strength that even structures designed to shelter in would be no match for the wrath of mother nature in the circumstance and sadly that appears to be the strength as we get the latest fatality many fingers crossed across the region and country that that number stays where it is tonight. msnbc's coverage continues right now. continuing coverage of the devastating tornado in moore, oklahoma. wi kfor in oklahoma city reporting the death stole is at 91. 20 of those killed were children. it's expected to climb unfortunately. at least 145 are injured. about 70 of those hurt are children. entire neighborhoods have been completely leveled and at least two schools were crushed. oklahoma governor mary fallin saying president obama has approved the state's request for disaster assistance for five

oklahoma counties hit hard by this week's deadly tornadoes. one of the buildings destroyed was a school. the plaza towers elementary school that we've been talking about throughout the afternoon and this morning was reduced to rubble. rescuers are searching through the debris all night. many people remain trapped in collapsed other buildings in that area with first responders looking at this moment for the trapped or injured in a wide area. but damaged and blocked roads as well as heavy traffic are hampering those rescue efforts as well as widespread power outages as can be imagined. let's take a listen really quickly to eyewitnesses as they describe the terrifying scene. >> we out we died because we were inside the cellar door, and it got louder and next thing you know, you see it coming undone and it ripped open the door and

it just -- glass and debris started slamming on us. we thought we were dead, to be honest. >> all right. we have another look at the tornado in moore here. this is time lapse video of the enormous tornado pulverizing the entire city. tearing through everything in its wake. homes, businesses, vegetation, everything as is typical in such widespread large tornadoes. everything in its wake in these pictures as you can see, although the shots are high up as a tornado hits the ground, getting wider, apex in diameter wider at the top and unfortunate will he getting larger and wider than a mile as some estimates have it as much as perhaps two. everything in its wake, there, gone leaving behind cars piled

up like match box cars as has been said before. everything just gone. this is what we're seeing last night. it was described as a giant black wall of destruction. and as i was saying at least a mile wide. ef-4 is what the initial estimations are of what was seen yesterday. almost exactly 12 hours ago this hour as we look at 3:03 local time and that ef-4 touching down. that monstrous tornado that this helicopter was getting a view of touching down right after 3:00 in the afternoon. we're getting some severe outbreak or, rather, weather projections for the rest of the day as they continue to go through some of the search and recovery efforts on the ground. and what we understand right now is that severe outbreak will

continue there in those areas, the storm system responsible for the severe thunderstorms that we saw all yesterday throughout the midwest and the plains since saturday, it moved slightly east and southeast on tuesday, that's what we're hearing. as they go throughy efforts, se thunderstorms are possible from the central great lakes southwest to central and east texas, they're watching that, tornadoes, damaging wind gusts and large hail are also possible in the area. so this could hamper what will be happening today as they look at the first sunrise some 15, 16 hours after that catastrophe happened there in moore, oklahoma and 24r0u9 tthroughout region. just the shear number of locations that are now without power range in the tens of thousands. some of the estimations that we were getting overnight, oklahoma

corporation commission reporting more than 61,000 outages related to the storm. og&e reporting 33,000. canadian valley electric cooperative reporting over 1,000. and that's just a partial list of what had happened after at least 20 children killed in the storm and they could see a change in that number. again the latest he we're getting from kfor our affiliate saying 91 were killed. so that is what we're seeing on the ground at the moment. and as we wait for the sun to rise, this is when rescue crews will have a different look of what has happened about 12 hours ago. there were some throughout the day rescue heros. those who had made a clear difference in the aftermath.

and as tornados happen, it's very sudden. if you've lived in the south and midwest, although it has often been told it happens all throughout the country, that is when we most on which hear the stories of the overnight tornado. let's take a listen to some of the eyewitnesses that also experienced and were able to see what had happened from hardball yesterday night. >> it was like a strong wind that was blowing towards our vehicle. we evacuated right before it hit our neighborhood and when we got on to the main road, it was so congested and chaotic, and when we looked behind us, we could see this huge wide tornado just right there in the middle of the road. i mean, it was like within a half a mile dare i say from us. so, yeah, i could see all the debris. there was a lot of debris. >> sir, could you feel the force of the wind or is it just something 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 trying to get away from it. they were telling me it was blowing the truck around real bad on the road and they were afraid they weren't going to make it away from it. >> i was afraid it was going to pick us up and suck us into the tornado. >> jennifer, are you able to reach your house now, can you go to where you live? >> no. we're about a mile and a half from it right now. we come within about a mile of it and they turned us around and told us to go back because of the gas leaks and the downed power lines. they said it would be quite a while before we could even get into our addition. >> were you living in the area

