we had to walk over piles of like -- >> rubble. >> and everything. and it was pretty scary. everybody was rushing everybody. and then i came out and i saw the cars and i saw the houses a started crying so hard. >> you are never ever going to go through this again. >> we had to sit like this. and the tornado started knocking all the ceiling going up and down and a light went down and hit me in the head. and all the other girls were screaming and they were crying. >> i had to hold on to the wall to keep myself safe because i didn't want to fly away in the tornado. >> it was coming and it was hitting and everybody said put your head down, put your head down, but some people got hurt, but we made it alive. >> we had to pull a car out of the front hallway off a teacher and she -- i don't know what that lady's name is but she had

three little kids underneath her. good job, teach. it ripped our house up. i've got a little girl buried in there. i've got to go. >> the sun will rise here in moore, oklahoma, in just over an hour from now. and the images that will come to light will be among the most horrifying in recent memory. about 14 hours ago, this community was ravaged by a massive tornado. the pictures are staggering. a twister one mile wide tore through this suburb of oklahoma city with winds of up to 200 miles per hour. it crushed entire neighborhoods, destroyed the local hospital and leveled an elementary school where kids were trapped under the rubble. as of right now, at least 51 people are confirmed killed, 20 of them are children. the number of injured has topped 145. and with more people missing, officials warn those tolls could rise.

entire blocks were wiped out as the storm cut through the landscape. rated an ef-4, it stayed on the ground for as long as 40 minutes. joe and i are here in moore, oklahoma, where first responders have been working through the night and the national guard is now deployed picking through the rubble. joining us on the scene, we have chris jansing and also in new york, we have brian shactman and melissa rayberger who was a reporter in oklahoma city for quite some time. but heren o the scene -- >> there are really no words. i went over across the gulf coast after katrina. obviously i had my son and a lot of loved ones in tuscaloosa. for those that survived tuscaloosa, actually rode through tuscaloosa and are here with us now, they say that storm that was just a few years ago called the worst in recent american history doesn't even compare to what we see here. the scenery, you see the

overheads, the aerials, it is hard to explain this morning as we're about an hour or so away from the sun rising, just how devastated this community is. the scene behind us is like -- it's like from a post apocalypse movie. with entire buildings wiped out. trees stripped, but across the street, chris jansing, and you've been through it, the medical center. absolutely devastated. this is a major medical center, a rehab center, breast cancer treatment center, renowned and next to it a nursery school. >> it's almost hard to exaggerate the horror and the breadth of what we're seeing here. they have not had a chance to go into the medical center yet. they have gone next door. there was a day care center and

they did find survivors who apparently were huddled under mattresses. this entire neighborhood and we drove back there, blocks and blocks and blocks. >> it goes on and on. >> absolutely wiped out a few hours ago, ten ambulances rushing in that direction. so obviously this is a race against the clock right now. >> and you look behind at this buildings. these are buildings that have been searched, right, chris? >> these have been searched. they did find some survivors. what we don't know because obviously they haven't moved the rubble is whether or not anyone died in these buildings. >> and, again, you have it city block after city block, one block away. we've got a guy that spent the night in his -- in a tent outside of his house because everything that he has is gone like so many other people. and the randomness, mika, the randomness of tornadoes is usually what's so horrifying. because you can have, we grew up seeing, i remember in ohio growing up seeing one side of a

street completely wiped out. and the other side intact. that's not this story. >> no. >> this was so wide and so devastating that everything in its path. a mile wide just torn to shreds. >> and what we have happening right now as we're dealing with potentially tough weather coming in, some thunderstorms are expected, we actually may be moved, but police, first responders, and the national guard are trying to cordon off massive sections of the town. the school, different areas which they've already gone through that are literally graveyards at this point and still hoping for survivors. but when you look at these buildings, drive block after block after block, it's sort of impossible to believe that anybody could make it. >> well, they obviously can make it because these are people that have grown up in an area that have been hit time and again by these devastating storms. so if anybody's going to survive, it's going to be people that have grown up and have grown up with a fear but also the knowledge of how you're

supposed to ride out the storm that's worked in many cases. we've heard over the past 12 to 14 hours and others, of course, tragically has not. chris, really quickly, we've got tom cole, a congressman from this area. it's his home, he grew up in moore. before we get there, just for viewers that are watching and they see, it always seems like this natural disaster is declared the very worst. and we've heard it time and time again, but like myself, you went to those cities along the gulf coast. and as i came in here, i could only think of waveland where we reported from and also where we went the thanksgiving after, and there still wasn't a building standing. is it not safe to say this is comparable to the worst of what you saw in katrina and any other storm? >> it is absolutely what i thought when we first drove into the area that has been flattened. i thought the analogy is

completely apt. you just -- cars piled up, we heard stories of entire buildings and horses being thrown into the air. and the other sad and actually heartbreaking analogy i would make, joe and mika, we're just a mile from that elementary school. and the vision of a man standing out there with a megaphone and reading the names of children who survived and the parents waiting to hear if their children's name was on that list is almost unbearable. and so reminiscent of newtown. >> and the parents coming up, the parents coming up in a panic and being moved over to a church until they get more information. that information coming in painfully slow because of all of the rubble. >> do we have the representative on the phone, guys? >> yes. >> representative tom cole joins us. this is his district.

>> you grew up here, obviously -- >> less than a mile from where you're standing. my parents are buried and my grandparents much closer than that. yeah, that's home for over 50 years. >> and, tom, obviously you know coming from moore just how devastating these tornadoes can be. but obviously this has to surpass your worst nightmare. >> it really is. joe, i never thought i'd see anything worse than what i saw in '99. this is our fourth really in 15 years from '98, '99, 2003 and now this. it's just even worse in terms of the loss of life, obviously. we've got a high number now. i've been talking to friends and family and officials on the ground, that number's going to get worse. and the devastation is just, you know, unbelievable. so it's -- >> what are you hearing from

officials on the ground and from fema? what have they told you is the official death toll right now? >> the official still 51, and i've learned never to go beyond that, but it is going to go higher. these numbers never come down, they only go one direction. >> yeah. >> they're being very careful. we've sadly dealt with these kind of things before. and so let's leave it at that right now and hope for the best. but it's not going to be good. >> we are across the street from the medical center as you know, and, of course, it's hard to figure out what we're looking at here because as we drove in and looked at it, i told mika this looks like a scene out of the war in syria. it's just the building is completely ripped to shreds. tell us what we're looking at here. it's a massive structure. >> it really is just -- >> what was in there?

>> relatively new hospital. it was a branch, built as an independence now a branch of the norman regional hospital. a long time without one so we were very proud to have it. and it just -- we were very fortunate there. all the patients and all the medical people got out and you look at the building and kind of wonder how in the world that happened. but, again, you can just go -- it's like 50 yards p behind where you're standing on the other side of the street. and it's just a town full of really hardworking good people. and they know about these things. they take warnings seriously. we've got great first responders. and wonderful supports in the surrounding community. people did everything right here. it's like just -- from plaza tower, that's just, my god. >> tell us about -- tell us quickly about the school. tell us about plaza tower, the

school. >> the school was built in the 1960s, actually, when i was a kid, it was a polling place. i've been there a million times, used to look up precinct numbers for my mother who was a mayor and state house member from there. and used to do the grounds keeping when i was a kid putting myself through college. it's a densely packed neighborhood. a lot of wonderful people. not a high-income area, it's just hardworking, average americans. school was honestly the best place for those kids to be in that square mile area. it's the strongest structure, reinforced interior walls and you're in the hallways and i'm sure the decision was made, you know, because some of the kids were sent home. but at a certain point, you quit doing that. and their parents would've thought this was the best place for them to be. people did the right thing, but if you're in front of an f-4, f-5, there is no good thing to

do if you're aboveground. and, you know, it's just tragic. >> all right. congressman, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> and obviously our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. certainly your wife who is here. and we'll see you later on today. >> we're watching all sorts -- >> means a great deal. thank you. >> thank you, tom. >> thank you, tom. we're now -- we're now taking a look, mika, over at the medical center. >> yeah. and lots of different pieces of equipment are being brought in. but as you can see, i don't know where they're going to begin trying to get in there. i saw somebody deep inside the building there with a flashlight looking around. but this is just one scene out of hundreds. building after building, house after house completely decimated here in moore, oklahoma. where the hope is they can find some signs of life inside. and the worry is the death toll which now stands at 51 will rise greatly.

so we have a sense now of what went down late yesterday and how quickly it all hit. here's sort of a tick-tock, a chain of events put together by kfor. >> it is a mile wide debris cloud, it is a mile-wide wedge, violent tornado. the only way you're going to guarantee you will survive is if you are out of the way, below ground, storm cellar or basement. >> this thing is huge. keep going left, travis. keep going left. right there, boom, there it is. there it is, mike. on the ground easily. >> right down 19th approaching santa fe. we had to bail out of it because it was coming right at us and we're getting ready to turn south here at moore, south moore high school. >> you can't think or delay, you've got to act and act to save your life and save your loved ones' lives. you've got to act. >> right there on the backside of the warren theater and you have, you know, lowe's and that whole area. if you're in that area, you have

somebody in that area, get out of there. you can see those intense power flashes. >> go emily. >> mike, mike, we're about to go in the path of this tornado. maj major, major wedge on the ground. >> i see a lot of heavy, heavy debris in the air. it has plumed up in the past couple of minutes from all the shopping areas at the warren theater. no doubt, there is tremendous destruction at that location right now. >> that tornado is physically on the ground just destroying power lines and everything in its way. big power flashes right there. look at that debris in the air. that debris, it's 500 to 600 feet up in the air and it's going. still on the ground. >> as you can see, this thing hasn't decreased in size any. i'm actually kind of getting closer than i want to be to it right now. this thing is sucking us in at 50 to 60 miles an hour right now. actually looks like it's decreased a little bit. we've lost, i think, a lot of the debris. so it changed the shape of it.

