to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪ right now on "andrea mitchell reports" -- devastation in oklahoma. >> 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 ones' lives, you've got do act. >> i've never heard a roar like that before. >> we had to sit like this. and the tornado started knocking all the ceilings go up and down and a light went down and it hit me in the head and it all the

other girls were screaming. and they were crying. >> and we heard the tornado and it sounded like a train coming by. and then we all, we were all uncovered. and your teacher took cover of us. >> i was in a stall with some kids and it just started coming down. so i laid on top of them. one of my little boys, he kept saying, i love you, i love you, please don't die with me, please don't die with me. >> thank you, thank you! >> he was so brave. >> at this hour, the death toll now has been corrected to 24, including nine children. we'll get the latest on the search and rescue from oklahoma governor mary fallon, just minutes from now.

president obama immediately sent federal disaster relief teams to the storm zone. >> for all of those who have been affected, we recognize that you face a long road ahead. in some cases, there will be enormous grief that has to be absorbed. but you will not travel that path alone. your country will travel it with you. fuelled by our faith in the yale mighty and our faith in one another. so our prayers are with the people of oklahoma today, and we will back up those prayers with deeds for as long as it takes. >> in washington, a moment of silence in the senate, as flags at the white house and the u.s. capitol are lowered to half-staff to honor the victims. even as the threat for severe weather continues today, parts of oklahoma, texas, louisiana and arkansas are all at risk.

and good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the mile-wide twister that tore through moore, oklahoma was an e-4, it travel throughout 20 miles in 40 minutes. at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. as of now the medical examiner reports recovering 24 bodies. the death toll is expected to rise as rescue teams continue their search. msnbc's chris jansing, host of "jansing and company" with us, now, from moore, oklahoma. we can see the weather has moved in. what you have witnessed today, so far, the stories of courage and survival and reunion, hopefully. >> let's start with these first responders and the search and rescue people, andrea. you mentioned the weather. just took a turn for the worse. they were out, many of them, the first wave all night long and now authorities say they're going to do two more passes. now we're, let me put my umbrella down. can you see there's absolutely nothing behind me. but across the street there are

homes that are severely damaged. those were all searched early on and have big orange xs on them, signifying that they've been checked. they intend to do that twice more to every single place in this ravaged town. because they want to make sure that no one who is alive isn't rescued and that all the bodies are recovered. but also you're hearing these individual stories of heroism. one of the most moving, the father of an 8-year-old who said his son's teacher put them all in a closet and shielded their heads with her arms. so that when the ceiling came down on them, they would be protected. he said the force was so strong, it literally took eyeglasses off the faces of the children. we are hearing these kinds of stories over and over again. and i can tell you, in this neighborhood, which is no more, it's amazing how many people have been coming out to help their neighbors who are going through the little bit of rubble that there is. and looking to see if there are any treasures left behind that they might want to claim.

so it is going to be a long and pain-staking process. and right now, andrea, the weather is not cooperating. >> not at all. there were threats of fire there were fires yesterday, threats of gas leaks. but people are being permitted to go back to their neighborhoods and look to see what they can salvage? >> yeah, on a case-by-case basis, there are a lot of downed power lines there were concerns about gas leaks, we got in here early this morning. i think it was about 3:30 local times. could you smell gas a little bit. so they're being very, very cautious about this. we have seen some trucks moving through, some utility trucks and also, we've seen other kinds of crews just going through and checking and making sure that it's safe for people to come in. they're doing it on a limited basis and they're allowing people in here for a limited time. mostly either to find what they can or to secure what's left of their homes, andrea. >> is this a recovery mission at this point? or is are there still searches

going to see if there are survivors. >> they're absolutely considering this still a search mission. the most famous is at the elementary school, which is just about a mile from where i'm standing. there are lot of other structures where they believe that people may be missing. and you can understand the chaos. we're not even 24 hours into this at this point. it's very difficult to discern who might really be missing. if somebody who has called someone in. if they're just out of town if they're staying with friends, we've met so many people who have not gone to shelters, where they can track names. but are staying with friends in this neighborhood. it's very chaotic, even now. and one of the things they want to make sure, that's why they're going to do this triple process. we've heard stories in situations like this, where not just many hours, but even days later, people have been found alive. and they are determined if there is someone out there, they're going to find them, andrea. >> thanks so much. as the weather turns pretty grim again, thanks, chris jansing.

