and through this neighborhood where we are, this is easily ef-4, maybe some ef-5. the bottom line if the home is gone, a well-constructed brick home, you just have the slab, that is right there, that's ef-4 damage. this is the first ef-5 in oklahoma in two years. and, in fact, the last one in the lower 48 was two years ago on may 24th. today is the two-year anniversary of that ef-5 in joplin, missouri. brian, back to you. >> all right, mike seidel, thanks. it's the cars that amaze me. piled on top of each other. must have been thrown around like a whiffle ball in the vortex of wind. we want to give you a better idea of what the tornado did to this community visually. first let's take a look at moore medical center which is just a few yards from where i'm standing. before the tornado touched down on monday. now here's what it looks like after the tornado. how about a satellite picture of plaza towers elementary before the twister. take a look at that. and now what it looks like today. finally we want to take a look at the moore community as a whole. and the after pi

either an ef-4 or ef-5. difference will be is it over 200 miles per hour when it touched ground or is it not? we have an issue right now. what i want to do is barack this down as far as what we have, the current threat. right over the area that was affected here in, norman, in moore, severe thunderstorm watch is in effect right now. so the rescuers that are out there right now, pulling perhaps people from rubble, they're going to have to deal with unsettled weather tonight. perhaps could get a severe thunderstorm there. we do have a watch box out for it now. we do not expect any ef-4 and ef-5s or significant tornadic activity tonight because we have lost one of the key ingredients the heat. we are at night time here. what happens now. look at the line. thunderstorms that devil of mainly in a squall line here. now there could be some spinups right ahead of the line here. that is why there is a tornado watch in effect from oklahoma and extends all the way up, into the ohio valley, and, that goes until 5:00 a.m

we have a risk yet again to see longer track tornadoes possibly ef 3, ef 4, ef 5 strength. the cities in this area dallas, texas waco and also shreveport in louisiana. these areas need to stay alert through out the day today and ee special little during the afternoon hours and evening hours. once these storms fire up and potentially produce severe weather. but anywhere from if he cans as -- texas across the great lakes have chance of seeing strong to severe storms. that is strong moving storms we see severe weather across the plains and the midwest. flooding is a big concern. the ground is saturated. we have seen a lot of heavy rain. aside from the severe weather. flash flooding a concern in states like arkansas and texas and louisiana up into southern sections the state of illinois. a widespread area also looking at the threat for some possible flash flooding and like i mentioned as far as severe weather goes with tornadoes typically that is later on in the afternoon. we have a lot of wind here in place that provide rotation for some of the thunderstorms and why we get the

the blue coloring is where it was ef-0. ef-2 in yellow. the intensity changed dramatically as the tornado was on the ground. these storms are always evolving. it was an ef-5 for a very short period of time. notice the bright red. that's when it was ef-4. almost the worst of it in the strongest this tornado was was unfortunately when it was right over the most populated areas there right around moore, oklahoma. so that's kind of how these storms evolve. of course, the aerial pictures of these houses that were scraped, that were underneath that ef-4 and ef-5 damage is very typical of these storms. yesterday, thankfully, we made it through the day without any reported tornadoes. we had a lot of strong storms that produced wind damage from texes too louisiana, mississippi, even kentucky, tennessee and upstate new york have a lot of cleanup from those storms yesterday. they are dying off this morning. no severe weather left out there. just thunderstorms down there along the gulf coast. just outside of houston to louisiana. the same storm that b

that's what you need on the ef scale to get ef-5 damage. we've got sun coming up here today, richard. a better day yesterday weatherwise. we had those storms around yesterday, a severe thunderstorm watch, lightning bolts, sunny and back around 80 today where they should be but a long way to go as we saw in joplin and the last ef-4 tornado was two days after joplin. and that was on the northwest side of oklahoma city. we were up there on that one two days after joplin, that killed nine. so far the death toll 24. hoping that's it as they continue to dig through the rubble here in moore, oklahoma. richard, back to you. >> mike seidel and that rubble behind you almost nothing upright. thank you so much for the latest for us. >>> here are other stories making news. an irs official at the center of the agency's recent controversy will testify on capitol hill today. don't expect her to say anything. lois lerner was the one who disclosed the improper targeting. her lawyers saying she plans to take the fifth. >>> the city of los angeles has a new ma