it's really fizzling out as we're seeing. i'm going to do another turn here, getting far away. but looks like it's roping out a little bit and this is over like 149th street and maybe just the east side of the road. there it is, it's gone, mike. if you guys can see this, i don't know how to explain it, how to describe it, this is -- this is terrible. this is war zone terrible. this school is completely gone. it is like you see completely destroyed as kids run up to hopefully their loved ones. but this whole area right here, guys, is -- it's completely destroyed. >> and so here we are the next morning, the sun hasn't even come up. daylight will reveal the devastation once again. we're going to be talking to bill karins in just a moment because we've got some severe weather coming in right now, which will make the recovery

effort even more difficult. but, chris, you were talking about the patients inside the hospital here that we're standing next to. just one scene among many about the difficulty trying to deal with trying to escape this incredible, incredible weather event. >> and just the difficulty of tracking who is where as people are looking for their loved ones. the latest numbers we have, joe and mika, 145 people hospitalized, 70 of them children. everything from crushed bones, as you can imagine as they were pulled out from these collapsed buildings to deep wounds and one of the big concerns, and one of the reasons so many people are hospitalized that when you have winds of this magnitude, everything becomes a weapon, a flying projectile, and obviously, continuing concerns about the weather. >> exactly what happened behind us. >> no doubt about it. and this story has been retold thousands and thousands and thousands of times around moore. let's go to bill karins. behind us you may have been

seeing a lightning show. we saw it coming down as we flew down. >> i feel it coming. >> we flew down along that violent line of thunderstorms going up the east coast as we rushed out of new york yesterday to get here. and we're seeing it again. south of us, we understand, more bad weather coming this way. >> yeah, you're not going to get tornadoes or anything like that, but it is going to pour and that could hamper the relief efforts. if it's enough lightning, you know, the rescue crew will have to go to their own trucks. hopefully it'll die off a little bit, probably definitely going to rain in your area, but we don't want the lightning, we want these crews to continue. especially, we're getting close today break, that's when they can go back to get a better view and see everything. what we're dealing with here. first things first, on this map, to the right-hand side of your screen. that's the medical center where joe and mika and chris jansing are standing this morning. that is what is pretty much destroyed. the path of the storm, the northern edge of the destruction is the gray line, the bottom

half here is the southern portion of the destruction. literally all of the houses in here, this, folks, is all gone. there's none of that remaining. that is all what has been destroyed. that is literally about 1/2 mile wide through that region. now, as we jump interstate 35 to the other side of moore, oklahoma, these other elementary schools were hit too. apple creek elementary school also highland east junior high school. there was a shopping center up here. had a bunch of pharmacies, cvs, walgreen's, lowe's, that was on the northern edge, and a lot of this devastated too throughout the region. thankfully, the students were safe in those schools in those areas. it was just a helpless situation as the storm rolled on through. now, the radar, joe is talking about this. you can see at the top of the show, some of the flashes of lightning, little white streaks you see on the map here are the lightning strikes. i have more highlighted right in here. they're dry for the time being. but this little cluster of storms, looks like it's going to

move up there probably in half an hour, 20 minutes minimum, doesn't look like it's going to pour too long on the area, but may hamper the relief efforts for a short period of time. i want to take you through the amazing chopper shots we had yesterday lasted for about 20 minutes. this is time lapse video. watch the twister evolve. it started off pretty narrow. and then right about there, it blew up. it became much wider rapidly, live on tv across the country. and then it just literally for at least about 15, 20 minutes stayed about 1/2 mile wide and just raked the entire terrain. and, you know, it happened at peak and intensity right as it hit the populated areas of moore, oklahoma. and then as it went by moore, oklahoma, it started going to more rural areas. and just like that, began to rope out, we call it, much more narrow, the base of the cloud started lifting a little bit and then began to exit. you can see the power flashes

there in the time lapse in the bottom of your screen there as it went through some of the populated areas there in moore, oklahoma. really incredible stuff. so, again, the last thing i've got to leave you guys with is we're not done yet. we expect another chance of tornadoes today, joe and mika. this time further to the south, you guys are going to be okay, safe there in moore this afternoon. but from dallas-ft. worth to little rock to shreveport, almost 10 million people that are in a moderate risk of severe weather today, including a chance of tornadoes. i expect at least another 12 to 24 tornadoes this afternoon and you don't know. may stay over the rural areas or we may get them over populated areas once again. but could be another deadly situation late this afternoon. this will be five days in a row of this. >> it sounds like another possibly deadly day. thank you, bill karins, we appreciate the information and the update. we're going to be talking to the mayor of moore coming up. also, governor fallon will be here, as well. and continuing coverage of the

devastation in moore and the surrounding areas. this is, again, unlike anything i've seen. >> it's epic. we'll be right back with much more straight ahead. [ jennifer garner ] why can't powerful sunscreen feel great? actually it can. neutrogena® ultra sheer. its superior uva uvb protection helps prevent early skin aging and skin cancer, all with the cleanest feel. it's the best for your skin. neutrogena® ultra sheer.

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i love you booking.com booking.yeah! this is a neighborhood that has well-built homes. these are brick homes, framed homes. and so the problem with this is that we've got, you know, search and rescue here, city of oklahoma city that has to go through house by house by house and see if they can find any survivors and see if they can find any bodies. this is going to be a grim scene. this is the driveway, this home does not exist anymore. in fact, there's a car on top of the home. there's a beam that came a couple of blocks away from a school over there. but i want your to look down in here. this is their storm shelter. they jammed six people down in there, had their animals down in there and made it out okay. i mean, stunning. you had to be underground in order to, you know, survive this tornado.

>> all right, back live in moore, oklahoma. that was reporter mike bettes from the weather channel giving a sense of what has happened here. it's really hard to put into words. >> it is. >> even with the pictures that go with the words. because when you stand here and look around, it's -- it's as if it was the day after. >> thomas roberts is here with us. he brought over the front page of the "oklahoman." worse than may 3rd. there's also another cover here in addition that was just brought to us. >> i actually remember this picture, i was going through it on the internet last night. these are two women that survived but their homes did not. >> thomas tells me the mayor who was a mayor in 1999, which for years we heard all day yesterday that around these parts may 3rd, 1999 -- >> that was their day. >> just one person, of course, echoed the fdr quote, pearl

harbor. around here, that was the day that lived in infamy. so when you see the headline that says worse than may 3rd, you know how horrific it was. >> and that's what everyone was saying who lived through this. that nothing compared to even that tornado and that epic weather event back then. let's go back to new york. brian shactman is standing by with melissa rayberger with fairly good insight into this area being a reporter here. >> be safe, guys, i see that lightning right behind you. we'll get back to you in a minute. melissa, you were an anchor in oklahoma city back in 1999. >> that's right. >> when you see these images, give us a sense of how they compare. by the way, these are images not of yesterday, you're looking at 1999 right there. >> honestly, i'm just so amazed by it. it's so surreal. when you live through may 3rd, 1999, it was just impossible to

believe that mother nature could be this powerful and this furious. i went to report on it right where everybody's standing right now and i just would look around in awe. you would expect to see a roof torn off and lopped over, you don't expect to see things that don't resemble whatsoever what they were before. you have no idea if the debris on one foundation came from the house that once stood on that foundation. everything is broken up into tiny little pieces and it's very, very dangerous for the people who are making these rescue efforts, by the way. >> what was the lead time back then in terms of warning? and getting people out? >> here's the thing about warning. there is plenty of warning about the conditions that cause a tornado. they can tell that today is right for tornadoes. they can't tell when it's going to happen, where, or how big. this area is obviously very used to dealing with tornadoes. but in these rashes you often get an ef-1, two, three where

it's okay when your time comes to ride it out in the coat closet and close the door, not so with an ef-4 or an ef-5 when everything is ripped to pieces and strewn for miles. >> you know, bill karins talks about a lot of these homes don't have basements. we saw that one shelter, how many of these homes are equipped with that kind of safety dynamic where they can find that kind of shelter if they have to? >> well, here's an interesting fact about 1999, it struck down the road before it hit moore. that was a much older town that was built of solid brick and they usually, most of them had storm cellars. that town was decimated about 95% destroyed. no one died because they had shelters to go into underground. it moved up the road and went through moore. moore is a newer city. and they're not built with basements and here's why. when you look at the funnel cloud, you can see in many of these pictures an explosion of red at the bottom. that red is the natural red clay that is covered all over

oklahoma and parts of texas. red clay is a very difficult soil to work with. you know, you have to drill into it, it crumbles easily, it absorbs and loses water very, very quickly. it shrinks and then it swells. so it's very difficult to dig into that and have it work as a foundation because it breaks apart. it's just not stable. it's not good enough to hold your foundation together. that's why they don't have basements. >> melissa rayberger will be with us, of course, throughout the "morning joe." and at 10:00 a.m. eastern time this morning, the president will address the situation on the moore, oklahoma, tornado which, of course, is deadly right now confirmed 51 dead, but we do expect that number to rise. again, 10:00 a.m. eastern time, we will hear from the president on this story. coming up on "morning joe," james langford of oklahoma joins us live. and willie geist will be on hand with joe and mika. we'll be right back. at angie's list, you'll find reviews

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we had to walk over piles of like -- >> rubble. >> -- and everything, and it was pretty scary, and everybody was rushing everybody. and then i came out and i saw the cars and the houses and i just started crying so hard. >> you are never ever going to go through this again. >> we had to sit like this and the tornado started knocking on the ceilings going up and down.

and a light went down and hit me in the head. and all the other girls were screaming and they were crying. >> i had to hold on to the wall to keep myself safe because i didn't want to fly away in the tornado. it was coming, it was hitting, and everybody said put your head down, put your head down, but some people got hurt, but we made it alive. >> just absolutely devastating, heartbreaking. we're back here in moore, oklahoma, the thunder and lightning kicking up here. willie, you hear those stories from those kids and it's heartbreaking, of course. a decision was made yesterday to keep the kindergarten kids through the third graders in place as tom cole said who grew up here, that is what you're told to do. of course, the fourth through sixth graders were sent home and bussed home.

just a tragedy. >> it is. and i won't stand here and second guess anything done in the heat of the moment. but different things done for different classes within that school. obviously some of them had tragic outcomes and others of them survived. it's a little bit reminiscent in some ways when you hear about the teachers of sandy hook, which is to say they protected their students first. a lot of these children at the school in plaza towers are alive because they huddled underneath the teacher. the teacher covered them with a desk or table. the thing to remember is how little time they had to react. they say about 16 minutes or so before the storm hit. that was the warning they had. and you don't know how close that was to the time the school was able to react. split second decisions being made. >> and we've heard heroic stories already. there aren't a lot of stories coming out of that school, but the few that have come out of the school we hear, once again, teachers literally putting their lives on the line as they did in sandy hook as they did yesterday

afternoon saving the lives of children. >> to protect their children. >> to protect their children. >> and now a day after as we're at the scene of what will be a massive recovery operation. we have hundreds of national guardsmen on the scene and first responders here. police trying to cordon off areas that are some of them literally graveyards with the hope of maybe finding a sign of life. and with that, we just got word that we'll be hearing from the president himself later today. he's going to be making a statement on this. and we know that he has actually acted very aggressively last night reaching out to make sure that disaster relief would be readily available. >> he did, he declared it a federal disaster which frees up money and resources to flood into here. that was done at the behest of congressman tom cole and some of the senators from the state of oklahoma. but obviously the white house moved very quickly. and again, we're going to hear from president obama 10:00 eastern time and just a couple of hours from now. >> all right. alex, do we have the congressman

with us? >> james langford. >> live from d.c. you represent oklahoma city, right? >> i do, just north of you, actually, the district, you mentioned tom cole, that's his district you're standing in, i represent the district north of there. >> just north. obviously as somebody that grew up in oklahoma, you are certainly used to -- >> right. >> tornado warnings, tornado watches and then when the tornado hits. but i would guess looking at these pictures nothing could prepare you or the people of this great state for what happened yesterday afternoon around 3:30. >> no, we've actually had fewer tornadoes this spring than what we've had in previous years. it had been a quiet spring up until the last two days. sunday morning, or sunday afternoon i should say, we had tornadoes that wet through my district through shawnee in pottawattamie county, and i was out there monday morning at dawn walking through debris fields we thought were horrific and they are horrific. but then you compare it to what's happening in moore and

it's even more tragic and it's there. it's very difficult days obviously for us as a state. >> what have you heard from officials on the ground and also fema? >> well, the fema as you mentioned before has declared a major disaster area. that is two things. one it allows for individual assistance. if someone has insurance and upfront money before the insurance pays, they'll be available to get that up front money. but just to carry them through. there's also public assistance provides help for cities, counties and for the state as they come through and try to clear the roads. there's tremendous amount of overtime. those things are coming quickly. and the president speaking at 10:00 today, the governor will be back out at noon central time today. and there's a lot going on. >> so we'll hear probably then a little bit about the coordination, especially when you look at the aerial shots of the devastation and the massive

