tornado in oklahoma. >> outside oklahoma city, this of course is a part of a country that is no stranger to severe weather, especially at this time of year. but the monster tornado that touched down in the suburbs south of oklahoma city this afternoon, appears to be of not just massive, but of likely historic proportions. at this point, the latest death tom from the state medical examiner, the last confirmed death tom from the state medical examiner, is 32 fatalities. at this point we are confirming at least 37 people killed with the state medical examiner saying that number is expected to rise. this tornado today just outside of oklahoma city was up to a mile wide, was classified as one of the most violent categories on the fife-part steal that we

have that measures the strength and dangerousness of tornadoes, that scale goes from e-1, to e-5. this storm is seen as either an e-5 or in excess of an e-5. a tornado with wind speeds that -- back in may 1999, 14 years ago this month. that storm 14 years ago was reported to have winds of 302 miles an hour. again the highest winds ever recorded on the planet. put that 300 -- you want to put those winds in perspective. you're talking about category 5 hurricane, those big hurricanes that we know of, those have winds of about half that speed. but we don't know exactly how fast the winds were outside of oklahoma city, we do know it happened in the exact same place. reporters on scene, who have

seen the wreckage of both today's storm and that hunl historic storm 14 years ago say that today's storm caused damage over an area of about 3 times the size of that historic storm back in 1999. just moments ago, at this point, our latest confirmed death toll from the state medical examiner was 37. the confirmed death toll now just in the last few minutes has been raised to at least 51 killed. at least 51 killed. the number of people who were injured badly to be treated in hospitals already, is up to 120, at least 51 killed so far in oklahoma, that number expected to rise, at least some of those killed, some of these confirmed dead already are known to be kids who were pulled out of the plaza towers elementary school. today's tornado was on the

ground for about 40 minutes. the students at one of the schools which is called briar wood elementary are said to be fully accounted for tonight. but it is the other elementary school, plaza towers elementary, about 75 students and staff were in the building when the tornado hit. for the younger kids, k through three. rescuers looking through rubble that's up to ten feet deep. >> trying to find these kids that are hopefully still alive, there's a triage center that's set up on what looks like it may have been a basketball court at one point and they're using the doors and pieces of plywood as stretchers to try to get people out. the tornado shelter in the

hallway, but the walls are gone. cinder block walls that are eight inches thick and the roof is completely gone. it basically just looks like it collapsed in on itself. i did speak to a teacher, her name is rolen da, she had six kids with her in the bathroom as the storm rolled through, they're all alive. right now still unaccounted for, kindergarten, first, second and third graders. no word on those kids right now. parents are just now beginning to arrive. >> the kids said they were actually told to go into the hallways outside their classrooms and they were literally hugging those walls as that tornado was moving overhead. it looks from my perspective that they're communicating with someone. they may be talking to someone trapped under the debris. there are probably 50 people right now on hands and knees

pulling away boards and debris in hopes of finding that person alive. >> we will bring you more details on what is happening at plaza towers elementary school as we get them. this part of the country was already partially in recovery mode because of a significant band of tornados that stormed through the region yesterday, actually through a wide swathe of the country. at least a dozen tornadoes yesterday, from minnesota all the way down to georgia. two people were confirmed killed in shawnee, oklahoma in the storms yesterday. right now again, state medical examiner in oklahoma saying the death toll is 51, of the 51 t 5 people confirmed dead, seven children are among those confirmed. it was against the backdrop of yesterday's tornadoes, already a region, already a state that had signed a federal emergency state declaration, already a state

that was digging out in terms of damage, that backdrop today, that region -- they wanted i'm tell you that as our coverage continues this hour and through the night on msnbc, there will be time when kfor will be on to something on the local level and with will just without ceremony go back to their coverage because their coverage has been on the spot. their coverage has been picked up for good reason as people try to get the best closingest look at what was happening. >> it is a mile wide debris cloud, a violent tornado, the only way you will guarantee you will survive is if you are out of the way, below ground, storm cellar or traffic. >> there it is, on the ground, easily. >> it's tracking right down 19th, approaching sang that fay.