frank keating served two terms as governor of oklahoma during both the oklahoma city bombing disaster and the may 3rd, 1999 record-shattering tornado that also hit moore and he joins me here in our studio. governor thank you very much. and you know many of the officials there, mary fallon was your lieutenant governor and emergency rescue, the mayor of moore was also the mayor in 1999 you saw this in 1999. what is this community going through? and as the chief executive, mary fallon is about to address us. what procedures is she taking now? >> well, it's agony, fear, real concern and alarm about what tomorrow might bring. but all of that will filter down. people are happy if their children survive if their husbands or wives survive. now it's a rescue operation still under way, as chris said. a recovery operation in terms of your own home and personal property that will be a challenge. because here you're talking

about potentially according to some of the sources i have, in the salvation army, the red cross, there could be as many as 20,000 families displaced. the land around this site, in 1999, a lot of it was just fields. now it's all heavily developed. it's largely working-class people there are going to be a lot of financial needs, car payments, new automobiles, furniture, clothing, food and the like. it's the salvation army and the red cross, the focus right now on getting ourselves back on our feet as a community. it will be a long time coming. >> they had just finished rebuilding. many of these people were affected, the other storm in 1999 was more powerful. it took a turn and hit the outskirts, this one cut right throughed community. what about the insurance issues and the cash flow to keep them through the next couple of weeks as they figure out shelter? >> well andrea, that's the big

issue, all of us who live there and love our neighbors and friends and families, i have, kathy and i have two of our three children live in oklahoma city. mercifully they have storm shelters. in the case of our family and our friends, the focus is on those in the moore area, who really are a lot of them very fragile financially. so to the extent that we can use the salvation army and the red cross and other organizations to provide solace, relief and short and long-term assistance, we're going to do that. because it's going to be tough. making house payments and there's no house. hopefully those house payments will be deferred, rebuilding. i've been told that some senior citizens, because their homes are paid for to save money, have said i'm not going to play my property insurance bill, that's another case i don't have. if those cases exist, that's obviously very worrisome. right now everybody has to inventory the need and execute,

satisfy the needs of all of these people because they are wonderful people. they're fellow neighbors. >> what about the schools, we've heard the stories of these heroic teachers, sheltering the chilled and some of the children were sent into the hallway. what about the lack of underground facilities, shelters in the schools, in the elementary schools. >> thank you for saying what you did about the teachers. because my wife is a teacher, my mother is a teacher and that really is the greatest profession. but in the case of schools after the 1999 tornado, all of those schools were examined. the practice was to have people go to the most interior wall to protect themselves from flying glass and the like but how do you respond to a 200 or 300-mile-per-hour wind? that will sweep anything off its foundation. so what, i think has to be done, is preer sizely what you're suggesting, is it right to go to the basement? in this case, there were children who were drowned. apparently in the basement.

so if that's not right, then what about checking and making sure that all of those interior walls in fact can respond to high-velocity winds. something that has to be done. after 9/11, ray downey, the greatest deputy fire chief expert on building collapse in new york. they came and helped us during our own agony in the april 1995 bombing. ray and his people, their practice was to establish their command post if you will on the first floor of a building. well that first floor of the tower, was an inferno and people did not survive when the building collapsed on ray and all of his people. these are the kind of questions that have to be asked. and obviously the answers are going to have to be solicited and then implemented whatever changes that need to be implemented. >> a frank keating, a governor who has been there, seen this before tragically. and one of the heartbreaking stories unfolding is that of

plaza towers elementary school, where teachers tried to shelter the kids in the hallways and in the bathrooms, some of them using their bodies to cover students when the tornado hit. >> there's the school. i'm not for sure the exact name of it. but that's, that's going to be on, it's going to be south . we had to walk over piles of like, desks and everything and it was pretty scary. everybody was rushing, everybody. and i came out and i saw the cars and i saw the houses and i just started crying so hard. >> it's all right, honey, you are never, ever going to go through this again. >> we had to sit like this and the tornado started knocking all the ceilings go up and down and a light went down and it hit me in the head. and all the other girls were screaming. and then were crying. >> i had to hold onto 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. >> we will 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. you can see it ripped that house up. i still got a little buried in there. i mean i got to go . you can help the storm victims, text redcross to 90999. to give $10 or you can donate online at redcross.org. i should definitely do laundry more often yeah by the time i do there's all these mystery stains. i mean is it coffee? could be gravy. yeah. so now i use tide boost with my tide. it's double powerful for when things get double iffy.

