it is the okay p.m. on the east coast. we are tracking another round ever potentially deadly tornadoes in the state of oklahoma. god bless oklahoma. tornadoes have touched down just west of oklahoma city. there have been reports of overturned vehicles, of downed power lines. as well as damage to a number of structures already in the area. for the last 90 minutes or so these tornadoes have essentially been traveling eastbound right along one of the major highways in central oklahoma. right along interstate 40. that highway has been completely shut down under the oklahoma city area and the oklahoma highway patrol has been warning motorists to exit the highway and immediately seek shelter.

interstate 40 funnels into downtown oklahoma city. and that appears to be the path that these tornadoes have chosen to take tonight. among the major population centers in the path of the storm is not a city at all, it is will rogers world airport. according to the airport's website more than a thousand passengers were moved to underground tunnels and shelters inside the airport tonight. all flights in and out of will rogers have been cancelled. janet sham lee an reports that passengers were told to go underground and put their hands on their heads. now in terms of injuries and i have to say potential fatalities,es so yited press is reporting as of now that a number of motorists along interstate 40 have been hurt under this storm. and that others are either missing or stranded at this hour. our local affiliate in oklahoma city, kfor, is doing an amazing

job tonight. they report thus far that more than 22,000 people in the area are without power. they report that these power outages extend to the historic district in the state capital in oklahoma city. the breaking news in this hour is that central oklahoma is yet again right in the path of another massive storm system tonight. the storm has already produced a reported tornado just west of oklahoma city and within the last hour a tornado emergency has been declared for parts of moo, oklahoma. and the reason that name is so familiar to you is because moore is the city that faced a devastating tornado and almost unbelievable destruction just a little bit plor than a week ago. i want to bring in msnbc meteorologist dylan dreyer who has been focussing on this very closely. dylan, what is the latest on the projectry and where it is headed right now. >> it is moving southeast at only 20 miles per hour. looking at radar, you see the boxes that keep popping up p. i kept the tornado warning boxes

on this radar. that's what you are seeing flashing across the streen there. you see flashing across oklahoma city, which at one point was under this tornado warning. you can see there is moore, oklahoma. and it has been in and out of these tornado warnings for the last half hour to 45 minutes. and the one right over moore right now that extends east across i-40, which is that highway that was shut down. it is in effect until 88:30. but not only is it for the possibility of these tornadoes that this entire thunder storm has been producing tornadoes for the past several hours from that town el reno, this is how long it has been taking to move south to east. a very, very slow process. but within niece storms, not only to they have potential of touching down tornado but there are reports of 80 mile per hour wind gust. straight line wind gusts.

tennis ball to softball sized hail also reported along with torrential downpours. i watched this develop a couple hours ago. slowly watched it trek across interstate 40 and going from a rural area storm to a much much more urban area and hearing that oklahoma city itself was evacuated and hotels and airport with everyone going under ground, that is what local meteorologists are advising. they are just saying, you have to get under ground. it is not safe enough with storms this big to just be in an interior room or bathroom. underground is the safest place to be at there moment. >> dylan, in terms of people watching nationally and warnings under effect, we should say it is 9:04 p.m. on the east coast. 8:04 local time in oklahoma city. you will hear us give times on the air that are specific to anybody who might be in harms way in this central oklahoma storm system.

dylan, let me just ask you, talking about a storm system moving so slowly, 20 miles per hour which is slow for a storm sift el like this, does that tell us anything about the eventual damage it might cause or strength of the storm? we're used to -- we're used to connecting the speed of the storm with strength of the storm when it comes to hurricanes, for example. >> of course, and the faster it is moving and faster winds are in a hurricane situation, when i say the tornado itself is moving 20 to 30 miles per hour, that's the tornado. but the bigger picture is the storm that's producing these tornadoes. that's the one that's not moving quite as quickly. so you have, you know, this big cloud that produces these tornadoes and these are moving quickly. but the storm itself that's capable of producing these tornadoes is very sluggish and moving over the same area for a long period of time. this tornado watch is in effect until midnight central time. that's 1:00 east coast time. that's a long period of time.

and these storms have this history of producing tornadoes as we've seen. unfortunately, they are under this threat for several more hours. >> msnbc meteorologist dylan dreyer, i know we will check back with you. i appreciate it. we are going now to kfor in oklahoma city. though cover these severe storms with incredible knowledge and detail. there is no better coveragefully where in the country than what kfor is doing right now. let's go to them. >> bank statement from the el reno area floating into luther. that's canadian county all the way to the east side. >> that's quite a ways. >> east side of oklahoma county. we are hearing about things we have no doubt we will get serious damage reports coming in a little bit later. right now we are trying to track where this thing is going and to get folks out of the way of that. we have crews looking for damage and injuries as well. >> we have been talking about power poles you have hard about that, seeing pictures. we have 40,000 metro residents

without power. we believe those numbers will rise. it is currently report had that those without power. another big problem is flash flood pg. we have been told that people at crossroads mall are stuck in the parking lot because of the flooding. and they are having a hard time getting out. again we are having a hard time with rescue crews and emergency vehicles getting to those who need help at this point in time. if you have a livloved one who know is in the area, keep your cell phones by you and make sure you are in contact with that person. they may have a tough time getting out of there. >> at one point, we had 1,000 people. 1,000 in the tunnels underneath will rogers airport. the storm was coming that way and they got a thousand people under there. also the barons play off hockey game, they today get people into the clohesapeake arena. and they handled that well.