we had to bail out because it was coming right south of us. >> you got to act, you can't think of delay, and you've got to act, and act to save your live and save your loved ones lives. you've got to act. >> right there on the backside of the warren theater and you have lowe's and that whole area right there, so if you're in that area, you have someone in that area, definitely get out of there, you can see those intense, very intense power flashes. >> we're dropping south. >> the whole warren theater area, i see a lot of very, very, very debris in the area that has plumed up in the past couple of minutes, no doubt there is tremendous destruction at that lowe kigs right now. >> that tornado is physically on the ground, just destroying powerfuls and everything in its way. that debris, it's 500, or 600

feet -- this thing hasn't decreased in size any and i'm actually kind of getting a little bit closer than i want to be right now. but this thing is suck us in at about 50 or 60-mile-per-hour right now. it actually looks like it's decreased a little bit. we have lost a lot of the debris, so it's kind of changed the shape of it. it's really fizzling out. i'm doing another turn here. 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. if you guys can see this, i don't know highway to explain this, how to describe it, this is terrible. this is war zone terrible. this school is completely gone. it is like you see completely destroyed, as kids run up to hopefully their loved uns.

but this whole area, guys, is -- it's completely destroyed. >> that's footage from over the course of this afternoon from the nbc affiliate kfor in oklahoma city. search and rescue efforts in moore, oklahoma are hampered tonight by the difficulty of rescuers getting through the debris, the massive amounts of debris. it's things like down powerfuls, first responders having to navigate all through that to get to the people who need rescuing, the death toll from the state medical examiner is 51 children. the number of people killed in this massive tornado is likely to rise. we have had reports since mid afternoon of oklahoma opts treating more than 120 injured patients, including about 70 kids, some of whose injuries are described as credit kl.

can ongoing stage of the search and rescue, it is too soon to say what the final casualty numbers are likely to look like. i'll tell you one note about some of these footage, in this hour we're going to be talking to some of the people that shot some of these video today. impact is being felt far beyond the city of moore. the tornado also knocked out the area's water treatment plant. that's the draper water treatment plant. residents are being told not to drink the tap water because of that water treatment system being offline. more possible tornadoes. the red cross says they're waited for the area to be deemed safe before they open shelters. what they have seen so far from the pictures, they expect to deploy all of the red cross vehicles that they have in that part of oklahoma and they may be

bringing in more from texas to supplement the resources available onscene. tonight the who is swhite house that the president has received updates from fema. and the president has-provide any assistance that oklahoma needs. nbc's janet shanlian is live on the ground in moore, oklahoma. janet, what can you tell us about the scene where you are tonight? >> rachel, what's happening here or what happened in moore is paralyzing everything near or around it. i want to show you the line here. just to get to the front of the line, to be denied entry into moore, it's about a two hour proposition to get from this local mall into on to the hall people are talking about two and three-hour commutes just to get to this point and then being turned away.

you talk about trying to communicate. the usage of cell phones has rendered them useless because you can't get a signal in or out, even texting is difficult. for the times when people needs these most, they're not able to use them. we're told that the phone companies are coming in and, but it's just the par ral size that's all around moore as people try to get home. some of these people actually live in the community and are being turned away. >> i was going to ask you who is trying to get in presumably it's people trying to help, and rescuers saying no we -- but it's also people who live in the region and want to get in and see their property and presumably check on what they own, what they know, and they're being turned away as well. >> reporter: it appears so,

earlier this morning authorities were hearing things on a case-by-case basis as the cars pulled up to the front of the line. now they're just turning them away. we have seen dozens of sheriff's troopers, ambulance, police, power companies, the only two vehicles i have seen come out are two planses about an hour and a half ago now with their sirens blairing at high speed and that was a hopeful sign for everyone here that maybe they had found some survivors that they were taking to oklahoma city hospital. but they're regulating access not just here, but at every kind of intersection and it's backed up all the way to the highway which is a couple of miles. >> janet shanlian, live from oklahoma for us. we'll check back again. thank you very much. >> i want to bring in oklahoma's lieutenant governor todd lamb, i'm so sorry for what your state is going through right now. >> it's terrific, the death toll

