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 51 killed so far.

>> confirmed fatalities from the medical examiner in oklahoma. >> that number expected to rise. >> we are covering a historic tornado in oklahoma tonight. >> we have a tornado watch issued. >> tornado watch for several oklahoma counties. >> this one has hit moore, oklahoma. >> a huge swathe of tornado alley. >> people bracing for more bad weather there. >> this tornado was over one mile wide at its base. >> see the clouds certainly getting dark. >> the region remains on high alert. >> it was an f5 tornado. >> possibly the worst in history. >> total devastation here. >> hearing that i-35 is closed both directions. >> traffic as far as the eyes can see. >> be considerate. stay out so emergency vehicles can get through. this is msnbc's continuing coverage of the deadly, destructive tornado that ripped through moore, oklahoma today.

at least 51 deaths have been confirmed at this time. now that night has fallen, recovery efforts have slowed. this is plaza towers elementary school where authorities say at least seven children have died. our affiliate, kfor, says they could still uncover possibly 30 more bodies in the rubble of the school. this evening, volunteers in the area walked through parking lots, marking cars with orange spray paint to indicate whether bodies remained inside. the massive tornado is believed to be at least a mile wide, with winds topping 200 miles per hour. the worst of the damage encompassed an area 30 square miles. we know president obama has called oklahoma governor mary fall fallen. the governor spoke to the media earlier tonight. >> bring every single resource

out that we can. we had offers from other governors across the nation. even had a phone call from president obama who sends his prayers for the state. also offered to do anything that he can to speed up federal assistance and any type of red tape that might be in the way for resources, too. >> we are hearing stories from those covering the storm and those who survived it that are harrowing. >> this is definitely some of the worst damage i've ever seen in my life. especially when this is your hometown, this is where you're from. it's hard to see all of this, and these houses are just gone, the foundation, there's trees, there's nothing. it is bare ground, ripped the grass up even. >> we talked to some that rode it out in a storm shelter behind their house. they said it took three men to hold down the door to the storm shelter because the tornado was

that ferocious as it went over them. >> in these neighborhoods, easily without really count every home, we have 500 homes that i am circling over now that are not -- that are completely gone. i'm not saying damaged, i'm saying gone. all there is is foundations and driveways. >> all i remember is hitting my head and trying to get into the bathtub and it just -- i got picked up, threw down to the ground. all i can remember after i hit my head, i was landing on the dog and i could hear her whimpering. i cannot believe we actually survived this thing. i feel like i'm in a dream. that's all i can say. i just can't believe that it's actually happened. >> joining me through the hour, melissa rehberger who covered the may 3rd, 1999 tornado that hit this very same area of oklahoma killing 36 people then. melissa, that tornado went right through moore also. >> it did.

it followed almost the exact same path as the last one. and that was the worst weather event i have ever witnessed in my life and i'm very sorry to say this is much worse. >> joining me from moore, oklahoma, nbc news reporter janet shamlian. janet, what's the latest on the ground there? >> reporter: lawrence, obviously as we are nearing darkness or past darkness here, that is slowing recovery efforts. they're calling this a recovery operation now until the morning. what you're seeing here are roads that are leading into moore, and it is basically everything that is near or around moore has become paralyzed because traffic can't get in. they're keeping people out at this point. earlier today, they were talking to people to see if they were residents, making a decision whether they could go in. now the only vehicles that are allowed in because there's no power in there are emergency vehicles, police, fire, utility, and the only vehicles we have

seen come out are a couple of ambulances and that now has been several hours. and talking about the paralysis that gripped this area, at a time when people need them most, cell phones have really become unusable because -- not because the towers are out, but there's so much usage. so we're told that phone companies are bringing in extra support to assist with that. but right now it is kind of a crawl as people try to get into this area but are turned away, not able to get into their homes. back to you, lawrence. >> janet, we are looking at an aerial picture of the school right now where the search is continuing. have the authorities asked people to not travel in or out of the area? i guess we don't have janet. melissa, in a situation like this, obviously the traffic jam is something that is almost impossible to avoid. people need to get in there,