both of you back this '99 when this struck before? you first, todd. were you there? >> yes, i was off 59th and center road at the time. i got to watch that one go by. it was an unbelievable sight. nothing like that. >> that was what was seen last night as they were on hardball speaking with chris matthews on what they saw as an ef-4 had touched down. we're continuing to get some incredible pictures from the tornado. what had happened some 12 hours ago. i want to show you a clip from base hunters, a group of storm chasers that shot wiin the parkg lot of a sophomore high school. >> listen to it, you can hear it. listen. >> look at that collar cloud. >> listen to the roar. >> oh, my god. >> this is not good. please dear god, please keep these people safe.

lots of debris in the air. there's a whole roof that just came off. oh, my gosh. listen. car's coming. please dear god. listen. very large and deadly tornado. kevin, get the pictures, man. i'm getting the video. i've never heard a roar like that before. >> base hunters, some of the storm chaser video that they saw absolutely shocked by the size and magnitude of what they were seeing despite what they do every day. joining us now on the phone who is on the ground reporting throughout the night, chellie

mills. you've seen the damage first hand. we're thousand abonow about 12 it touched down. what does it look like? >> it is incredible the amount of damage. it is devastating to this town. the town of moore is a metro area here in oklahoma. and it is a large community. really a growing community down here in moore. and it's devastating to see what's happened. i can see homes destroyed. there a medical building that's destroyed. incredibly at the hospital nobody was injured, which is just an amazing thing here to imagine. if you could just see this building, the amount of damage. the death toll continues to climb. it's unbelievable here. i don't think anybody in oklahoma imagined that this was going to happen. we had a warning that we had three days of severe weather. our meteorologists were on top

of it. and then sunday we had a tornado. and then yesterday we were all kind of hoping that that was it, that it wouldn't really develop, but, man, they developed fast and it was so incredibly intense as it did develop. it's just amazing. as far as getting in to the town, i-35, the main interstate down from oklahoma city into moore, is now clear. it's open. people can drive. but as far as getting in to moore, they have all of the exits blocked off. they're check everybody making sure you're either a member of the media or that you have some form of horgs to be in tauthori the community. it's really dangerous. there are broken pieces of wood everywhere, sharp wood, nails, metal, all sorts of things, glass, just makes it an unsafe situation especially since it's so dark out here. i can only imagine once the sun begins to come up just what we'll see. really all we've been seeing tonight, there is a group of

emergency vehicles driving past me right now. we had some crews working on gas lines in a neighborhood close by where we are. just really a very eerie feeling. it's so dark. no power anywhere except that some lights that local businesses have been generous enough to donate to keep some of the businesses lit to make sure that nobody who is not supposed to be here gets in. >> chellie, give us a sense of what you're hearing on the ground there about those who are missing. earlier there was wide concern about the number of children and where they might be. >> we do know for sure that there were seven children in one of the schools, that those children did die. in fact what i'm told is that they were taking shelter, the storm came, it collapsed the school and that the children actually drowned, those seven children. their bodies were pulled out of the school yesterday, just a

devastating scene. we're told there possibly could be maybe another 20 children who died in that same school. we're just not sure on the numbers. we know that there are at least i believe it's 50 dead, but the medical examiner is saying as many as 90 deaths from this tornado. they're still waiting on some of those bodies to be taken to the medical examiner's office. and we are told at least 20 of those that they're waiting on are said to be children. so just a really devastating situation. heartbreaking. i'm a parent and i think anybody who is a parent or knows a child elementary school age, it breaks your heart. imagine what their parents are going through. they're in a staging area across town where a lot of those parents have gathered. there is a chaplain there and trying to make sure they do what they can to take care of those families and give them the information that they need to know, but also to take care of them. many of these families lost not

only their children, but their homes. >> the missing, what are search and rescue teams doing at the moment, how many do they hope to find? what's the latest on that? >> well, i know that they're going neighbor will hood to neighborhood checking -- about an hour ago, there was hope that they were finding somebody in a neighborhood low to where we were. turned out there was nobody there.to where we were. turned out there was nobody there. they checked that home. did not find anyone dead or alive. hopefully those people actually made it out of their home alive much earlier in the day yesterday. as far as the rescue goes, they are just going neighborhood to neighborhood. i believe the governor called out the national guard to help in this effort. so they're doing what they can. there are national guard nurses i'm told that were going door to door in the neighborhood right by we are making sure that there were not people in the home and