path of this tornado, there are so many people who are displaced. is there any type of framework in place as to where they can go at this point? >> there absolutely is. that's the one thing about oklahoma. you know well from being around there. the difficulty here is typically your neighbor helps you out in a tornado because tornadoes are typically much smaller. now you're in the situation where the next door neighbor's house is also gone. the epicenter in 1999 is also a major point. and churches opening up shelters providing for people, providing food and housing. university of oklahoma has opened up the storm spaces. a lot of people having housing for a longer period of time. there are a lot of options to provide shelter and immediate assistance and then other people taking other neighbors in. >> it's amazing. you know, and i'll let you jump in and ask a question, but one of the things yesterday i know was a point of frustration that i've seen in other major

disasters, no cell phone service. >> right. >> absolutely no ability to communicate with anyone. if you've lost a family member or can't find anyone, there's no way to find information. trying to get communications back together. >> it is old-fashioned. there are people out here waiting, asking people, tapping on shoulders, looking for their neighborhood. i wanted to ask you if of you heard anything else about the plaza towers elementary school. is it as far as you know a search and rescue mission? that's where a lot of the hope on the ground here is there may be by some miracle, some children or some teachers still trapped but alive under the rubble. what else can you tell us about that this morning? >> i've had some briefings and updates. i'll tell you it'll be search and rescue until we know for certain we've lost those children. it will always be search and rescue all the way to the end. this is very similar to 1995, we found people very late and very difficult rubble situation. and so we will continue to watch

and wait and hope for people until the very end. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> all right. coming up, we actually -- we have some pretty bad thunderstorms coming in, a little bit of a lightning show behind us. we're going to take a quick break. on the other side, we'll be talking to bill karins giving a sense of what happened yesterday, what's in store with tornadoes on the horizon as well as how badly the recovery operation is going to be impacting today. >> the line of trucks, cleanup trucks, the cleanup operations beginning already. this is a -- this is a town that is certainly under siege based on just a historic tornado that ripped through moore yesterday. we'll be right back with more "morning joe."

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this school is basically gone. it's totally destroyed, most of the walls collapsed. as you can see, there's a number of cars that were thrown into the front of this building. this is actually an office on the very front of the school. there's a truck, an suv of some kind got thrown into the front of that school. >> there was no safe place aboveground. when that tornado went through moore, oklahoma, yesterday afternoon, that was the bottom line. if you stayed aboveground, you either got injured or, unfortunately, killed. let me give you an update this morning. worried about these thunderstorms to the south of moore. we do not need rain to hamper the rescue efforts this morning. right now, so far, so good. these storms are to the south and they've been staying there for now. one pretty good one coming out of anadarko crossing interstate 44. that's a stronger one that will probably barely clip the moore area. but looks like the worst of it's going to stay south of the area. moore, oklahoma, and in this picture, this looks like when hurricane andrew went through

south florida and wiped away a whole community. looks like joplin, some of the worst scenes i've seen in my weather career. as far as what we're dealing with. this is what you need to know, there's no blamed to be assigned here. we had a tornado watch two hours and ten minutes before it actually hit moore, oklahoma. the tornado warning was up for 25 to 40 minutes before, average lead time for a tornado hitting an area, about 12 minutes. they had plenty of lead time, happened at 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, there was great visibility, and we still couldn't avoid this mass tragedy and mass fatalities. and that's the frustration that we're dealing with in this area. and, again, looks like probably an ef-4, and as far as history goes, as far as deadliest u.s. tornadoes, this will likely not make the top five or top six list. joplin, by the way, had 158 fatalities. but, again, in the modern era, brian, this is still going to be very high. since technology's gotten better and we started actually giving

tornado warnings since the 1950s, this will probably go down as one of the two or three greatest fatalities for a single tornado. >> you know, when you compare the cost of the damage and the loss of life, i think that houses can be replaced but people can't. >> a lot of people think this may top joplin. the most expensive tornado we had at $2.8 billion. and they're saying this one may top it. >> hopefully a loss of life. >> we get newspapers from all across the country here at nbc and "morning joe." i just want to show you a couple of them. because we always get a few iconic images from these kind of stories. this is on the cover not only the u.s. post by the daily news as well as the "washington post" and "wall street journal." and, of course, children there's at least 20 confirmed children that have died from the storm from that school. i want to go to mike bettes who is in moore right now. mike, i know you've been moving all over the place here. can you give us a sense of the vibe on the ground and what you've seen and any color you

can give us. >> you know, we arrived on the scene yesterday, brian, maybe three hours or so after the tornado struck. it was still a pretty chaotic scene. it was mountains of rubble. homes truly flattened, cars had been tossed on top of each other, on top of homes. and we were right next to the other elementary school that was hit. it was about a mile away where we know a tragic scene unfolded there. we talked to a schoolteacher there and he said you know, at the time the tornado was coming, they put all the kids and teachers into the center of that school in a hallway and they just -- they just hunkered down as that torpnado hit the school. i can't believe anybody survived inside this school, but every single student, every single teacher made it out okay. what's happening this morning is more search and rescue. more efforts coming in from outside of moore and oklahoma city helping in the effort here. so we've seen tulsa show up,

wichita show up, rescue crews from texas show up. they set up a command post here at the target parking lot as well as u.s. marshals have set up a command post, as well. helping put search and rescue in the right places, going grid by grid, helping heavy machinery get in here, front-end loaders, power crews, all those types of things they need in a mass effort as large as this. i've got to tell you, brian, i've seen a lot of tornadoes in my life covering these storms for the weather channel. the only one that even compares is joplin, missouri, two years ago, almost to the day truly. this is what it looks like. it is a scene that you just -- it's hard to stomach. i've got to tell you that. it's hard to stomach. and when you hear the fatality count going up and up and up, it's heartbreaking. >> you hope it doesn't get to the death toll of joplin, which i believe was over 150. give us a sense also of the

power of the tornado. might it get upgraded to a five? and give us a little insight into the scale. we had melissa with us onset who said they didn't even have up to a five back in 1999. >> well, the thing about it is, in 1999 tornado came through moore, oklahoma. they did, in fact, they actually measured winds, over 300 miles an hour with that particular tornado. we don't believe we had actual measurements with doppler radar on this one. but what they'll do is storm survey teams will come in here from the national weather service and they'll look at the damage. and what they do is they have damage indicators that tell them how strong winds were. they have 28 different indicators. everything from a tree to a manufacture home to a large industrial building. and they can withstand different levels of wind speed. and they're generally going to look, especially, at some of the larger industrial buildings or commercial buildings or something like a school.

these buildings are built with usually concrete, reinforced concrete or cinder block. these have very, very strong buildings and they'll look at the degree of damage. and they can estimate what the wind speed will be. our tornado expert dr. greg forbes who is literally the world's expert in tornado damage surveys. he was with us yesterday, he says no doubt in his mind this will be rated an ef-5 tornadoes with winds, that means, brian, in excess of 200 miles an hour. he says there was an oil tank about the size of a trailer on a tractor-trailer that was thrown about 1/2 mile. he says it would take an excessive wind to do that. and he said that was the one thing that keyed him in that the winds were in excess of 200 miles an hour. >> be safe, mike bettes, live for us in moore, oklahoma. of course, social media is a huge part of every news story now. and the images and video that we've received and seen about the story is unbelievable. we're going to talk about social media's impact on tracking weather and show you more images

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yeah, guys, i ran down to the school to talk to emergency personnel. and i've been told by reliable sources on the scene that this is no longer a search and rescue operation it's now a recovery mission. it is my understanding that there are up to two dozen

children victims trapped at the bottom of that school right now. this is eagle drive right here, we understand there could be as many as half dozen more fatalities on this street alone in this area. the emergency personnel have backed out of the school, they're pulling in more vehicles, they're backing people away. and i understand they're going to start pulling these tiny victims out of the rubble here shortly. >> it's too difficult, lance. >> lance, hang in there, my friend. >> that was kfor veteran reporter lance west reporting yesterday taking in the terrible news and having a hard time keeping his emotions together. i don't blame him. coming up on "morning joe," we're going to have the mayor of moore, oklahoma, glenn lewis is going to join us. he certainly has insight in this town's history. >> the long-time mayor in moore, oklahoma, he was here in 1999 for what they call the may 3rd storm. >> we'll talk about to the

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all the ceilings, going up and down, and the light went down and hit me in the head. all the other girls were screaming and crying. >> i had to hold on to the wall to keep myself safe because i don't want to fly away in the tornado. it was coming and it was hitting and everybody said put your heads down, put your head down, but some people got hurt but we made it alive. >> we had to pull a car out of the front hallway off a teacher. and i don't know what that lady's name is, but she had three little kids underneath her. good job, teach. i still got a little girl buried in there. i've got to go. >> the sun is rising here in moore, oklahoma, and the images that are coming to light are among the most horrifying in recent memory. about 15 hours ago, this community was ravaged by a massive tornado and the pictures are just staggering.

a twister one mile wide tore through this suburb of oklahoma city with winds of up to 200 miles per hour and it crushed entire neighborhoods, destroyed the local hospital, and leveled an elementary school where kids were trapped under the rubble. as of right now, at least 51 people were confirmed dead, 20 of them children. the number of injured has topped 145. and with more people missing, officials warn those tolls will rise. entire blocks were wiped out as the storm cut through the landscape rated an ef-4, the second most powerful type of tornado, it stayed on the ground for as long as 40 minutes. joe, willie and i are here in moore, oklahoma, just outside the moore hospital which was completely devastated just as everything else is here in the entire community. >> the pictures are absolutely staggering when you see them on tv. but on the ground, it's hard to

describe. behind us, as i said last hour, it looks post apocalyptic. it looks more like a scene out of syria than oklahoma. and, of course, mika, the stories coming out of that school where so many young children were trapped between 5 and 8 years old. it's just a tragedy. an unspeakable tragedy. and as chris jansing said last hour, we saw katrina. we saw the devastation across the gulf coast. you go to some of these other towns completely wiped out by the storm surges, that's the only comparison i can make to what i'm seeing on the ground here. >> as we were rushing here yesterday, we were wondering about the decisions that were made. kids were bussed out and some

kids, of course, were told to shelter in place and a number of those children lost, but when you get here on the ground and you look at the devastation you looked at how these buildings are literally torn to shreds, you realize there was so little time to make any decisions at all. >> so little time. and in most tornadoes, it's the randomness that's so frightening. it touches down on one side of the street and the other side is untouched. not here. mile wide on the ground for 40 minutes. this is devastation like we haven't seen in a tornado. >> you come through here, it's just a shock to your senses. i was stopped in my tracks walking down the street by the medical center. i said what is that? i got closer, it was a car, twisted steel. >> pile of cars. >> over at the medical center. unlike anything i've seen with my own eyes up close. and you talk about that school that's still where some of the hope is here in moore. it's going to be very difficult. but we just heard in our last

hour the congressman saying it is still a search and rescue. they hope that somebody has somehow found a way to survive in the middle of all of that. >> it's just one area. there is house after house after house after house after building because usually in tornadoes you have a swath, an area, one massive building. everywhere here. >> yeah. >> everywhere. roofs have been ripped off. >> and you can see this, they've already been through all of these homes. they found some survivors in some of the homes. but they still are going to come back later and search to see if there are any fatalities. and this happened city block after city block. we are right now about to get hit by another storm, willie, which is going to make rescue operations even more difficult. tell us, get us up to date on what the president, the governor and local officials are doing. >> well, the president of the united states took an important step last night when he declared this a federal disaster. that does a lot of things, that

frees up resources, money, people and resources flooding in here today. that's a good thing to help search but also help begin the cleanup. we're going to hear from the president at 10:00 today eastern time. we'll hear what he has to say about what else the federal government can do here. >> also, locally the governor's going to have a press conference, as well. obviously this is tornado alley and they have dealt with tornadoes before. so they have a lot of systems in place. but this is such a massive swath of devastation trying to place people will be a long-term project. and also, just trying to get people back together with their families because when this hit, it was so big and it was so epic that cell phone service and any form of communication was completely shut down. and even today, people will be finding their way back to their family members if they are so lucky. >> and willie, you're talking about how with cell phone service down, you actually had people going, have you seen my son or my daughter, my friend?