people need to get out. >> you know what, it makes perfect sense and yes, they have been asked not to drive that way. there was a traffic jam immediately, people wanted to rush home, check on their homes, god forbid they have children in those schools, and a lot of people rushed in because they want to help as well, and official help comes from different cities and counties on the way. you have all those people trying to get there. then you have people trying to get home. they're always told not to come but it is human nature, of course, people want to check on their property and want to check on their loved ones. >> janet, i think we have our connection back. can you hear us? >> reporter: yes, i've got you now, lawrence. >> janet, is there any chance that they're going to be able to get the traffic situation under control? are the authorities letting people know they need them to get out of these roads? >> reporter: i don't think so because this line, you see the four or five cars waiting here, it goes back hundreds of cars,

bumper-to-bumper for two miles, all the way to the highway, and it looks like this at every kind of entrance there is into moore, and there are several off of the highway. even the highway is clogged with people trying to exit and turn around. it is really a bottleneck here, and understandably, they don't have the manpower now, lawrence. supposedly 200 national guards people will be here in the morning to help with traffic control, but at this point it is more than they can handle. they're turning absolutely everyone away, and that word is not reaching people several miles back who are waiting an hour or two just to get to this point and then be turned down a different road. it is really a mess right now. >> janet, what is the scene around you like right now? is there organization to it yet? it is so early on. as i recall back to this moment 14 years ago, it really does take even official searchers

some time to get their organization ready. >> reporter: i have to tell you i am just outside of moore, so what i'm seeing here are people that are trying to get in who are asking us for news, who are asking us to use their cell phone. there's just not a lot of ability. i feel like the people that are outside of this area have more information than people here now. they're not able to use cell phones, the power is out, and it is a difficult situation. when we heard the death toll go up from 33 or 37 to 51, i mean, just people gathered around this service station where we were, there was kind of just a collective gasp, so it is just still, you know, that shock and awe of this tragedy as it unfolds by the minute. >> one of the reasons, janet, they don't want all those people coming in is there is so much danger lurking in the rubble. there are gas leaks, i am sure they turned off the power, so there aren't lines, but there are jagged pieces in the rubble

every place you turn. >> reporter: that's right. and to be honest, not everybody that's trying to get in there is a resident, some work there, some are trying to help, well meaning volunteers, but at this point the situation is just so chaotic that they're not prepared to handle anyone than people that are already in there. >> janet shamlian in moore, oklahoma, thank you very much for joining us. >> reporter: sure. >> joining me now, congressman tom cole that represents the district, including moore, oklahoma where he also lives. congressman cole, i know you're in washington tonight but are you having trouble getting through to your home? >> i was able to get through, it is kind of hit and miss. your reports are exactly right. there's heavy amount of cell traffic, none of the normal phone lines obviously are working, but i have been able to talk to my wife first and foremost, quite frankly and to local officials on the ground,

the president was kind enough to call tonight. things are under way. sadly they've got a lot of experience. it is the fourth time we've been hit in 15 years, and they're pretty tough, great first responders, terrific support from oklahoma national guard and initially federal government will play a key role as well, so we are getting there, but it is just devastating, lawrence, just awful. >> congressman cole, could you tell us about your conversation with the president tonight? >> i certainly can, he was very gracious to call. he obviously visited obviously with the governor, which is appropriate, and just wanted to call and express his sympathy, say i want you to know we went through what was being mobilized in terms of fema, nor com, said anything you need, call the white house, we will be there for you, and i know that to be true. i was a public official with frank keating during the oklahoma city bombing.

when you go through these things, you begin to figure out how lucky you are to be an american even in the midst of tragedy, extraordinary resources and capability of the country are immediately available in a situation like this. president wanted to make sure he knew it was my hometown, that that was going to be the case again. i didn't have any doubt, but it was very, very thoughtful of him to make the call. >> congressman cole, we are going to be joined by the mayor of moore. i want you two to be able to speak to make sure moore is getting everything it needs. we are joined now, we just had mayor glen lewis on the phone and just lost him. so much for the phone connections there. congressman, what is your sense of what is needed? >> first thing is what we don't need. that was mentioned earlier in your program, too.