then we had this yesterday. >> you talk about an ef-4, ef-5, they're saying looks like ef-4 but theyey determine that? >> a rating scale depending on damage. they've done wind tunnel testing. a two by four, if it shoots into a car, at what wind speeds it can pierce the car. stuff like that. how far cars can be moved. how far train cars can be tossed or moved. that's happened before. so they take what's happened in the past, know what the wind speeds were then, apply it here. usually, an ef-5, the one that we had in joplin, there was one report that literally it was strong enough that the pavement in one section was lifted out of the ground. picture that. pavement removed. there's certain things that they say they know that's what it will be and they'll determine that the next two or three days. >> bill karins, thanks so much. of course we'll have much more on this tornado on msnbc as the morning goes on. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned. a special edition of "way too early" live from moore, oklahoma, starts right now. >>> oh my god! >> that entire neighborhood is completely

varying from ef-0 up to ef-5. keep in mind, we still have the severe weather threat today pushing into the ohio valley. still another day to keep aware of your surroundings, john. >> keep aware of what's going on, watch those forecasts. every single minute can help save lives. thanks so much for that. appreciate it. >>> for country superstar toby keith, the disaster here is personal. he went to grade school near the plaza towers elementary school. and he used to bike through the neighborhoods that are simply gone. last night, keith made an appeal for help on "piers morgan live." >> these people are resilient, helping each other out, they're as prepared as anybody, they'll rebound. but right now the first thing to do is probably call red cross, salvation army, support that and they'll get a laundry list together and we can help get it started. >> keith says he's in the beginning stages now of planning a benefit he wants to raise money for people here. he says he's received hundreds of messages from fellow entertain

the national weather service categorizes today's storm as at least an ef-4, possibly an ef-5 with winds of 200 to 260 miles per hour. today's tornado was three times more extensive than the one that tore through moore on may 3rd, 1999. that storm had the highest winds ever recorded near the earth's surface. today, president obama called mary fallon of oklahoma and fema is already providing resources to support the response. let's go to nbc news national correspondent janet shanlian. what are you seeing there now? >> reporter: chris, what started hours ago, traffic as far as the eye can see is continuing at this hour just after 10:00 central time. 11:00 on the east coast. it's basically paralysis in this area as people try to navigate around moore which has been cut off by authorities. they don't want anyone going in there without any power. my colleague, charles hadlock, has just been in there talking to survivors about their stories. charlie, what do they tell you? >> incredible devastation. we want to highland elementary school, middle school, on the top of a hill. as far as you could

we're talking about an ef-3 or ef-4 tornado. i'm looking at wind speeds of 140 to 160 miles per hour. we also have on doppler radar what's called a debris ball. jake, this is a new term. you've heard of squall line, tornado. debris ball is a new thing. now we have new radar technology, dual poll technology. not only one direction is the radar beam going, two different directions, horizontally and vertical vertically. it allows us to determine the rain in the sky, hail, but there are shingles, boards, leaves, parts of moore now getting thrown into the sky by this very large tornado. and the debris ball is now just to the extreme southwest of moore. if you are anywhere near moore, you also need to take cover. the next town, if you keep going, would be like toward mccloud, but there's a lot of territory to cover here. we're still seeing those power flashes. we absolutely know that this tornado is on the ground in a populated area. you ask how many people are affected. right now the latest number for the tornado warning proper, jake

i went from a small ef-1, to an ef-3 in a matter of 15, 20 minutes. it was incredible.devastating. >> brenton leete, here's something that we definitely got our eyes on, the storm system that spawned the deadly tornado sunday and monday isn't over yet. i can only hope that it's not nearly as bad what we have been through. >> we'll have to watch it closely. northeastern texas, dallas, those areas under the gun today for severe weather. we'll watch that closely for you. we have some incredible technology. again, this is the type of radar perspective that meteorologists sees and your jaw drop, because what we call this is a debris ball. normally, this would be just a big hail core. well, it's in the wrong place for it to be hail, it should be up to the north and east. what this is pieces of plywood, roofs, doors, nonmeet logical targets. we're going to go in 3-d mode here. not only that debris ball, but how high the debris went up in the air. look at this. 10, 000, 20,000 feet. it jetted up into the atmosphere. of course, that continued to move. all of that eventually came

