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At least 51 people, including 20 children, dead after massive twister strikes near Oklahoma City

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:51:36 -0400

A massive tornado at least a half mile-wide with 200 mph winds churned through Oklahoma City’s suburbs Monday afternoon, killing at least 51 people, including at least 20 children, and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled inside. Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office, said early Tuesday that 51 people were confirmed dead, at least twenty of them children. She said officials could see as many as 40 additional fatalities.

Oklahoma twister tracked path of 1999 tornado

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:47:26 -0400

Monday’s powerful tornado in suburban Oklahoma City loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the region in May 1999. The National Weather Service estimated that the storm that struck Moore, Okla., on Monday had wind speeds of up to 200 mph, and was at least a half-mile wide. The 1999 storm had winds clocked at 300 mph, according to the weather service website, and it destroyed or damaged more than 8,000 homes, killing at least two people.

Frenetic search for survivors as 91 feared dead in tornado-hit Oklahoma

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:45:23 -0400

Pre-dawn emergency workers searched feverishly for survivors in the rubble of homes, primary schools and an hospital in an Oklahoma City suburb ravaged by a massive Monday afternoon tornado feared to have killed up to 91 people and injured well over 200 residents. The 2-mile(3-km) wide tornado tore through town of Moore outside Oklahoma City, trapping victims beneath the rubble as one elementary school took a direct hit and another was destroyed.

Crews Search for Survivors in Oklahoma

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:42:43 -0400

Emergency crews and volunteers continued to work through the early morning hours Tuesday in a frantic search for survivors of a huge tornado that ripped through parts of Oklahoma City and its suburbs, killing at least 91 people, 20 of them children, and flattening whatever was in its path, including a hospital and at least two schools. Much of the tornado damage appeared to be in the suburb of Moore, where rescue workers struggled to make their way through debris-clogged streets and around downed power lines to those who are feared trapped under mountains of rubble.

51 killed in mammoth Oklahoma tornado; 40 more bodies expected

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:40:37 -0400

Even for a city toughened by disaster, Moore has never seen this kind of devastation.

A massive, howling tornado pulverized a vast swath of the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, chewing up homes and businesses, and severely damaging a hospital and two elementary schools. The official death toll stood at 51 Tuesday morning, but it was sure to rise. A coroner’s office official said some 40 bodies have yet to be processed by medical examiners -- roughly half of them children. More bodies could be hidden under the vast debris field, authorities warned. Hundreds of people were injured.

Factbox: Tornado damage and the Enhanced Fujita scale

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:39:23 -0400

The tornado that slammed into the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday, killing more than 50 people with winds up to 200 miles per hour, was given a preliminary ranking of EF4, the second most powerful category on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. The Enhanced Fujita scale is an updated version of an earlier chart to measure the ferocity of tornadoes published in 1971 by a University of Chicago professor.

Huge tornado flattens area near Oklahoma City

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:43:36 -0400

A huge tornado flattened an area near Oklahoma City on Monday, leaving a wake of tangled wreckage, as a dangerous storm system threatened as many as 10 states. At least two schools were in the path of the tornado, television reports said, and video showed homes destroyed, cars tossed and at least one building on fire. There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths from the tornado, which struck near Moore, Oklahoma, in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, in the midafternoon.

5 still hospitalized after Connecticut train collision

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:56:06 -0400

Five people remained in the hospital -- one in critical condition -- two days after a commuter train derailed and struck another train on one of the busiest tracks in the country, officials said Sunday. National Transportation Safety Board investigators looking at the accident, along the corridor from New York to New Haven, Connecticut, are focusing on a broken rail as a possible cause for Friday’s rush-hour collision.

Car plows into parade crowd, trapping some underneath

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:53:57 -0400

A 1997 Cadillac plowed into a parade crowd in Virginia on Saturday, injuring dozens of spectators and leaving others pinned underneath the car. The accident injured up to 60 people, with 10 hospitalized, but none of the injuries appeared life-threatening, CNN affiliate WJHL reported. Rescuers lifted the car to free people trapped beneath it after the accident in Damascus, said Bill Nunly, the town’s police chief.

Tornadoes tear through Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:50:32 -0400

Tornadoes touched down in three states on Sunday, ripping roofs off homes and turning trees to matchsticks, as severe weather swept the region. A large "violent and extremely dangerous" tornado was spotted on the southwest side of Wichita, Kansas, the National Weather Service said. A second confirmed tornado was seen near Edmond, Oklahoma, said the weather service. Another tornado was spotted in nearby Luther, Oklahoma, but it was not immediately clear whether that was the same twister.