if there were, they were taking care of their medical needs. also getting them out of these neighbored hoods. while some of the homes may not be destroyed, really just staying here, it's not a safe situation because so many of the hopes are severely damaged. there were natural gas leaks making it a very dangerous situation. so they're trying to make sure that nobody is in this area. >> i want to bring in bill karins to give us a sense of some of the weather that will be heading your way. bill karins, nbc meteorologist who has been watching this for the last 12 hours. what are you seeing right now, bill? >> the severe threat is pretty much diminished and ended just about everywhere in the country. and i can talk about what happened this moore for hours. it was that historic. but unfortunately, today will be day five of severe weather outbreak once again. and now the situation actually looks a little worse with the new forecast out from the storm prediction center there. they're actually located in

norman, oklahoma which isn't that far from where the big tornado hit yesterday. so let me take you through it. we are watching the storms dying off this morning. just a little cluster in northern portions of indiana, southern michigan, and another little cluster crossing the mississippi and tennessee, indiana. but this is the story of the day. for your tuesday, severe weather once again areas of yellow, that will be slight risk of severe storms. mostly damaging wind and hail from memphis northwards. but it's this area in red that we're most concerned with, the possibility of additional tornados. this moderate risk of severe weather does include the dallas/ft. worth area to way company and up through tyler, shreveport, texarkana, and almost to little rock. it includes 9.5 million people at the risk of seeing tornadoes during the day today. that's a lot of population centers. of course the biggest being the dallas/ft. worth area. the timing of it looks to be very typical, it looks to be late afternoon. those storms will be forming in this general vicinity and the

possibility that our dallas station there, i'm sure they will have their helicopter up in the air. and if we get another tornado on the ground, we'll bring it to you live right here. and then from this point, the storms will be trekking in a northeasterly direction and again, the possibility of tornadoes into the early evening hours all through this area in red. so pretty incredible stuff. and here's how the history books are looking right now. these are the deadliest u.s. tornadoes, most of these all happened before the age of technology where we could get advanced warnings out. joplin one was amazing because it was the highest total since 1947. and joplin, we had 158 fatalities. we're hearing now right now officially 51 from moore. looking like that could go up almost to the triple digits which would put it in the top 20 all-time for fatalities from a tornado, from a single tornado in the u.s.. i know a lot of people down there in the southeast are saying when you had your event back in 2011, the birmingham, in total 320 people died. but that was from numerous

different tornadoes that wasn't from one single tornado like this one. and here just to show you the comparisons, you'll hear about this probably for the next week or two, the comparisons in moore, oklahoma, they were hit by two ef-4/ef-5 tornadoes. haven't gotten the official rating on the one that happened on your monday afternoon. but the green line there is the one from 1999, imagine that, an ef-5, only had ten going back the last 14 years and then below that is the one, the red line is the one that happened monday afternoon. they literally crisscrossed each other. one went through the northern portions of moore, the other went through the southern portions. they literally have had to rebuild all of moore oklahoma because of these two tornadoes. the odds are just astronomical against two tornadoes that a strong hitting it. probably like hitting the power ball twice. just crazy that it happened. >> all right. bill karins, thank you so much for the very latest. and of course we hope the best

as they go through what they have to today on the ground. back to chellie mills who is staying with us. how are they preparing for the day ahead there in moore as they continue the certainly and rescue based on these estimations what the weather will be? >> i think that we're all just hoping he's wrong honestly. i don't know that they can handle that right how. it's one of these things, i've been in oklahoma for a long time. i grew up here. i worked in the market for a long time. and it never ceases to amaze me the damage of a tornado. they rebuild, they stick together, they help one another. but right now, these people need help. and they don't need more storms. they really need to be able to get into their homes to save what they can. also to just begin it that process of rebuilding. and i believe it not only causes fear, but it just causes discouragement and it makes people wonder when am i going to be able to move on.