>> they handled it very well. storms are still popping up on the ground. mike? >> in the south metro, i may be wrong, but they appear to be reasonably weak right now. these little -- there is one near newcastle. one in northeast norman. and one over here near draper lake. all three appear to be reasonably weak. strongest is out here by minco. let's go to lance west. he is on the damage track on i-40 with an update live. lance? >> we are traveling about five miles an hour in westbound lanes of i-40. it is a mess out here. we have seen several overturned vehicles. there appears to be a cattle ranch about two miles west on i-40 that took a direct hit. and that scene is just spread all over the interstate. broken power lines, trees.

highway patrol troopers out here all over the place trying to make sure that everyone is okay. it is a mess, my friend. this will be a huge clean-up project. we just hope and pray there are no fatalities because there are cars all over the place. >> lance, appreciate that. let's go back to the storm tracker. we will check with mark dillard here next coming up here. this is strong circulation. dangerous storm by minco. you see bridge creek towards newcastle. yes, over toward washington and noble lloyd, noble center there. >> this is local coverage from kfor, oklahoma affiliate. i want to go now to janet shamly who is in an underground shelter at the oklahoma city our port. what can you tell us how things are there at the airport? and how are people doing.

>> reporter: well, we are lucky to have connection and you might lose me. there are about 1200 people under ground be a basic lay shelter for us now. but usually a walk way from the parking lot that connects to the terminal here at oklahoma city airport. after doing the news, i came here and i got to the airport and sirens soundeddownstairs. they set to put our hand over our heads. and stay away from windows. there a window i can see out of. we are getting hail. heavy, heavy rain. dark skies. lightning. it looks like a hurricane was pushing against the window, but that tapered off some. still they are asking everyone to stay underneath here. people are desperately trying to get signals out and get everyone from pilots to tsa to passengers

to just people who knew that this under ground tunnel existed and came here seeking shelter. again, some 1200 people. they brought their pets. children. airport workers walked through with bottles of water for children and everyone is calm at this point but we are still in the midst after big storm overhead and they are not letting anyone out any time soon. >> have they given you a timeframe of when you might get an all-clear or how long they think everyone will have to stay there. >> they have been great with updates. a man with a m megaphone has be walking through. he said, good news is we are between systems. but another one is coming. they haven't put a time limit here. we have been in here, i would say, approaching 90 minutes. every flight is cancelled but no one is attempting to leave. there are a few windows can you see out of. people are looking a not trying to hold their cell phone up and

get a signal out, such as i'm doing. but no one is even thinking of going out in what we are seeing here. >> janet, what they are describing here, with our msnbc meteorologist, is with storms in place for such long periods of time. so please keep us apprised. i know connectivity is difficult. but please let us know how things pan out at the airport. >> okay. >> janet shamly calling us from the airport. there are 1200 people in her estimation who are underground taking shelter at will rogers world airport. they are in what is effectively a walk way between the airport and terminal but it is a safe

place. everyone is down there, waiting for the all-clear. they are experiencing heavy rain, lightning but they are expecting parts of the storm system to drive through. way on to the bring into the conservation oklahoma lieutenant governor todd lamb who we spoke with last week in the aftermath of moore, oklahoma. lieutenant governor, we appreciate you being here. >> thank you, rachel. >> what can you tell us about damage or the scope of what these storms have done thus far? >> it is very preliminary right now. my office is contacted with the emergency operations center here in oklahoma. and my chief of staff moments ago. but too early to tell assessment at this time. we do know from the utility service, this was about 15 minutes go, just over 31,000 are without power. right now.

