to, but, yes, there are a lot of people on the roadway. here's what part of the issue is is the police did a great job stopping people and not letting them even get in the damaging path. and so what they've done is now these people that were in their cars are still congested on the roadway. now they have to get, you know, out of the way and it was bumper to bumper almost every one of these roads are four-lane roads.

they were full. north and south of this damage track. so now they have to find a way to get out. but in some of these neighborhoods i am seeing a lot of people driving around, and, you know, it could be that's their house, they want want to check on somebody or at this time maybe they're lookie lous. i'm sure everybody wants to help. the biggest issue here is the congestion of traffic. >> yeah, you're right, john. we want to tell you about, there's another area that is being open right now. 89th and western. oak crest church of christ. for anybody who does not have power. it you know somebody who does not have power because if they don't, they're probably not hearing us right now. if you know somebody who doesn't have power, if you've been talking to them on their cell phone, tell them that the church of christ at 89th and western is having some folks come in there and stay with them. that's a refuge center. >> your heart hurts looking at these images. we ask all of you to keep all of these people in your prayers. we have no indication yet of

death toll, but we can tell you just by looking at devastation, unless people heeded the warnings and left the area or were underground, the chances of survival for that type of storm are bad. >> those are just foundations left. >> see, look at the ground behind it. there's just nothing. it's like those foundations are just scabs on the landscape. >> that's the fire that john was talking about a minute ago. i know things are wet there. will keep the ember problem down a little bit. we sure don't need fires spreading now to these other areas. >> also need to tell you oklahoma city schools alerted us to the fact they are releasing their students. the buseses will begin bringing your children home. oklahoma city parents, welcome them home with hugs and, you know, it's a scary situation for all of these kids who are being held away from their parents. as you can see, the devastation of the two schools in moore, oklahoma, the plaza tower elemtary. we don't have the name of the

other one just yet, was complete. so we have our fingers crossed that those kids were somehow protected or were already gone from the scene. we do have rescue crews going through the areas right now looking for those who may have survived. >> and we are waiting, i know a lot of you folks out there are wanting to know what the injury figures are or we pray no fatalities. are there any fatalities? we'll let you know as quickly as we find out. we want to let the emergency officials do their jobs. this is a search and they have to get the folks rescued. like yesterday. but on a small scale. >> john, you did a great job yesterday, for the folks who are just now joining us of moving down the tornado path. can you do that one more time so people that are familiar with the