. >> on the phone right now we have sergeant jeremy lewis of the moore police department. sergeant lewis, can you give us the latest on the rescue and search efforts, particularly around the elementary school in moore that we've been hearing so much about? >> we actually still have search and rescue teams in the school. it is a fairly large elementary school. and also the neighborhood around is completely destroyed. so things, of course, are on top of the rubble that was the school. so that rescue effort is still ongoing with the school. >> do you have the capacity you need to deal with the magnitude of the disaster that you are facing right now? >> our city has experienced disasters before but nothing to the magnitude of this. we have enormous resources here, literally hundreds, even maybe thousands of police officers who have come from all over the state to help us. so as of right now we are flooding the areas just trying to, you know, locate people who are still trapped either in debris or in their storm cellars but those guys are going to start getting tired so it's go

. >> tonight this video seen for the first time, officer jeremy lewis rushing to the scene to help but feeling helpless because he was behind the tornado watching it head toward town. he gave us a tour of plaza towers elementary, the school where they lost seven children. >> wow, it's just stunning. you can see the chalk board in the front of the classroom here. >> the pile of rubble behind me, that's how the whole school looks, more than 400 children and teachers inside. >> there's not a piece of rooftop left on the school. >> you hear the question from a lot of our viewers wondering about the safe rooms. why weren't there safe rooms? >> this is an older school. as far as the safe rooms, they did a lottery. some schools got them, some didn't. newer schools all have safe rooms. >> the cost of a safe room, $300 a square foot, in some cases more than $1 million to build one. >> very expensive. it's a very large district. they have 50 something schools. not that it's not worth it. >> you can hear the parents saying you can't put a price on my kid's life. >> you can't. i'm sure that will s

john king toured the ruins with sergeant jeremy lewis of the moore police department, who grew up herewn. take a look. >> this is more classrooms back here. this was the gymnasium here. >> was the gym a separate building or was it attached somehow? >> attached -- separate. >> you go across the driveway? >> correct. >> the classroom building would have ended here? >> correct. >> that's what all this is. wow. >> the school kind of went in a "u." it came out this way right here. it went -- that was the back corner. >> it came out like a "u." >> there was another building separately out there. there were some portables out there, which of course didn't withstand anything. >> that kind of destruction that john king found at plaza towers elementary was also found at briarwood elementary school here in moore. total destruction. amazingly, everyone at briarwood, they got out alive. i'm joined by the superintendent marianne moore. when you look at briarwood, when you look at towers, it's a testament to the preparation and also the teachers and the principals. >> it is absolutely to the credit o

sergeant jeremy lewis from the moore police department joins us now.ly we thought, sir, that 51 people were dead. we were happy to hear that that number was revised downward earlier today. to 24 but the fear was that the number of dead could increase. do you have any information on that? >> as of this time it has not increased. we still have rescue and search teams in the areas where the tornado went through. haven't had any updates at this time but they're still searching a lot of the area. jon: just based on pictures we are seeing, the incredible devastation. buildings that were flattened and cars that have been crushed, it would seem that there must still be people trapped. the question is, whether you can find them alive or whether they may have expired? >> correct. we're just, it now, almost going through each area piece by piece. some of the debris is 20, thirty foot tall that has to be gone through. you just don't know if someone is underneath that. you don't want to use heavy equipment and possibly injure someone who has survived and is underne

a lot of people who survived had one. >> joining us is sergeant jeremy lewis with the moore, oklahomawhat's your focus today? >> yesterday i was actually right behind the tornado as it came through our city, followed it through the city until we weren't able to follow it any more. we weren't able to pass through because of the damage. so we started the search effort at that time which is continuing today. we now have search and rescue teams in the areas affected just going area by area trying to find people trapped under debris in the storm shelters. >> mm-hmm. >> sergeant, we played an earlier interview where i believe you were saying you don't even want to put a number on the death toll right now. are you giving out a number? >> the numbers fluctuate so much. even at the police department we can't get an exact number. the area is so large. we have so many search teams. we are getting numbers and we can't get an exact number. it's frustrating but also changing rm minute by minute. the area is so large it's so much stuff to go through just to get to some houses. >> let me ask you abou