and this is an unofficial report, rachel. but we had some significant roads and part of interstate by ways, not to mention interstates are under way. some major thoroughfares, making getting through very difficult. i expect to receive, we just have initial reports right rey ordonez right /* now and sirens are going off.and sirens are go. >> do you expect that to affect rescue plans or emergency responders to get where they need to get to. >> it certainly will. you had a guest a moment ago at will rogers world airport. our major airport at oklahoma city. that where the storm headed. there were touch downs around the area, not exactly at the airport but one of the major junctions, the amarillo

junction, i believe it is called, is under water right now. parts of it at least. and if you want to evacuate, and an ambulance by my house, i think they were turned around in the wrong neighborhood, but we have high with thor, that will impact everything. >> we are hearing advice from the oklahoma highway poe troll that mote vist are on or around interstate 40 should leave the highway and should take shelter. what kind of shelter should people be looking for if they are caught out on the road and are told, they are listening to the media and advised to take shelter, what kind of shelter? >> that's a very tough question to answer, of course. you always want to get off the road in a storm, especially when there is potential for tornadic activity. what is heightened more with this storm going through oklahoma, it was following interstate 40 for some time. i believe it veered off to the south side. i'm looking at a lot of reports

right now, i think that's south of ichbt state 40. but of course you want to get off the interstate, get out of your vehicle. find a structure of some sort. hopefully a concrete structure or if you know after public storm shelter nearby, evacuate it that location as quick as possible. it is tough do, rachel, sometimes. but important to have that plan ahead of time. if you are a traveling and unfamiliar with the weather activity and with your area, just get off that road as quickly as possible and seek some sort of shelter that safe and secure. >> it is clear for a long time today that is looked like severe weather. tornado warnings and watches in effect in advance of these storms rolling through directly. do you feel that people in and around oklahoma city were prepared for this, knew it was coming, did people leave work and get somewhere safe. >> i think it gives me the

opportunity to brag on the meteorologists in oklahoma. they were talking about possible tornadic activity yesterday and the day before. there were outbreak the last two to three days. as far as potential for tornadic activity, as i talk to you, sirens have gone off once, maybe twice. i think that's the eighth or ninth time in oklahoma city where i am right now that we had sirens go off. it is a warning system, where it is the warning themselves or meteorologists warning us of the potential for tornadic activity. i want to thank the meteorologists for a great job, once again. >> our thoughts and prayers are with you again tonight as you hunker down there, sir. thank you for being with us. appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. >> and good luck. we are going back to kfor, who is the last couple moments started talking about another

tornado on the ground. >> just super dark. i can't see, but it is so dark in there, and just north, that's not the rain any more. part of it is rain but as soon as the last power hit, it would be like indian hills is began as far as power. and completely blacked out. we can see a definite lowering of the cloud right now. it appears it is just a few miles, two or three miles from the coastal training center on highway nine. but we are seeing tons of power flashes in the same area. if it is tornado it stalled out and just sitting there ripping and grinding. so if you are still in this area, definitely stay, stay in your shelter. stay in your shelter, my wife asked a minute ago if we could get out. no, no, stay put. stay put. if you are listening on the radio, watch us on tv, stay there, stay under ground, stay

in your storm shelter. this storm is not through. we are still seeing flashes. hunker down. i will try and get out. if this thing continues to cross and goes and on the road there, mike, it'll be catastrophic for several people. we have four lanes, all looking southbound. so stay in your area there, mike. >> appreciate that. report there from norman with tornado still going through. there is another significant situation in twin lakes. fire lake grand casino on 40 near the county line. far southeastern oklahoma city. far northeastern cleveland county. that the lead storm that produced the storm in south oklahoma city. there is significant warnings. stay alert. there is a tornado warning in effect. for that storm. twin lakes, dale, shawnee, the

stella area, east of draper lake. begin lakes. dale shawnee, you folks stay alert there. tornado warning for padawamy county. it is tracking towards shawnee obu. so padawanamy county. let's go to mark dillard with an update. >> yes. mike, still watching for power, due west now on 36. heading south trying to get highway 9 before we can at least get access to look at this thing without having to bail on it so fast. winds are just crazy, michael. give me one second while i get to the intersection here. >> all right. let's go to adam about the bad

flooding we have going on. adam? >> yeah, mike. we are on counsel road. almost where you get into the outlet mall is here and flooding is right up this portion of counsel is, at some point, at least a foot. but at other points three to four. depending on where you are. one to three feet. couple cars stuck and they simply cannot get through this area. there are several businesses around here. and flooding is a problem at i-40 and counsel road. so certainly avoid this area completely. >> appreciate that, adam. flash flood warnings in effect for oklahoma and canadian county as well as cleveland county. serious flooding situation. rain continues to come down along with large hail. biggest hail is in the south

metro right now. let's go back to john well, and chopper 4 and right over norman really. directly over the ou campus. what are you seeing through there? >> we are seeing a lot of heavy lightning right now which pretty much allows us to -- we haven't seen funnels or anything drop out. lightning flash in the background but it helps us illuminate the back of the storm. it is set over norman and it has taken pretty much a straight south track. i will have to move all the way down to the airport. i'm actually just south of the airport. this thing continues to push us down south. but we got a lot of rain up there. we haven't seen any flashes the last few minutes. i-35 and about the river casino back north. it lock is like a monster tornado. and a hurricane wrapped up in