we don't need people that are not trained first responders and not been called to the scene. really it is better if you're not there. you're going to get in the way. it is going to lengthen the amount of time in the search for survivors, so please, please, please, if you're not supposed to be there, not trained first responder, haven't been called, don't come. second, you know, i think we're going to have everything we need in terms of resources. again, sadly we're very experienced with this, so are the surrounding communities. so i'm pretty comfortable that people -- it is going to take time. this is an extraordinary event. even worse i think from what my friends tell me on the ground than 1999 was. so more damage. obviously more deaths. we lost more people already than we lost in '99 and most of them in moore. in 1999, that event was spread over a larger area, oklahoma city and that particular f5 was on the ground 80 miles.

this was on the ground for a much shorter period of time, less warning, and more concentrated fury, if you will. it will be a few days before we know whether it is f4 or 5. if you're in front of one of those, even if you do everything right, there's not a lot you can do if you're above ground. that's the tragedy in plaza towers. those teachers and children did exactly the right thing, they were safer in the school. much more secure environment, thick walls, interior hall ways, built to deal with tornadoes. the houses around where most of the children would come from, there's another elementary only a mile away, most of those children were very local, if anything more exposed. so again, teachers, administrators, the children did exactly the right thing, and it is still because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, there wasn't much could help them. it just breaks your heart. >> congressman cole, that's what feels so painful about the story is that these people were warned in the morning with the weather reports that things could get

very bad but unlike other conceivable weather situations, it seems impossible to guess what the best thing is to do. you're saying given everything we know the school is probably the better place to be rather than home, but as the luck of this turns out, it may turn out to be the opposite. >> it may. and you know, it's just so different than a hurricane. those things are awful. they cover a wide area. these are actually more damage but a much smaller area, so the odds are always that it is not going to hit you, even if it comes through your town that you'll probably be okay. and look at the one in '99 was 100 yards or so north of my house. this one is 300 yards to the south. no damage in our area. so you know, it will look like nothing happened. so it really is. there's an element of luck or

bad luck, misfortune, that's clearly what happened. after that, all you can do is prepare best you can. we were well prepared, warned as well as you could be warned. people take it seriously, know what to do. first responders, police, fire are terrific at this. i am comfortable things were done well and certainly the response has been good. you know, we were just a community in the wrong place at the wrong time. now obviously with dozens and dozens of people dead. >> congressman tom cole, thank you for joining us on this very difficult night for you and for your community. really appreciate you being with us. >> lawrence, thank you. thanks for covering my folks and my friends. >> we're going to continue to do that. thank you, congressman. breaking news coverage of the horrible devastation in moore, oklahoma will continue. we will have the latest on the ground and also what you can do to help. that's coming up. lets get the ball rolling. in communities like chicago

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in oklahoma at this hour, rescuers and volunteers are digging through homes and schools and other buildings destroyed by the tornado near oklahoma city. at least 51 people are now confirmed dead, including 7 children lost at plaza towers elementary school where rescue workers are still looking for about two dozen missing children, according to the lieutenant governor. officials at two hospitals say they're treating more than 120 patients, including about 70 children. the tornado that struck today was on the ground for about 20 miles. the national weather service confirms it was an ef4, which means it had winds of more than 200 miles per hour. weather channel meteorologist brian norcross says the tornado only lasted about 40 minutes, was at peak intensity for just

15 minutes. it hit peak intensity as it hit the town of moore, oklahoma, right when it his towers elementary school, it was at its peak. joining me now on the phone from moore, oklahoma, jill ashtaw, who lost her home in the deadly tornado. jill, where are you now? >> i am at a friend's house in norman. >> and what did you do as the tornado approached? >> my husband came in and said there's a lady across the street, kathy, was able to let us in our shelter. i grabbed my son from his crib, he had been sleeping, took off, he brought two of my dogs over, and sheila, the other neighbor with three little kids came in, and then my husband and two other dogs went into a neighbor's shelter. when we knew it was safe, he came over, asked if we were okay, said i was okay, said what

about the elementary school at the end of the street. at that point he looked up and took off. he is a national guardsman. he needed to do what he's supposed to do. >> jill, you were at the end of the street from the elementary school? >> yes. we're not even a block from briarwood. our street dead ends to briarwood elementary. >> i see. was there a moment of extreme intensity, could you feel a hit moment in that neighborhood? >> yes. there was a point where all this sludge was coming through the cracks, in the door to the part of the shelter, and at that point i thought the door had come open because we saw a lot of light. what happened, the garage had been ripped off the house, and the light was coming in from the cracks, and they had just put it in a year ago.