. >>> joining us now is sergeant jeremy lewis. thank you for taking the time to join us this morning. what can you tell us is the latest from the scene in terms of the search for survivors at this point. >> as of right now we are securing the entire area which is an enormous path. we have a 2 and a half mile wide by 15-20 mile long section we are trying to secure. we have numerous people that we know are still in storm cellars and in the debris we are trying to locate and get out of the area. that is basically what is going on right now. they are still searching plaza towers elementary school, and we will know today once daylight comes it will help a lot. right now it's still a search and rescue effort. >> st. louis, i understand you heard this was happening you were on the south side of the city you drive into this area in moore, oklahoma and you see all of the destruction as we are seeing now in these pictures. used to be neighborhoods used to be school nows it looks like a junkyard. it looks like my brother's leg goes in his be

cnn's john king toured the devastation with moore police sergeant jeremy lewis. >> in terms of when people first responded here, i mean, where did everybody go? >> we basically surrounded the school and started running into different areas. some of this has been cleaned out due to the search and rescue efforts. literally just climbing over debris. people were yelling for help. so pulling people out as quickly as possible. and that went on literally for hours. >> this was a hall of classrooms that led to -- >> classrooms on each side. >> connected? >> that was a wall there, a classroom straight ahead. there was classrooms out here. you can see there's still tile. >> right. it's just gone. >> this classroom is gone. these classrooms are all gone. >> more on the front side here too, anywhere we see tile? >> you can see the door leading into what was the classroom. >> the back wall with the board. that's the front wall of the school there? >> front wall would have been there, yes. >> is there a place in the school where people fared better? >> you can see where there's still walls standing up.

. >> brown: sergeant jeremy lewis of the moore police department. condolences to your community. good luck to you and thanks so much for talking to us. >> thank you. >> brown: joining us live in boulder, colorado, bob henson, a meteorologist for the national center for atmospheric research. even as the rescue continues, what can you tell us about the size and rce of this tornado and what caused it to be so powerful? >> well, it was an extremely powerful tornado, now rated at ef-5 on the enhanced fujitale. that places hit in the top one tenth of one percent of all tornados. the u.s. usually gets about 1,200 or so tornados in a particular year and there's usually only about one on average this reach this is strength. in terms of what caused it to be so strong, there are a few days each year that have the general conditions that lead to strong tornado. warm moist unstable air near the surface, colder air alo, als wind shear, which is when the winds are blowing one direction below and a different direction aloft and that imparts the air with a spin that

a moore police officer jeremy lewis brought us there and he took us through and he reminded us that onschool day there are 400 something students there. we know seven of the ten children who died in this terrible tornado, seven were at that school. you get to the devastation, again, i don't want anyone to take this the wrong way, it is a miracle the death toll wasn't higher. let's look at some of what is left of the school as we walked through it. >> what was here, who wasn't here. >> had to verify with the parents who is accounted for, who is not, things like that. >> the school goes back. can you give us a sense of -- >> yeah. heading out. yes. >> how are you doing, sir? >> this is more classrooms back here. this is the gymnasium here. >> so was the gym a separate building or attached somehow? >> the gym was attached. >> go across this driveway to the gymnasium building? >> yes. >> so the classroom building would have ended here. >> correct. >> that's what all this is. wow. >> the school kind of went in a u. it came out this way, right here, and it went -- that was the back corner ri

. >> reporter: major mark murdoch of the moore fire department and jeremy lewis of the moore police department were among the first on the scene. >> we had several civilians that were waving at us, telling us that they had some trapped children in here in the hallway. >> reporter: both men faced with the immediate aftermath of the ef-5 tornado that transformed plaza towers elementary from this to this. >> reporter: so this whole structure was several stories high? and it just pancaked down on itself. >> correct. >> reporter: so how many feet of debris would you say we've got there? >> over here we've got close to 50 foot of debris that still has to be gone through. >> is there a fear that there are still people in there? >> that's why they're picking it apart very carefully, to make 100% that they're not on top of someone. but the dogs have gone through it, but as you can see, the dogs are 20, 30 foot up in the air. >> so it's hard to get a sense of something. >> correct. >> came from the west and moved in this direction. so it kind of had a free run through this community here by the time it