>> anytime you get an ef 4, ef 5, it's historic. an ef-5, it's super historic. we've only had nine or ten of them since that one in 1999 in moore. that's the crazy thing i keep thinking about. the possibility that we could have two ef-5s in moore, oklahoma of all places in 14 years. where we've onlied had nine others in the 13w50ir country over 14 years. odds are astronomical. so, yes, this will be historic. and if it wasn't for the joplin one which was the most expensive ever, almost $3 billion about 158 lives lost there, if it wasn't for that one, we'd be saying i can't believe this happened. but we went through tuscaloosa and that whole event down there in alabama and thp entire event, 371 lives were lost in many different storms. so over the last two or three years, i don't want to say we're getting used to it, but more the norm. >> bill, thank you so much. appreciate having you here. our coverage of the ongoing rescue efforts in oklahoma continues in just a moment. hello. is this where we do that bundling thing? let's see what you got. rv -- covered. why wo

verdict not in, ef-4, ef-5? how strong do you think it was? >> preliminary reports put it at ef-4.hen it comes to rating tornados, what the national weather service they will do, go out survey the damage. you can't get a direct wind report in the storm. they are localized, and form and dissipate so quickly as we saw in moore. you take a look at the damage. you see the things knocked down. do you see brick homes knocked down? do you see concrete walls knocked down? you've seen the pictures. it's hard to imagine anything worse than what we've seen occur here in moore. so, my guess would be we'll elevate that to ef-5 after storm surveys are completed. at this point in time. yes, the reports are ef-4 preliminarily. >> meteorologist jim dickey, live in accuweather. thank you for that. >>> the tornado sirens started wailing 16 minutes before the storm actually hit. that gave residents like melissa newton time to hunker down in a safe place. she describes the few harrowing moments. >> i looked to the west. and i see it. hail about the size of golf balls was pounding my car at the time. i

-4 or ef-5. let's get to the scale. what that means, if it was an ef-5 and i do believe it was based on all the pictures i have seen. 200-mile-per-hour plus winds causing a path of two miles wide. you are talking about well-built schools in the area. one of which is totally leveled this morning. kids had to walk for miles over debris where their communities used to stand. this is an area that we'll not soon forget, may 20th. it will go down in oklahoma's history. today. we are not out of the woods just yet. all that severe weather pressing toward illinois and indiana. we will keep watching for you all morning long. as we continue throughout the morning and the sun comes up, the pictures are going to be devastating. back to you for now. >> we will continue to cover it all morning long as you mentioned. >> a look at some dramatic photos of the rescue. head to nbc.com. we are going to have continuing coverage. we will have a live report and here from a peninsula teenager that was just miles away whe

i was saying, can your tank withstand an ef-4 or ef-5? >> yesterday we were in an ef-4 tornado near lebanon, kansas. >> what was that like? what was that like? >> we were taking 170, 180 mile per hour wind with heavy debris. so we know that the vehicle can take that. it's just it's always a crapshoot because you don't know if a telephone pole will dislodge and come at you. we were lucky that that didn't happen yesterday, because we were taking monstrous winds and monstrous debris in this vehicle. >> yeah, we can see the video. in terms of chasing tornadoes, sean, how close can you actually get? >> we go inside the tornadoes. >> so you're right in the middle of it. >> yes. >> you can get not only close but you're right there, it's going over your tank? >> that's right. this tank is designed, it has panels and spikes that go into the ground to keep us in one space, one spot, and we've got two-inch armor to protect us from airborne missiles. >> sean, be careful over there. >> okay, thank you. >> amazing stuff. let's get to the fire now that'