one. it is a terrible sight. this area is nothing to play with. >> thank you. we are showing highest velocity wind sheer. this is on the east side of norman. and high velocity winds out of the north. through norman right now. so it is either a tornado or damaging straight line wind. we are showing winds in 80 mile pr hour range. yeah, those are the velocity out of the north. this is damaging straight line winds on the back side of the hook. which is over the east central to central parts of norman. but this is high velocity north wind here. and there are power flashes we are seeing. but the tornado warning very much continues for mclane and cleveland county. let's go to the south doppler and look at norman again. closer look. you can clearly see the hoong. you can clearly see the hook right through here. this is inflow through here. right over the ou campus is where that is focused. you want to be completely away

from any windows, anywhere around the ou campus. let's go back to john well, and see what we have. >> this cloud, we had a huge cloud come over and just north of per sell just shooting back towards the north and ou campus and the whole area is black, extremely violent here. heavy winds. moderate turbulence here. we can barely see highway 9 on the south side of town. tons and tons of lightning. it appears that there is still a lot of heavy rain and what you are showing on radar, there still could be a tornado in there. through the rain and everything else. so some of those power flashes are masked by the sheer dark

nusts storm. and at night, and not getting am bee yent light on the back side of it. so a scary situation there over moore. we will call the heavy stuff just a mile north of ohhighway >> coverage direct from oklahoma city. they are earning their keep times ten. the meteorologists, helicopter pilots, and correspondents and anchors keeping an eye on what is happening in the oklahoma city region. i want to go now to jay gray who is in downtown oklahoma city. jay, what are you seeing now. how severe are the weather conditions at this moment. >> i hate to say it is picking up again, but it is picking up again and dramatically. just the vantage point from a public shelter where there are a thousand people inside. i have seen small trees uprooted. awnings ripped away.

outdoor furniture scattered. things you would expect with heavy winds. we're hearing of a lot more severe damage. lightning intensified. and winds beginning to pull again. you can see the singer lags when those flashes of lightning go off. it is unclear at this point and i'm just trying to get a good look, of anything on the ground. it would see seem that that's more outside the city at this point. unfortunately, as we've heard the local asillation talking about it, unfortunately it locks like moore is in the cross hairs of that. >> from your vantage point, when was it clear that people needed to start following emergency protocols. when did people start taking shelt shelter? >> a lot of businesses let their employees sleep early. and i mean 2:00 or 3:00 in the

afternoon. make sure their families are safe and get into their safe area. conditions were really gathering and taking shape to be very severe. unfortunately, there were two sporting events. minor league baseball game and minor league play off hockey game, that were not cancelled. so people coming down, going to the restaurants down here. those are the people that had to pile in. they did get early warning. sirens have been pounding continuously. the hotel we were in, the downtown convention center and arena were two public shelters, and everyone was ushered into shelters early in the process. there was a lot of warning. this area is familiar with tornadoes and understands how severe they can be. not familiar with two major tornadoes striking areas that

where so many people are. a lot of times, the operation will rip off farmers fields and areas like this in the plains but these appear to have taken aim at very heavily populated area. >> nbc news jay gray. please stay safe, i don't need to tell you this, but keep your own shelter responsibilities in mind too. but stay in touch with you us as can you. i want it go with dylan dreyer. there is further tornado activity in st. loupies wlap do we have? >> yes. we have been knowing for a while now there was a marge area of the midwest under the gun with the storms but we do have a tornado warning in the st. louis area. we also have reports of a warning that has just expired, actually, near st. louis airport. but this one is a faster storm. it is moving east at about 50 miles an hour. as opposed to oklahoma moving

about 25 miles per hour. there a developing tornado. you can see north of st. louis. that box that pops up. that tornado warning is in effect until 8:45 central time. about another 15 minutes now. there reports of damage in a town called st. ann. looks like spotters have seen the funnel cloud and there is rotation in the radar. that's the latest area in missouri now. that is under the gun with there tornado warning. they have been popping up all across the midwest. >> dylan, let me ask you a request about an earlier question which i just did not understand, which is the idea that the tornado, at least one of the tornadoes that touched down had two funnels. how does that happen and what does that mean. >> it is called a multivortex tornado. imagine the tornado has it comes down from the cloud. typical set up where the see the funnel cloud, the cloud and a fun will and it comes down and

touches the ground. this one is a mile in diameter. and there are rotations within the large tornadoes. it is called a multivortex tornado. it has multiple vortexes or multiple funnels within the system. these have been plaguing the whole area. all part of this bigger system. >> okay. msnbc dylan dreyer. thank you for helping us understand this. we will be back with you. right now, the mayor of oklahoma city. there mayor, thank you for taking the time to talk with us. what should people know about the conditions in your city? >> inside the city it appears so far we have been largely spared. we have had high wind, some hail. our city limit are expansive. so far we've not been able to verify that any tornado touched down inside the city. i know it touched down prior to reaching the city and it appears after it left oklahoma city