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welcome back. and joining me by phone is galen kitsch, director of emergency management for the city of moore, mr. kitsch, thank you very much for taking the time. can you bring us up to date on the situation? >> have that completed. at least primary search is completed by -- >> i think we are having phone service problems with galen kitsch. because of the storm, the rain that is coming in. so joining me now from moore while we fix that is kurt gortny. the director. local nbc station in moore, oklahoma. you've seen bad weather, in tornado alley, but i presume

nothing like this. >> the closest thing i've seen before would be the may 3rd, 199 storm. as anybody who follows these storms, that storm had the highest recorded wind speeds at the surface of the planet, ever. the destruction is similar, but that storm took a path that went through more lightly populated areas. where this one took a turn through densely populated area. >> at this stage, what do you think people need most? you know, less than 24 hours after the disaster hit. >> i still don't know if people know what they need the most. because i've been talking to people yesterday and even into today. they're still just trying to wrap their minds around the fact that everything they have is gone. everything. and everything their neighbors have, is gone. but we are fortunate in oklahoma, is we're used to this. that's the good and the bad thing, i guess, so we have good support mechanisms in place, at all levels from the local level,

through state government. we know how to deal with disaster. and i think what people need the most is just some time to figure out what to do and then we'll get the resources to help them do it. >> kurt, people have their roots here. it is as we say, tornado alley. and they have warning but there was no place to go are they going to rebuild? are they going to try to stay? >> people rebuilt here before after the may 3rd, 1999 tornado. now that was an interesting shift in that many homes that rebuilt did include safe rooms that provided more protection from storms like the one we had here this week. >> and from you and your neighbors, how do people handle this kind of devastation? just the emotional weight. they're so relieved to be alive and have their children alive. those who survived. how do you lose everything and have the strength and the

courage to go on? >> well, oklahoma, besides being tornado alley, is also considered by many to be the buckle of the bible belt so people's faith really has a lot to do with where they find strength and resources and community. whenever they have lost the community where they lived. so we'll probably see a fairly significant bump in church attendance over the next several weeks. especially this sunday. i'm sure there are many clergy, and many faith communities that are planning special services to provide some context for this to provide a little bit bigger picture. >> and it's also the pioneer spirit we all know our story about the western expansion and what the people who forged their way out to oklahoma first experienced. >> these are the descendant of that pioneer spirit. >> and an independent spirit, too. >> if you would have been here just after the tornado left,

there were, there were lots of people that came out to help. on their own. that's the way oklahomans are. they have a significant independent streak. we're not called the sooners for anything. our ancestors -- went ahead of the line a little bit. >> kurt, i'm going to interrupt you only because we have the governor right now let's have the latest from the governor. mary fallon. >> and being able to help in our search and rescue. we appreciate you. and it's been a very trying couple of days for the state of oklahoma. it's a sad time for us, because we've experienced one of our most horrific storms and disasters that the state has ever faced. but yet, in the midst of tragedy and loss of life, we've also seen the resilience and the courage and the strength of our people. and we will get through this. we will overcome and we will rebuild and we will regain our strength. our hearts and prayers are certainly with those that have lost their loved ones, it has been a very, very hard

experience, a heart-breaking experience, especially the loss of children in the schools themselves and those who haven't been able to find their loved ones and are still waiting to hear. we frankly don't even know yet if there are still missing people. but there still may be. so our first and foremost emergency and goal is to have rescue and recovery. to make sure that we have uncovered every piece of debris and gone through every building, piece of land itself to see if there might be someone that survived the storm or has experienced some injuries, itself. i had the opportunity a few moments ago to take an aerial tour to fly along the path of the tornado itself. it is very wide. it is hard to look at. because there is so much debris on the ground itself. and in many places homes were absolutely destroyed. taken away. there's just sticks and bricks

basically. it's hard to tell if there was a structure there or not. if you get into some of the major neighborhoods, you can't tell where the streets were. the street signs were gone. it's been a big challenge for us and being able to determine which area of the community we might be in. because the streets are just gone. the signs are just gone. we've been working very hard to identify various areas of need. the path is very wide over the storm itself. it's about 20 miles long. we estimate it could have been up to two miles in width itself. we flew over the schools. and got to see the terrible destruction. of the schools themselves, the business community and the friends and neighbors that lost their homes. we're very sad about. i want to personally thank administrator fugate who has joined us here with fema. they have done a superb job in working with our city and state and federal leaders here.

