evacuated from their neighborhood in moore. they are not able to go home. that's the story for so many people around oklahoma city tonight. we're continuing from msnbc with chris matthews. good evening. i'm chris matthews up in boston. it's utter destruction. tonight the community of moore, a suburb southeast of oklahoma city has been leveled after a mile-wide tornado tore through the area this afternoon. at least two elementary schools were in the path of the storm. the local affiliate reports that children may be trapped in one of those schools. people are digging through the rubble searching for survivors. the associated press reported that several children have been pulled out of the rubble alive. our affiliate kfor report four dead so far, including a mother and a baby. according to reuters, two

hospitals have received at least 29 injured in the storm. seven are in critical condition. the national weather service says the tornado was at least an e-5. that's the second highest strength rating. carries winds up to 200 miles per hour. the white house said the president has been receiving updates on the storm and rescue efforts. the magnitude of the destruction and loss is still emerging but what is clear at this hour, this is a storm that will go into history. the weather channel's brian is joining us right now. i was watching about an hour ago with your report that possibly there was going to be another tornado hitting down, this this tornado was heading towards pauls valley, oklahoma. let me go to milissa right now. she covered tornadoes in the oklahoma city area. i'm trying to figure out what we have facing us later tonight,

milissa. >> it's going to be a long, tedious, and very scary effort, chris. if they have not turned off the power to the area, there are power lines down that might still be live. there is the fear of gas leaks, the fear of fires and just general danger within that debris. they've got about two more hours, maybe 2 1/2 more hours of light there, which is going to make this a very dangerous job for the brave men and women. they are very meticulously picking through that and it must be so hard for them. you know they just want to rush in. but you can't. it's just too dangerous. so night will fall, it will get cold and it will be very lonely and very scary for anybody who is alive in any of this rubble. >> what is the temperature down there right now? what is it expected to reach overnight? >> well, it could be very cold.

if you're stuck under there, 40s, 50s. it's like here this time of year. you never know what you're going to get. hopefully it won't rain on them. they are down there without water and we have no idea of how many people are trapped, where they are trapped. hopefully, because this is mostly a neighborhood of homes, hopefully most people were away at work and weren't even in the area when it happened but we do know that children and teachers are trapped in that school that they are concentrating on and that is absolutely horrifying, especially for the parents who are being held back and i can't imagine what a helpless feeling that is. >> you know, we're looking at rubble. it's so extra ordinary because usually when you have a flood it takes days for it to grow and recede and take as while to receive the damage. this is very hard for us as outsiders and you have reported down there for so long, give us a sense of the pictures that we're sharing here.

is this a commercial area? are these supermarkets, malls, residential neighborhoods? you can spot some of the pattern but it seems to have been lost in the hell that's been let loose here. >> well, i tell you, this looks remarkably like the may 3rd tornado that we covered. it looks the same but quite frankly worse. this is a suburb of oklahoma city. it's full of subdivisions. that's what you're seeing. lots of homes. you've obviously got churches and schools and strip malls. it's like any suburban area that you and i have seen. the scary part is the state is full of rural areas that, you know, one home sits atop a giant piece of property. this is a very, very heavily populated area and where this tornado hit, there is simply nothing left. what absolutely amazed me when i was there on may 3rd of 1999, i

had never seen anything like it in my life. i just couldn't believe how little was left of anything that resembled anything that it once was. we're not talking about hurricane damage with a circular motion of 2 to 300 mile-an-hour winds, it truly makes it look like they were stuck in a ble blender. a man was very lucky to survive by hugging his toilet because the pipes go into the ground and it worked but i sort of drove along with my crew at the time and he was standing looking like he wasn't even there on the blank slate that had been a foundation of his house, that and the toilet were all that was left and even if you're being looking to find your property, what is left on your property might not even come from your house.