it reminds you after 9/11. >> exactly. >> people going around with pictures asking if anybody had seen their relatives. you know, growing up, in where hurricane season is such an important part of the year because you're just holding your breath hoping your city doesn't get devastated. usually we get to october, middle of october, end of october and we start feeling better because we think, okay, well, it passed us by this year, we're going to be fine. that's what people in this area were starting to think because the congressman said last hour, this has been a fairly inactive season for tornadoes. but my god, the past week, absolutely devastating and as bill karins reported earlier, today may be another deadly day. he's predicting 10 to 12 tornadoes and i'm just, there's a light show going on behind us. >> lightning. >> lightning streaking across the sky. it's been doing that nonstop since we landed late last night. >> i was going to say, when we pulled in last night, it was a

lightning show. we heard thunder all night and again today. last week, we thought we'd seen a terrible tornado and we did, tore up big parts of the state. and just as they're starting to recover from that, yesterday happens and then again today they're expecting some storms. it was interesting to see the front page of the paper here today. there was a storm here on may 3rd, 1999 which is viewed as the worst, most powerful tornado in the history of the world. >> we were saying, people around here said that was the day that lived in infamy for them. everybody remembers the day. >> winds over 300 miles an hour. the front page of the paper today said worse than may 3rd. in terms of devastation and displacement of people, we'll see about loss of life in the end. >> well, there's a tick-tock a local station did yesterday to show us exactly how this killer storm went down. >> it is a mile wide debris cloud. it is a mile wide wedge. violent tornado, the only way

you're going to guarantee you will survive is if you are out of the way, below ground, storm cellar or basement. >> this thing is huge. keep going left, travis. keep going left, right there, boom, there it is, mike, on the ground, easily. >> approaching santa fe. we had to bail out of it it was coming right out of us. and we're getting ready to turn south here at moore -- south moore high school. >> you've got to act. you can't think or delay, you've got to act and act to save your life and save your loved ones lives. you've got to act. >> right there on the backside of the warren theater and you have, you know, lowe's and that whole area there. you have somebody in that area. definitely get out of there. you can see the intense power flashes. >> go emily. >> mike, we're about to go in the path of this tornado. major, major wedge on the ground. >> the whole theater area. i see a lot of heavy, heavy debris in the air that has

plumed up from all the shopping areas at the warren theater, no doubt tremendous destruction at that location right now. >> that tornado is physically on the ground just destroying power lines and everything in its way. as you can see, big power flashes there. look at all that debris in the air. it's 500 or 600 feet up in the air and it's going. it's still grinding, still on the ground. as you can see, this thing hasn't decreased in size any. and i'm actually kind of getting closer than i want to be to it right now. but this thing is sucking us in at 50 to 60 miles an hour right now. it's actually looked like it's decreased a little bit. we've lost a lot of the debris, it changed the shape of it. it's really fizzling out as we're seeing. i'm going to do another turn here, getting far away. looks like it's roping out a little bit and this is over like 149th street and maybe just the east side of the road. and it's gone, mike. if you guys can see this, i don't know how to explain it,

how to describe it. this is -- this is terrible. this is war zone terrible. this school is completely gone. it is like you see completely destroyed as kids run up to hopefully their loved ones. this one here, guys, is completely destroyed. >> and we'll get back to joe, mika, and willie in moore, oklahoma, in a little bit. but we want to talk about may 3rd, 1999, and compare it to today because that's what everyone wants to reference. and there was a horrible tornado 14 years ago, as well, and i don't know if we have the graphic for you to show you, but before we show it to you, melissa rayberger was anchoring in oklahoma city at the time. is it the images eerily the same for you? >> exactly the same except for more. the difference between then and

now is that one happened at night and there are very few pictures of it if at all. and you can see what a monster it was the images are the same where there is virtually nothing left. look how close the paths are. it is so amazing to me that this poor town got hit again. >> it's almost lottery like to have that kind of situation. even though you live with the expectation of tornadoes all the time, this actually intersected at one point in the storm's path and there are reports this tornado could have been more than a mile wide. it was on the ground for 40 minutes. give also a sense of what kind of people live in this community? we've talked about off camera, why didn't they have more shelters built into these homes and so on? because it cost a lot of money to do that. >> people live there, it's very affordable, very close oklahoma city where their jobs are. it's a nice place to raise your

kids, it's all subdivisions, homes packed very closely together. newer construction than some of the older towns in oklahoma. and, you know, this happened at a time of day that hopefully a lot of people were off at work and not in their homes. when you look at this, talking about the hospital and the school and it's horrible. but most of what we're looking at are residential homes. and when it comes to how high is this number going to be? where are the missing people? at this point, they don't even know who's missing and who's not. >> right. >> and that's the scary part. and the phone lines are jammed. people can't find out, you know, somebody could've called in sick that day and wasn't expected to be home during this. or somebody was elderly and didn't have the tv on or something like that. >> and, of course -- >> we don't know where they are. >> they focus so much on the children because they were still in school. i want to bring in bill karins, of course, with perspective on the meteorological side and also on the comparative side, as well. >> i made an excellent point. as bad as these fatality numbers are getting and as high as

they're going to go. if this happened at night, at this strength, the way the subdivisions look in the homes. a lot of people don't have basements and storm shelters, most likely the interior rooms in the bathtubs or closets, they wouldn't have survived. and i want you to listen to this. just listen. >> that's the cook from a kentucky fried chicken stepping outside and literally what you are hearing -- that's not the winds from the tornado. that's the tornado sucking in the wind. it's literally pulling in the wind. and you heard the helicopter pilot say that also that the storm itself was so powerful it was sucking him in while he was flying at about 50 to 60-mile-per-hour winds into the storm. almost like the hose of your vacuum when it gets strong enough, sucks all the air in around it and that was the wind you heard there whipping. and i want to give everyone a

quick radar update. so far, so good. these storms are just to the south side. it was actually a pretty strong one even with a severe thunderstorm warning just south of moore, oklahoma. i think it's only going to, you know, barely touch the moore area. and once that's gone, there's nothing really behind it. we may get fortunate here that we're not going to have a lot of muddy earth to deal with out there. that's a good thing. as far as the tornadoes went, we continued with about 16. we showed you this with the pass intersected. the threat today, still a chance of severe weather, this will be day five of our tornado outbreak. so far, we've had about 65 tornadoes in the last four days. we'll probably add another dozen to two dozen today. and this time we're including the dallas-ft. worth area over towards the arklatec area. it's going to be another violent afternoon.

a helicopter and they will fly like the oklahoma station. we'll see it live on tv if we get one during the daylight hours. >> i want to bring that kfc video again. melissa brought up a good point, most people won't get a chance to observe. do we have it, guys? just the video from the kfc? you'll see at the bottom of the tornado, it'll be red. and according to melissa, the topsoil is really just so much clay and that's why they can't have a lot of basements or they don't have a lot of those sort of safety -- >> see, when the tornado actually becomes a tornado after being a funnel cloud, you know when it hits the ground when you see the debris. the debris in this video right here is bright red because it's all red clay in oklahoma. and as i was explaining earlier , it's not a great soil to build a foundation in. that's why people don't have basements for the largest part. when it comes to shelters, you can have a safe house inside, but when your entire home

disappears like these did, doesn't matter, you're going to go for a violent ride and you don't know if you can survive that. they make shelters, for instance after the may 3rd tornado in 1999 came the state fair, which is a big deal in oklahoma. and it's a place to show your products and shelters were everywhere. and they're basically these capsules you buy and they are buried in your yard or wherever so you have access to get underground. but they're not inexpensive. they can be up to thousands of dollars. it has to be professionally installed. >> and, listen, this wasn't a rich area. a lot of these people were working class people that probably couldn't afford the extra couple of grand. >> it represents, perhaps, an education at a university for your child. it might be a nest egg. that's a lot of money for a lot of people. and there had been talk -- and i'm sure there will be again about trying to provide incentive for people to buy these shelters and install them,

perhaps a tax break, perhaps no taxes. but just to really make it in people's best interest to put forth the effort to buy and install a shelter because when this happens, they live through tornadoes all the time. not like this. this is rare. when this happens, underground is the only way to go. >> melissa, bill, thank you so much. we will return to moore, oklahoma, when "morning joe" returns. ♪ [ male announcer ] clearly this isn't one of those speed-eating contests. that's a hebrew national hot dog. a kosher hot dog. that means we're extra choosy about the cuts of beef that meet our higher kosher standards. and only a good, old-fashioned slow-motion bite is gonna capture all that kosher delight. and when your hot dog's kosher, that's a hot dog you can trust. hebrew national. that's a hot dog you can trust. what that's great. it won't take long, will it?