i don't want to just go through this every day. yesterday we were covering the sunday tornado, i talked to a lady who said how do i start over. where did i go. and i think a lot of the families here in moore are feeling that same way. where do you even begin. when everything you have is in a pile of rubble of what used to be your home, how do you even begin to clean that up. i mean, there are people who just need the basic needs of life. they don't have a tooth brush. they don't have clean underwear. they don't have clean socks. some of help went on their cellar in their sandals. i mean, things that we take for granted every day that i have shoes on my feet, that i have a dry blanket on my bed, that these people don't have that right now. >> right. chellie mills, you've done some great reporting for us from kfor. thank you very much. stay with us, we'll take a break, but on you coverage continues next with rachel maddow. ed

you're looking at a time

lapse video of the path of this tornado today in the suburbs of oklahoma city. it was on the ground for about 40 minutes in total. what they call ap echkaucall ans the most violent on the scales that we measure with now. this is time lapts, so it's sped up and you can see the on-ground devastation and the dire circumstances everybody trying to get out of its way.

there were about five of us that headed over this way. minor injuries, but we just started grabbing and throwing debris trying to get anybody out. and we successfully got people out. just not alive. >> footage from moore, oklahoma today. people coping with the immediate

aftermath of the storm literally pulling bodies out of the rubble after they were themselves were injured. joining us now is oklahoma's lieutenant governor, todd lamb. appreciate your time. >> you're welcome. >> do you have any further updates for us on search and rescue and the continuing efforts tonight? >> they do continue. and they will continue throughout the night. we have the generators out. lights are on. and the volunteer and first responders, trained medical professionals, firefighter, they're on the scene digging through the rubble. it is still a rescue effort right now. and some of the parents that have been looking for their children have found some of their children at schools and other locations. that's some good news. a silver lining in the clouds. but there are still parents looking for their kids at some of these schools that have not been found and that we'll continue to look for them and hope for the best throughout the evening. >> with so many homes -- such a

large residential area, with so many families affected, are you confident that there is enough temporary shelter shet up tonight for people to be able to get indoors? we know that more bad weather has hit tonight and may be further on the way. >> one thing oklahoma is good at, we're good at a lot of things, but it's factual, we're good at responding to tragedies like this, whether it's april 19th, the may 3rd tornado of 1999, 2003 tornado that struck this same area. we're good responding. and part of that response we have is being good with one another, setting the oklahoma standard, being the example and bringing neighbors in, setting up shelter. i hope i don't find out tomorrow morning that there was not enough shelter, but i don't believe we've ever had a disaster like this where communities have not responded, facilities and businesses have not responded, opened their door, treated the people, and i think we'll respond the same way

tonight. >> we have seen such a massive response from five and police and ambulance and other traditional first responders. we've also heard tonight the national guard has been called up to active duty, a couple hundred members. what will they be doing and why were they called up? >> i was with the governor early this afternoon when the governor made that request to get more boots on the ground. and national guards are good at the response, they're good at maintaining the integrity of venues and structure structures and providing any necessary assistance whatever that may be. first responders, cpr, triage, any assistance with law enforcement and personnel that are on the ground trying to conduct any activity. so the national guard is providing a great assistance to oklahoma and they're citizen soldiers, so many are from this

area and care a great deal about the neighbors and fellow citizens of oklahoma. >> we'll be speaking with the general in just a moment, so i'll look forward to hearing more detail about what those soldiers will be doing. the very sad news about the rising death toll at this point, state medical examiner saying it is 51 dead. they expect that number to rise. they are also giving us the further detail that they say 20 children are among those 51 confirmed dead. is that your understanding, do you have any further information about that? >> that information that you just shared is the most up-to-date information that we have. 51 dead, 20 children. and we do have at one of the triage hospitals in the oklahoma city area just north of moore probably about seven miles north, about 85 trauma patients right now, 60 of those are children. that's just one hospital report that i have. and we'll get more of those reports in throughout the night and have the updated information

first thing in the morning. >> just heartbreaking. thank you for helping us keep everybody informed, sir. and again if there is word that you want help getting out nationwide, i hope you let us help you. we feel like we need to do something. >> rachel, thank you very much. appreciate that. as we just discussed, 200 members of the national guard have been called up on active duty to do search and rescue, to provide perimeter security assistance, first responders who are in moore and surrounding area. i want to bring now into the conversation major general miles deering with the oklahoma national guard, the man in charge. general, thank you very much for your time tonight. we appreciate your time. >> my pleasure. >> what can you tell us about what you expect your national guard members to be doing through the night and in coming days now that you've been called up? >> well, certainly our first responsibility is to assist whether we can to first responders efforts in mitigating