it could have come from down the street. your house can be a block away. that's the power of this thing. and i interviewed that man and he could barely even put his words together because that's how shocking it is. >> you mean the house blew away around him? >> it disappeared. >> you know, i never thought about this power of 200 mile-an-hour winds, maybe it will reach an eech-5, it's in a circular pattern. if it can pick up cinder block buildings, forget the easy stuff like horses and people, it can move cinder blocks and move them into the area. >> it picks up truck us. a friend of mine who, woulded for the same station in 1999 was sent down the road to cover the aftermath of where that tornado first set down. they didn't realize they were

driving right into it. tornadoes like, this they are surrounded by rain. it's a mile wide. you don't even know it's a tornado. it looks like a rain storm. you have no way of knowing until it's on top of you. they were heading for down the road, i-40, when they saw a cow fly by. i'm not kidding. they saw trees uprooted that were in the air, flying by, and with that they turned around and ran as -- drove as fast as they could in the other direction and as it happens, that tornado hit an overpass and i don't know if you've heard me say this earlier, people who were driving took shelter under this overpass and the cars parked underneath it were gone a moment later and one woman was sucked out from under that overpass where she was hiding for her son. her son survived. she did not. that he is -- when you have buildings and trees and cars that are literally picked up into the air and hurled, who knows how far away, that does show you what they are dealing

with today. >> stay with us. i want to bring in jennifer and todd tabor. they are residence and they were so close to this today. jennifer? >> yes. >> thank you for joining us. sir, can you tell me what it was like to be near? could you feel the force of the 200 mile-an-hour winds coming at you in a circular pattern? >> oh, yeah. oh, yeah. i mean, it was just like a strong wind blowing towards your vehicle. we evacuated right before it hit our neighborhood and when we got out on to the main road, it was so congested and chaotic, we could see this huge, wide tornado just right there in the middle of the road. it was like within half a mile, dare i say, from us. so, yeah, i could see all of the debris. there was a lot of debris.

>> sir, could you feel the force of the wind? is this something that you're looking at and realizing how powerful it is from a distance? >> i was actually on my way here. i didn't actually get to see it. my wife here, jennifer, was in it and my daughter, they were in my truck and we were trying to get away from it and i was afraid they were not going to make it away. >> jennifer, are you able to reach your house now? >> no. we're about a mile and a half of it now. we came from about a mile of it and they told to us go back because of the gas leaks and downed power lines. they said it would be quite a while before we would be able to get into our area. >> were you living in the area,

both of you, back in '99 when this struck before? you first, todd, were you there? >> yes, i was off of 59th and center road at the time. i got to watch that one go by. it was an unbelievable sight. nothing like that anywhere. it's amazing seeing that much power and something that size. >> jennifer, how many minutes did it take to leave your house? >> oh, i'm talking less than five. i mean, when i started heading south on the knicks major intersection, it was going by where we turned at. it was literally just behind us. i mean, maybe a minute, maybe a

minute to three minutes after i turned to go south, i could see it going by and i could feel the force of it and see the debris blowing. i was afraid it was going to suck us into it by the time we got out of there. >> is that what happens, todd, you get sucked into one of these tornadoes when they are coming along, they can pull you inside, is that right? >> yes, they can. there's a lot of inflow to the tornadoes. like i said, i've been in a couple and when they pass by you might be out of the way of the actual tornado but it's still sucking in a lot of air and you get stuff that -- debris is the most dangerous thing that you can run into. >> there's a lot of debris going across the road. i was afraid that we were going to get hit by something huge. there was pieces of wall, debris, going across the road as we were trying to get away.

>> todd and jennifer, you are some couple of people. i'm glad to meet you in this circumstance. it i hagives us a sense of what going on. let me go to bryan norcross. is this a dangerous tornado tonight? >> no. this storm is essentially dissipated. although will are some tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings in oklahoma, although nothing of this scale and actually another storm by dallas, chris, and extending northwest st. louis, those are nothing like the scale that we've seen here happen in moore, oklahoma, earlier this afternoon. >> well, let's get the dimensions for the history books. is this an e-5? is this 200 miles an hour or where are sfwhe. >> it's certainly 200 miles an

hour. the only windstorm recorded over 300 miles per hour. this one visually looked like that but until you get down and higher. the national weather service has categorized this as an ef-4 at least. they actually go out and they have to do that on the ground to categorize it for sure. we won't know that until tomorrow. >> it sounds like it was a mile wide and 20 miles long. it dcan throw cars around, trucs around, homes bear no relationship to where their homes were once it has passed.

is this something that a tornado can do at an ef-5 rate? >> yes. almost no buildings can survive an ef-5 tornado. they wipe buildings clean off their foundations. now, we are talking about moore, oklahoma. this may be one of the best-prepared cities in the united states, oklahoma city metro is one of the best prepared in terms of the communications and construction. because as a result of the 1999 they had a large number of casualties. four years later it was similar but had relatively few casualties because they upgraded the building codes and plans and awareness. this community is operating with the highest tornado awareness anywhere in the u.s. if anybody can get through this, it's these folks here.

this tornado was wider than 1999 and it went -- it piqued in intensity right as it went by moore, oklahoma. this was not a long track toern tornado. it didn't live very long but it came together as a spinning top, righting it self and at peak intensity as it came over that level school, crossed i-35, you saw the damage there on the highway and the cars that were flipped even though they tried desperately to get people off the highway and then moving east of i-35 over to moore. >> of course, the image is like a nuclear bomb. the image is the funnel that you see forming in the distance. it's dangerous.