we appreciate you administrator. we appreciate your very prompt response in answering our disaster declaration for our state and giving us approval on that. as you know, administrator, not only did we have the storm that passed through yesterday, but we also had the storms and loss of life and loss of homes and businesses on sunday. when the storm actually began to roll through the state of oklahoma. so thank you for your assistance, i also had a second phone call a few moments ago from president obama. once again reiterating that fema is here to help bring any resources to bear, to help us with any type of red tape that we might run across and several other cabinet secretaries have called also to express their thoughts and prayers and offer assistance. we appreciate all that fema is doing. i want to say a word to all the first responders. so many, fire, police, emergency personnel.

the office of emergency management director albert ashhood and his team that have been coordinating on the state level. thank you very very much. and job well done to help so many people that are in need. this has been a big tragedy for the state and it's not easy to handle something of this magnitude. i know that many people have worked around the clock and have put in extremely long hours under dangerous circumstances helping our fellow oklahomans and we're very grateful for all of you. i want to i have go you updates on some things. we have what's called a unified command led by the moore fire department. they have done a superb job. working with their local officials here and with our state and federal officials. they have a plan, they're implementing a plan and they have been since yesterday. i've been to their command headquarters and i've seen them

organize various teams. they have the map of the city itself. both moore and oklahoma city. in which they've been sending out various teams and determining what the most important need is at that particular moment. so thank you and job well done to the command team itself. at 9:00 a.m. this morning, i brought together all of my cabinet secretaries from my various heads of my agencies. for the state of oklahoma. we had a thorough meeting going through each division of our state entities, talking about the current needs and challenges facing the state of oklahoma. we want to encourage anyone that is currently still in need in our state to call 1-800-621-fema. if you need services. if you need some type of help, and if a community needs some help or a department needs some help. we have also set up a state website. that people can go to get current information.

to look at current services that are available and certainly to be able to respond to the state government. it is the website is okstrong.ok.gov. and that website will have, will be updated throughout the day and throughout the time period until we get through this. there will also be legislation that we are working on right now in the oklahoma sthat and the house that will be a legislative vehicle to be able to tap our state rainy day savings account to set up an emergency fund for the state to be able to match federal dollars and to be able to help our local communities who are in need of services funding. a lot of communities are tapping their local resources. certainly a lot of personnel is working overtime. and there are a lot of departments that are having to utilize some of their funding. and it will also help us with

matching some of the individuals who will apply for the federal assistance on the individual basis that have lost things. to help reimburse the local communities. i've also signed an executive order that will waive the weight limits for utilities that are coming into the state and working within the state on weight and height to get the power back restored and get other essential utility services flowing again. we have many different areas throughout the state that are without electricity and of course we've been without water in this local area of the city itself and water pressure is low in oklahoma city, too. because one of our power supplies is affected in one of the water plants. i am aware that we have some state employees. that have been affected by the tornadoes throughout the state. and only this one, but the ones in previous days. so for state employees, that have lost their homes, i'm not

aware of if any of them have lost loved ones. but if the work through their agency head. we're going to give our state employee who is have been affected, 15 days of administrative leave. they won't have to take vacation leave or sick leave to be able to get back on their feet and to take care of their personal needs. i've visited with our secretary of health and human services, we've been working with our local hospitals and nursing associations and also the state funeral directors, and we have plenty of capacity in our hospital to take those that have been injured. we estimate there have been around 237 injuries so far that we know of. that have shown up ott our various facilities. we're working to set up mental health counseling centers in our shelters and working to establish a 1-800 number for those who need counseling who have lost loved ones or face some stress from all of this

going on. we don't have any firm numbers on the number of desks that we have experienced. we know that there are people and bodies have been taken to the medical examiner's office. but we have also heard that there may be bodies that are been taken to local funeral homes. so we are working real hard right now to try to get a more accurate count of the loss of life and we hope to have better numbers on that. our department of transportation has pulled together over 400 people throughout the state that are on stand by to bring in various bulldozers and equipment. when the time comes that we need to begin the process of helping to clear the roads better. certainly to keep those safe. and we will be certainly allowing people to do what they need to do to get their valuable possessions through the lost property that they have