the effects of the disaster. and i fully expect, first of all, that we'll be providing any kind of certainly and rescue that they need accomplished and assisting those first responders. as you well know, something like this goes on for many hours and sometimes days. and me need some relief and they need equipment and as well as our expertise to do this. and certainly the first responders that are emergency managers in oklahoma did an outstanding job. and then we provide the security for the area, keeping people safe, keeping people out of the disaster areas so they don't get hurt. and then position keeping the nefarious people out of there who would wish to do any looting. but haven't had any reports of that. but we support the first responders in their efforts. >> but to repeat on the issue of looting, there have been no reports of any looting in any of the affected areas? >> not that i'm aware of at this

time. >> i know search and rescue is something you and the oklahoma national guard train for. you described the skills and the equipment that you have for doing search and rescue and you'll be bringing that to bear on this crisis. you can tell us about the kind of equipment that that means and the kind of skills that your soldiers have? >> certainly. our cst teams are equipped to provide exactly that is the search and rescue. use an infrared. we also have the uh-72 helicopters in the areas. and from the air they can see infrared signals from the air. and then we just also provide the back breaking manpower to help the first responders and provide relief and assistance wherever we can for them. >> in terms of the infrared technology, i know -- i may be asking something that's too

specific for you to be able to advise me right now, but i'm curious as to how deeply into the rubble something like that infrared technology might be able to detect a heat source. is this the sort of thing where somebody would need to be not too deeply buried? we have ten feet of rubble in a lot of places that we're most worried about potentially finding survivors. >> absolutely. certainly part of those areas will have to be sifted through by hand. we won't be able to pick up any kind of heat signature from the ground. but those that aren't as deep and a little more shallow, we would be able to detect those. but if they're buried under smaller pieces of debris. >> i'm sorry to have to get to that nitty-gritty detail, but it is life and death at this point. thank you, circumstance and good luck to you. please stay in touch with us.

rescue efforts including those at that elementary school continue. stay with us. body wash can with more moisturizers than seven bottles of the leading body wash. with ultra moisture your body wash is anything but basic soft, smooth skin with olay.

i want to show you one piece of footage you may not have seen today. this was the scene today at briarwood elementary school in moore, oklahoma. just after the tornado passed through that area. >> all fifth graders right here. >> you see the adults there -- that man calling for all the fifth graders. the staff members of that school accounting for those kids. fortunately all of the kids at that school were accounted for. that is not the same truth at plaza towers elementary school across town. joining us now is bill karins. bill, thanks very much for being with us tonight. between to have you here. >> i can't imagine what those parents went through. just even those 60 minutes before they find out their kids were safe is something no participants should ever have to

go through. we're not done tonight. we haven't had a tornado reported in about three or four hour, but the weather pattern is still moving to the east. still getting into very juicy air and there is a new tornado watch that goes all the way until 5:00 a.m. for areas around indianapolis. we're literally talking right through the night the potential these storms could rock and roll. so let me take you through here and here is the big picture map. and you can see the storm now going from chicago all the way down through arkansas, finally those storms down there in texas have fizz fizzled out a little . indianapolis, the worst is to the north. further to the south, st. louis, you get the all clear. i know you have bad floor flooding north of town, but no threat of tornado for the rest of the night for you. those damaging winds are heading over across the border into areas of southern illinois and eventually toward the ohio river. further to the south, still have to watch the storms going through little rock.

i know you were on the edge of the moderate risk. but no signs of any tornadoes for you in it little rock. you'll probably just get gusty winds. as far as oklahoma goes, to the south of moore, we have a line of severe storms with lightning, but they're not sneak up towards moore public so at least for the rescue and recovery efforts there as they go this through the rubble trying to find people alive, the weather will cooperate throughout the evening. now let me take in you to tomorrow. this by the way was day four of our severe weather outbreak. we had 50 tornadoes before today, we added about another 16 today, so now we're up to 65 or so. we'll have another tornado outbreak tomorrow, probably a little bit smaller. i'm thinking not possibly the big monster one, but still even the weak ones can still take lives. the area of greatest concern is in red going from the dallas area to waco, that's where the storms will form and then they will move northeast, sounds familiar, just like this they have the last couple days up into areas of southern arkansas.