most registered between an ef-0 to ef-1. maryland as seen two ef-4 tornadoes in its history, one in 1998 in la plata. history tells us it's not a matter of if or when that could happen. >>> all right. coming up in about 10 minutes, abc2 news is live on the ground? moore, oklahoma and why a safe room was no match for the storm. >> we're following the situation in oklahoma 24 hours a day on our website. head to abc2news.com to get more information and ways you can help. >>> money that was supposed to help better educate your children was instead paid for cruises, fancy din ares and -- dinners and gifts. several hundred thousands of dollars were used to by dinners on the inner harbor. maryland republicans are calling the unapproved spending inexcusable, laugh vic -- lavish and they plan to investigate. >>> the man who killed yeardley love faces more trouble. american international group is suing george huguely bus he refused to hans questions from the insurance -- answer questions from the insurance company. >>> arson investiga

and in western pennsylvania, clean-up after two ef-1 tornadoes. and then that monster in mid michigan, rated ef-2, it was one of six confirmed tornadoes in michigan. ashley is relieved. her house was destroyed, but her

it's now an ef-5.inds topping 200 miles per hour making one of the strongest storms ever to hit the u.s. we are joined by meteorologist peterson. edra, spell it out for us, again. how do they determine the strength of a tornado? >> it's a big misconception. we have seen video over and over where it starts small and grows so fast. there's a huge tornado out there. they cycle, they grow. they may intensify and weaken. you can see that so clearly here in this map. how do we figure out the damage? we go out afterwards. we survey the damage and say it probably took 200-mile-an-hour wind for this damage to occur. they have preliminary gone out and can see we have seeing ef-5 damage around briarwood elementary school. you saw it clearly on the path, not every location on the path had that kind of intensity. the moore medical center, around it, we are seeing ef-3 damage close to where you are standing. i want to show you one of the ways we look at that. here is the before picture of the moore medical center. l

it went from an ef-0 to ef-4 in ten minutes. where the storms are rolling today.his is where we got that cold front shifting slightly to the east and lining up from the great lakes to atlanta but there is one zone more likely to see some kind of hail, strong storms and tornadoes and that's in ohio today just barely catching detroit and going all the way to erie. we'll have all of america's weather coming up in just a moment. but i got to tell you, george, when we saw that damage signature and how quickly this thing intensified, it surprised us than'worse than what we've seen and it's terrible here. >> that's the whole thing, a storm this ferocious didn't kill more people and abc's cecilia vega joins us now with more on how many survived. >> reporter: good morning, you're right. it doesn't look just looking at this like that many people survived but they did. residents had 16 minutes to get to safety before it hit. for so many that was the difference between life and death. this is how the ef tornado sounded and looked as it stormed over moore. two minutes, that's

i want to go over the ef-1 and ef-2. ef-4 from 166 to 200 miles per hour. ef-5, 200 miles plus that. would be the joplin, missouri tornado, almost 2 years ago to the date. the joplin, missouri, tornado was preliminarily given an ef-4 rating and later on, they upped it to ef-5. and that could happen. taking a look at the watchings and warnings through the evening. we have tornado watching for parts of oklahoma, through arkansas, towards missouri, illinois, indiana. the lest watch good until 5:00 a.m. local time. then as i mentioned, we have a so veer thunderstorm watch south of hoke oak city. the storms keep erupting unfortunately, as people are trying to do a search and rescue. a severe thunderstorm warning centered around little rock. the good news, we don't have any tornado warnings at this hour. one of the main ingredients we need for these severe storms is very warm, unstable air mass. we are talking the overnight hours and temperatures in the 80s and behind that, temperatures in the 40s and 50s. so certainly that clash of the two air masses that we nee

it's definitely going to be on the high ef scale, greater than ef-3. know, i hadn't toured all the city. i saw massive damage in shopping centers, i wouldn't be surprised to get ef-4. i would hold off going any higher at this point until the official damage assessment tomorrow. >> we're looking at pictures you yourself have taken as you've been driving around. fairly apocalyptic even there. these are live pictures, actually, i have just been told. so this is right now in that area. what is the scale of the damage in terms of mileage? we're hearing as much as 20, maybe even 30 miles. >> yeah. the tornado was on the ground, it set down on the ground near newcastle. that was the same area on may 3rd, 1999, the other f-5 that become the benchmark in oklahoma city, it took a very similar path, starting in newcastle but across moore and the areas that got hit in '99 were also hit in this event. the main thing that made this one so terrible is a lot of the schools, which i'm near an elementary school on the west side of moore which has had a number of injurie