and at that point you could feel the bottom of it start to buckle. that's how strong it was. >> and jill, what would have happened if you had not left your home? >> i have a safe place we were going to go to, had two options in my house, one i thought would be safe was not the safest place. the place i was contemplating going to was standing, would have been better at that place, but luckily we have neighbors that were able to take us in, and we're extremely grateful to them. >> jill, we're glad you made the right move at the right time and are still with us. thank you very, very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you very much for having me on. >> we are joined by phone by glen lewis, the mayor of moore, oklahoma. can you hear me, mr. mayor?

>> yes, sir, i can. >> tell me what your needs are in moore right now. >> right now we need power. what we have is a lot of onlookers and stuff, we have a lot of volunteers. we're still going through debris, still looking for people, doing search and rescue. right now, the power service for the telephones are kind of intermittent, come and go. right now, we're still looking for victims. our heart goes out to families of the victims and all of those injured. still finding people in the rubble that are okay. we have some fatalities and we just are not real sure how many yet, so i can't confirm that. anyway, it is quite a mess. we have been through this before. i was mayor in the may 3rd tornado in '99, so we have been through this before. we have a really good team here

that can basically work through this. the town is basically a total debris field. it looks like it was bombed. most of our major businesses are still intact. two or three of the housing additions are in really bad shape, a couple of them are leveled as you've probably seen on news reports. the hospital is completely destroyed. we have like i said most businesses are up and running. a lot of the people, we had plenty of warning time, at least some people say we did. we had 15, 20 minutes warning time on this, and thanks to the media, a lot of people were saved in this, they took shelter. >> mayor lewis, i have one of your friends in the media, your old friend melissa rehberger who has a question for you. >> okay. >> mayor lewis, i was in your city on may 3rd, and i can't

believe it was there again and appears to be worse than the storm back then. give us an idea how, especially at night, you try to regroup and figure out who might have been at home at the time and who might still be in need of rescue tonight? >> right. before it got dark, we went through house by house throughout neighborhoods. the police and fire department have been excellent here. we have experience in this. i have been mayor for 19 years here. we have had four of these tornadoes. none of them as big as this. the may 3rd, the f5, this one will probably be f4, doesn't matter. it is very bad. we went door to door, had plenty of neighborhoods, city of norman, city of oklahoma city, a couple schools are in oklahoma city as well, and we had five schools hit and we're still

going through the rubble in one of the schools looking for survivors, hopefully will find some. >> tell us about that process. there were dogs out earlier. is there listening equipment? what sort of things are at your disposal to find people deeply buried? >> some of the best teams, dog teams that hunt for cadavers in major disasters in earthquakes and situations like that are based here in oklahoma and particularly in moore. oklahoma city has seven dogs at their disposal and we basically took them up on the offer, they've come in and are working the dogs at the school and at the hospital i believe. the briarwood school which was hit, all the students apparently are accounted for there. and like i said, five schools have been hit. sorry you may not be able to hear me. there's a medi flight leaving the station here. we're dealing with it.

think we will be able to overcome this. it is a matter of time. we have oklahoma resolve -- anyway, we will get it put back together. will take us awhile. everybody is coming together, neighbors are helping each other. i heard melissa, jill, whoever it was on the phone that you had on there, unfortunately i can't talk to her because communications now, everything -- i can only talk to out of state people unfortunately. we are having a hard time communicating. other than that, doing good. >> mr. mayor, thank you for joining us. glenn lewis, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. appreciate it. we will be back with more breaking news coverage of this horrible devastation in oklahoma. hey! [squeals] ♪ [ewh!] [baby crying]