>> the mushroom part of the cloud, the part that is sticking out, that's a rotating upper level system. that's the supercell thunderstorm and then sometimes for reasons not completely known, some of those systems drop a tornado and if everything is aligned perfectly where the air coming in, the warm air is colliding perfectly with the cold air and the spinning of the wind can align itself vertically in just the worst kind of way, the tornado can come by and be supremely intense and that happened just briefly there for a period of perhaps -- i think this whole tornado lived about 40 minutes but the peak intensity was probably 15 or 20 minutes and happened to be right over moore. >> explain, if you can, in real life terms tornado alley.

the map i was looking at today, late today, seemed to suggest it comes down vertically north/south. is that the route it takes from texas texas to oklahoma? >> the reason that it's there is because the united states happens to be shaped the way the united states is. and to the west of the oklahoma city area the land gradually rises, rises, rises, you think about denver, it's a mile high. it's over 5,000 feet when you get to colorado and then to the east of oklahoma you have the gulf of mexico, which is a source of very warm, moist air. so out around those plains you have dry air and it meets this very warm air and that combination is unique. this configuration of land and

water actually creates more tornadoes than anywhere in the world because that doesn't line up. most are caused by something else as well. these super tornadoes, incredible tornadoes like we've seen today only occur really in the u.s. and very rarely elsewhere in the word. china actually has some as well but it's got to do with the configuration of the u.s. that's why it's a vertical line of this tornado alley that -- where you can get that moist air coming from the gulf, meeting that dry air that comes in from the west and the high plains. >> well, i think we're going to come back to you later. one last question is, how does this connect to the history of the 21st century and the dust bowl and the horror of the '30s and the people who moved to california, is that part of this weather condition or not? >> not really.

the dust bowl as we know it from the '30s was caused by two things. one is it was a severe drought, a terrible drought, but also they didn't have good farming techniques at that time so when the drought occurred, it made it worse than if it were to happen today we know how to defend against these things and how to keep the dust bowls from happening essentially in the same kind of way. >> there's so much weather with oklahoma. thank you, bryan norcross. and dean lee is with the oklahoma state emergency center. i'm looking at all of these people in haz-mat uniforms with live wires and dangerous situations. >> the rest of these are --

>> andy? >> yes. >> yes, thank you. tell us about -- we're looking at the emergency workers going through this frightening rubble tonight and i was wondering about live wires. what are the dangers that prevent people from going back and it seems like a necessary precaution going back to their homes. >> well, absolutely. you have the debris that is left with all kinds of glass and things that people could be injured with. but also, like you said, the live wires that oklahoma natural gas company is out in full force. the oklahoma county gas and electric is out in full force. everyone from all over the state have responded. they are taking almost every precaution to keep the responders safe and keep people out of the area until it's safe for them to return. >> yeah. i've never seen anything like

this. i guess i'm seeing it from pictures of world war ii where you have block after block like places like germany that have been blocked and this happened in minutes today. it's live now and a sense of people caught in it, where a lot of people that have successfully evacuated in moore. >> i would have to say yes. we have known for a couple of days that all of the elements that you were discussing with the person prior to me were ripe for bad weather, severe weather, the television, numbers, facebook, everybody was talking about the weather. so for example, school systems did not release children to go home even though the school day was ended. they kept them safe because schools here and churches and

synagogues have emergency plans in place that they practice on a regular basis. so that people can stay safe. that's why, for example, with all of the storms yesterday there were only two fatalities which we regret, of course, but the numbers could have been so much worse. so that's how we approach it. >> well, you seem to be doing a good job given the situation. ann de lee, stay with us, if you can. let's listen to our affiliate of kfor. >> it looks they are getting some victims out and transporting them to a nearby hospital. >> we appreciate your work, brother. >> we have received word that the university of oklahoma will be opening spaces for displaced students. >> scott hines has that from the