4 or ef 5. it's ex timely rare to see a tornado of this size but it does cause about 68% of the fatali fatalities related to tornadoes in a year. >> reporter: good evening ap as emergency responders continue, a tragic situation continues to unfold. everything you see here used to be a school, used to be homes, used to be a community. it is gone. everything gone here. oklahoma city coroner confirming ten people are dead. reports from the nbc affiliate in oklahoma city that at tower plaza elementary, seven elementary students have been pulled from a pool, they drowned there, 20 still missing and the recovery is really just beginning. round two of the violent weather began this afternoon when a massive funnel touched down and stayed on the ground for nearly an hour. >> this thing is on the ground, ripping everything up. >> the massive twister ripping away everything in its way, evidence of the violent clear-cut path of destruction. >> this is war zone, terrible. >> in the immediate aftermath surviv

not necessarily against an ef-5 but certainly an ef-0, ef-1, ef-2. kinds of damages we don't have to continue to see. >> in tom costello's piece he point had out shelters were 8 to $10,000. i saw one estimate a little lower. but nonetheless, we are looking at money that, especially a working class neighborhood like moore has been described as being, where people cannot afford it. they may want it but they can't afford it and they have to depend on the lottery system that seems so unfair when have you 500 out of 20,000 who get the lottery or who win this lottery for that shelter. >> shelters are somewhere around $4,000, maybe more. fema does have grants available to people, up to $7500 to help them put in a storm shelter. i know the same tom costello piece talked about bureaucracy involved. i think it is important to understand, if you need the peace of mind, if you want the shelter, you can get one. ef-5 tornadoes, ef-4 tornadoes, really represent only about 1% of the thousand pltornadoes we e every year in this area. so you can tie the walls to the

ef-5. the president declared a disaster area in oklahoma today. he spoke from the white house earlier. >> the people of moore should know that their country will remaining on the ground, there for them, beside them, as long as it takes. for there are homes and schools to rebuild. businesses and hospitals to re-open. there are parents to console. first responders to comfort. and, of course, frightened children who will need our continued love and attention. >> well, the president also reached out to oklahoma governor mary fallin. this afternoon the governor, herself, spoke about the unbelievable tragedy in oklahoma. >> 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

i want to go over the ef-1 and ef-2. ef-4 from 166 to 200 miles per hour.5, 200 miles plus that. would be the joplin, missouri tornado, almost 2 years ago to the date. the joplin, missouri, tornado was preliminarily given an ef-4 rating and later on, they upped it to ef-5. and that could happen. taking a look at the watchings and warnings through the evening. we have tornado watching for parts of oklahoma, through arkansas, towards missouri, illinois, indiana. the latest watch good until 5:00 a.m. local time. then as i mentioned, we have a so veer thunderstorm watch south of hoke oak city. the storms keep erupting unfortunately, as people are trying to do a search and rescue. a severe thunderstorm warning centered around little rock. the good news, we don't have any tornado warnings at this hour. one of the main ingredients we need for these severe storms is very warm, unstable air mass. we are talking the overnight hours and temperatures in the 80s and behind that, temperatures in the 40s and 50s. so certainly that clash of the two air masses that we need

an ef-4 tornado. that's the preliminary rating of this tornado, ef-4. that corresponds with 166 to 200 miles per hour. this was a huge tornado, about two miles wide. chad myers is watching all of this. chad, you know this area well. you worked in oklahoma. not that long ago. >> i did. to see the damage and the destruction of a school like that, and then as the camera pans over to the neighborhood and i know we're focused on the school and how bad it was damaged, but when he pans just 100 yards right or left, you see homes that are almost not there. they don't exist. so this school, although taking a direct hit, actually at least has some walls standing. the homes very close have nothing standing. something else i've noticed, almost scoured the landscape, the grass around the school is gone. the trees are gone. there's nothing left except mud. this had such scour power, literally, it would take all of the knives and the shakes and shingles around and scour the landscapes, take the dirt right away and suck it up into this storm, creating all of that debri