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joining me by phone, the red

cross. can you tell us what resources are being brought to oklahoma? >> our hearts are with all of those effected in this devastating storm. we have shelters open in moore area and oklahoma city area, we are lee indicating other shelters. we are at sites where first responders are doing search and rescue and we're out with food and supplies, water, making sure those first responders are staying hydrated and healthy while out looking for people that are still not reported in. we also have our emergency response vehicles that are positioning to move first thing in the morning. what they'll be doing, they will be out with mobile feeding in support, sending kitchen trailers to make sure we have those operations to provide meals for people forced out of their homes. >> it is really extraordinary work that you do. i saw it myself here at the hurricane has hit new york and staten island. what would you say to people

around the country that would like to help in some way at this point? >> this is such a major disaster and so much devastation, and the red cross will be there for these people in the oklahoma communities for quite some time, so this will be a very expensive response and we would love to encourage people to make a donation to support the red cross response. you can do that by visiting redcross.org, dial 1-800-red cross, or text to make a donation. >> thank you for what you do. thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you for having us on. coming up, more on the deadly tornado and aftermath, including a live report from moore, oklahoma. ♪

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the tornado that ravaged moore, oklahoma touched down at 2:56 local time this afternoon. here is a look at the storm as it happened. >> you never want to say it, but we're going to say it right now, this is may 3rd all over again as far as the intensity of this tornado, where it is heading. and something has to change fast or it is going to be very close to a may 3rd event. never want to say that, but that's what we have now. it is shrouded in debris. >> this thing is huge. keep going left, travis, keep going left. right there, boom, there it is, mike, on the ground, easily -- might even be two of them, there

might be two. i'm showing two dark spots. i don't think the first one is rain. the back one is a tornado, definitely be in the tornado shelter, be aware, be underground, like mike said, just get out of there, this thing is on the ground, and continuing to track. >> folks, if you're listening to us, you need to be, talking about these areas, can't be in a closet. get away from it or below ground, storm cellar, basement, safe room. that's the only option. >> it was stepping at us, getting ready to turn south at south moore high school. you can see our video. it is absolutely massive. shredding everything in front of it. shooting out the side glass. tracking straight east down 19th street, track right over there where we was at. probably a quarter to half mile from it before we had to turn

around and bail. violent, violent motion. a huge debris cloud wrapped around it. it looks like it may be starting to lift more north now than east. >> i would venture to say looks like about an ef4, could be an ef5. be below ground, a bathroom or closet won't do it or get out of the way. storm cellar, safe room, below ground. do not 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 can't get below ground. >> moving east, northeast, getting more violent. i mean, it has no signs of weakening whatsoever. i mean, we're probably at least ef 4 status, as violent as this is. chunks of debris hundreds of

feet in the air, whole trees hundreds of feet in the air. i can't tell you what kind of neighborhood it is moving through, mike. we're just probably about a mile east of it now. maybe east, southeast of it. >> 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, an act, and act to save your life and saved your loved ones' lives. 3:15 in the afternoon. violent tornado going through south oklahoma city metro, in central moore right now, exactly at western avenue and santa fe avenue on 19th street. it is over those neighborhoods right now. and it is going for the warren theater and i-35. folks, you are literally out of time. you need to be where you are with your mobile device, watching us online in an area of substantial safety, below ground, storm cellar, basement,

car won't do it. interior closet or bathroom won't do it. >> inflow of this, feeder band has lowered, it is sucking in a lot of energy, sucking us in 47, 50 miles per hour an hour, it is pulling it right to us. this is on the ground grinding, ripping everything up, and it is definitely take caution to get in the tornado shelter now. if you're in that area, have somebody in that area, definitely get out of there. you can see the intense, very intense power flashes. we're starting to hear noise over the head set, mike, and the helicopter. there's definitely, this thing has a lot of energy, has not decreased any at all, as you can see from our shots. this is a monster. it is so big, it completely lost its texture, it is wrapped up in debris and wrapped up in rain, and this thing is grinding right through moore, just like it did, you know, in 1999. as you can see, it kind of