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welcome back to "morning joe," continuing live coverage of the devastation here in moore, oklahoma. as you're looking at live pictures right now as the sun comes up over this devastated community. want to take a look at some of the local newspapers covering this story. we'll start with the "tulsa world." their headline, "moore again." and we'll turn to the "oklahoman," "worse than may 3rd," that was the last time this town was hit by a

devastating tornado. "the omaha herald," hit by a monster. and we stand in the midst of that right now. willie geist, joe and me and joined by thomas robert. and in just a moment, we're going to hear from mike bettes on the weather channel. he has an interview with a survivor. >> but thomas, of course, we had a fairly slow tornado season. you've got the governor who really just started going around touring the state a couple of days ago. >> well, this is on the heels of what we saw in shawnee on sunday. and so we're just 40 miles south of shawnee, basically right in the heart of tornado alley. she was touring that devastation over the weekend and into monday itself and then had to break away because of the storm that was coming in here. it's amazing to think that this ef-4 at least ef-4 storm and just to put that into context for you, winds of 166 miles per hour, up to 200 miles per hour. it is absolutely amazing as far

as the eye can see around here. in the '90s, i was a storm chaser for a year. it scared the living daylights out of me to do it. but i have never seen anything like this after doing that for a year in lincoln, nebraska. this is absolutely amazing. >> you can grow up around it. willie, we were just talking about tuscaloosa last hour. at the time that hit, we heard that was one of the most devastating tornadoes. but people that went through that, what i saw in the aftermath, it was horrible. it was absolutely horrific. this takes it to another scale. as we start to see the sunrise coming up over these neighborhoods -- >> there's nothing left. >> again, it is, like i said, it looks post apocalyptic. >> i think our second camera had that look at it a minute ago and what you've got, essentially, is driveways now going up to concrete slabs. if you're lucky, there's a

toilet sitting in what was the bathroom. but in more cases than not, there's an engine block from a car. a wheels from cars probably thrown across the street from the medical center. it's hard to wrap your mind around what you're seeing as the sun comes up. >> you chase storms and saw this in nebraska. the most random things. everything wiped out by a small weight set. and then, you know, a pot or pan here or there. just everything else. and across the street, you see all those -- i mean, the trucks just stacked one after another after another. >> looks like a bomb exploded in some of these buildings. and you're right when it comes to seeing the damage in and of itself. you can be across the street and everything's fine. not a blade of grass out of place. and across the street, it's absolutely completely leveled. and if i was hearing correctly, the segment before they were talking on the show, the affordability. and the usefulness of, you know,

tornado shelters and basements. >> right. >> but the ground is so hard here, makes it that much more difficult to get a proper basement in your house. that's why there are so many different types of capsules people build. >> there will be a couple of news conferences later today. that death toll is expected to rise, 145 injured, we're going to be hearing a lot about injuries. and right now we're going to turn to an interview done by mike bettes who talked to a survivor who made it out alive. >> what was that moment like when this tornado came through? >> you can't describe it. i mean, all the wind got sucked out. the trees became still and then it was just -- it was mass chaos. the water was basically being

sucked through the seams of the shelter. most of the mud on me is from being in there. >> how long were you in there before that tornado hit? >> we saw the debris cloud as it was probably hitting the family farm, that area, i'm not sure if it got hit. we saw the debris cloud, we got in there. >> so a matter of minutes? >> within probably two minutes after we got in there. the lid was shaking. >> when you came out of your shelter and you saw all of this. i mean, what's going through your mind? >> where to begin. i mean, it's like the beginning of the end. my wife and i, we've worked hard for everything we have. and we just now paid off our house. we were debt-free. had no house payment. we were supposed to go tomorrow to sign papers on land to build a new house and that house was collateral for the land purchase. so now we're in a position of

which direction do we go? >> do you have a place to stay tonight? >> my daughter is flying back in from florida right now. that's her black car on top of the pile she had fixed last week from hail damage. >> how long have you lived here, gerald? >> 11 years. this is the third one coming through here. >> we know this city in particular has had a history of violent tornadoes. 1999, a tornado came right through this town. folks here are cognizant of weather. but when you see something like this, does it give you perspective on certain things? may 3rd of '99 is when you're i'm sure going back to, the ef-5. we were affected by it also. it missed the center of it actually missed our house by 3/4 of a mile. we saw the devastation, was hoping i would never personally have to be in this position and unfortunately, this is where we're at. >> everyone in your family is okay? >> everybody's fine. we did lose three animals.

human lives, everybody's there. >> it's the weather channel's mike bettes with a survivor. it's a measure of the scope of this that he feels lucky. guy lost everything he had but he feels like one of the lucky ones because he's still there. we should point out the pope has released prayers from the vatican, asked the world to pray. and we'll be right back. "morning joe" right after this. meet the 5-passenger ford c-mc-max one. c-max two. that's a super fuel- efficient hybrid for me. and a long range plug-in hybrid for you. now, let's review. introducing the ford c-max hybrid and the ford c-max energi plug-in hybrid. say hi to the c-max hybrids.

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we had to pull a car out of the front hallway off a teacher. i don't know what that lady's name is, but she had three little kids underneath her. good job, teach. it ripped our house up. i've still got a little girl buried in there. i've got to go. >> we thought we died because we locked the cellar door, it got louder and next thing you know, you see the latch coming undone and we couldn't reach it and it ripped open the door and it just glass and debris started slamming on us and we thought we were dead, to be honest. >> all right, we're back, mika, here in moore. and obviously you look behind us. we've been looking -- the shot's

been doing across the street the other way. here we are on the other side of the street. and again, for people that are looking at these trees and looking at the debris coming down from the trees, actually, what you're seeing is a neighborhood behind us here that is just no longer left standing. >> house, house, house, house. and all that's left is foundations, whatever this is hanging off the tree. this right here was a deck and it's puckered up. right here is the garage. >> if you look back here, these clumps, here's the underside of an automobile turned upside down. >> five cars totally crumpled up. >> and, of course, behind us, this is the medical center shot we have, and, of course, you see a truck upside down over here. as you cross the street and look at the medical center over there, you can see literally a

dozen, at least, trucks and cars piled on top of each other. and go even further over what we were saying earlier today, this medical center that the local congressman was talking about that actually was just built a couple of years ago. and now looks like it was bombed out of syria, mika. and again, we've seen this before. i saw this in my own hometown of pensacola, florida, on a small scale after hurricane ivan. i talked about my friends digging through the sand trying to find little pieces of, you know, a picture, of their kids. and they lose absolutely everything. jen mackie talked about being on her hands and knees and crying. and not being able to find anything. and you go through these neighborhoods and see there is literally, there's nothing left.

the propane tank here. i see a bible over there. there's a weight set over there, but mainly just bricks and debris. >> and cans of food. i found a few kids toys, which gives you a sense of the normalcy that was just here 12 hours ago. brian shactman's in new york. >> yeah, mika. >> jump in on the conversation. brian. >> i want to ask you. you guys are professional talkers. you're so great at what you do. it almost is impossible to give appropriate descriptions of what you're seeing, right? >> yeah, there's no doubt about it. again, it's the scale and we've said this time and time again, you know, brian, this morning you can see from 10,000 feet the devastation in the neighborhood, the devastation in the community. but what makes this tornado worse than any others that i've seen or thomas roberts has seen or others that have grown up in this area and, again, we still

have lightning blasting all across the sky is just, again, how the scale of it. the widespread destruction, the fact that this thing was -- this monster as a local paper called it was a mile wide. >> right. >> the debris path estimated to be 2 miles wide. and everything in its path was absolutely destroyed. and, unfortunately, mika, as we heard when we were -- when we heard reports coming out of the school hoping for the best news. but there are some people that grew up around here that just said that some of those kids had absolutely no chance. winds up to 200 miles an hour, and, again, a path of destruction a mile wide. >> just quickly -- >> when you look at what happened here, brian, it's like it is so clear that it happened so fast that no one had any chance. no one. and it's amazing the survival

stories that we've already heard. brian? >> and you see on the top right of your screen, you see an "x" on the car, that shows the authorities have gone through it, checked it, and they can move on. and that's the code of the search and rescue. >> you know, it goes to show how used to this they are. and how they flip right into survival mode. mika and joe, you were just talking about all of these personal items strewn about. this thing was so powerful, you don't know how far those things have been flung. and one of the things i recall from last time around is, you know, one of the many, many acts of kindness among people in oklahoma was to, you know, when things landed in their yard or street, photographs, yearbooks, you name it, there was an organized effort to try to get those things back to people. they lost their homes, they have their lives, at least they get their wedding album or something back. i expect to see some sort of organized effort, especially now with the internet being what it

is compared to 14 years ago that there will be an effort to get people's personal items back to them. >> and the sad thing is that everything here is literally covered in mud. we're expecting a thunderstorm, it's going to make trying to get whatever is left and especially pieces of paper which are sometimes more important than anything else, pictures and letters. >> and that is after everything's been lost. it's actually not the valuable items, materially valuable items that people are most desperate to get. it's their wedding albums. it's the pictures of their children from an early age. and you talk about the debris being flown. and we were always amazed in pensacola that you would have a car or a boat lifted up from pensacola beach. and it would be pushed all the way over into gulf breeze, after the tuscaloosa tornado a couple of years ago, you actually had items from tuscaloosa that were

found near anniston, alabama, almost 90 miles away. >> undoubtedly will be the case here. >> and that's the case here. >> and a guy that has seen devastation before, though i don't know if he's seen it on this scale when it comes to a tornado. jim cantore, you're in moore, as well, tell us what you're seeing. >> hey, guys, we've been moved to a media staging area, which is at 19th. so we're actually, if you will, south of the debris, which is where you are up to the north. the main path of the tornado to my north. what we're looking at with the clouds is the thunderstorms to the south. we're on the north side of this and the storms moving to the south. i don't think this area's going to get more rain, at least with the current movement of this. i remember after joplin, we had a ton of rain to deal with. and that as you know complicates search and rescue. in terms of this devastation

which you've been describing, it is unthinkable. it is like a movie set. i talked to a family yesterday that came out of their storm shelter. they were -- this storm shelter is in their house, in their house, the house goes, they're in the storm shelter, they're feeling the top of the shelter actually being pulled. they feel like they're going to get sucked out. so even the wind and debris got inside the shelter and almost pulled this group out. so just, these kind of amazing stories to just give you an idea of how powerful this was. right now, preliminarily, ef-4, from the national weather service, a lot of us including dr. forbes and myself would be shocked this doesn't go up to ef-5, given the kind of damage and debris and the size of that debris that's been carried. we have heard here that some of this debris from this tornado was carried up to tulsa. so when you have a tremendous amount of rising air motion like this, you can carry debris for

miles and miles. even after the storm dissipates. and it dissipated well before tulsa. so just an amazing, amazing storm. and unfortunately, we have to bring results that are just awful. mile wide damage path. a tornado that's probably going to certainly see winds upwards of 200 miles an hour or more. back to you. >> all right. jim cantore, thanks very much. and what we're seeing here, the sun's just come up and we're completely overwhelmed as we walk around and look around, 360 degrees. >> everywhere you go, you see bricks all over the place p flown everywhere. we talk about these homes here. you see the most random things here. here's actually a book of julia child's letters. >> i found some dominos. look at this tree. gives a sense of how wicked things were here. i don't know if this is a piece of a house siding that's wrapped around it or maybe an awning. and then beyond the tree, of

course, the local hospital. >> this is the medical center which is just built recently. and you can go down. i don't know -- just on the other side of this devastated house, there's actually a movie theater that was completely filled yesterday and fortunately it's intact, but again, thomas you look at this and, again, these are scenes that you saw before as the storm chaser. but nothing quite this devastating. but you look again, a rehab center and a new medical center that moore did not have. they were very proud of it and absolutely torn to shreds and we certainly hope as the rescue efforts continue that if they can find survivors in there. >> that's the big hope. now that we've had daybreak a little over an hour now and we can now see the devastation. and mika, you were talking about the siding here. it literally looks like a piece of ribbon wrapped around.

>> yeah. >> it's pretty amazing. and also, the national weather service is going to be out here. we've been talking about this storm at least an ef-4. they're going to try to figure out categorically if it could be an ef-5 because of the severity of the wind. >> well the width and the devastation and the track, the 20-mile track this left behind. and i think most people in the midwest will know and recognize, you know, as we've been talking about this residential neighborhood. it's a perfect grid system and these streets go on for blocks and blocks and blocks. so this is what it looks like as far as the eye can see right now. >> it's also a really dangerous recovery effort because you can smell the gasoline in the air and whatever else is beneath the surface of what they're trying to cull through here. there's obviously a lot of coordinational efforts being made today, getting people in shelters and trying to organize distribution centers. we're going to be hearing from the governor this morning and president obama, as well, is

going to be speaking on this, as well. but this will be a massive, massive recovery effort. >> and as you walk back across here. if we can do a slogan w scan ofs neighborhood. there's so many people that want to help. and we're going to be talking next to a representative from the red cross. that's obviously we're going to be figuring out in the coming days and months this community and obviously this country going to try to figure out how to help the people of moore and how to help the people of oklahoma. >> we'll be right back with more. [ male announcer ] erica had a rough day.