experienced. but we will also have the resources available to be able to begin clearing at some point in time in the future. og and e is working hard to restore power we have had 38,000 residents at this point in time that are without power. 20,000 in moore and oklahoma city. and so we're working to get that power back up. one of the other challenges we have faced throughout this time period has been the problems with communications. with cell service. and with telephone lines that have been down. and at&t and verizon have set up mobile units to allow better communication for us. the department of agriculture and forestry has also brought in heavy equipment to help when the time comes with debris clearing. and i just want to add that for those that are calling in, offering help and resources, please make contact with our various charities through the red cross for donations or volunteer help and also with the

salvation army. they're the best source right now to give information to you. i'll turn it over here to administrator fugate, thank you so much for coming to oklahoma, we appreciate your help. >> thank you, governor. let's be clear, fema's job is to support the team. and the team has been working since the tornado struck. local fire police, volunteers, governors called out the national guard. the primary response is the disaster is being led by the governor, the local officials and the first responders. our job is to support. it's unfortunate that we are once again seeing what tornadoes can do. but you're also seeing what the investment in public safety and the commitment, and training and exercise does when disaster does strike. so let's get some practical stuff out here for the public. those people that have been affected, you've had losses due to the storm, go ahead and call 1-800-621-fema. the governor asked last night,

the president made the declaration. this was pretty quick turn-around, because of the devastation and the evidence of how bad it was. that the president concurred and issued that last night. so important that people start registering, we know a lot of people are staying with friends and family. some of them are probably even staying in their cars right now. we can provide some assistance, rental assistance. we want to get people a place to stay and so the first step is to register so we can start that assistance, so 1-800-621-fema. or go with their mobile device, if they have connectivity, they can go to disasterassistance.gov and register online as well. the second thing is still got a lot of congestion on the cell system. you still have a the although of towers down because of power outages. unless it's an emergency, use text messaging, stay off the phones. can you relieve a lot of congestion by using text messaging if it's not an emergency, stay off the phone until the system comes back up. third thing, let people know

you're okay. one of the challenges with this type of event is because the devastation is so bad, it's difficult to get a handle on how many people may be missing. so if you have, you did live in the areas, you were impacted, let people know you're okay. so we're not looking for people that we don't need to be looking for. as the governor points out, they're going through that debris and we're going to keep looking until everybody's found. but you can help just by letting people know you're okay. the red cross does have a safety and wellness site. so let people know you're okay. the last thing as the governor said, if you're not in the area and you want to help, the best way to help is to give generously to the volunteer organizations that are active in disasters. there are a variety of folks from the red cross, salvation army. southern baptist that do great work. this he can definitely use your contributions. but if you're not in the area, the best way to help is to send your help through those organizations that is our, that's the lesson we've learned time and time again. that stuff isn't as great as

cash when it comes to the longer-term needs for a lot of folks that have lost everything, thank you. >> my name is albert, i'm the state director of emergency management. i would like to reiterate what craig said, whether it's the federal government or the state government we have a simple job. to support our local jurisdiction does make sure that they have everything that we have to or offer to help them get through this emergency phase of this disaster. to help to effectively respond. we will also begin we coverry as has already been stated. we're looking at setting up some assistance centers, in an area that we can have many assistant centers to help out with various individuals and where they can go. some of the challenges that we're facing have to do with especially with getting the message out. communications, very easy for us to stand up here and talk about mobile apps that we have or talk about calling 1-800-621-fema. or going to websites but if you've lost your electricity and your phone is dead and you don't know where to go or what to do.

we're going to have to little old-school method. we're going to be looking at flyers, things like that that we can get the message out to people who are in the debris and trying to stay with their property and trying to get back into their property. so we can get that message to them. we'll be working on that throughout the day. supporting the local jurisdictions. and making sure that they have everything they need. i'd like to introduce at this time fire chief of moore. please come on up, sir. >> hi, my name is gary bird, the fire chief for the city of moore. and just some updated information. we kept over 200 responders out in the field last night. we stayed at the school overnight. going through the school. and we stayed in several different locations back and forth. changing men out. and we had to pull off several times because of weather, the lightning and then we went back out. we are out, we started with a primary search yesterday in the secondary search we made it through i will say most of the structures, most of the vehicles, most of the homes, but the ones that we didn't make it

through yesterday, we will make it through today for sure. and the send and third time. we will be through every damaged piece of property in this city at least three times before we're done. and we hope to be done by dark tonight. and i want to thank everyone that has come in to help from all over oklahoma and all over the nation to help the city of norm. thank you. >> jerry stillings, chief of police in moore. i want to thank the other agencies, we could not have done this without them and continue to do this without them. we have 75 static posts that we have officers stationed at. and we obviously couldn't do that on our own without these other agencies. the one thing i just want to emphasize is that we have to have people out of those affected areas so that we can do our work and get it done sooner. so that we can shrink that perimeter and let people back in.