newsroom. >> it's still too early to gauge the extent of many southwest medical center just received word from southwest medical center baptist's spokesperson, nine critical, nine of those in serious conditions, with the exception of the two fatalities. we're hearing about four fatalities that our own meg alexander witnessed with her own eyes. she saw rescuers pulling a seventh-month-old, that babies mother, another man and woman all dead. they were trying to seek refuge in a freezer. we received confirmation that other hospitals in the oklahoma city metro area are currently treating patients. 20 people total, 12 adults and 8 children being treated at omu

medical hospital. that's according to scott copenbarger and we have confirmed that they are treating an unsays pecified number of pe with trauma and lacerations and broken bones. linda mentioned earlier back on may 3rd, 1999, most of those injuries that they were treating or that they saw while they were treating in the emergency rooms were the puncture injuries, debris flying through the air, just injuries along those lines and concerning injuries related to this storm, death toll, you know, you can only guess that it's going to rise at this juncture in the game but again, six fatalities confirmed and dozens of others injured, currently seeking medical treatment at area hospitals. we're going to continue to monitor the situation and work the phones and more updates for you coming up throughout the

evening. >> producing our show tonight, we're grateful for her help, irish, can you pull up some video of the twister that did this damage, folks who just are now joining us may have not seen it because it moved through that area more than two hours ago. if you pull that up, let's go to john welch in chopper 4. you were showing us a tour of this area. you're now again over park towers elementary school where the search continues for what we've been told were 75 students and faculty teachers who may have been in that building when the tornado hit. >> john, it looks like here's the video right now. you might describe what you were witnessing and feeling as you were reporting to us on this gigantic monster. >> john, we're seeing video of the storm right now, one of your shots from earlier.

it fills the screen. talk to us about what you saw. >> yeah, i don't have a monitor up here so i can tell you what we're seeing but what i really is we picked up this storm and mike kept saying it's on the ground, it's on the ground but we couldn't really depict it and out of nowhere the rain let up enough that you could actually see the funnel and as soon as we saw the funnel, you know, that was on the west side -- yeah, the west side of i-44 tracking towards moore. it just kept getting bigger and bigger and it was about a quarter mile wide and just after this it seemed like it got instantly a half a mile wide and as soon as it comes up to may, i remember mike saying it's crossing may and 149th or 134th and the screen got completely white. it looked like the wall went

straight for the ground. i was on the east side of i-35 an eighth of a mile. the neighbors just south of me, their houses are gone. the evonly thing i can think ofi hope my family is in the shelter where they are supposed to be. luckily they were. i'm having mixed emotions because i'm trying to provide a service to the public and in the back of the mind i have the safety of my own family. so, you know, then the storm just continued to track through moore. it broke at the road which was a nice relief for me because i know there's nothing out there besides wood until it crosses draper and 164th and it ropes out and just -- the storm broke up prior to reaching draper and from there we went back and completely blown away, just how

scoured the ground is and how serving completely gone. whole neighborhoods, there's nothing -- not even little trees and all of these neighborhoods had these small -- i say small. the base of them is probably about the size of the bowling ball. every neighborhood at one in their front yard and their back, they are gone. all we're seeing now is just the pads of the house and some rubble. but we stayed on the school here and if you're back on our live shot, fire crews have made pretty much a gang line. they are picking up debris and passing it down. they have gotten these buckets and water is what we're seeing a lot of them throwing and then throwing it down. so it appears that they have a spot in there that they are concentrating their efforts on as far as searching for people. but as far as seeing anybody

come out, we haven't. i know when we initially showed the scene, we saw them running out. i don't know how many are left in there, i know the number is high with the teachers as well. they have one area just below to the left of the screen of that cinder or concrete wall that they are consolidating their rescue efforts. they are continuing to throw debris and water into these buckets and passing it down and getting rid of the debris. linda? >> we're looking at rescuers working in a rescue mode. it was on the ground for 20 miles. it was wider than the may 3rd tornado from 1999 which was a historic tornado. this storm, according to mike morgan, is three times as bad. so we are looking at a catastrophic event. one of our cameraman here in the studio said it looked like an

atomic explosion happened here. >> it certainly does. let's go to lance west. we're going to go to him on the ground. he's there at the school. lance? >> reporter: guys, just ran down to the school to talk to emergency personnel and i have been told from some very reliable sources that this isnoo longer a search andress excuse operation. it's a recovery mission. there are up to two dozen children, victims trapped at the bod tomorrow of that school right now. this is eagle drive right here. there could be as many as half a dozen more fatalities in this area. the emergency personnel have backed out of the school. they are backing people away and i understand they are going to start pulling these tiny victims out of the rubble here shortly. >> oh, lance, i'm so sorry.