limits it steps down again. but oklahoma city, at this point has been spared. but damage hasn't been all collected? in terms of how safe oklahoma city should feel, are you seeing advised and that worst may be over or is there no reason to think this is an all-clear because the storm is present? >> i think we don't want to be naive. it appears, but to answer your question, it does feel like the worst is over. but we know better. there is some significant power outages so a lot of people are on their cell phones taking in the media. but over all, the sun is still too cloudy to see it but skies are still light to the west. and that's a good sign. it was much darker an hour ago than it is now. >> from the storm experience that you have had and heavy rain and hail, and straight line

winds, and everything else associated with this storm, obviously we've heard reports of some localized flooding. that's got to affect the ability of rescue crews and first responders to get around it and it presumably effect evacuation as well. can you tell us anything about the state of the roads in and around the city. >> i think there is some local flood willing like you said. there probably are pockets for the flooding. but typically doesn't flood very long in oklahoma city. once it stops raining it recede very quickly. so i i think in flooding would be short term. >> do you think the city had adequate shelter and businesses closing early and people taking care early on in the afternoon today? >> yeah. we basically had 48 hours to prepare. they've been telling us this will be a high likelihood of storms. i was surprised so many people though ended up on the street. i've seen people in cars and interstates kind of got packed. people trying to move.

that's fairly new. and i wonder if it's not a repercussion of the moore tornado a couple woeks weeks ago. people were so frightened and when have you tens of thousands of people, that's the worst place for them to be. that surprises me and scares me. people should get in their facility, get low, get in the interior part of this you are house. they don't need to be in the cars. and that typically doesn't happen. >> mayor cornette, thank you. please stay in touch with us offer the course of the note. >> will do. >> thank you. we will dip back into kfor. affiliate in oklahoma city with their coverage. >> we have mark? >> yes. >> go, mark. i'm on alameda heading east trying to stay up with the circulation will be off, i believe south and east, from

what my wind are doing. whipping up from north to south. so i'm just passing 50th now. i'm sure highway 9 is jammed up with traffic. on alameda heading after the and staying up with a circulation center there, cutting across norman, causing power flashes and likely some damage down in the norman area. so mike, i'm going to continue to track this over to shawnee, dale and back to you. >> okay, appreciate that. so this circulation on the east side of norman, let's go to the storm tracker. you see a hook here and still a hook here. there is norman. here is noble. still a hook. traveling over here toward highway 9 here. there is the casino there. thunder bird casino. it is in that exact area right now traveling to the southeast.

on down into southern padawanamy county. let's go to the storm scanner and here to the east, this circulation coming into shawnee. tornado warning with that one as well. there is hail the size of golf balls and larger. logan county is in good shape. king fisher county is in good shape. no activity in central northernern oklahoma. all of the action is here. these two storms here. this one east norman. and this one coming into shawnee, both very sil significant there. may produce additional tornado as they move southeast. this one here, mainly severe thunderstorms. large hail, flooding rain fall back to the west. i think we can talk to john well. what john is doing, tell you what, let's go back to -- can we

go back to meagan with any updates you might have? >> major problem here. flash flooding causing big problems for everybody. >> it has. >> people can't get anywhere. emergency crews are having trouble getting to victims they need to tend to. power outages all over. we have reports of 40,000 plus. we're following that closely. crews having a tough time getting out to deal with that as well. . we just went to natasha and we saw people breaking down a door to take cover. >> let's go to lance west. there is the shot with the rain coming down. lance, you said one of the major highways, maybe i-40, looks like a demolition derby out there. >> it sure does. there are cars everywhere. there a confirmed double fatality. white pontiac suv was upside

down. we know a mother and her baby were both killed in this accident. highway patrol has just removed the victims. traffic here is at a stand still in the eastbound lanes of i-40. just west of banner road and it is absolute chaos out here. cars are again at a stand still. there are semis turned over at a truck stop on the truck checkpoint where semis come through the weigh station. decimated. there are farms out here that have been destroyed. there is debris all over the interstate. trees have been split in half. there's a building, i'm not sure what it is. looks like they sell industrial equipment. it says performance something but half of the pulding has been torn away. i can't make out the entire sign. but a lot of destruction and again, i tell with you a heavy heart, we addhad a double fatal,

a mother and her baby. >> i hope no more fatalities, but i think we will have so many people with injuries. >> such a busy highway, i-40, i-35 as well. a lot of cars were affected by that. >> take a lock at this picture. this is mike bettes. not mike bennett but mike bettes's car. >> from the weather channel, yes. >> from the weather channel, yes. this is, what does it say, tornado hunt 2013. mike bet sis okay. mike bettes is okay. this is out where lance west is located right now. of course you saw all of the video and you know, we're showing you that monster tornado out there. this is that whole area out by i-40 in the el reno road area.