and the other issue is, please try to stay away from 4th street and 19th street when when you're driving. it's just bogging us down. we can't, we've got traffic jams. if you don't belong in the area, please stay away from those areas. sant santa fe is the same way. telephone, telephone road. so those are have caused some big issues for us. if we could just get the public to cooperate, if you, there's not, there isn't anything that you can do there at this time. and there are a lot of safety issues. so if you'll give us time, let the search and rescue take place. we can get you in there a lot quicker. thank you. >> i'm major general miles deering, the adjutant general of 0 being okay it's an honor to support the first responders and that's what we're here for, is to support the first responders. and fill gaps in the

capabilities that they have. with the either our resources or the resources we can reach out and gather to support this effort. and it's just been a phenomenal effort thus far. and it's going to be a long time before we totally heal from this. and recover. we're here to support. >> mr. thompson? >> i'm mike thompson, the governor fallin's cabinet secretary for safety and security. for the brevity, i want to echo what the director said. we want to be sensitive to the people who are looking for their lost ones and loved ones and trying to look at the area here. but it's still, it just slows down the recovery efforts. so if you don't need to be here, please avoid this area. and let us do our work. we're going to be here as long as we need to to get this community back. and we're going to be very sensitive to the people that were affected by this loss. but we do know collectively,

we've got a tough job ahead of us, we're going to be here to help the community as long as it takes. >> mayor? first of all i would like to say thank you for everyone who is here today. i apologize, the air conditioner is not working, we're on generator power. so just bear with us. i have a lot of thank yous to say. first and foremost is the president of the united states. who sent me a fema director. i couldn't do without him. the governor who has been here on site ever since this happened. and i just appreciate her and her staff. all of the city employees. all the other agencies. that have come from all over. we appreciate their support and assistance. i want to say thank you to the city of oklahoma city. the city of norman. without them, we couldn't do it. and this has been quite an experience i was the actual mayor here in may 3rd, 1999, so this is not my first rodeo with

this. but it doesn't get any easier, especially with the loss of life and with that i'll turn it over to mayor cornett who will answer questions in a little bit. thank you. >> first i want to commend the city of moore and the resources that they've put into this. this could easily have overwhelmed an ordinary group of public safety officials. and they have not only been ep to the task. but i think have performed valiantly and we're immediately on the scene. there are you know, a number of organizations that probably deserve some level of mention today. including the media. who technology provided excellent warnings and no doubt saved hundreds of lives. i was able to tour the site this morning and you know one of the take-aways that a person receives in that situation is that no one could possibly have survived this. and yet, we know they did we know people crawled out of that rubble. and we're talking levels of debris that's four foot high as

far as you can see. we're talking about cars that are upside-down and school books and children's toys and trees without bark. this was the storm of storms. and the fact that so many lives have been spared, i think is a great testament to the technology, the media, and the public safety officials, whom have been mentioned largely from the city of moore and the city of oklahoma city. but larger, other municipalities and county officials as well. i do have one bit of new information to pass along. it appears that we have the power restored to the water treatment plant. if not by now, in the next few minutes. it takes a little bit of while for the pressure to build up in the system. so residents who would expect water power to increase throughout the afternoon, we could be at full usage later on today. it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to use less water than is necessary for the next few minutes, next few hours. but the system should be back up and running very, very soon.