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went ahead and pulled over on the highway because i heard it was starting to get really bad and decided to turn around because i knew my dog ginger was at home and i just didn't want any bad things to happen to her. i got home. i was actually speeding on the highway, cops can give me tickets, i don't care, but i was speeding on the highway just to get home to her. and the twister was actually behind kohl's this way. i could actually see it. i could hear it roaring and everything. it's my first time ever actually seeing a tornado. i was scared to death. i got in the house, the alarm went off, i ran in the house, threw my purse down, i called the dog, the windows started busting through, the twister was right there, i could hear it and i said, oh, no, you're not going to get me. got the dog, ran into to the bathtub, and i said come on, ginger, 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 top of

the dog and i could hear her wimpering, and i can't 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. >> you're looking at live pictures from the sky. these are aerial shots of the devastation in moore, oklahoma, as you can see the path of destruction is just hard to fathom. we've been here all morning, the sun's just come up, and everywhere we look, we move ten feet and we have an epic scene behind us as we report on this story. we're standing right now outside the medical center that was here. right now is basically in shambles. >> yeah. >> the breast care center and the physical therapy entrance right over there. and just devastation. across the hospital and goes back about a mile. >> come in, sir. >> we have a guest joining us from the american red cross, his

name is dan halliburton. >> nice to see you. thank you for coming, dan. so obviously you've been through quite a few of these. but this one is about as bad as it gets. >> it's stunning. and this just in the last month and a half, i'vehalf, i've been granbury and now here. >> yeah. >> and i wasn't really prepared for this. >> it is hard to be prepared for this, even if you've been through some terrible tornadoes in the past. tell us, people at home, obviously, are going to look at the pictures and going to want to help. what do they do? >> they do. and it's a challenge. because you really want to do something. you know, you want to feel like you can make a difference. and it's hard now. you know, the great thing is, is that all of the organizations, the red cross and others, we've got the supplies and the tools and the things that we need. you know, sometimes donations are required, but right now, honestly, your contributions are the best way to help.

and in other towns, we don't know where the next ones are. >> you're on the ground, you know what the people need and you use the contributions to get what you need. >> and what do you need right now? >> money. >> and that's going to be converted into what? >> we buy the supplies, the diesel trucks that are coming in, we'll be feeding responders, we buy the food. we've got partners who fix the food. sometimes we cater the food in. it's a big logistical effort and it takes money -- >> do you know what you're dealin dealin dealing, in terms of magnitude of people -- >> we've got the people and experience to come in here and get it done. and the determination. just like the people here have the determination to get it done. >> well, dan halliburton, thank you so much. thank you, and the red cross, for being here on the scene. >> we appreciate it. >> good luck. >> we have much more ahead. we're going to hear from more survivors.

obviously, we're going to be getting continuing updates on what they're finding out there. the sun has just risen over the past 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and we're finally getting a full scope. if you can, just swing around here. we get a full scope of the devastation of what hit yesterday afternoon, late yesterday afternoon. and again, you're looking at a neighborhood that has been completely torn to pieces. when we come back, we're going to be talking to moore officials, including the mayor of moore, oklahoma, who was actually here when the last huge storm hit on may 3rd, 1999, a day that many people thought would be the worst day that this town ever saw. that is until may 20th. >> our live coverage continues after a short break. stay with us. [ male announcer ] i've seen incredible things. otherworldly things. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business.

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welcome backing to "morning joe." brian shactman here in new york city. i want to show you something that is nothing short of amazing. imagine going into a shelter before the storm and the tornado hit, and then you emerge and you see your neighborhood gone. this is home video of exactly that. the family went into the shelter before the storm and they came out and this is exactly what they saw in realtime. just amazing images and just put yourself in their position. just incredible.

coming up in the next hour of "morning joe," we will talk with the mayor of moore, oklahoma, as well as the governor of the state, when our coverage of the tornado in oklahoma continues. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but a friend under water is something completely different. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often.

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oh, my god! >> that entire neighborhood is completely destroyed. >> that right there is the main entrance into the hospital. all those cars are wedged. >> we had to pull a car out of

the front hallway off a teacher. and she -- i don't know what that lady's name is, but she had three little kids underneath her. good job, teach. >> if there are children who are trying to cry for help, they can't get to them. so they're trying to get some hysterical parents back. >> a light went down and hit me in the head and all the other girls were screaming. >> they jammed six people down in there, had their animals down in there and they all made it out okay. >> they said it took three men to actually hold down that storm shelter door. >> next thing you know, you see the latch coming undone and we couldn't reach for it and it ripped open the door and glass and debris started slamming on us, and we thought -- we thought we were dead. >> daybreak has come to moore, oklahoma, and it reveals absolute destruction. the images coming to light, the most horrifying in recent memory. almost 18 hours ago, this

community was ravaged by a massive tornado, a massive twister. staggering images all around. the one-mile-wide twister tore through this suburb of oklahoma city with winds of up to 200 miles per hour. it absolutely crushed entire neighborhoods, destroyed the local hospital, and levelled an elementary school where children were trapped in the rubble. as of now, the official death toll is 51 people confirmed, 20 of those killed, children. the number of injured has topped 145, but so many more people are missing and officials will warning, those tolls will rise. news conferences this morning will reveal more terrible numbers for sure. entire blocks were wiped out as the storm cut through the landscape. rated an ef-4, the second most powerful type of tornado, it stayed on the ground for as long as 40 minutes. so we're live now in moore. take a live look now at the local hospital, what's left of

it. as we pan to the left or the right, it doesn't really matter. go 360 degrees, and all you see is complete and utter devastation. this is one of the main streets in moore, oklahoma, where the local florist used to be, and you're now looking where a home used to be. where home after home after home is completely leveled. and joe is standing by, one toppled car after another. joe, take it away. >> you know, mika, i'm standing by, i count, 19 cars out here. and i've got to tell you, i've spent the past few minutes trying to figure out the make of any of these automobiles. they are torn to shreds. this thing, it's twisted metal. again, it looks like something out of a war scene. something you might have scene out of iraq or afghanistan. they are completely shredded. we've got a dashboard ripped out. and again, i'm looking through these things, and i have absolutely no idea what make or

brand they are. this, obviously, was a truck. but you look over here, i've counted 19 different cars out here, and they're just torn to shreds. you've got, here, again, you don't know the make, but they're piled up, one after another after another. it is hard for us to imagine the totality, the power of this storm that it can throw all of these together. and if we can pan across the street, as we have cleanup crews working, you see another 20, 30 cars stacked one on top of the other. everything around here, virtually unrecognizable. and again, what is so shocking about what we're seeing is, the randomness of these items. over here, you've got, again,

these automobiles that are thrown. we saw a couple of books here. an audiotape that's thrown from god knows where. as somebody said last hour, i think it was thomas, mika, maybe it came from this house, maybe it came from 30 miles from here. but, look over here, mika and describe -- we've got a pantry right over here. again, i've got to be careful walking through here. you always want to look for downed wires. and also the smell, you were talking about, you have a headache because the smell of gas is pretty strong. >> look at these little pieces of candies that children have. we've got an entire cabinet, a pantry in here, with cereal and food, just everything covered with mud and a complete mess. and then piles and piles of bricks from patios and the sides of homes that are just crumpled to rubble.

>> you see live aerials right now, mika. they're showing live aerials, obviously, just a trail of destruction. and as you look at those from above, it is hard to put into terms the human tragedy of each one of those homes that you look into. and as we look at those aerials, we are down, obviously, on the ground level. and you look through this home, this time yesterday morning, an american family was waking up in moore, oklahoma, they were getting ready for work, they were sending their children off to school, and this was their home that they'd worked for their entire life. they'd probably paid down the mortgage and were looking to pay it off. one day later, it's absolutely taken to the ground. and you see that time and time again. and, you know, these tornadoes are indiscriminate with their impact, whether you're rich or poor, white or black,

conservative, liberal, whatever. it's just, the devastation is complete, especially, again, as we've said for some time. and bill karins can help us with it, on a path that's a mile wide. >> how to help the people who have been displaced. as you look at this entire neighborhood and you saw from the aerial views, just how many homes have been ripped to shreds. where there's nothing left. nowhere to live. so they're working on distribution centers and trying to get food to different areas for people, as well as figuring out sheltering. the governor is going to be holding a news conference this morning and we'll be hearing more about the organizational issues behind dealing with this crisis. and, of course, there's more severe weather to come in the area, so this story isn't over yet. but parents a s bill karins i standing by in new york. >> joe has spent my mind spinning how those parents

probably sent thinker kids off to school yesterday, they probably went off to work themselves, and literally watched all this happen from their workplace. and we already know that some parents out there lost their children. imagine losing your house and your child in the same day. how did these people even wake up this morning or even move on? it's just an incredible, incredible trablg. and the other thing, as bad as all these images and pictures are, this happened at 3:00 in the afternoon when we were most prepared. we knew it was coming. we were, you know, everyone did their tornado drills exactly what they were supposed to do. and it was still this bad. i can't imagine, if this had come through at night or at dark, where people would have had very little warning, we wouldn't have known how intense it was, you could have timed by fives the number of fatalities. if we had all of these people sleeping in those homes, many without basements or shelters, they all would have went in their bathrooms and probably would have been killing. we can be a tiny bit thankful it

happened during the daylight hours. and that the rescues had about five hours of daylight to get out there and save those people. a lot of people were fixating, is this going to be an ef-4, an ef-5. the damage doesn't matter, whatever they rate it at, because ef-5s are so rare. almost like a category 5 hurricane hitting the u.s., almost something that never happens in the history books. but when you see slabs of foundation like that, that's usually ef-5, 200-mile-per-hour plus damage that's being done there. there was one 3-inch-thick steel metal tank for petroleum or gas that was literally thrown blocks. that's impressive stuff. and that's most likely going to be as strong as they get. as far as what we're dealing with out there, let me go through the maps to try to prepare you what we're going to have to deal with as we go throughout the day today. we're not done yet. we are going to watch another

tornado outbreak this will be day five. we'll probably end up somewhere in the likelihood of another 122042 tornadoes. let me show you who's at risk. the storm yesterday is now up in minnesota. there's this other pesky storm that's firing up thunderstorms in northern portions of texas. it's also responsible for the storms that have been firing up just south of oklahoma city this morning. so here's the target zone. if you're in the yellow, you have a chance of severe storms today, damaging winds, hail, maybe isolated tornadoes. but it's that area to the south there in red, just like yesterday, almost the same size as yesterday. we have a moderate risk of severe storms. if you, your family, or your friends, you know anyone that lives in this area, from dallas to ft. worth to waco, all the way back to paris, texas, tyler, shreveport, texarkana to little rock, text them, call them that they know they have a chance of strong storms today and they have their ration plan in place so potentially they can save their lives. hopefully this time it will miss

and not hit like yesterday. >> boy, let's hope and pray, as we take an overview of moore, oklahoma, and the surrounding areas. >> what's left of it. >> you can also see, now, mika, from the ground here, with it getting lighter, the perspective. more than just this one street, that we drove up to in the middle of the night. you can see street after street after street of devastation. and, again, life after life after life permanently altered and changed and ravaged by this destruction from yesterday. >> what you're seeing here, we're looking at several football fields beyond of the same season, over and over again, of neighborhoods and homes. and you think of all the joy that goes into buying your first home or a home and building a life and all these lives have been completely devastated. coming up on "morning joe," our live coverage will continue. we're going to be joined by the mayor of moore, oklahoma. we're going to hear from the

