andy roesgen reporting in moore, oklahoma, john, diana. h devastation, rubble? where are they staying? enough places to house these people? >> exactly. in fact, there are estimated to be thousands of homeless people. it looks like, obviously a lot of them are spending time with relatives, but homeless shelters opened up for many folks. and universities are opening their doors up to the homeless. >> andy there has been major communication issues in moore. what is being done. why is there so much conflicting information? >> that's a big part of it. storms roll in. cell phone towers go down. it makes commu difficult. that's why they're saying now, a big number of 51 people dead initially. down to 24. a lot of people weren't accounted for because of the lack of communication this is common in the storms when cell phone towers get knocked out. >> abc's andy roesgen reporting live from moore, oklahoma. >>> once the tornado sirens began to wail, everyone had about 15 minutes to seek safety. some ran to improvised shelters, hoping for the very best

and our coverage begins with abc's andy roesgen. good morning, andy. >> reporter: good morning, diana and john. when president obama gets here, he will see some signs of improvement. the telephone poles are starting to go up, and they have removed some debris but more than anything he'll hear some incredible stories of survival. [ screaming ] in total darkness this video gives us a look at the moment that destructive tornado bore down on briarwood elementary school. >> it's almost over. it's almost over. >> reporter: teachers and students emerge from the bathroom where they rode out the storm to find massive destruction. miraculously, everyone at this school survived. >> oh, my god. oh, my god. >> reporter: but just a few miles away at plaza towers elementary school, seven students were killed. neither school had a safe room and one is not required by oklahoma law. only alabama requires a safe room in all schools. in all, 24 people lost their lives, 14 adults and 10 children including 2 infants. all of the missing have been accounted

we begin our coverage with abc's andy roesgen in the disaster zone, good morning, andy. >> reporter: good morning, diane. authorities do say that they think everybody in moore is accounted for. that they're not going to find anybody else inside this rubble dead or alive. but getting to that conclusion took a lot of work. search and recovery teams worked tirelessly looking under every piece of debris multiple times. for survivors or bodies in the wake of monday's tornado. >> we searched every damaged piece of property in this city at least three times before we're done. >> reporter: moore, oklahoma, residents salvaged fragments of their lives from piles of rubble that once were their homes. >> they were underneath our bed so i'm happy i got this and my wedding dress. >> it just looked like bombs had been ignited everywhere. there's a car part in my bedroom. you know, it's -- everything is gone, you know. just in a matter of 30 minutes your whole life is torn upside down. >> reporter: two elementary schools took a direct hit from the ef-5 tornado. everyone got out of briarwood but at p

our coverage begins with abc's andy roesgen. e, he will see some signs of improvement, the telephone poles are starting to go up and they