and again i want to spread my thanks to governor fallin and her staff and to the federal officials who have come here in our hour of need and been with us. thank you all. >> chief with the oklahoma city police department. as usual, the response has been overwhelming by all the partner agencies. and public safety. all the volunteer agencies, from the state. local, federal. it's just overwhelming as usually you come to expect that. obviously we've dealt with this in the past. right now, oklahoma city in and of itself, which has a much smaller task that moore has, the area that's been affected is only about an eight square miles, that's with moderate to really extreme damage. there's about four square miles that we actually have cordoned off. that area is cordoned off where people onlyt pnt we're

only allowing owners, home owners to go into those areas. at least to try to get to their homes to see if they can salvage some things. they may be able to. >> we'll be in those areas for quite some time. probably for a week to two weeks, just to protect property and make sure everybody has the opportunity to get back to their, get back to their property. we've, in oklahoma city we've had a confirmed four deaths, i think overall, the medical examiner has actually confirmed 24 deaths. but four of those are in oklahoma city, the remainder would be in moore. obviously as the governor spoke there could be obviously others in the coming days, the search is still going on. heavily in moore, because they have such a larger area to cover. so we could expect more possibly.

so we have 24 right now. there could be more. all the people that had been reported missing, we had last night about 48, all of those have been actually found. except for i think there's a few left in moore that they're working on to try to locate. that have not. if there is still somebody out there, if there's anybody out there, citizens that have not found loved ones, we'd ask them to go ahead and call us at 297-1129 and at least report that and let us have the opportunity, maybe to locate them. again i want to thank the media, for their cooperation. and all the state and local agencies that have worked together to really make such a tragic event handled as well as possible. thank you. >> keith bryant, fire chief, oklahoma city fire department. just to add to what chief city just explained to you about the

operations in oklahoma city, as the storm was forming, yesterday afternoon, we activated the state's urban search and rescue task force. and so we actually had those assets and those personnel assembling as the storm was approaching oklahoma city. so therefore, when the storm did strike, we could have those personnel and assets in place very, very quickly to start beginning to search and rescue operations. as of last night, about midnight, we had completed a primary and secondary search of the affected areas in oklahoma city. the task force set up a base of operations next to briarwood elementary school and they still continue to operate out of there. currently, what we're doing is going through the list of registered storm shelters in the affected area in oklahoma city. and double checking those to make sure that anybody that may have been in a storm shelter and wasn't able to get out.

other than that, we have oklahoma city fire department task force that is dedicated to the affected areas so if any fires were to break out, any emergency medical needs arose, we're there so we can respond very quickly to that area. and again working just with the state task force in that area to make sure that we thoroughly search the area. and again be able to respond quickly to anything that may arise since the storm occurred last night. >> good afternoon i'm cleveland county commissioner derry stacy and this is county commissioner rod cleveland. first of all, i want to you know we grieve with our fellow residents of cleveland county for the loss of life and those that were injured. absolutely devastating. we've, it's been a rough few days for cleveland county, as you know, we started on sunday,

and it initially we had storms and tornadoes that hit the east side of our county. our crews have been out 24/7 since that time. and we've been involved in absolutely every aspect of that from clean-up to search and rescue. to we're actually opening up in cleveland county, at our fairgrounds, so we can take livestock there. but every kind of aspect that you can think of, we're trying to be involved and help the residents. we're going to be in this until the very end. this is our county. and we will heal together. as you've heard this is a very resilient county. and the citizens here, in moore and norman have been through this before. and they know what to do. and we'll be together to the end and we'll heal together. thank you. >> one of the main concerns that we have is sheltering the people that lost their homes. you can contact red cross, i've been in contact with them. they have a number of shelters available. there are shelters in norman.

that's available. they have food and water. one of the churches is trying to koor nate. there's harvest church, norman. the other thing as commissioner said, the fairgrounds in cleveland county, the bella foundation and moore shelter, the moore animal shelter is set up there to take pets and help with, with food and clean-up for their pets. so we appreciate all your help. thank you. >> my name is gary cox, the director of the oklahoma city county health department. our job in public health is to keep people healthy and well and to prevent further loss of life and further disease. and so we're doing a number of efforts along that line and oklahoma city and oklahoma county. with our partner, blue cross/blue shield, we will have three mobile vans that will be giving tetanus shots to those

who might be doing clean-up and get wounds. so those will be available in oklahoma city, oklahoma county and cleveland county if needed. we're working with restaurants, food establishments, with the s with other institutions in oklahoma city and oklahoma county to try to help them have safe food and to keep those restaurants and get them open and get them open and get safe food to the public for those who have lost power. for food safety, if power has been lost in those areas where it has been lost, food really maintains safe for anywhere between two to four hours in the refrigerator. if it's in the freezer, probably closer to 24 hours. and of course, we always say if in doubt, throw it out. let's keep everybody healthy as well and prevent disease and death as we can. thank you.