the problem is that it made a violent turn. and it caught all these folks that do this stuff, it caught them off guard and frankly, ran over them. and this is mike bettes's -- not mike bennett, but mike bettes's truck is smashed. this is where the double fatality occurred. >> you said, mike, it looked like it -- >> coverage from kfor. affiliate of nbc doing excellent coverage of this. repeating the news they just broke there. this is according to kfor in oklahoma city. a double fatality on interstate 40. interstate 40 has been shut down. reporters are describing a scene that looks like a demolition derby was the phrase they used on interstate 40. numerous vehicles overturned. a lot of debris on the road and now sadly they are describing

double fatality. mother and instant killed in a vehicle on closed interstate 40. that stretch of roadway itself seems to have been a path for at left some of the tornadoes and a place where a lot of people got caught out in trouble. want to bring in msnbc meteorologist, dylan dreyer. what is latest on the overall direction of this storm? >> general direction of this whole storm, the one that stretches from illinois back into oklahoma. the slow-moving cold front moving slowly east. this is the area of concern today where we knew we would see very strong thunderstorms and isolated area back through oklahoma where we would see those very strong tornadoes, which has played out. tornado watch boxes extend up into parts of illinois. we had reports of tornadoes in wisconsin. through illinois. in the st. louis area and into oklahoma city where the threat was heightened and a. >> a potentially dangerous

situation type of tornado watchish i'd hours ago. so that's why there was so much notice in advance these storms, not only would they be tornadoes but we would see very strong, powerful moving tornadoes. this is in advance of the cold front. that very warm moist air off the gulf of mexico and cool air line it. and that clash that unfortunately is going nowhere fast. tomorrow that threat moves into the midwest and unfortunately this set up does not exit the uts until sunday night and into monday morning. >> forgive my ignorance on this, but is it unusual to have a storm system that this big that is causing tornadoes in this wide of an area? it just seems to me to be a massive, massive system. am i just not paying attention and it's been like this all the time? or is this an unusually big storm? >> it is unusually big. and that's the biggest issue

here. this is tornado alley, after all. they hit mostly rural areas. but now we are talking about oklahoma city. st. louis. areas across illinois. populated areas with this set up. it is an unusually slow system wreaking havoc across the mid plains. >> thank you very much. now back to nbc's affiliate in oklahoma city, kfor. >> it is only about half way up the wheels. but when we were originally there, it was higher and up to the doors. we are just trying to get off the road. >> a adam, be careful and we will get back to you. let's go to betsy from the highway patrol. betsy, bring us up to the date on the situation. we know it is not good. >> it is not good. unfortunately, i can confirm two fatalities. mother and a baby. somewhere on i-40.

some year near the el reno area. we tell people not to drive into the storm. this may be the deal where there was no in the, no warning. and it is just gut wrenching and heart breaking. we have multiple crashes all over. just includes mustang, el reno, yukon, oklahoma city, moore and now into norman. we are stopping traffic on i-35 coming north. stopping and turning back south. and we are asking everyone, everyone on i-40, anywhere around oklahoma city metro area, if you do not have to be on the highway, do not get on i-40 right now. don't get on i-35. take shelter. to not get on the interstate right now. >> we appreciate that. we will come back to you in a

little bit and get another update. again, we need our viewers to heed your word. thank you, that's trooper betsy randolph. >> we have two dangerous storms here. they are still quite possibly tornado producers. there is one coming into north shawnee, with a tornado warning in effect. we are not forgetting but folks. this area here, shawnee. it is north shawnee right now, moving east southeast. so obu, shawnee, and then from there, we will be talking about over toward earlsborough. but you see the time of arrival there, east southeast at about 28 to 30 miles an hour. that's a strong situation there. tornado warning for pottawatomie county. you want to stay where you are. no doubt about it. the other one also, has a tornado warning on it.

cleveland county. this will be west of tribbey and macomb and move toward st. louis. they have power flashes through moore, norman and on the eastern side of lake thunder bird is where it is now. very close to little axe. and it'll travel into central pottawatomie and maybe southern pottawatomi county. so we have one coming into tacomsa, just south of tacomsa. still a lot of large mail. just east of norman. just east of moore as well. and back west there is severe thunderstorm activity with mainly large hail and damaging winds and flooding rain fall

further back wefst. that is mustang, union city and blanchard. right now this is mainly a severe storm. this is not a tornado-warned storm. we can show you this to you. grady severe, mclane severe. and i think we can take oklahoma county out of the tornado. that is for the one that came into shawnee right now. just moved out of oklahoma county. i think we can safety drop oklahoma county from the tornado warning. i think that's very safe to say that right now. because it moved out of oklahoma county. that is down by the gm plant. over tard stella and. so now we are talking about pottawatomie county. two storms, tornado wantings for both counties. we will check with our storm trackers and be right back with you. >> thank you, mike.