right now with 51 and i expect that to climb throughout the evening. we have got a little bit of daylight left, the search and rescue is on, and the entire community of moore oklahoma and part of oklahoma city, our eyes and hearts are there of course that right now we'll be focusing on one of those schools that was hit in the walls that have pancaked in on children and their bodies and rescue recovery effort's ongoing right now. >> lieutenant governor, in terms of that rescue scene, there's probably going to be rescue efforts all over the devastated region. we know this tornado hit over a large area, but focusing specifically on that elementary school, i'm presuming by the fact that they're not letting anybody else into the scene, that they have all the resources that they need, that they have what they need to help maximize the chances of getting any more kids out there alive. >> you're directing the equipment there, personnel, qualified trained personnel, as well as volunteer, the fire chief just made a public announcement, we have all the

volunteers we need on site, but specifically at the school and the canines are there, the volunteers are there and they're doing everything they can do to find children alive at this moment. >> in the terms of the ongoing public safety concerns, the rescue efforts that may be trying to get people who are trapped. but are there concerns like busted gas lines or power lines being down that may still be live, ongoing threats to life and limb on the ground? >> that's the balance of the challenge you have to strike right now, people want to look for loved ones, people want to check on their property, and people want to help, but the power lines are down, that voltage is hot, active. gas lines are exposed, they're leaking. some fires have just erupted since the tornadoes came through around 3:00 p.m. so it's still a dangerous scene. and to kind of put that into

further perspective, we're still in the thunderstorm watch in the oklahoma county area and there's three counties throughout the state of oklahoma that are on tornado warnings right now, so it's far from over. but the rescue/recovery effort will continue all throughout the night, it will not stop, the generators will be on, the lights will be on and we'll continue to through the evening and throughout the days to come. >> due to the size of the storm, we know that it's path was long, we know it was on the ground for about 45 mines. we know it was a very wide tornado. can you give us a rough estimate of how many people may have been affected? how many homes may have been destroyed? can you give us any sense it's we have seen. >> moore is a suburb of oklahoma city and it's all one large metropolitan area, roughly the estimated population of moore, oklahoma would be around 60, 65 to 75,000 individuals that have

6-a high schools to show you some of the size, but it's a larger metropolitan area, the tornadoes i'm sure you have heard this and covered this already, but the tornado at its base and height was two miles wide. so if you imagine a lawn mower blade that's two miles wide and it's just being lowered on schools, neighborhoods and lamar hospital was also hit, they had to evacuate all the patients and all the doctors, all the nurses, one young lady was in labor during that time, evacuating all those people down to the basement. it's a two-mile wide lawn mower blade wreaking havoc that's buy their neighborhoods look like they were built with toothpicks, it's just obliterated right now. >> just in terms of the way the nation has been focused on oklahoma, trying to get everything you need right now in responding, i have to ask you because i have you here, if

there's anything you feel like that's been put out today that is wrong or that is incorrect or that the national media that hasn't actually been helpful. is there anything you want to correct that you've been hearing today? >> i can't give an answer, the nation's been great. i was with governor fallon earlier when she was talking to her colleagues around the country, a lot of lieutenant governors around the country has called to our help. the governor's talked to the president, the governor made her formal request on behalf of the state of oklahoma with federal assistance from fema, that's going through the process right now, when you have that tragedy and this zeflgs of this magnitude it's all hands on deck and it's all the volunteer in oklahoma and the first responder training, we're doing all we can on the state level and that federal assistance the coming down the pike as we squeak. . >> i am greatful for you time,

if there's any word that you want to help you get out nationwide, we're at your service. >> we're talking to governor todd lam in oklahoma. what he said with all hands on deck, janet shanlian told us one of the things that's going on the ground is not just devastation, but it's people wanting to help that's becoming part of the stormy janet telling us that people are waiting in line hours in their vehicles trying to come in to help. and some people are just trying to get home, but a lot of people are trying to help. ♪