the national weather service categorizes monday's storm as at least an ef-4. now, to give you an on-the-ground perspective, this is what yesterday's tornado looked like to one man, michael welsh. he watched it approach from a restaurant parking lot in a town just south of moore. >> oh, my god! >> bill karins, i can't imagine what he was going through watching that as it came closer. and so huge. now, this part of oklahoma, of course, has been hit many times before, as bill karins has been telling us. a deadly storm hit the city in 1999 which the mayor says followed a very similar path to monday's twister. that one killed 36. the storm then generated the fastest winds ever recorded on earth. 318 miles an hour and caused nearly $1.5 billion in damage. any possibility we got close to this, bill? >> wind speeds are measured using a special doppler radar. no is the simple answer. >> in april 2011, a tornado that leveled much of tuscaloosa, alabama, was one of the worst in history with several ef-5 twisters. more than 320 people dead there from the college town of t

it's probably edge ef-0 to edge ef-0, it was probably ef-5 for about a half-mile in the middle. >> dr. greg forbes has been a -- you have seen ef-5 damage before dr. forbes, is there any question in your mind that the wind speeds here don't meet the criteria of 200-plus miles an hour winds. >> a huge white tank, it must weigh many tons, i've been asking what it is, we have been told it was an oil arrangement, it flew in a half mile. that's pretty much unpress dent. as long as the national weather service finds that, that's going to get it in the ef-5 category. >> that's probably about roughly the size of a mobile home, it's large. >> it's the size of a mobile home, but it's sheet metal, it's big metal there, i would think that's going to be half-inch to maybe three-inch thick, that is really dense, really heavy, that's not going to fly through the air very easily. >> thank you dr. greg forbes, the premier expert on tornado damage. there's a tree over there that's been debarked, and a giant piece of plywood was thrown through the air and basically that tree stabbed it. you see things t

ef-4, ef-5 tornado, neighborhood after neighborhood absolutely leveled.ft-hand side of the screen, both are live, these are storm chaser pictures coming, obviously, from inside of a car as they are chasing this thing. on the right-hand side, aerial pictures. very, very dark clouds in and around the oklahoma city area thanks to our affiliate koco. chad myers, meteorologist chad myers, is with the chase team out of o.u., university of oklahoma out of norman. he is on the phone with me right now. chad, i think as we talk about this tornado warning for this part of oklahoma, part outside of oklahoma city, remind people, if you live in this area, and i know you're telling people to take cover, where do they take cover, and when do they get the heads up? when do the sirens scream? >> you know what, everybody should already have a plan in place. the day the storm hits is a little bit too late, but let's say you don't, you just moved here or you're at a conference, whatever it is, you do need to listen to the authorities that you're with. the conference centers,

-5, now this classification of the storm that passed through here, an ef-5, as well.ut we do have great news about what hope means for the city of moore. and so many people who have come forward to spread their love and support for this city. kevin durant from the oklahoma city thunder, the basketball player. he's donated $1 million and there have been matching gifts from the nba, as well as other basketball players, walmart has come forward to donate services and goods to people who are struggling in this area. truck loads coming in. also, home depot around the corner has also donated their parking facility to serving food to the first responders those on the scene talking more about what people are doing here in the city. take a listen to this. >> i call oklahoma my home now. it's tough to go through, but we're a city that comes together. we'll bounce back from this. the sun's going to shine soon, we've got to stick together. >> that is kevin durant who is a local hero. i was talking to people who were from oklahoma city who say that they believe he is just as good

we only see about 2% of all tornadoes in that ef-4 to ef-5 category and winds from 166 to 200. severe threat today from michigan all of the way down into texas. if you live in this orange area there's a threat again of some tornadoes during the day today. charlie? >> larry mowry, thanks. >> there are so many different areas of the city that have been destroyed. the tornado itself was very very wide. it just wiped out miles of areas and homes and businesses. it's probably the worst i've ever seen. >> worst than may 3rd, '99? >> worst than may 3rd, '99, i believe in looking at it. if you walk through the neighborhoods, if you go through some of these business areas and certainly when you see the schools, there are just heaps of debris. you can't tell what's in that particular location. it would be incredible if anybody survived any of those structures that were destroyed during this terrible storm. >> as you walk and have a presence there, what do they say to you? >> there were hundreds -- i don't know how many people maybe even 1,000 people that were on the ground last night and