moments ago we talked to lance west. he told us about a business he had seen that was destroyed. we now know more about it. p t is called performance technology. >> they had eight employees in there. they took shelter. the storm did come through and damage part of the building, blew some of it away. they had a little bit after gas leak and got everybody out okay. that's good. >> that's right. >> let's go to courtney. courtney? >> i'm on eastbound i-40 in el reno. and i'm passing throw overturned semi truck sigh ways. and in the median, all can you see is piles of sheet metal, debris. and crews are working to get semis up bright to clear them off of the highway. and there is a barn further up, by some sort of barn that was

completely destroyed out here. and poles levels to the ground. it looks like all kinds of debris and flooding in the median as well. folks have to be careful as rain water piling up right now. >> it rained like the dickens at the station. we talked about courtney, the flooding problem there would erupt in the metro area. and you are seeing it there in west metro. >> that's right. it is powering up. >> it is the aftermath that you don't think about when you're thinking about tornadoes. thank you, courtney francisco reporting live near el reno. the thing is, kevin, with tornadoes by had in shawnee and then in moore and what we had happen today, these are hitting major highways. i-40, i-35. >> we will go right now -- this is kfor, the local nbc affiliate there, doing just ip kridible

work. but i want to go to george mcginns he is out on i-40, which we keep being told is not a good place to be. george, what have you seen? >> right now it is getting dark. it is difficult to see anything. we are on i-40 east of shawnee, watching the tornadic storm as it approaches this area. they still have an active tornado warning on it. but visually we do not see anything. earlier when the storms were coming through oklahoma city within south side of oklahoma city, we did catch the area where the tornado was believed to be. and did video quite a view power flashes. indicating it was possibly on the ground doing damage. we were looking back to our northwest from that location

along i-240, between i-35 as it moves through that area. >> george, in terms your location right now on i-40 east, what can you tell us about the condition on the roadwayroadway are around in that area? >> reporter: traffic is quite heavy east and westbound on i-40 from about shaufta east to shawnee. a lot of people trying to leave the oklahoma city area as the tornadic storms were moving through. it is starting to thin out, but traffic is heavy east and westbound. >> the only two confirmed fatalities that we have heard reported from kfor confirmed by oklahoma highway patrol happened on interstate 40, a woman and her infant child killed in a car that got caught up in the storm. are you seeing debris or have you seen overturned vehicles out

there? >> reporter: not on the -- not through the west side or east side of oklahoma city and out east. the area that you were just referring to i believe was more on the west side of oklahoma city on i-40 as it got out towards the el reno area, which is the suburbs west of oklahoma city. >> george mcginnis, storm chaser in the thick of it tonight, george, thanks for being with us. appreciate your time. >> reporter: you're welcome. >> joining us, jamie shelton, a spokesman for the mayor's office in moore, oklahoma. obviously everybody in the country is concerned about moore with what happened there last week, seeing it in the path of the storm again tonight, mr. shelton, what can you tell us about how moore faired in the latest round of storms? >> i am hearing lots of reports of flooding on residential streets and there's report of one house fire in the community. i do not have reports of new damage from any touchdowns of

tornadoes in the city limits. that's all very preliminary. >> jamie, in terms of the continuing recovery efforts from last week, do you know if in advance of the new round of bad weather that came through today if presumably people were cleared out, i imagine it is harder to find a safe place to be in moore after what you went through last week? >> that's correct. volunteers that were working in areas were moved out, we watched the weather the entire day. national weather center in norman is maybe 15 miles from moore, so we have the best people in the world giving us information to make sure we can communicate to citizens. >> in terms of any continuing threat to moore, are you still being advised that there may be heavy weather ahead, may still be dangerous situation in your city? >> i believe the entire central oklahoma area is still under severe weather and storm watches and warnings, so we're just

watching exactly what the national weather service is putting out, making sure our citizens are aware of that and we are prepared to alert them of possible danger. >> jayme shelton, spokesman for the mayor's office in oklahoma. thank you for your time and stay safe, as always. >> thank you, rachel. >> back to nbc's affiliate in oklahoma city, kfor. >> down through here where it made this big dip and strong northward turn, that's where we had a lot of folks get run over by the tornado. emily sutton was talking about it, reed timer was talking about it. here are the preliminary tracks for oklahoma city, one developed near the xerox plant, this is earlier, this is earlier, went through south oklahoma city city, then we had the second tornado form southdale city, close to crossroads mall, travel down 240. these were the two tornadoes in oklahoma city proper. then we had some wind damage,