>> reporter: hang in there my friend. you've given me the information. it's so hard when you are there and you see it and you see the parents waiting and hoping and then hearing news like that. two dozen little ones that are now fatalities there. >> lance said he believed from the information that he was receiving third graders may have been in a hall clinging to the walls in hopes of surviving but must have been terrifying moments for them. our thoughts are with the families awaiting for word and with the rescuers who have the job of finding those little ones in the rubble. >> they are going to start bringing them out, according to lance's report. that is the most sobering news we have had since this started. we were hoping for the best and unfortunately we know some did escape. that he is wonderful. that is wonderful. but what we're hearing now is

just gut-wrenching. 24, we believe, little victims in the rubble of that elementary school in moore, oklahoma. >> one of our news men, chuck, is on the phone. what are you hearing? >> i've been watching people walk out of the neighborhood next to the park. they have been streaming out of here and they are covered in blood and mud and gripping on to little things. i saw a little lady carrying a box that had a bible in, holding their babies and their pets. it's a pretty, pretty bad scene right here. i can't -- i don't even know how to deal with where lance is but these people are at least walking out if they are not hurt

physically they are hurt emotionally. >> have you had a chance to talk to any of them? i know that's hard to do? >> i talked to a few of them. i'm right by where john is describing. another quarter mile up the road. i just got to my house and everything was fine and went straight down there. they decent know what to say. they are just -- everything is gone. you can stand at the corner and there are probably at least quarter mile of houses. i drive by it every day almost and they are all gone. there's nothing -- there's nothing left. it looks like someone took a wood shop and dumped the trash can out. there's nothing. >> chuck musgrove is a news manager. he's in that area. thank you for checking in for us.

we need to tell you that what you're seeing right now is the recovery process of the schools that were hit. children were sheltered inside when this tornado had winds of more than 200 miles an hour that moved over the school. it's plaza towers elementary school. we're told -- we were originally told that 75 children could be inside. lance west when we spoke to him about five minutes ago said the number is now believed to be two dozen children that they are searching for. it's no longer search and rescue. it's search and recovery. >> two dozen little victims there. it's just -- boy, it's just hard to take and -- but we'll get through this and i know the parents of oklahoma will get through it and i know the parents will get a lot of support from all of the oklahomans that are hearing about this. let's go to sarah stewart, one of our reporters, on the scene.

>> reporter: guys, we were actually in a neighborhood here in moore directly behind the moore medical center back here and we talked to several parents who were waiting to hear word from their children. obviously just besides themselves waiting to be heard. we don't know if any of the children belong to those families back there but we have spoken to parents who were just frantic waiting to hear word. we are in moore north of the war re ren theater here. just to the north of us is the moore medical center. let me swing you around this way. we were directly back here in this neighborhood. it's just to the west. right behind us, the moore medical center, we spoke with a lot of people. the neighborhood back there, a lot of people along sixth street back in there in moore that rode out that neighborhood. the entire neighborhood is completely destroyed. fortunately, a lot of the homes

in that area do have storm shelters and we spoke with one man who rode out the storm in the storm shelter, ricky stover, and here's what he had to say. >> we thought we died. we were in the cellar door, it got louder and the next thing you know, you see the latch coming undone, it ripped open the door and it just -- just glass and debris started slamming on us. we thought we were dead, to be honest. >> yeah, a lot of people in that neighborhood echoing those same sentiments, an absolutely terrifying moment for them. we spoke with another family who had several people down in the storm shelter and it took three men to actually hold down that storm shelter door to keep it from just flying off. we have not heard of any fatalities in that neighborhood. they were digging through some

of the homes trying to locate people but i know that at least two of the homes that they were digging through, they found those people well and alive. they had actually left the neighborhood before the storm and came back. so they were okay but a lot of people sifting through a lot of rubble in what was just utter devastation in the neighborhood directly to the west of the moore medical center out here in moore. guys, back to you. >> sarah stewart, we appreciate it. >> mike morgan is over in the weather center right now. we've been talking about this storm in comparison to the may 3rd, 1999, storm that was an historic storm of its own that moved through moore, oklahoma. >> we've been listening to our nbc affiliate with the terrible news, two dozen children, third grade students died at school. they were kept in school holding on to a wall and apparently it was a direct hit. nothing you can do anything

about a direct hit by this incredible tornado which was described in that last segment as three times as bad as the one in '99 which was in itself an ef-6. we're seeing the human side of it. the headlines have been written, two dozen third grade angels, these kids. anyway, we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] here's a word you should keep in mind. unbiased. some brokerage firms are. but way too many aren't. why? because selling their funds makes them more money. which makes you wonder -- isn't that a conflict?