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the footage you see here is from earlier today, that shows the massive, massive tornado as it was on the ground in moore, oklahoma today. reports at the time it was

hitting that it was a mile wide. we just spoke with the lieutenant governor from the state of oklahoma that at times when it was on the grind it was two miles wide. which explains the two-mile wide swathe of oklahoma that essentially was churned into rubble today. this tornado was on the ground for 40 minutes. it caused devastation that we are only now beginning to comprehend, there are rescue efforts underway at an elementary school in moore, stay with us, we'll be right back. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel. delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. ♪ after all, what's the point of talking if you don't have something important to say? ♪

we also today saw some incredible foot anl, some incredible literally on the 2k3wr0u7bd footage from people just taking video themselves as citizen journalists and witnesses. among those these vine videos, vine videos are about six or seven second long looped

together videos. these vines which are just incredible that i think show the most alarming up close look of the what happened today. these were shot by oklahoma resident david massey. he posted these vine videos showing the destruction. this was right after the tornado hit in moore. these vine videos were shot about two miles from his own home. mr. matthew, thank you very much for joining us tonight. i really appreciate you being was. >> thank you for having me, rachel. >> where were you when you ni the tornado was coming and what did you decide to do once it hit? >> i was with my father at his house and the tornado was coming north and it was directly in our path and so we decided we were going to drive, and drive in order and when we were just leaving the home, we could see the tornado there in my first vine video and that's when it started to move east and went through the neighborhood and so

we were no longer in immediate danger of it comes towards us. >> in terms of the footage that you shot when you shot that footage, and you uploaded it, what were you hoping to convey? and do you think those videos sort of adequately conveyed the magnitude of what you saw. >> they show, you know, a small bit from just that neighborhood, the sheer amount of destruction that went on and how many people were affected by it. you know, what i wanted to do with that, i just wanted to share what was happening. i immediately went down there to the scene, you know, about ten to twenty minutes after the tornado moved to show what happened. >> i saw in the video you can see one woman running. it looks like she's running either to try to get help or to try to offer help. do you know anything more about her or what might have happened there? >> no, there were many people

running back and forth. some people were coming off work. i heard one man say, you know, i hope my home is still there. some women were running and crying because there was possibly their family members there. so, you know, a lot of people were coming and going and it was pandemonium with all the first responders trying to help everybody. >> you sound like a young man, i'm not going to try to guess your age, were you living in that same area when that huge tornado hit in 1999. >> in yes, i was living in the same home when the may 3 tornado happened. >> can you compare this at all to what that was like. >> when you saw the imimagines of destruction in the papers that day, it was massive. it was a similar path. this was the same neighborhood that was hit in the may 3rd tornado and completely devastated and now it's happened again. i'm not sure if it was the same

size or damage done, but it was very similar. >> dave massey, when you took that video and uploaded it, it helped a lot of people understand what it was like to be there, and you have generated a lot of nationwide empathy by showing us this video. david massey joining us from oklahoma city who shot these very moving short videos and put them online. sergeant knight from the oklahoma police department. nice to have you was. >> oh, thank you. >> what can you tell us about the ongoing search and rescue efforts tonight and how you expect those efforts to proceed? >> unfortunately, the death toll continues to climb, i don't know how high it is at this point, but i know we're continuing to find the deceased. obviously it's a massive tornado.

that came through, a devastatingly large tornado, lack of daylight isn't going to stop us, we can bring in light. but it's difficult to get into some of these places because the roads are so blocked, by the debris, by power lines or by cars that were thrown on to the roadway, it makes it difficult to get vehicle and equipment. we are still out searching for the injured and the trapped and get them the help they need. >> we were speaking to the lieutenant governor a moment ago about the prospect that people moving around in the affected region may put themselves in danger because of things like downed power lines and things like gas leaks s there an ongoing public safety issue? >> the biggest problem with people being out and about is that it's hindering the rescue efforts because people are going to be driving to these areas and

that only makes it harder to get through and the roads that are hard to get too already become congested with other traffic. most people have the best of intentions, they're drying to come and see what they can do to help these people. but unfortunately, that's a situation that we really don't need. we want them to stay out so we can get emergency crews in there to help these people. >> are there resources that you need that you don't have and is there anything that you would advise people can do to help, either locally watching us on the cable systems? >> i think that the red cross is going to probably need as much from the public as they can get because the red cross is going to have an awful lot of people to deal with that have been displaced and they're very good at getting their message out and how to give to them. as far as our resources, we have the large number of people. but the problem isn't the number

