thank you. >> i'm albert ashwood. would like to reiterate what craig said, whether the federal government or the state government, we have a simple job, that's to support our local jurisdictions, make sure they have everything that we have to offer to help them get through this emergency phase of this disaster. and to help effectively respond. we will also begin recovery as stated. we're looking up to set up assistance centers, an area we can have many assistance centers set up with various individuals, somewhere to go to. some of the challenges have to do with getting the message out, communications. it's easy to stand up and talk about mobile apps that we have or talk about calling 1-800-62-1 fema or going to websites. if you've lost electricity and phone is dead and don't know where to do, we have to go old school method. message out to people 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

albert ashwood, oklahoma's director of emergency management, says the state has built safe rooms in about 100 schools but it's costly. >> most of these projects have been anywhere between $600,000 to a million dollars and they've usually all been applied to brand-new construction of new schools. >> i don't think you can put a price on human life and even if the storm doesn't hit your town in the next 20 years, you're making an investment in the children of the future. >> right now many children in oklahoma schools are instructed to take cover in bathrooms or hallways. but according to the state's own insurance commissioner, john doak, hallways can't protect against the strongest storms. >> it's not a safe place enough for kids in an f-5 tornado. 200 miles an hour plus winds. anything above ground, as we can see, is going to be taken off. >> reporter: in moore, mayor glenn lewis says he plans to push for new houses to have shelters or safe rooms. because what's the requirement right now? >> we don't have one and it's been a free market society. >> reporter: the mayor says 2,000 shelters we

the state emergency manager albert ashwood has been through this dozens of times, probably one of the best in the country just does an outstanding job for the state of oklahoma. fema will work through him, work through the local communities to make sure that whatever they need that they don't have that fema can bring it and provide for them. >> rose: we continue with peter baker of the "new york times" explaining the relationship between presidents and disaster relief. >> this has been a tough thing for president obama. it's not been his most natural form of communication over the last four or five years. he is not an emotive person like president clinton or warm fatherly figure as reagan off projected himself to be. but he has had a lot of practice at it and you can tell he's becoming more accustomed to it. that is to say look at the last five or six months. he's had to do it after hurricane sandy, after the school shootings in connecticut, the boston bombings, the fertilizer plant explosion in texas. so this is this has become an increasingly prevalent part of his presidency. >> ros

and albert ashwood, our director and i, had gone down together to those communities. and we started heading back around 1:00 or so because albert was telling me the weather was get withing ready to get bad. it wasn't bad in oklahoma at that time. it was cloudy, and we knew that weather was -- [inaudible] however you describe that, and albert said we need to get back to the command center right now. and as you just heard around 2:00, after 2:00 it started looking pretty bad outside, and by 3 it was a very quick, fast-forming storm that came up on us. and the media did a superb job along with the helicopter pilots of tracking the storm itself and being able to show us exactly where the storm was proceeding. but it did hit very quickly. when i saw the magnitude and the size of the storm on the news screen, i knew that we had a huge problem on our hands and that there was going to be a tremendous disaster and possible loss of life. and so we assembled our folks together, we got together with albert ashwood and our national guard members, activated them right away before we

i will stop right now and turn it over to emergency management director albert ashwood who set up theonal command center yesterday. they have not taken down the center and been up all night and very busy. albert. thank you so much for your tremendous amount of work that you and staff and coordination. about 50 people in the command center right now working with all the various stated agencies, federal communities and with the state charities. thank you, albert, for your work. >> i appreciate that. i would like to echo what the governor said. it's extremely simple. moore, oklahoma city the affect the jurisdictions and everything the state has to offer. that is what we're doing. national guard, department of public safety. we are going through federal partners and great partners over the years with a number of disasters that we've had. we have search and rescue teams that at the disposal of search and rescue if they are needed. that was similar to the teams that were used in the oklahoma city bombing back in 1995. we do anticipate receiving a federal declaration very shortly that will h

governor fallin called the regional director of fema with our emergency management director, albert ashwood went through a formal procedure of requesting federal assistance for the four counties that were affected from the tornadoes the day before and the tornado here in moore yesterday. that was the semantics of going through the process. that would allow us in oklahoma, in any state for that matter, that goes through the process to begin removing the regulation to hire contracts, contract workers, and remove the competitive bid process to seek relief on a quicker basis for emergencies such as this. >> i've gotten an education on what you do in these situations and how devastating it can be. up around the new york city area in breezy point, places like staten island and the rockaways where all the electricity is blown away. you have people's homes electrical systems are blown away, where the houses are declared basically unlivable and you have to deal with almost a rock bottom situation where whole communities have to be rebuilt, especially the electrical systems, sewer systems, water syst