i want to go over the ef-1 and ef-2. ef-4 from 166 to 200 miles per hour.iles plus that. would be the joplin, missouri tornado, almost 2 years ago to the date. the joplin, missouri, tornado was preliminarily given an ef-4 rating and later on, they upped it to ef-5. and that could happen. taking a look at the watchings and warnings through the evening. we have tornado watching for parts of oklahoma, through arkansas, towards missouri, illinois, indiana. the latest watch good until 5:00 a.m. local time. then as i mentioned, we have a so veer thunderstorm watch south of hoke oak city. the storms keep erupting unfortunately, as people are trying to do a search and rescue. a severe thunderstorm warning centered around little rock. the good news, we don't have any tornado warnings at this hour. one of the main ingredients we need for these severe storms is very warm, unstable air mass. we are talking the overnight hours and temperatures in the 80s and behind that, temperatures in the 40s and 50s. so certainly that clash of the two air masses that we need -- at le

are registered at ef-4 or ef-5.responsible for 75% of tornado deaths because of how strong they are. take a look at the devastation. nothing left of the town. >> unbelievable. >> united states is the tornado capital of the planet. number two country, canada. yeah, i learned this on "world news" this evening. and we are center of the tornado action in the world. >> the midwest is the epicenter of the center. here is an interesting fact we learned today as well. in moore they're trying to hurry up and get the street signs up. there is no landmark that is identifiable in that town anymore. the only thing they have left, people looking for their homes amidst the rubble. >> can't tell north, south. >> you need street signs. >> amazing. >>> coming up, an oklahoma hero in the hometown there. money he will donate to the storm survivors. a great story. >>> the upset on the stage of "dancing with the stars." the trophy winner and behind the scenes buzz. coming up next in "the skinny." >> announcer: "world news now" continues

the roof and the walls are gone, ef-3, and then the house next door, ef-4, that's how quickly thingse from one part of the neighborhood to another. that's how quickly this storm developed as well. if you were in the core of the storm, you received winds of over 200 miles per hour. this went from nothing, not a tornado on the ground, to over 167 miles per hour in ten minutes. that's a hard forecast. let me tell you, the weather service did a fantastic job. they warned people. when the weather service forecast fails is when it sounds like this. storm spotters report a tornado on the ground. that's a fail. that means it is already on the ground. this is a success. wolf. >> excellent point, chad, thanks very much. george, thanks to you as well. we'll check in with you later in "the situation room" as well. >>> oklahoma tornado, superstorm sandy, is the weather becoming more violent? piers morgan will look at that part of the story later tonight. "piers morgan live" 9:00 p.m. eastern. >>> still ahead here in the "cnn newsroom," the nba star kevin durant makes a huge donation to help his a

this tornado has that potential to be in the ef-3 to ef-5 range. we're talking about a very dangerous situation. and as you notice here, as we track the tornado and where it's going to be within the next hour putting it in through powers at 6:23 and mustang at 6:50, wheatland at 6:57 and then arriving, if it stays on this path and maintains its intens y intensity, it could arrive in moore, that very populated area where we just had the devastation some 11 days ago, it could put it right into moore at 7:17. so a very dangerous situation and not just the tornado. i mean even around here we're going to be dealing with incredibly large destructive hail, gusty damaging winds and flooding is going to be a concern. if you have people on the roadways and jammed up like some of the chasers have been talking about, bad news if we get into some flooded roadways here as well. so we have so many different elements to this storm that could indeed be deadly. so, folks need to seek shelter immediately. >> it is distressing news that we heard from dave holder. ther