of rescuers we have, the problem is getting into the affected areas, so we're doing everything we can to clear the areas. >> this is sensitive to ask you about. but in terms of the elementary school, where we know that some kids who are deceased have been taken out of in terms of plas a towers elementary school. can you tell us anything about the challenge of the rescue and recover efforts there what may have been the cause of some of these deaths and the likelihood that many other kids in there may have been able to be rescued? >> i truly don't know the answer. i have seen the news reports saying that children were trapped in water underneath. but again that's not anything -- those are news reports that have been aired here. so i really can't give you a better answer than that. >> are you able to tell us if there's any other sites where there might be a large number of people still involved, in some sort of hospital setting or some sort of school setting or any

other large number, or any other place where a large number of people may be potentially rescuable? >> well there were two schools and that was the main focus because that's where there were so many children con greg gated. the main areas that was hit in this was homes, this was a suburb of oklahoma city, so you didn't have a thick concentration of businesses, you had a movie theater, a hospital, sequence stores, smaller plac s restaurants, but the majority is neighborhoods that were just flattened. . >> sergeant knight, i just want to reiterate what you said moments ago about people who may be within driving distance to the devastation, you're reiterating that they should not travel to the affected area, that that's actually hindering

the rescue area, we'll continue to help you get that message out tonight. is there anything else you would like us to help let people know about nationwide? >> actually you all are doing a very good job. this is a national, international story. so we appreciate you taking the time to get the message out for us. >> thank you, sir. sergeant gary knight of the oklahoma city police department. we'll have more reporting from the scene in moore, oklahoma, more shocking experiences thankings us for our attention in times like this which is the kind of thing that always gives you great perspective on the kindness and the decency of people in that part of the country. we'll be right back.

we thought we died because we were inside the cellar door, and it got louder. you see the latch coming undone

and we couldn't reach for it and it ripped open the door. and it just glass and debris started slamming on us. we thought we were dead, to be honest. >> this picture taken by the associated press, this is outside briarwood elementary school. you heard over the course of the day that there were two elementary schools that were in the direct path of the tornado, one called plaza towers elementary school, where rescue operations are still under way right now. the state police and the governor tells us that those rescue efforts will continue even as daylight ends in the region. this is briarwood elementary school. and these are teachers. can we go back to the photo for a second. these are teachers, both the male and female people in this picture leading kids away from

the school. they themselves are injured but calmly getting kids out there. i want to go live to briarwood elementary school. let's go to nbc's jay gray. jay, thank you very much for being was. jay, can you tell us where you are and what the scene is where you are? >> reporter: well, rachel, that school you were talking about is just over my shoulder, or more aptly was, you can look behind me and see the response teams that continue to pour into this neighborhood. that was the school, it has been completely wiped away here. i'm where south oklahoma city and moore come together. this is the path of the storm, where it came through. you can still smell the gas lines spraying that gas openly, downed power lines obviously. also broken water mains.

the infrastructure ruined here. we're also seeing some of the survivors, some of the people getting a chance to come in. take a look at what's happened here. stunned, wide eyed, can't comprehend what has happened here. and few of us can. it's been poignant to see some of the families come here and look out where the school used to be and to hear parents telling their kids your school's gone, and not being able to explain, none of us can, where it's gone, what's happened here. and remember, this is just the beginning of the recovery efforts here. we still haven't been into some of the most severe areas, what i'm hearing from first responders, and these are guys who have lived here all their lives, been through tornados all their lives, what they're saying is a few blocks down here, it's really unrecognizable, you can't comp helped what's happened here and these are from people who

have seen quite a lot here. >> one thing we have been able to confirm is the overall debt toll so far of 51, the state medical examiner is saying of the 51 killed, seven are elementary school kids from plaza tower elementary school. we heard earlier in the day that all the kids at briar wood elementary school miraculously were accounted for. is that your understanding of what happened at briar wood? >> reporter: it's exactly what we're hearing on the ground here just a block away from that school. i can tell you that the teams are still there and they're still working, but they say all of the -- what they tell me obviously they secureded themselves in hallways and in areas that were removed from the outside walls of the school. very emotional as you would expect. and talking about the idea that these kids, some of them had no idea what was going on, had no idea of the peril that was going on outside their school.