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. it is a mile-wide debris cloud, it is a mile-wide wedge, violent tornado. the only way you're going to guarantee you will survive is if you are out of the way, below ground, storm cellar or basement. >> this thing, it's huge. keep going left, travis. keep going left. right there, boom, there it is. there it is, mike, on the ground. >> it's tracking right down 19, approaching santa fe. we had to bail out, because it was coming right at us, and we're getting ready to turn south here at south moore high school. >> you've got to act. you can't think or delay.

you've got to act and act and act to save your life and save your loved one's lives. you've got to act. >> right there on the backside of the warren theater and you have, you know, lowe's and that whole area right there. if you're in that area or you have somebody in that area, definitely get out of there. you can see those intense, very intense power flashes. >> go, emily. >> mike, mike, we're about to get in the path of this tornado. we're traveling south. major, major, major wedge on the ground. >> the whole warren theater area, i see a lot of very, very heavy debris in the air that has plumed up in the last couple of minutes because of all the shopping areas at the warren theater. no doubt there is tremendous destruction at that location right now. >> that tornado is physically on the ground, just destroying power lines and everything that is in its way. as you can see, big power flashes there. look at all that debris in the air. that debris is 500, 600 feet up in the air and it's still going. it's still grinding, still on the ground.

this thing hasn't decreased in size any. and i'm actually kind of getting a little closer than i want to be right now, but this thing is sucking us in at 50 to 60 miles per hour right about now. it's decreasing a little bit. it's lost a lot of the debris, so we've kind of lost the shape of it. it's really fizzling out. it looks like it's roping out a little bit and this is over like 149th street and maybe just the east side of air depot road. there it is, it's gone, mike. >> if you guys can see this, i don't know how to explain it, how to describe it. this is -- this is terrible. this is war zone terrible. this school is completely gone. it is like you see, completely destroyed, as kids run up to hopefully their loved ones. but this whole area right here, guys is, it's completely

destroyed. >> guys, i just ran down there to the school to talk to emergency personnel, and i have been told by some very reliable sources here on the scene that this is no longer a search and rescue operation, it's now a recovery mission. it is my understanding that there are up to two dozen children, victims, trapped at the bottom of that school right now. this is eagle drive right here. we understand there could be as many as a half dozen more fatalities on this street alone, this area. the emergency personnel have backed out of the school. they're pulling in more vehicles, they're backing people away and i understand they're going to start pulling these tiny victims out of the rubble here shortly. >> all right, lance -- >> i'm so sorry. >> hang in there, my friend. >> so sad. >> that's reporter lance west, getting emotional as he's reporting on the deaths of the children at the school. we're back live here on the streets of moore, oklahoma.

i keep getting completely overwhelmed by these sights. this is a little girl's room. you see the cds, a butterfly lamp, and even the clothes, still hanging in their closet. >> you see the clothes in her closet. of course, the wall that separated the house from their neighbors, completely torn down. you've got three mattresses thrown up. and then as you walk over here, you, of course, have here, you've got a honda cr-v and absolutely devastated. >> somebody's workshop. >> yeah, somebody's workshop along here. just completely torn apart. and again, the reason why we show you these houses up close and individually, we showed you some across the street is to give you some perspective of those overhead shots, and all of those homes that you see, that have been torn to shreds by a tornado that was a mile wide. and you start to understand the lives that were so greatly

impacted. >> story after story after story. >> we heard this after 9/11. you hear it after a lot of storms, story after story after story. i remember "the new york times" actually put out a book of those who perished on september 11th. and you went in, and every picture told a remarkable story. here we can go house by house by house, and it goes block after block after block. and you start to realize this time yesterday, it was a neighborhood, this was a community waking up, sending their kids off to school, going off to work, and today they've lost, at least materially, everything. that's the best-case scenario this morning, that all that was lost was everything they had materially and not the lives of loved ones. >> hold out hope in a lot of those cases, but hope diminishes a little bit with each passing minute. it is important to personalize this, the way that you and mika just decade, because it's more

than helicopter shots and more than statistics. every one of these concrete slabs that was a house is somebody's life, it was destroyed in some way. even if they didn't lose life, they're blessed that day didn't in this storm, they lost a lot and they're going to have to start over. you can't begin to show with the television camera the scope of this. it's a barren landscape, as far as we can see. and this hospital, as you said, yesterday, was full. they're lucky they evacuated everyone. i don't know if our viewers can hear, there's sort of a chirping sound. that's the alarm that's still going off from when the storm hit yesterday and emergency lighting still flashing inside the hospital. again, very lucky they got everyone out of there. >> and you talk about the alarm going off when it hit. chris, that's what's so shocking as you go through here. it's almost like a time capsule at 3:30 p.m. central time. you walk into these homes and you walk into some of these buildings and you can see what they were doing at the time the tornado hit. when the world stopped for them.

>> we were talking earlier, that comparisons that we had to other disasters we've been through. and when i saw the front of that medical center, and the front of the day care center next door, i remembered coming to oklahoma after the oklahoma city bombing and the front of the murrah building blown off, and looking into a snapshot of people's lives, and that everyday part of life that suddenly is frozen in time and destroyed. and people now having to think about rebuilding. and the scope of it is overwhelming. >> it is overwhelming. and thomas, this is a state that has endured such heartache. april, 1995, april of '95, of course, the oklahoma city bombing, and then may of 1999, just a horrific tornado. and once again, may of this year, it just keeps getting worse.

>> the front of the oklahoma newspaper has this big headline, but a lot of people say, the monster has returned in reference to this storm. because the track and the path of the storms being so similar almost in size and scope and also the trajectory of how it cut through. one thing, too, we need to talk about is the first responders. the incredible people that have been working throughout all yesterday afternoon, overnight, in hard hats. being the first ones to run into these dangerous areas, to make sure that everybody was able to get out safely. and we know that there are so many great volunteers, salt of the earth people who want to do stuff, but so many people are warning, be careful, today, as first light comes up, there's so many dangerous spots already. >> but the commonality of all these tragedies is the way americans respond. >> and we're going to get more on that now from the governor. governor mary fallin joins us live right now. governor, first of all, we're so sorry, about what has happened here. and we want to know first and foremost if there are any new numbers on the death toll and

injuries. >> there's no new numbers at this time. we had reported numbers last night of about 51 people. we know there's a tremendous amount of injuries throughout the community itself. and of course, we're still very much into the rescue and recovery stage. we want to make sure that we have absolutely uncovered and looked in to every single crevice that there might be for anyone that might have been injured in the tornado itself and in the storm. but we're still in the recovery stage. there's a lot going on at the site itself, and it's been very challenging. >> if you can tell us a little bit where that stands right now in terms of the rescue and recovery phase here. i know you have the national guard in place, first responders, and there's a lot of areas that are just completely desolate and completely devastated. is there any sort of coordination in effect right now, or how are you working that? how are you managing that? >> absolutely. you know, this, unfortunately, is not our first disaster in the

state of oklahoma. i was listening to you talk about the may 3rd tornado in 1999 and i was in office when we had the april 19th bombing in 1995 also. it's been a time when oklahomans have had to pull together, many times. and so we are really good at natural disasters and rapid response. it was remarkable last night when i was at the various different command centers and on the ground site, especially at the plaza tower school, to see the effort and the coordination and the collaboration between the local officials, the federal, and certainly the state officials. and how they were working together in teams, arranging all the different shifts of people that would come in, so we could operate 24 hours on the site, to make sure that we were looking for people and rescuing people. but this is a big job to coordinate something of this magnitude. this is a huge disaster area. it's horrific, it's a big tragedy and a sad day for oklahomans and we want to do

everything we can to get emergency personnel out there, to get food, water, shelter for those and certainly taking care of the families that are looking for their loved ones and those that have lost their loved ones. >> willie geigillie geist, obvi governor is talking about the importance of emergency recovery and coordinating the local and the state officials. the president, though, also weighing in last night. >> absolutely. governor, i know you had a chance to speak to president obama last night. he did declare this a federal disaster area, which means good things for you and your state. i wonder if you could share a little bit about the president's message to you and what it means to you to have the federal government involved here. >> well, it's absolutely essential that we have the cooperation of the federal government. we issued our emergency declaration early on sunday. we actually had our emergency operations center up early saturday and we're prepared, because we knew a storm was going to be coming through for the next several days.

we were able last night to get confirmation of our declaration for the emergency, so we can immediately start getting federal assistance in here, resources for funding. and when you have a disaster of this magnitude, areas where the tornado was almost two miles wide, a tremendous amount of businesses and homes that were missing, there's a lot of effort that goes into this. we don't have power in this area. in fact, we still don't have some power in some other areas of the state, because we had tornadoes on sunday too. we don't have water at the facilities or a tremendous amount of debris that's around the different areas. and certainly even the major interest ra interstates, we had two interstates shut down yesterday for many, many hours, where the cars that were destroyed on the interstate itself. so it's been a big effort to be able to get all of this coordinated. but we're doing very well. we have a great plan, a great team, and it is ponder to have that cooperation. and getting back to the president, he did call and we are very grateful for that.

we appreciate them approving the fema declaration quickly. he offered any type of resources that we might need here in the state. and we appreciate that. a lot of governors have called too and some have already sent some aid. >> that's wonderful that your governor and great to hear that you guys have put together a great plan. you, obviously, have great people here in oklahoma who have been through so many tragedies. our thoughts and prayers are with you. they always fight back, as they fought back after 1995 and after 1999. and as we see sunrise over moore, it seems impossible to believe that they can fight back from this, but knowing the people of this great state, you know they're going to do it. >> they are going to do it. this is not the first time we've had to go through something like this. and the one thing i know about the people of oklahoma, they will do whatever it takes to help their fellow citizens, who are the most generous state. there were so many people that were immediately on the site. people calling up, willing to

help. just walking through the neighborhoods, offering their services. it's the oklahoma standard, as we became famous for in 1995. and i know our people are resilient and will come back strong. >> governor, thank you so much. >> the governor driving across the state, probably into this area right now. and she's on a cell phone and lost her at the end. but it is great, willie and mika, that they are coordinating the state and the federal level as well as the local. >> and we'll be following the news conferences. she'll be having one later today and the president will be speaking as well. coming up next on "morning joe" and our live coverage, we'll hear from mayor glen lewis, who has been a longtime mayor of moore, oklahoma. his thoughts and reflections as this town wakes up to a whole new world. >> and mayor was here in 1999. >> he was the mayor in 1999, when the very same type of tornado came through then. >> we'll be right back with more live coverage. ♪

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back here on "morning joe." brian shactman here in new york city. of course, you're looking at more images the from the tornado in moore, oklahoma. we want to bring in from capitol hill, senator james inhofe, a republican from oklahoma. of course, the senior senator in that state and a republican. thanks for joining us, senator. first, just your general impressions on what's happened and the response since yesterday afternoon.