pine bluff to shreveport are the areas of concern. so the worst it looks like it's over wrks but still some risk. >> when we're describing this as potentially a historic storm, we're keeping in mind including back in 1999. do we yet know if it is appropriate to call this a storm of historic proportions? >> anytime you get an ef 4, ef 5, it's historic. an ef-5, it's super historic. we've only had nine or ten of them since that one in 1999 in moore. that's the crazy thing i keep thinking about. the possibility that we could have two ef-5s in moore, oklahoma of all places in 14 years. where we've onlied had nine others in the 13w50ir country over 14 years. odds are astronomical. so, yes, this will be historic. and if it wasn't for the joplin

one which was the most expensive ever, almost $3 billion about 158 lives lost there, if it wasn't for that one, we'd be saying i can't believe this happened. but we went through tuscaloosa and that whole event down there in alabama and thp entire event, 371 lives were lost in many different storms. so over the last two or three years, i don't want to say we're getting used to it, but more the norm. >> bill, thank you so much. appreciate having you here. our coverage of the ongoing rescue efforts in oklahoma continues in just a moment. hello. is this where we do that bundling thing? let's see what you got. rv -- covered. why would you pay for a hotel? i never do. motorcycles -- check. atv. i ride those. do you? no. boat. house. hello, dear. hello. hello. oh! check it -- [ loud r&b on car radio ]

i'm going on break! the more you bundle, the more you save. now, that's progressive.

in scientific terms when we take the measure of tornadoes like the one that just struck moore, oklahoma this afternoon, we use a scale created by this meteorologist. it's dr. ted fujita of the university of chicago in 1971, he created what became known as the fujita scale for tornadoes. so when you hear a tornado described as f-0 or f-1, the f stands for fujita. an f-5 is the largest with winds of more than 260 miles per hour, even 300 miles per hour and more. but the measurement is not just about wind speed. it's also about the damage caused. over time engineers and meteorologists using the fujita scale decided they could build a better system to account more accurately for different levels of damage to different types of

construction. so it was 2007 when they made a you new scale. the enhanced fujita scale. you still have the same categories from 0 to 5, but also factors in enhanced specific criteria for evaluating the damage down to the level of whether the tornado has struck a single wide mobile home or double wide or doctor's office. so you assign a specific degree p damage depending on whether it pushed in the doors or destroyed the wholt building. and judging by all of those factors and levels of debris determine how strong the tornado was. you used to hear tornadoes described as f-1, f-2. now they say ef-1. that means the enhanced fujita scale. and again, the bigger the number, the worse it is. 0 is better than 5. in the blunt phrasing of our national weather service, a storm with a rating of five is

a, quote, incredible tornado. it was the afternoon of may 3rd, 1999 when an f-5 tornado crossed into moore, oklahoma. you can see the devastation that tornado wrought when it hit 14 years ago. the mayor today was also the same mayor back then. he said today's storm followed much the same path as that huge one in 1999 and that everybody still just calls may 3rd. the 1999 may 3rd tornado was an f-5. winds at over 300 miles an hour. that may have generated the highest winds ever recorded on the face of the earth. that tornado in 1999 gnawed a path through town three quarters of a mile wide, killed 36 people across four counties. this map shows the path of that huge tornado that hit moore in 1999. that's the path in green. in 2003, there was another major tornado that took roughly the same path, the one marked in blue. and now today, today's storm following almost the exact same

path as the previous two. today's storm is marked this red. and that huge storm back this 99 kate, the f did-5 that hit moore, was the ninth storm caused by a single storm cell. that whole system killed 36 people.was the ninth storm caus single storm cell. that whole system killed 36 people. another dozen were killed in the same outbreak over the course of several days. and rtornados on which happe s outbreaks. 17 people were killed in tennessee alone. but the same '02 storm system also killed people this mississippi and alabama, as far north as ohio and pennsylvania. a few months later, may 2003, nobody died in that storm in moore, but that storm system killed more than 40 people across other multiple states. in april 2006, it was a string of f-3 tornados that ripped through the towns of new burn

and bradford, enstennessee. a huge long destructive grind. horn two dozen people killed on that one day. may 2007, greensburg, kansas lost 13 people and most of the buildings in town. essenti essentially the whole town was lost. february 2008 tornado outbreak, no individual tornado in that outbreak reached the maximum category of f-5r but still 57 people killed. outbreak that leveled much of tuscaloosa alabama in you 2011, one of the worst in history, several f-5 twisters, more than 320 people dead. just a massive event. and it was followed just a few weeks later in 2011 by the leveling of much of joplin, missouri by another f-5 and another 178 people killed. most of them in missouri, but also in kansas and arkansas and oklahoma.