funnels out, has a big lowering, then you can almost make out a v shape on the bottom where that tornado is physically on the ground destroying power lines and everything in its way. you can see big power flashes there, it is continuing to track east, and mike, this is fixing to get in a bad area, because we're coming back into housing additions and more residential part of town. look at the power flash on the far right of the screen if you look in there, look at that. it is a way out there. the wind in front of this thing has to be just whipping. so this thing is definitely not to play with. look at the debris in the air. that is 5 or 600 feet in the air and going. it is still grinding, still on the ground. man, it is really ripping. this thing hasn't decreased in size any. i am actually closer than i want to be to it now. this is sucking us in 50 to 60

miles per hour now. i am tracking it. the inflow is still huge, sucking all of that energy, but still continuing, tracking straight east, lighting it up. becoming more of a barrel shaped. the wedge decreased a bit. it is slowly turning, almost looks like it turned to the southeast. i am breaking away from it fast as i can, it is getting closer for my comfort. definitely it changed shape, barreled, has gotten higher. basis 13 or 1400 feet above ground, 13, 1400 feet below me. has a definite cone shape. appears it turned to the southeast. looks like it decreased a little bit. lost a lot of the debris, so it changed the shape of it, gave it more of a barrel shape, not as much structure, so you can see the shape of the tornado now. the only thing it has to rip up now is trees. we're not getting all of the

construction debris that appears to give it a wider base than it is. it is continuing to rip. it kind of has a big truck down, then a funnel. it is fizzling out as we're seeing. going to do another turn, getting far away. looks like it is roping out and this is over like 149th street and maybe east side of depot road. there it is. it is gone. we will see if it recyclers else. it roped out. continuing to rope out as we speak now. it looks like it is roping out at air depot road and i am going to say 134th street, right in that area. man, look at the rope on that thing. >> melissa rehberger, you worked there in local news and were telling me the meteorologists there are treated like local heroes because that kind of reporting saves lives.

>> and they do save lives every single year by doing that very thing. as you watch that kind of coverage, you can see the truex perts in their fields just trying to keep up with what's happening on a moment's notice to figure out where it will land and who needs to get out. something that happened, most people don't have basements or shelters because of the soil. he was saying you would say get to the inner most area of the house. get to the bathtub, put the mattress over you. get underground, best thing to do. he said and people reported on this, they were told if you can't get underground today, get in your car, high tail as far from this as possible. they don't want you in your car. >> dangerous to be in a car. but in this case more dangerous to stay where you are. >> he realized it was desperate. recognized that storm for what it was, realized it was that desperate. he did something i have never seen any of them do before. >> a live report from the scene next, a video of the tornado.

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>> oh, my god. >> joining me from outside moore, oklahoma, nbc news correspondent jay gray. jay, thank you very much for joining us. we have 51 confirmed dead at this point. what more news do we expect to develop over the course of the night? >> reporter: lawrence, unfortunately we expect that number to go up over the course of this evening. in fact, we have been told by the oklahoma state medical examiner's office it could go up shortly as they continue to work through recovery in this area. take a look behind me, we are limited, it is so dark in this

area as to what we can show you. i am where moore and oklahoma city come together, right along the path of where the storm worked through. if melissa is there, maybe she can explain as well, there's an eery silence as the sun sets and darkness sets in. no lights, it is only interrupted, you hear it maybe now, by the roar of responders. we see emergency units move through the area. it will go on through the evening. we can smell, hear the fractured gas lines, have seen crews working on that. we know power lines are down across the region obviously. there's running water from a main that shattered. the infrastructure here is completely wrecked. if you can listen, they're urging people to get out of this area. we have seen a stream of city buses that have just come

through. they're loading up survivors and taking them to shelters and getting them out of the strike zone to be reunited with family members or friends. still a very active, very fluid situation here, lawrence. >> jay, this is melissa. you're absolutely right. where you're standing, maybe you can describe it for people at home, the tragedy of this, so much of oklahoma is rural. it hit one of the most well populated suburbs in the state, literally, in the state, just southeast of oklahoma city, you're right there. and it is home on top of home. it is a subdivision. it could not have chosen a more well populated area. >> reporter: no, you make a terrific point because anywhere else or most anywhere else in oklahoma it could have touched down and no one would have known, it is like the tree in the woods scenario, but it did attack an area that is heavily populated, and to come on this at first glance, we were one of the first teams in here, to see what was a neighborhood, what

