ken garcia with the american red cross in central oklahoma is on the phone with us. ken, what are you seeing, and what is your advice to those who are tuning in right now? ken, are you there? all right, ken's not there. we'll check back with him in a minute. as we can, we talked earlier to an emergency official in the town of norman. he was telling individuals who are in norman and south oklahoma -- we're going to listen in right now to kfor as they cough tver the storm live. >> moore high school is where it is. we're talking about sunny lane and bryant -- bryant sunny lane and sooner at about south 4th street and north 12th street. it could go up to near the gh plant and up to near tinker air force base. recall the may 3rd tornado, made a hard right turn and went up toward i-40. we don't know if this will do the same thing, but it is now east of moore high school. go, john welsh. >> caller: i'll tell you where this is, it's crossing right now at my house, bryant just north of 12th street. we're getting highlights of flashes in there, and antennas just north of 12th s

i want to bring in ken garcia of the american red cross. ken garcia, thank you for joining me. i've just had a really shocking report there from a local reporter talking about this being potentially two, three times the size of the terrible tornado in 1999 in the same area. what is your understanding of the scale of this? >> well, this is a very large, destructive tornado that moved through moore, oklahoma and our hearts go out to the families that have been impacted by this storm. it is absolutely horrible what has happened. the red cross is beginning the process of getting into these neighborhoods right now, a lot of the roads are not even passable. i know that the tornado went over interstate 35 which goes right through moore, and some of the roads are still closed off. so we're waiting and trying to get into these areas. we do have a shelter that is open at one of the local churches. it is st. andrew's united methodist church that is open for the shelter and we are currently in the process of identifying five more shelters for this area. there's going to be a lot of people

ken garcia is in oklahoma.joins us by phone. >> can you give me the text information so we can put it up on the screen. >> the impact we have a lot of work ahead of us. that donation is texting the word red cross 90999. red cross 90999. it should say text to red cross and then the number. we will put it back up. there tell me what your immediate job is tonight. now that the sun has set you have first responders doing one thing you are doing another. what is it? >> we are in the process of we have a multiple statewide effort right now. we have had tornadoes in carney, shawnee and little town called little ax. our volunteers are doing damage assessment where they go and look to see what has happened and what need is going to be there. based on the tv and screen shot i am seeing on your channel there is going to be a need of shelters and there will be a shelter in carney, shawnee and little ax. as the sun comes up tomorrow morning and what has actually happened in these storms. our goal is to make sure we get the

garcia. he's with the oklahoma red cross. ken, how many people do you know are seeking shelter right now?> right now we're just trying to get out there and find out how many people are going to be needing that assistance. we have what we're doing what's called damage assess president where our volunteers to go out and look to see what has happened. obviously with the pictures we're seeing there's going to be a need for shelter. we've had multiple tornadoes in the area. it may be hundreds of people that need help. some may have somewhere where they are able to go. others may not have somewhere they are able to go. otherwise the red cross is there for them. our hearts go out to those who are impacted by these storms. we've had multiple tornadoes hit down. i know where i live in edmond, oklahoma, the tornado touched down about a mile and a half from where i live, so these were -- these were very, very close to us. and so, i mean, you know, the red cross, they are a community volunteer so they are affected just like the communities, and i know that we'll be opening up shelters here very soon.

ken garcia is "outfront" right now. he's from the red cross and in oklahoma city. iously, this situation right now is urgent and desperate one. they try to find these children. what is your understanding about how many children, how many people are missing right now in oklahoma city? >> right now we don't have that information as far as how many people are missing. right now we are in the process of trying to determine how we can help find a place for people to go after these storms have moved through. our emergency management and our first responders are workinglesr search and rescue right now. and our main priority is to be a relief organization and make sure people have somewhere to go. and we have a shelter that is open in oklahoma city at the st. andrew's church. that is on southwest 119 in oklahoma city. the actual address is 2727 southwest 119. and it's also a family reunification center. the city of oklahoma city is calling it that. that's where we're encouraging folks to go. for those wanting to check on loved ones, we have a website, safeandwell.org. >> al

i want to bring in ken garcia, from the american red cross.ng to us throughout the morning off camera. what kind of help and services can the residents of moore expect? >> right now, we have shelters that are open across the area. three specifically for this area. one is united methodist. moore community service. and one in the new castle storm shelter. a lot of people staying with friends and family. but the shelters are available. our volunteers are working with first responders and making sure they have meals and drinks. they are starting to cool off a little bit here. want to make sure they're staying warm, as well. >> do you have a figure of how many residents stayed in your shelters overnight? >> at st. andrew's, we had 56 or so that came in. that was a come and go sort of deal. we tend to see low populations. mostly in oklahoma, we find other places to go. a lot of people don't want to go to the shelter. they're available for folks. we want to make sure they know they can get the help. >> we saw that with local residents in the neighbor

ken. good afternoon commissioners, director, barbara garcia, director of health.ental health services was a sensitive issue to you and it is to public health and over the last 18 years that i've been at the health department, i can tell you most of my career has been how do we manage our mental health beds within the hospital and the lessons that we have learned there, particularly with health care reform that's going to emphasize committee health and not hospital beds, they want to see us use our hospital bed and help people get back into the committee where they live for most of their lives. and so i do want to acknowledge the sensitivity of it, but also the fact that we have found if we don't have a robust committee system of care for people to leave the hospital very quickly once they stabilized that what we found and we still find and i work on this even still as the director of health is we have to have and continue to work on trying to move people in the best certificate vuss best services in the community. cpm operated 18 psych alkylation trick beds and th

threatening thousands of homes in the hidden valley area, and that is where theresa garcia is stationed tonight. theresa. >> ken, good evening. you know, up until sunset, there were helicopters dipping into this lake here behind me. they were basically gathering up water to make drops over all of those flare ups. the fire officials tell me they had to order about a dozen residents and a dozen or so homes to evacuate in this hidden valley area. really, day two of this springs fire has really been a tough one. they've had to, as you were saying earlier, triple in size. the latest figures have it at 28 thousand acres with 20% contained. when the try, hot sant an winds finally shifted on shore the weather cooled some but the flames turned around and headed inland towards more of the populated area. many residents gathered up their animals, including horses, and evacuated to safer zones. tomorrow there's an air tanker arriving. that's going to be a huge boost to all the aircraft making watt and her fire retardant drops. they've been trying to protect these homes from burning. about 15 homes have been damaged but non