and really proud of the fact that they were able to secure those children and safely return them to their families. but again, a lot of that starting to unfold here. that's the great news. what we're hearing from that other school that you talk about, plaza tower, is that there are still students missing there and that mission has turned from rescue to recovery so. they're obviously still working there, rachel. >> nbc's jay gray. thank you so much, that was really helpful for us to understand what's going on there. jay gray is near briarwood elementary school. these are live shots of that area where we were just talking to jay, as you can see, power is out in this area, it doesn't look like it normally does in an aerial and those blinking lights that you see through the city are traffic and traffic and first responders and emergency vehicles on scene trying to do the best they can. we have heard reiterated that

you don't need to be out on the streets if you can avoid it. if you are in the area, and you are driving from moore, oklahoma and these other places that have been hit so far, they do not need you to be out on the streets offering help. they will be working through the night with rescue efforts, particularly at that plaza towers elementary school, they believe there may be people unaccounted for there, including kids. but they don't need people out and about and they're having a really hard time getting around in oklahoma city. at this late hour right now, it's 9:41 on the east coast. it's 8:41 local time in oklahoma ci city, to hear jay say, you can smell the gas lines still spraying the gas out into the air. you can see broken water mains, this is a live scene, this is not over. this is something where the rescue efforts and the efforts of first responders are still under way and there's very little that those of us who are

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this is a live aerial shot right now. night as now fallen in the oklahoma city area. this is moore oklahoma, this is plaza towers elementary school. 51 according to the state medical examiner. kfor, says of the 51 people killed, confirmed dead thus far, seven are children whose bodies were taken out of the plaza towers elementary school. that is where you see this rescue effort tonight. everybody we have spoken to involved in law enforcement and the state police saying this will go on through the night and they will bring in as much light as they need and they will work until they work anymore.

this is anne dee lee. she's in the control center of the state capitol. thank you very much for being with us. >> what can you tell us about the status of the emergency response effort at this hour and where it's centered? >> actually we still have tornado warnings in the state. in far eastern oklahoma, there's still a tornado warning that's going so this is by no means over. we had the mile-wide tornado that you mentioned in moore and we have so many people responding off the street to help that the fire department has asked for people to stay home. we just don't want to get in the way of the professionals who know how to search and rescue in the proper manner. >> we have an estimate of the fatalities, 51 deaths confirmed

by the state medical examiner. we know that 120 people have injures sufficient enough to be treated at this time. is there any sort of state wide or even local effort at times like this to try to account for those who might be missing, to know where rescue efforts right best be focused. >> i don't know tlif's any congregant esht to do that. but i know by facebook and other social networks are reporting people as they gain more information. there are shelters popping up all over. the red cross, the salvation army, the oklahoma baptist, i believe, missionary folks are working on bringing in food and water and shelter for anyone who needs it. and we're also having people

responding with their own bulldozers and things like that to get rid of debris so that's why we're trying to be as coordinated in this effort as we can. >> we have heard those warnings against people essentially self dispatching to help. is there any way that people can help? anything that people around the country or indeed people watching in oklahoma can do tonight to be of assistance? >> just before you went to break, i thought you said it perfectly, and that was that you can pray. but you can also give to the red cross, to the salvation army and to other charities that are doing something to give back to people. i think the worst thing you can do having my experience with the bombing that we had here is that dump off used clothing and things like that. the best thing that you can do is to give money to those charities because they will make sure that the resources that they have are then sent out in

the proper way. >> overnight as rescue efforts continue and as we head toward dawn and i imagine we'll be an even more devastating sense of how big this effort has gone. will efforts to respond and rescue people and to coordinate the overall response in terms of dealing with debris and all the rest of it, will that be coordinated from where you are at the state capitol. >> we will be coordinating the agencies, we are the headquarters for a lot of those places, but a lot of those places are also operating out in the field and have a staging area, but we are in constant communication with all of them. so we are doing our best to coordinate the efforts, but i would say it's definitely a joint effort. >> ann dee lee over at the department of emergency management. please think of us as a resource, if there is news that

you need to get out to a national audience, either to correct something that's misinforming people or just word that you need to get out, please think of us as a resource for whatever you need. >> what ms. lee just said there from the not donating stuff seems like a tangent to focus on stuff like that, when there's national attention and you see people that lost everything, over and over again we see efforts to try to get stuff sent to people, to try to collect things people might need that seems like might be helpful. it is almost never the case that physical piles of stuff will actually help. the logistical nightmare created by people around the country trying to think up what might be needed on site actually makes things worse. if you do want to contribute, things that you can give are generally needed are most of all money, secondarily, blood. contact your local red cross. we will be back. up.