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we're back with coverage of the devastating tornado in moore, oklahoma. we just got word that president obama has been in touch with the governor mary fallon. we're going to bring u.s. congressman that represents oklahoma's fourth district that has been in touch with those on the ground. we have an official number of ten killed and the terrible report from our affiliate kfor a minute or two ago about the -- it looks like they have given up on those two dozen third grade kids in the school there. do you have any more on that? >> chris, this is my hometown. i live less than a mile from that school. i have for 53 years.

i still remember picking up my mom's voting precinct. i've been in touch with the governor's office and people on the ground. i don't want to get ahead of the official numbers but obviously it's very, very bad. you know, this is our fourth one of these things in 15 years. '98, '99, 2003, and now this. this one much worse than '99 in terms of the loss of life itself and we have to wait to give the men and women and first responders and sadly we are pretty good at this. our police and firefighters are first rate at this. you saw that in the oklahoma city bombing. and i appreciate the president

reaching out so quickly. not surprised in a time like this, you know how lucky you are to be an american because all of the resources and capabilities of the united states government come in and help you whether you're in sandy or katrina or oklahoma city bombing or something like this. we'll get through it. the numbers are aren't going to get better. they are only going to get worse and it's going to be a very, very difficult time going forward. >> i've seen a couple of the the stoic faces of your people down there. they are something. we saw the tabors, another family, one guy raises horses down there later in the afternoon and the power of these people to just take this. do you know it's coming every few years and you stand up to it? >> i think it is. it's a frontier culture. they are tough people. they are people with a great deal of faith and they love where they live and the people

around them, the kind of people that -- you know, these are people that many of them lived through the depression, fought through tough times. they are a hearty breed and they help one another. if you're in oklahoma and you're in trouble, you'll have a neighbor that will reach out to you. we think it's a very special place. but it does come, you know, with these kind of weather disasters are not new in our history. they are predictable. it's not a question of whether but when a community is going to get hit. frankly, one of the reasons that we try to be sympathetic to people in other parts of the country when they are happy to work for sandy relief, for instance, talking to people from knew yor new york, i said, you know, we're always going to be there to help because we're always one tornado away from being joplin. i didn't think it was going to be quite this soon. they are tough, chris. again, they are great friends

and neighbors and i tell you what, this isn't just an oklahoma response. this is an american response. it's tough times. we've had our share and we've always gotten wonderful help from the rest of the country. i'm sure we will again. >> you know, it's a reminder of our country and our history, the identity that we all have, you think of dorothy and wizard of oz and the kid hiding in the ground, it's so american in our culture and historically of course the cherokee land rush, it's all about being a frontier's man, a tough, a stoic person. >> they almost no -- none of

these houses will have basements. quite a few have safe room, reinforced rooms in the interior, concrete sometimes and that area for probably a square mile around plaza towers, homes are devastated and teachers made the right call. those kids were probably safer in that location with much thicker walls and in an interior wall with granite and all that. but you hit it on the head when you said there's not much that helps you if you're above ground you get a direct hit on an f-4, f-567 f-5. we had the first recorded f-5 in '99. it will take them a few days and they give us the best warning

and advice and protection that you could have. again, when nothing like this comes through, you don't want to be in front of it and unfortunately somebody is going to be and in this case it was a very populated area. these things happen in the country. there are anomalies, you lose a few barns and worry about animals but when it rolls through an area, this is a thickly populated suburban community. i moved there 50 years and it was a farm community of 1500. but it's about 55,000 now and very well built up. when something like this comes through, you can do everything right, you can prepare, evacuate, and you can listen but if it's on top of you, there's going to be casualties and extraordinary damage and that's clearly what we have. >> you sound very connected with your people. thank you congressman cole. >> thank you.

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we're back as we continue to cover developments in moore, oklahoma where the official death toll stands at 10 from today's devastating tornado. i'm trying to get a grip on whether we face more damage tonight from the tornado?