was an elementary school a block away, completely wiped away, then to see parents bringing their children up, the children asking and parents saying it is gone, your school is gone, and trying to explain that, trying to wrap your head around that, and dealing with the devastation that's here, just unbearable for so many. really this is only just the beginning. these crews are just now moving into areas they haven't seen before. and that's going to continue through the night and into the morning. so the recovery effort here, the hope of finding those that may be pinned in debris or injured is something that's going to work through the evening tirelessly, obviously the officials have said. time is of the essence. they have to work on the infrastructure, get the power back, get the gas secure, and get the water so they can begin the recovery and clean up. but obviously that's going to

take a long time. look again. i don't think we can show enough to emphasize just how dramatic the situation is here. and this is not obviously the worst of it, guys. as we come back in here, understand we're going to see this parade of responders coming through as we continue to monitor things here. that's the latest live, back to you. >> jay gray, thank you very much for joining us tonight. our breaking news coverage of the tornado in oklahoma continues in a moment. meeting t a friend under water is something completely different. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours. to find out we filled this car with trash,

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joining me now, kelly wells, the spokesperson for norman regional health system in norman, oklahoma. kelly, what precautions did you take as you knew that this tornado was coming toward your hospitals? >> well, i tell you what, our

hospitals are about five miles apart. we have two on the southern in norman and one in norman medical center. we knew for awhile either one or all three had the potential to be in the tornado path. luckily the southernmost hospitals escaped damage and moore took a direct hit, but we had luckily in oklahoma, as you know we have a fair amount of warning time, lead time leading to this type of severe weather, as a health system we have procedures in place to move patients where they need to be, safest part of the hospital for a scenario like this was headed our way, this time it did, it happened. we took a direct hit in moore at moore medical center. had about 30 patients in the hospital at that time and our staff was able to move all the patients to first floor cafeteria in the center part of the facility and all of the staff was able tow get there and able to usher about 300 plus community members who showed up at the hospital to seek shelter from the storm.

they were able to get all those people into the inner most part of the facility during the storm when it passed over and amazingly that's one of the only areas in the facility that was still standing. >> kelly, when we think of all the people that know this is come and reactions, what they're going to do, choices they're going to make, people in hospital beds who are completely helpless who are at the mercy of your wisdom about what to do, what was their reaction like when the staff was coming around and urgently moving them? >> you know, i'm sure they were probably alarmed. i can imagine. but health care workers are amazing, resilient people that dedicate their lives to helping people and we have plans in place, we drill on plans. here in oklahoma, we drill on tornado damage like this a lot, frequently. so they know what to do. they know timed how long to get patients where they need to be

for protection. they were able to have enough warning to get them where they need to be and usher those that came in with no other place to go to safety. >> and kelly, there's pressure on the hospital system in the aftermath of the tornado with some unprecedented levels of injury. how are hospitals dealing with this? >> right now doing okay. our team has stepped up to the challenge and are treating people as fast as they come in. it is kind of a level of treating operation. we have people coming in with less significant injuries going through one part of the facility, those that are a step up go into another part of the facility in triaged areas. i think drilling has made a huge effect on that. we are seeing, we have two hospitals in norman, one on the east side, one on the west side of town. at those facilities, seen a total of close to 100 people that have come in seeking medical treatment. >> kelly wells with norman

regional health system, thank you very much for joining us tonight, telling your story and thank you for the work you continue to do there. >> you're welcome, thanks. >> melissa rehberger, thanks for joining me on this special coverage. coverage. live coverage continues now with chris hayes. >> thank you for joining us. as we continue our coverage of the devastating tornado in moore, oklahoma. a tornado described today as possibly the worst in recorded history. according to the oklahoma medical examiner, fatalities have now reached 51 and it is expected, grimly, to rise. the funnel that grew to at least a mile wide with winds up to 200 miles an hour wreaking destruction along a 20-mile