weak tornado damage of some kind through moore and norman. we have to see as data comes in how that will go. let's go back to storm tracker, talk to mike bennett. we know you're okay, mike bettes was hit by the weather channel but you're fine. >> my phone has been ringing off the wall. we are on 177 south of shawnee on southern edge of shawnee, looking north. i tell you what, mike, we don't have any daylight any more, so all we can rely on is power flashes. i'm not seeing any. i had a lowering to the northwest, about three or four minutes ago, it is gone, rain started to wrap in. about the time i saw that, had a blast of wind out of the west, i thought okay, here we go, getting ready to get down, now rain is on us and losing

visibility. but no power flashes. that means not anything on the ground. right now, i don't see power flashes. that would be the only indicator. was that a power flash or lightning? >> mike bennett talking about circulation on the northern side of shawnee. mike, would you verifier center of rotation is near shawnee near i-40? >> hard for us to figure out, mike. one thing we had a hard time getting bearings on the storm since we been here because of that. it's, i don't know, mike. it is hard for us to identify any area of this rotation, we lose the visibility. >> that's mike bennett, who is fine. mike bettes' car was crushed earlier by the tornado, he is

okay, he was standing up, talking to emily a few hours ago. >> greg carbon at the noaa storm prediction center in norman, oklahoma, thank you for joining us. appreciate your time and expertise. >> good evening, rachel. >> can you tell us about conditions where you are in norman and how norman faired in this storm tonight? >> we've lost power in parts of norman. seems some high winds or perhaps lightning may have taken out the power awhile ago. we are still experiencing pretty gusty winds and occasionally torrential rain. it appears the tornado threat diminished quite a bit. the storm complex that brought tornadoes to oklahoma city has gusted out and cold air associated with massive amounts of rain is cutting off the inflow to the storm, likely producing an environment less favorable for tornadoes. >> cutting off inflow, less favorable environment over the course of the night. when will that become more

clear? over how much time do you need to see that as a continuing trend before you decide that's what's happened? >> about an hour ago i was asked that question, i said we probably have about another hour of relatively high potential for tornadic storms, then it would begin to diminish in the nighttime hours. looks like that's occurring. there's always a remote possibility you can still get a brief spinoff. we have strong winds still coming out of the complex of storms to produce almost as much damage as a tornado. it is not over yet. there's significant heavy rainfall problem as well, tremendous moisture in the atmosphere. storms continue overnight to produce heavy rain. >> greg, one of the things we have been able to see is the large, large scale of this overall storm system reaching many states north of oklahoma, across the country. do you expect these strong storms we have seen, these kinds of tornadoes are going to be a characteristic of this storm

system across the country, both overnight and into tomorrow? >> well, we're going to see this whole system start to move. i mean, it has been relatively stationary the past two, three days. frontal boundary that's triggering that activity from upper mississippi valley across the southern plains tonight is actually going to start to move. we will see thunderstorms progress eastward each day, may see a threat even into new england and the northeast come sunday. eventually that front will reach the east coast and we will be done with it, looks like better weather is ahead for the weekend, into early next week for southern plains and central u.s. >> in terms of overall dangerous, how dangerous that overall situation is tonight, describing this system, essentially becoming less dangerous in the oklahoma city area, is there any place else tonight you expect it might eventually become dangerous? >> well, one of the problems is we may transition or already have transitioned into what could be a dangerous flooding

situation, especially in urban areas around oklahoma city, so they were hit with the tornadoes earlier and they've had up to six inches, seven inches of rainfall. whenever you do that in an urban area, you have problems because traffic can get stranded, you can have flooding. we may see transition of tornado threat to flooding threat overnight. the wind threat will continue east into tulsa, missouri, northwest arkansas overnight tonight. we are not out of the woods yet. >> greg carbon from noaa in norman, oklahoma, thank you for joining us. i am glad you have the job you have. please stay safe. thank you. >> thank you. >> in terms of what happened tonight in oklahoma city in terms of the damage reports, it is unclear at this point the extent of the damage. we have two confirmed fatalities in the oklahoma city area, oklahoma highway patrol confirming two fatalities on interstate 40. eyewitness reports of a lot of cars overturned and a lot of

debris on the road. oklahoma authorities advise people to get off the road if you are on the road, in part because of danger from the storms, in part because of the difficulty of moving around with the flooding there caused by these storms. massive storm system, extremely severe storms from oklahoma city to st. louis. we are still in the middle of msnbc's coverage of this storm. stay with us. good evening, i am melissa rehberger. we follow breaking news out of oklahoma. the oklahoma city and moore area where a rash of violent and complicated storm systems have broken out today, bringing hail and flash flooding. several multiple tornadoes really, don't know how many there are just yet. it has been going on for hours. they have been extremely violent. one plowed through oklahoma city and into moore, oklahoma that was devastated by an ef-5 tornado two weeks ago. there's tornadic activity in