>> the storm that went through moore, of course has dissipated but that thunderstorm lives on and is continues to produce a threat across portions of the southern great plains. >> tornado season lasts how long? i heard that this is the height of the season? >> this really is the height of the season particularly here in oklahoma. we're located in norman, oklahoma, just a few miles past. we're responsible nationwide for tornado forecasting. this is the peak of the season right in this area, springtime is the peak for tornado season but we can have tornadoes any time of year. we're looking at unconfirmed damage of loss of life.

we have an official count of 10 killed. 6 in terms of its track, a mile wide, perhaps an e 5, perhaps 200-mile-per-hour winds. where do you put it in terms of history. >> it looks very devastating, you know, hopefully the death toll will be reduced from the warnings that we were able to get in place both days in advance, we were watching this system advance for days, we have been talking about it for almost a week. we have been talking about warnings and tornado emergencies issued before the heart of the storm impacted moore, oklahoma. it's a devastating track. it's very reminiscent of the tornado that went through moore, oklahoma in 1999, on the third of may.

>> what would be the weather reason for having the same path. >> we don't have a reason, but this is the exact core of tornado alley, this time of year, year round, if you want large -- if you want to see a large tornado, you can come right here to moore and norman, oklahoma and you'll be very close to where they occurred the most frequently. moore, oklahoma has been hit by a number of very powerful tornadoes. i live in norman, oklahoma and

we had a powerful storm come through just yesterday that produced a very powerful tornado. just after it exited norman, oklahoma, and for shawnee, there was devastation there yesterday. >> chris mcbee is a storm chaser, making his way to moore right now to help with the rescue effort. you were watching it, what was it like? >> i've seen a lot of tornadoes and this is literally the worst one i have ever seen? it was easily a mile wide, we were probably a half mile south of it when it crossed into the city of moore. there was debris in the air, we knew it hit a lot of residential areas, it was quite devastating, it was the worse tornado i have ever seen in my chasing career. >> this term that's been used as monster, it's almost like when you look at it coming, it's got something like an animal

personal to it. i kind of know what you mean, there's a point where it seems monstrous, absolutely. it's just utter devastation. it's the worst that mother nature can, you know, can put forth and it's just an awful thing to see. >> so what we're getting is the information from the congressman and others that when that thing hits, it hits and nothing stays. >> yeah, i mean with the devastation, i mean there are entire neighborhoods that were completely wiped out, just like your previous guest said, it's very reminiscent of may 3, 1999 that bent went through moore and wiped houses off of their foundations, it's just awful to see. >> can you tell in your expertise is it an e-5, did it look like 300 miles an hour? you said it was the worse you

had ever seen, at least close up? >> it was. we won't know the number, ef-4, or ef-5, we won't know until enough damage assessment has been done but judging by what i just saw in downtown moore i wouldn't be spized if it was rated ef-5. there were cars and trees, and it was awful, just untold damage. >> so tonight, as the people and the experts, the emergency workers are in there now, we're looking at their uniforms, their gear right now for all kinds of danger facing them, electricity, possibly glass, have you seen something like this before where this 20-mile stretch of civilization has been wiped clean and all that's left is sort of the rubble? have you seen this before? >> really the only time that we

can characterize that would be may 3, 1999. that's a date that really lives in infamy here in oklahoma. i mean that was the strongest tornado ever recorded and here we are today with a very similar tornado doing similar damage. that's really the only other time that you have that wide, wide swathe of just destruction right through neighborhoods and everything. that's really the only other time we have seen it here. >> so what is it that you do when you chase a tornado? what is your profession in that regard? what do you try to do? >> well, we try to get footage. i'll bring a tour company and we take people to see tornadoes, just because people are interested in it. that's really what we do, and, you know, video and today we were down there in moore trying to help those that were injured and displaced and everything. so we're just trying to do what

we can to assist at this point. >> monster is the word that's going to stay with me. when you see that thing coming, it has something going on inside it that looks pretty menacing. officials in moore, oklahoma will be holding a news conference in just 30 minutes tonight. the devastating coverage of the oklahoma tornado continues now with chris hayes. >> we're continuing to cover the terrible situation in moore, oklahoma, where a tornado we heard described today is possibly the worst in recorded history, just devastated the oklahoma city suburb this afternoon. here is what we know. people are still trapped and reports of fatalities are beginning to mount. as seen in this time lapse video a path that grew up to a mile wide, an elementary scho