i will stop right now and turn it over to our emergency management director, albert ashwood.d center yesterday when we were having the various tornadoes that swept through oklahoma. they have not taken down the center, it's been up all night and certainly up all day today. it's been a very busy time. thank you for the tremendous amount of work you and your staff and the coordination, there's about 50 people in the command center right now working with all the various state agencies, with federal entities, local communities and certainly with our state charities. thank you, albert, for your work. >> i appreciate that. i would like to echo what the governor said. we want to offer everything the state has to offer. that's what we're doing. we are going through the national guard, the department of public safety. we have looked to our federal partners and federal emergency management agency. they have been great partners over the years with the number of disasters we've had. we have three search and rescue teams that are moving this way at the disposal of local search and rescue

and they are -- we work very closely with the governor and albert ashwood and even mr.e, 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 of "andrea mitchell reports." news nation with tamron hall is next right here. ♪ to more efficient pick-ups. ♪ wireless is limitless. ♪ if yand you're talking toevere rheuyour rheumatologistike me, about trying or adding a biologic. this is humira, adalimumab. this is humira working to help relieve my pain. this is humira helping me through the twists and turns. this is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for over ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. for many adults, humira is prov

governor fallin and albert ashwood are in our department of emergency management did not hesitate tolare a state of emergency and the first responders were on the scene just instantaneously. but you know, it's just a recovery effort now. it's going to take not just days, but it will take weeks and months to work our way through this but as oklahomans, the heart is there. they'll recover from this and they'll move on and we'll write another chapter in our history. >> major general, thank you for calling in. i wish you all the very best with your team in the operation that you're involved with tonight. >> thank you, piers. >> this tornado is unlike anything most people have ever seen. joining me is a man who has seen the extraordinary power of a twister close up. storm chaser jeff pietrowski is on the phone. we have spoken before. where does this rate, this tornado, from your experience in terms of size and power? >> well, we're waiting for the national weather service in norman to rate the tornado and they've got damage assessment teams out late this afternoon and all day tomorrow, th

. >> my name is albert ashwood the state director of emergency management.ould like to reiterate what craig said. whether it's the federal government or the state government, we have a very simple job. that's to support our local jurisdictions to make sure that they have everything that we have to offer to help them get through this emergency phase of this disaster. and to help to effectively respond. we will also begin recovery as has already been stated. we are looking at setting up assistant centers or area that we can have many assistant centers to help out with various individuals and where they can go to. some of the challenges that we are facing have to do especially with getting the message out. communication. it's very easy for us to stand up here and talk about mobile apps that we have or talk about 1-800-621-fema or talk about going to web sites. but if you have lost your electricity and your phone is dead and you don't know where to go or what to do we have to go to little old school method. we are going to be looking at fliers and things like th

albert ashwood, the head of it, during the oklahoma city bombing, i dealt with him and dealt with him during many of these tragedies. he's first rate. they know how to respond. the first responders are very well trained in this. people take it seriously. with winds that are 200-plus miles an hour hit, it's still a potentially very deadly thing and obviously damaging. it's going to take a while to recover from this. >> the destruction's going to be huge. congressman, hold on for a moment. our affiliate kfor is flying over some of the destroyed area. i want you to watch it. there's a reporter on the ground. >> reporter: even right where we're at, i'm shocked when they told me these were horse stalls. it could have been a house. you really can't tell the difference between any of this stuff. >> we want to come back to you but we've gotten more information about the schools. people are very frantic about what happened to the children in briarwood elementary and plaza towers elementary. we can confirm that 2:45 a message was sent to parents on the internet saying we are currently holding a

. >> my name is albert ashwood. state director for emergency management.that we have to offer to help them get through this emergency phase of this disaster and help them to effectively respond. we'll also begin recovery as has already been stated. we're looking at setting up assistant centers or an area that we can have many assistant centers to help out with various individuals, where they can go to. some of the challenges we're facing have to do especially with getting the message out. communication. it's 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. if you've lost your electricity and your phone is dead and you don't know where to go or what to do we go to an old school method. we'll look 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. according to local jurisdict

albert ashwood, i just have a couple of quick items. i would like to reemphasize the wonderful things that we have, the wonderful relationship with fema. they're wonderful partners but we are here a little too much sometimes. we appreciate all the help that you give us. workw that people want to with the city to make sure it happens as quickly and expeditiously as possible. everything we talked about here today, we talk about the system that is available. for tornadoes. tornadoes in eastern cleveland county. they are all included in this disaster because the cameras ay and they tend to be forgotten. that theyaking sure get out here as quickly as possible the day of a bear part of this as well. >> i like to say thank you for everybody that has been behind me and in front of me, i appreciate what you're doing. we are going to be allowing residents back in the neighborhood, and the live vehicles and equipment, and the trailers and no satellite trucks. we'll be allowing press to go in at 3:00 to the neighborhoods, but you have to be of baid