>> well, first of all, you have to keep in mind, several of us were there in 1999. and it's just remarkable, it went right through the same area, the same level of devastation. and so, the area of devastation, whether it's joplin or pitcher or shawnee, oklahoma, it's all completely a wipeout. this happened to be worse, because it's a larger area, two miles across and several miles long. so what i have seen is the same thing everyone else who's watching this now have seen. it's just absolute devastation. until you've been there, you can't really appreciate it. right now, and i talked to some of the emergency people who are there in oklahoma just a minute ago, they're still at this tower plaza school, trying to see if there are other children, trying to match up missing parents with missing children is a real serious problem. so it is absolutely devastating and i think everybody knows that now. >> senator inhofe, we appreciate it, your insight on this

important day to get insights from the state of oklahoma. >> can i mention -- >> yes, sir? >> let me mention one other thing. we had another disaster in shawnee the day before. i have a picture here, actually floated down in my yard the day, on sunday night, actually, in my son-in-law's yard. this is a picture that came 80 miles away from the tornado in shawnee, oklahoma, coming down in our yard, 80 miles away. just unheard of. >> it gives you an impression of the power. we're hearing stories of items showing up in other states outside of oklahoma. we appreciate the insight. i want to send it back now to moore, oklahoma, with joe and mika. guys? >> all right, brian, thank you. so we just moved a couple of feet down here. we're right outside the hospital. which you can see, is devastated. >> and mika, you heard the senator talking about getting a picture from 80 miles away in

his yard. and you get a grasp of the devastation. we just walked a few feet. we're on the corner here of telephone and southwest sixth avenue and you just see the devastation, obviously, here. and willie with, a twisted axel. it's just, it's devastating. >> it's an axel from a car. to telling where it came from. could have been a car from the medical center, wrapped up in some roofing material. one could easily guess, it might have been ripped off the roof, which was totally removed from the moore medical center. >> and look through here as you see, willie, the back of the moore medical center, and you see the shards and the twisted material that is going from -- it really does. it looks like a scene from iraq or syria or a war zone. just completely shattered. torn to shreds. >> and you know what's stunning is when a twister hits and you have a situation like this,

which is a massive one, so you have miles and miles of this, but the house that we were looking at before, that we walked out of, you have half of it completely gutted and ripped to shreds, and then a closet with a little girl's clothes lined up perfectly, hanging in the closet. it's completely -- >> that's what's so jarring. >> -- indiscriminate. >> so indiscriminate. but you get a look at the lives that these americans lived, probably a lot of them, most of their lives here. most of the people, a lot of moore natives living in area. and you see the way they lived, willie, and it just being torn to shreds in an instant. and as the governor said, you're talking about a tornado that was two miles wide at points and 20 miles long. there's no escaping the impact of that storm. >> no. we saw video of people in cars yesterday shooting the storm, thinking maybe they could steer away from it, which is obviously

a dangerous proposition. because when you see that thing in front of you, there's nowhere to go. if it's a mile wide, there's nowhere to go. >> there are, obviously, this morning, a lot of people that are probably questioning the school officials who decided to keep the kids, the kindergartners, first, second, and third graders in the school. you know, there's long been the theory, for people who are experts in this area, you don't get kids -- you don't get anybody out, because everything's a flying projectile. you look at this axle. here's a great example of, these are the sort of things that fly around. the senator was talking about getting a picture 80 miles -- you figure it's going 150, 200 miles an hour. it doesn't take the axle of a small car to kill you, it could be, you know, a brick flying through the air. >> and today, of course, the recovery effort, because we have a death toll at 51, but it is expected to rise as they sift through the rubble of such

massive devastation here in moore, oklahoma. coming up after the break, we're going to talk to the mayor of moore, who has lived through tornado in the past. >> he has. and willie had quite a story about the mayor and his own crew. >> runs a jewelry store, and put his people inside the jewelry vault to survive the storm. >> we'll hear that story straight ahead as our live coverage continues on a special edition of "morning joe." with the spark miles card from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles

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the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. welcome back toing "morning joe." we are live this morning in moore, oklahoma, a site of utter devastation as the sun comes up this morning. and we have with us now the mayor of this town, glen lewis, the longtime mayor. mayor lewis, thanks for taking some time on a busy day. >> thanks for being here. appreciate you telling our story. >> mayor lewis, i know you've

been here in this community for an awful long time. you were the mayor during the terrible, terrible storm of may 3rd, is t1999. from what you've seen so far this morning, as you've made your way out into moore, is there any comparison between these two storms? >> it was very similar, except the first one was much stronger, and the second one was much larger. we're seeing devastation across the city. it went diagonally across, where the second one went across the street. we had a loss of life of 51 people and 20 of them are, unfortunately, children. >> do you have any update, mayor lewis, from what you've seen over at plaza towers elementary school. obviously, a lot of people not just here, but around the world, anxious to hear some good news from there. what have you heard so far this morning? >> we're down to less than four people in the entire city that are missing, according to the fire department and we hope that

those people are just out of town. so we're very optimistic that the loss of life is over and our condolences go out to the families. right now, we're trying to assess the damage. we're looking at making sure there's no more people out there that are needing help. this will be our third and fourth round of checking houses door to door. our police and fire have done an excellent job. we've had assistance from every major city around us and even small cities around us. the county has been excellent. everybody's been good to work, and we just, it looks like the fema trucks just rolled in, just a few minutes ago. >> mr. mayor, you said there are four unaccounted for. does that mean the search for survivors is over at plaza towers elementary school? >> no, sir. they're still over there right now, going through debris. and i don't believe that's where the four missing people are actually from. so we're working on that.

i haven't got an update on that in the last hour and a half. >> you know, mr. mayor, we had -- so, what is the official death count? i just want to clear this up. is it 51 right now? >> that's what i was told. i don't have any way to confirm that. that has to come from the state coroner's office. the governor can probably tell you more about that than i can. >> because i had heard 51. we'd heard reports a couple of hours ago that the medical examiner was saying to expect 40 more, but, obviously, if there are no more than 51, and they've accounted for everybody but four, that would be a great blessing. let's hope that's the case, mr. mayor. but i want to -- i had a son that was at the university of alabama when the devastating tornado went through there, and i heard stories of people running into safes, to try to protect themselves, bank safes, and that always did protect them from injury. but you had a story of what you

did with your workers yesterday at the jewelry store you own. tell us about it. >> yes. yes, sir. we have a huge walk-in vault that acts as a safe room as well. and we actually went into the safe room and i actually watched the tornado from outside of the store in the back, and we could see it forming. two tornadoes came together to make a super cell and it was terrible. so, you know, people have asked my feelings all morning long. you know, i'm upset, i'm sad, but now is the time we have to get on with it and recover. so that's what we're going to do. >> well, this great city has done it before, mika. >> mayor glen lewis, thank you so much. our prayers are with your town and your community. >> thank you very much. >> all right. stay with us, more special coverage here on "morning joe" continues after a quick break. [ male announcer ] erica had a rough day.

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welcome back to "morning joe." yesterday's devastating tornado in moore, oklahoma, already drawing comparisons to several of the more deadly storms from the past 20 years.

>> you've got to act. you can't think or delay. you've got to act. act to save your life and your loved one's lives. >> we had to pull a car off a teacher in the front hallway, and i don't know what that lady's name is, but she had three little kids underneath her. good job, teach. you can see it ripped our house up. i've still got a little girl buried if there, so i've got to go. >> we won't know the full impact for some time, but yesterday's storm will likely go down as one of the deadliest in recent history. most tornadoes last only a few minutes. this one terrorized residents in moore, oklahoma, for 40. but the people here, no strangers to extreme weather. oklahoma has the fifth most tornadoes for any state per square mile and more than 170,000 people were in the path of yesterday's twister. moore is right in the middle of a region west of the mississippi from north texas to south dakota where tragedy comes with the territory. >> you could hear the tornado come over and the tornado ripped

the door off the cellar and debris started coming down the cellar. mud, all kinds of stuff. >> reporter: may 3rd, 1999, 46 people were killed and more than 800 were injured when a tornado touches down, just miles north of moore. that storm had winds peaking over 300 miles per hour, the fastest ever recorded on earth. the damage from yesterday's tornado, estimated to be twice as large as that storm. >> apocalyptic, i would say, would be the best word to describe it. >> reporter: two years ago, 161 people lost their lives during a tornado in joplin, missouri. that storm is the costliest in u.s. history, estimated at $2.8 billion. as the damage is assessed in the days and weeks ahead, yesterday's tornado is expected to be in the top five. >> i don't know how to explain it, how to describe it. this is, this is terrible. this is war zone terrible.

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i came out and i saw the cars and i saw the houses and i just started crying so hard. >> you are never, ever going to go through this again. >> we just started grabbing and throwing debris, trying to get anybody out. and we successfully got people out, just not alive. >> this is terrible. this is war zone terrible. this school is completely gone. >> lost everything. these horses are what bring us our meals every day and we might have one horse left out of all of them. >> the scene behind us is like, it's like from a post apocalyptic movie. >> it's really hard to wrap your mind around what you're seeing. >> what you're seeing is a neighborhood behind us here that is just no longer left standing. >> there's house, house, house, house and all that's left is foundations. >> i keep getting completely

overwhelmed by these sights. this is a little girl's room. you see the cds, a butterfly lamp, and even the clothes still hanging. >> everything is gone, everything is gone, but the important things are alive. >> it was remarkable last night, it's been a time when oklahomans have had to pull together, many times. >> this is a picture that came 80 miles away from the tornado in shawnee, oklahoma, coming down in our yard 80 miles away. >> we just now paid off our house. now we're in a position of, which direction do we go? this is where we put what we learned, but we're joined now by homeowner mark ellard. and we just discovered that he lived in the home that was our backdrop for most of the morning. you lived in that home for 23 years with your wife. >> yes. >> and two children.

were you inside the home when the tornado struck? >> yes. >> can you tell us what that was like and how you escaped. >> well, i was working in my garage and i heard on the radio, they said that the tornado was taking the same path as the may 3rd, which went north of me that time. so -- then they said, it's directly headed toward the warren theater, and that's when i perked up and said, well, okay, and i started making some preparations. and i could actually hear the roar of it coming from the southwest. and that's when i closed the garage door, i grabbed my dog and we went in the closet. >> so you rode it out. >> mm-hmm. >> and your wife? >> she was at work and the children were with her. >> and coming back here this morning, how do you describe it -- >> i never left. >> you stayed there all night? >> our thoughts -- certainly,

our thoughts and prayers are with you and everybody else. i know after the may 3rd tornado, nobody thought moore was going to come back, but they did. it's going to happen again, isn't it? >> it sure is, yeah. >> thank you so much for being with us. >> mark, thank you very much. >> good luck and god bless. chuck todd takes up conch. we will be here, obviously, all day and tomorrow and the rest of the week. thanks for being with us. new pictures this morning of moore, oklahoma, where the devastation is overwhelming and heartbreaking. and one hour from now, president obama will speak about the tragedy and the rescue and recovery efforts that are underway. and we're expecting a press conference from moore, oklahoma. that will begin in a few minutes. we'll have thaiv