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look at that. that right there is the main entrance into the hospital. all of those cars are wedged. it looks like a flood. it looks like a flood of water picked all of that up, shoved it right there in the v part of the hospital, that's the main entrance there, you're looking kind of towards the northwest. that's pretty much the track of the storm. >> seeing the cars piled up like toys outside the medical center in moore, oklahoma today. this is a live aerial shot you're looking at now of the

scene as rescue efforts continue. joining us now, dr. harold brooks, leads the modelling observation and analysis team at the national severe storms lab in norman, oklahoma. dr. brooks, thank you very much for being with us tonight. i appreciate your time. >> you're welcome. thank you for having me. >> obviously there have been very large storms, perhaps the fastest winds recorded on earth in storms that hit moore, oklahoma in the past. why is this area so prone to large storms like this? >> well, in general it is not that moore necessarily itself is so special but to this part of the country, gets more violent tornadoes than probably any place on the planet simply because the ingredients come together more often. get the warm moist air off the gulf of mexico and cold, dry air from over the rocky mountains, and that's the perfect ingredients to make violent tornadoes. >> we're used to thinking about tornado alley and that region of the country you're in being sort

of the home base for so many tornadoes that happen in a recurring way every year, but it is striking just to somebody outside the region to follow those paths and see large storms having followed almost exactly the same path through that specific part of oklahoma at least three times now. are you saying that's essentially just coincidence, could have happened anywhere else in tornado alley? >> well, if you think of it at the standpoint somewhere it would happen, has to be somewhere, just by random chance. if you look at it from the perspective of moore, it is extremely unfortunate, but it probably is, as far as we can tell from what we know about the data and our understanding of how tornadoes form, it probably is just an incredibly unfortunate coincidence. >> we're hearing, dr. brooks, including from the governor, that a lot of lives may have been saved by accurate forecasting, by the fact that the forecasts were essentially accurate, that people were told the storm was major and roughly

where it was going to be. do you feel like we are making good predictions, including for today's storm that they're accurate and well disseminated as best could be done? >> you never know if anything is as best can be done. certainly have made a lot of progress. you think back to may 3rd, 1999 tornado, one of the big differences this time around is that starting last week on the 15th, there were forecasts that high lined today as the day that in this part of the country there was likely to be significant tornadoes and that message has been carried forward since then with more precision as we have gone day to day down to the point to now we can give warnings on the day particularly involved with that one storm that 16 minutes before the tornado formed, by new castle, a warning was issued. that was 30, 40 minutes before it got to moore. >> an amazingly short period of time when you think of trying to save your life and your family's life but a long period of time

when you think about how little we used to know and how to predict where they were going. thank you for helping us understand it. >> you're welcome, rachel. >> be right back. it's monday.

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actually have blown me away. join today and find out why over 1 million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. in moore, oklahoma, a suburb of oklahoma city, the sun has set. authorities say search and rescue efforts will continue through the night in the wake of the massive tornado that ripped through the area this afternoon. the latest confirmed death toll from the state medical examiner is 51 people killed. that death toll is expected to climb. hospitals are treating more than 120 patients locally tonight, including about 70 kids. that's because two elementary schools in moore, oklahoma were among the structures that took a direct hit from the storm. first responders saying that all of the kids at one of the schools, briarwood elementary, all those kids have been accounted for. associated press sent out this photograph from a local newspaper photojournalist, showing teachers carrying away kids from briarwood.

you can see in the background the school obviously in ruins, but not completely leveled. the other school, plaza towers elementary, 75 students and staff reported to have been sheltering from the storm inside the building. that whole school was completely leveled by the storm. first responders looking through rubble, up to ten feet high. the nbc affiliate, kfor, reports bodies of seven kids recovered from what's left of the school. associated press is also sending out this photo of an adult staff member at plaza towers being rescued from the towers alive. we will have more. lawrence o'donnell has live coverage. msnbc will be live through the the night and into the morning. stay with us, please. residents of oklahoma awoke this morning to warnings that conditions were ripe today for some very severe weather, but nothing could have prepared them for what was to come. >> at least