last week tornados broke out in granbury, texas killing six people and destroying a neighborhood that had been built by habitat for humanity. they're still digging out in north texas. and now in oklahoma where the storms took life even yesterday and where the death toll tonight so far stands at 51 with the state medical examiner saying we should expect that 51 number to rise. they are searching through rubble in moore, oklahoma. searching and praying and preparing for what could be a very long night and a lot of very long days ahead. i want to bring into the conversation dr. brooks, he leads the modeling observation and analysis team at the national severe storms lab located in norman, oklahoma. good to have you with us. what should we know about the science behind forecasting tornadoes? are we getting any better at this over time? >> certainly we've improved a lot. if we think back to the may '99 tornadoes, back then we had sort of the first inklings that there would, severe tornadoes or

tornadoes two or three days in advance. and this time back on the 15th, so five days ago, we actually had the first forecast that mentioned the possibility of severe thunderstorms, maybe a tornado outbreak in this part of the country. and since that time, the statements have gotten more precise and have been highlighting more and more what would be happening. and at the close end, the ability to put out warnings has improved so much. before the first touchdown of the tornadoes, there was 16 minutes of lead time and by the time it actually got to moore, it was almost 40 minutes before it got it on most of moore. so our ability to forecast short term and long term has improved. >> are there things we cannot predict about these types of storms that we hope some day you'd like to? are there things we can't predict even as we've developed so much? >> we're not particularly good at being able to predict the intensity of tornadoes yet. to be able to say that for

instance this tornado out of this storm is going to be violent or weak. and that would be perhaps a great help in terms of being able to respond better and being able to just give people more options to know what they can do. and that will be a big challenge to get that figured out. so few tornadoes are extremely violent. so it's hard to forecast those precise events. >> do you think that -- you're in norman, oklahoma. you're in part of the country that is really frequently affected by these types of storms even if they're not all as big as this one today. do you feel like we as americans are making all the strides that we can ready to making storms like this more survivable? are there things that we could be doing in terms of the way we live, in terms of zoning and technology that could help more people survive more incidents like this? >> certainly technology can help us. for instance in my house, we did an addition on to the house several years ago and the wa

walk-in closet is a storm shelter. it has concrete walls. that that goes, that's an event we haven't seen before. so the technology exists. always a question of whether it's economically affordable. in the case of our addition, it added a couple thousand to the cost, but if i would have tried to retrofit the old house, it would cost a lot more money. >> dr. brooks, thanks for helping us understand it. appreciate it. [ female announcer ] love.

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there is a website maintained by the red cross called safe and well.org that you may want to check out tonight if you have a personal connection to the disaster in oklahoma city. if you have survived the storm, this is designed for you to easily register yourself as safe and well. anybody looking for you can use the searchable database to search for you by name. so it's a resource for people who are still looking for their loved ones. and for people who are in oklahoma who are okay to register themselves as such. again, safe and well.org. if you want to make a donation, call 1-800-red cross. if you want to text, text to the number 90999, just text that

number, word redcross and it will donate 10 bucks. if you want to make a donation to the regional food bank of oklahoma, that local number is 405-604-7111. or text 32333, just text the word food to that number and you can make a donation by text or you can visit their web side regional food bank.org. at a time like this, people in oklahoma who have been hit by this storm need as much support as possible and those of us who have not been hit by the storm need to make sure that our help is actually helping. our red cross. on everything from home repair to healthcare written by people just like you. if you want to save yourself time and avoid a hassle, go to angie's list. at angie's list, you'll find the right person to do the job you need. and you'll find the right person quickly and easily. i'm busy, busy, busy, busy. thank goodness for angie's list. from roofers to plumbers to dentists and more, angie's list -- reviews you can trust.

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night including at plaza towers elementary where students and staff were sheltering from the storm. kfor reporting the bodies of seven kids thus far have been recovered from that school site. msnbc's coverage of the aftermath of today's tornado continues now. tragedy in oklahoma. as a massive tornado carves a path through the town of moore south of oklahoma city, entire neighborhoods have been completely leveled. at least two schools were crushed. and the death toll is rising. many people remain trapped in collapsed structures across the area, but damaged and blocked roads as well as heavy traffic are hampering search efforts. good morning and welcome to a special edition of "first look." we're covering continuing breaking news out of central oklahoma where a massive tornado has killed dozens. that twister touched down just before 3:00 p.m. local time near