it went from an ef-0 all the way up to an ef-4 in 10 minutes. and then it got even stronger. it got up to that 200, 210 miles per hour. and there are many homes out there that you just can't find anything. the fact that we only lost 24 people a actually a blessing considering how many homes you see with nothing left. anderson? it is great to have you both here. when the storm was coming, how much warning did you have? >> i'm not quite sure. ichs working. i got the word that the thunderstorms were coming. and then, as soon as that happened, it turned into a watch. and then, the next thing i know, i don't know what to do because my son is in high school, south moore high school and i didn't get my alert because my phone quit working. and so i stayed in the house. >> where in the house did you go? i went in my living room. i had a hall closet. i went in there, sat on the floor, grabbed a pillow and put it over my head. it got so loud, i knew it was hitting. my ears started popping. i felt the suction. and, about that time, i heard my house just flying apart. the rafters came dow

that usually happens with at least ef-4 or ef-5. estimated winds up to 200 miles per hour. path length was almost three miles long and about half a mile wide. incredible stuff. now, afar as the west goes, a weak storm moved through yesterday. temperatures have cooled off dramatically in many areas of central california. we're still rather cool in the northwe northwest. we've even got clouds down around san diego. there is light rain this morning. a lot of it's avoiding the cities. i-5, you'll be in and out of showers today. not horrible. temperatures cooler. even l.a. only right around 70 expecting severe weather. bakersfield and yuma, the two warmest spots on the map. >>> unfortunately, not a lot of changes over the weekend. i'll bring you those details. >> all right. i'd say it looks good enough. >> it doesn't look more bible. >> so far. thanks, bill. >>> this message is for chad ochocinco johnson. if you're watching, the police would like a word for you. >>> lottery fever sweeps the nation with almost $800 million up for grabs. >>> and televangelist pat robertson's bizar

it went from an ef-0 all the way up to an ef-4 in 10 minutes.four miles it went from nothing to 167 or greater miles per hour and then it got even stronger. it got up to that 200, 210-mile-per-hour storm. and there are many homes out there that you just can't find anything. the fact that we only lost 24 people a actually a blessing considering how many homes you see with nothing left. anderson? >> yeah, it is incredible. chad, appreciate it. the evidence is all around me from what chad said is around me from ef-5. houses didn't survive the tornado. barbara gerald's house collapsed all around her pinning her underneath the debris until first responders managed to pull her out. she joins me with her daughter tiffany. it's great to have you both here. when the storm was coming, how much warning did you have? >> i'm not quite sure because i was working. then i got the alert that severe thunderstorms were coming. and then, as soon as that happened, it turned into a watch. and then, the next thing i know, i don't know what to do because my son is in h

week, ef-3 and ef-4. talking winds 200 miles per hour. now, as we go back over, and as chad said to you, we want to talk more about the storm. >> hey, jennifer, i want to stay on the pictures as long as you can, before we talk about the -- let's talk about again, according to affiliates, this is wellston. >> wellston, uh-huh. >> if you want to know what it looks like in your attic, you just saw it, with the air conditioning, and the cooling vent just completely exposed there, and this is -- >> trees down. >> this is happening as this thing really run rough schoshod this neighborhood. people there with backhoes trying to clean up the mess off the streets. this structure, whatever it is, who knows. could be new construction, i'm not sure. whatever it is, it's completely flat. you can see the insulation from the homes. this is -- these are matchstricmatchstrick matchstrick -- match sticks that once stood no longer than 40 minutes ago. looks like he's trying to clear the roads possibly for people to get back

>> on average most tornado are ef os or ef iss. this is like the one percentile of the tornado that we get in the country, the very strong ones. it's the e kwif lent of getting a category five hurricane. they're rare occurrences. that's what we witnessed. now you see the headlines on tv or on the radio and everyone is saying mile wide tornado went through moore. it wasn't always a mile wide. it looked at one point a half a mile, maybe at most a mile wide. it started off as a smaller tornado then it grow right in front of your eyes as the helicopter pilot followed it. they followed it until it lost its circulation. you know, so it wasn't -- it's not like it's an ef5 or ef4 the whole time. at the time it may have been 140 mile-per-hour winds versus 200. that's why you see these tornado they're not fair, they're very unjust. they can skip over towns, they can bounce, hit the street next to you and bounce over your house. >> that's something that's shocking to me about the tornado footage. sometimes you'll see a house completely destro