>> my name is susan pierce. i'm superintendent of moore public schools. with me at the podium is dr. robert romines, assistant superintendent of moore schools who will move into the superintendency upon my retirement july 1. we have a short statement prepared for you today. we appreciate your time. first, i would like to extend my sincere thimpathies to all those who have suffered losses over the past couple of days in oklahoma, and especially in our home town of moore because we're not only school administrators, but we're both born and raised moore residents and so proud of that. our hearts go out to each of you and please know each of us are suffering with you. next, we can't say enough to thank our emergency responders. their preparations and quick actions over the past 24 hours have saved lives.

and have eased the burden of the disaster for all of us. we cannot thank you enough. as superintendened of moore schools, i want you to know that safety is our main priority. yesterday, our administrator, staff, teachers and students, put our crisis plan into action immediately. we monitored the weather throughout the day, and when it was time to shelter, we did just that. a tornado's path is highly unpredictable. but with very little notice, we implemented our tornado shelter procedures at every school site. throughout the school year, we are required by the state department of education to conduct tornado drills. at moore public schools, we exceed that requirement. when our children are at school, they are in our care. i wanted to emphasize that safety is our main priority and the decisions we make are always with safety in mind.

i don't need to tell you that moore public schools, the city of moore, and south oklahoma city have suffered a devastating natural disaster. we're in the process of learning as much about -- as we can about what has happened and we're reviewing our emergency procedures today. i think it's important for the public to know that more public schools will still hold graduation for our three high schools this saturday, may 25th, at the cox convention center. we westmoore convention, south moore at 2:30 p.m., and moore high school at 6 p.m. our news conferences will be held with the city of moore and we ask for everyone's patience as we continue to gather information and as we work with emergency management. since more pore public school's

website is done right now, updates it we found on the norman technology website and norman's elementary school website. thank you for helping us in that endeavor. thank you. >> good afternoon. brian alford, just to give you a quick update on our system, we're continuing our assessment of the system over the course of the next day or two. we're hopeful that we can actually begin some restoration in those areas that are outside the most heavily damaged. we hope to begin that process this afternoon. the weather is not being very cooperative, but again, it's our plan. we will have additional crews on the ground this evening. we will have approximately 300 individuals here from outside the state, primarily from texas

and louisiana. here to help with the restoration process. they will be here this afternoon. they will be oriented to our processes, and then begin work in the morning. beyond that, we will continue to provide updates to you on a regular basis and that's it, thank you. >> hello, i'm representative mark mcbride. the majority of this hit my district. and my family moved here in 1940. and so you can imagine the family and friends that we have that are here, that have been affected by it. and i mean, they have covered almost all of the bases on everything that's going on. i just want to let the people know, call me if you need anything. if you need a bottle of water, a case of water, a place to stay, you can come to my house. i'm here to help. just people, just let me know what you need. you can call my office at the capitol or my cell number is

593-5312. you're welcome to call that. and just get in contact with me. thank you. >> i'm sam porter. i'm the state director of disaster relief for the convention in oklahoma. and i also want to speak on behalf of all the volunteer agencies, nonprofit and faith-based agencies in oklahoma. there's about 30 to 40 of them that are responding. we had a conference call today. and they are -- we work very closely with the governor and albert ashwood and even mr. fugate, we appreciate him coming. we work over the united states, but the grandfather of tornadoes came yesterday. we just want you to know we will be working as long as. we're oklahomans, we'll be here until it's over. one of the main things we do is provide many meals. we have a truck that can do 30,000 meals. if we need more, we'll -- >> that does it for this edition

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wireless is limitless. hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall, newsnation is following new developments in the tragedy in moore, oklahoma. we have live pictures as the search and rescue effort continues. nearly yo lly 24 hours after th massive tornado slammed through moore, 200-mile-per-hour winds, now officials say at least 24 people were killed, including nine children. but at a news conference just a few minutes ago, oklahoma's governor mary fallin said those numbers are not firm numbers. more than 200 others were injured, and we'll have much more on the search and rescue, but i want to get you caught up on breaking developments regarding the weather. this time we're looking around the texas area, just around the same time yesterday, we were seeing a new round of storms erupting in the