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Floodwaters, deaths surge after storms
Oklahoma had barely started clearing the rubble from a monstrous tornado two weeks ago when another rash of twisters plowed through this ill-fated swath of Tornado Alley.
At least 14 people died and six are missing after tornadoes raked the state late Friday, the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Monday.
Among the dead were seven Guatemalan citizens, according to the country's Consulate General in Houston. Four Guatemalan citizens were missing, the consulate said. It was not immediately clear if the dead and missing were part of earlier tallies provided by Oklahoma officials.
FULL STORYAt least 9 killed in Oklahoma tornadoes
David Stottlemyre was inside an oil field repair shop in El Reno, Oklahoma, when he saw a tornado "looking at us dead in the eye."
The lifelong Oklahoman said he and two coworkers stayed inside as the building took a direct hit - the roof collapsed and the structure blew apart. Though the three survived unscathed, "We're all pretty shook up," the oil field mechanic told CNN. "Surreal - really no other way to explain it."
Friday evening's twisters killed at least nine people - two of them children - and injured scores more in Oklahoma, the office of the city's medical examiner said. Five victims had not been identified.
Canadian County Undersheriff Chris West said the seven fatalities in his county were inside vehicles.
FULL STORYHeartbreak, hope and healing in the aftermath of Oklahoma tornado
- We're learning more about the people hit by the devastating EF-5 tornado that smashed through Oklahoma on Monday, killing 24 people
- Many of the dead have now been identified and residents are returning to ruined homes to see what's left
- We'll bring you the latest news and images from the scene here, and you can read CNN's full story here.
[Updated at 4:48 p.m. ET] Moore, Oklahoma, Mayor Glenn Lewis said Wednesday that the six people missing from this week's tornado have been accounted for. Five were found alive. The sixth was located at the Medical Examiner's Office and is presumed dead. The mayor was not sure whether the death was in addition to the 24 already reported, or whether it would raise the overall toll to 25.
[Updated at 3:15 p.m. ET] About 4,000 insurance claims have been filed so far in the tornado and storm that rocked the Oklahoma City area on Monday, said Kelly Collins, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma insurance commissioner.
[Updated at 2:26 p.m. ET] CNN's John King has just been taken around the ruins of Plaza Towers Elementary School where seven children were killed. "It's numbing and it's sad," he said. "It's gone. The neighborhood around it is gone."
But given the scale of devastation, it's notable how many were saved. "It’s a miracle that the death toll wasn’t higher," King said.
[Updated at 2:20 p.m. ET] Yesterday we told you NBA star Kevin Durant had donated $1 million to the Red Cross. And today he paid them a visit.
[tweet https://twitter.com/redcrossokc/status/337271601651392514]
[Updated at 2:05 p.m. ET] Residents have been showing our CNN colleagues what is left of their homes. These are the dreadful kind of scenes that will greet so many in the coming days.
[tweet https://twitter.com/edlavaCNN/status/337266338777141250]
[tweet https://twitter.com/edlavaCNN/status/337265802464083968]
[Updated at 1:56 p.m. ET] Six adults are still unaccounted for after the tornado struck Moore, Albert Ashwood with the Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management told CNN's Nick Valencia.
[Updated at 1:38 p.m. ET] Residents of Moore will be allowed back into their neighborhoods as of 3 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) today, Mayor Glenn Lewis said. Light vehicles will be allowed but heavy equipment, trailers and satellite trucks will be prohibited, he added.
[Updated at 1:35 p.m. ET] President Obama will travel to Oklahoma on Sunday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced.
[Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET] Earlier today CNN's Pamela Brown shared the survival story of Candace Phillips and her newborn son.
[Updated at 1:15 p.m. ET] Roads and public areas are being cleared as the recovery in Moore begins, Gov. Mary Fallin said.
But the most devastated parts of Moore are still off-limits to residents, CNN's John King reports. It's just too dangerous right now, he tweeted.
[tweet https://twitter.com/JohnKingCNN/status/337254831553122305]
[Updated at 12:14 p.m. ET] Those neighbors who have are helping those who've lost all that they own. CNN's Kyung Lah found people leaving and collecting essential supplies in Moore, Oklahoma.
[tweet https://twitter.com/KyungLahCNN/status/337238440938700801]
[tweet https://twitter.com/KyungLahCNN/status/337237881179480064]
[Updated at 11:42 a.m. ET] We've learned the names of 18 of the 24 people known to have died in the tornado Monday. Some were babies, just months old, according to the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's Office. Then there were the children who died in their ravaged elementary school. And adults – parents and grandparents.
Here are the names of those who lost their lives. We'll bring you more about who they were when we know it.
Terri Long, 49 years old.
Megan Futrell, 29 years old.
Case Futrell, 4 months old.
Shannon Quick, 40 years old.
Sydnee Vargyas, 7 months old.
Karrina Vargyas, 4 years old.
Jenny Neely, 38 years old.
Antonia Canderaria, 9 years old.
Kyle Davis. 8 years old. Kyle was a force on the soccer field, nicknamed "The Wall."
Jenae Hornsby, 9 years old. Jenae was "a ball of energy, a ball of love," her father, Joshua, said.
Sydney Angle, 9 years old.
Emily Conatzer, 9 years old.
Nicolas McCabe, 9 years old.
Christopher Legg, 9 years old.
Cindy Plumley.
Deanna Ward.
Hemant Bhonde.
Tawuana Robinson.
[Updated 11:26 a.m. ET] About 2,700 insurance claims have been filed so far for tornado and storm damage, Oklahoma's Insurance Commissioner John D. Doak said. He expects more to be filed.
[Updated at 11:22 a.m. ET] A total of 324 people are now known to have been hurt in Monday's tornado, Gov. Mary Fallin tweeted.
[tweet https://twitter.com/GovMaryFallin/status/337224670308888576]
If you're looking to help those affected, remember to go to CNN.com/impact where we've got details of organizations who are working in Moore and the other badly-hit areas.
'We will come back strong,' governor vows
- Revised death toll: 24 killed, including nine children, after tornado blasted Oklahoma City area Monday, especially suburb of Moore, official says
- At least seven children died in pulverized school in Moore, officials say
- Moore took direct hits from tornadoes in 1999 and 2003
- Live updates below. Full story here; check our affiliates KFOR, KOCO and KOKH; CNN iReport; how to help
[Updated at 11 p.m. ET] This post is no longer being updated. For full coverage, check out CNN.com.
[Updated at 10:52 p.m. ET]
About 2,400 homes were damaged in the Oklahoma cities of Moore and Oklahoma City, said Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokesman Jerry Lojka. Some 10,000 people were directly impacted by the tornado, he said.
[Updated at 10:43 p.m. ET]
A teacher talks about how she and her students survived the tornado by hiding in a closet and bathroom:
FULL POST
Texas storms: 'I thought that lady was gonna die'
[Updated at 3:31 p.m. ET] Tina and Billy Clark saw the funnel cloud approaching and did what many of their neighbors did.
"We just ran and hid in the closet," Tina Clark told CNN after one of a swarm of tornadoes descended Wednesday night into their neighborhood in Hood County, some 30 miles southwest of Fort Worth, Texas.
"I was holding the door shut," Billy Clark told CNN. "You could feel the pressure from inside the house. It was like pulling on the door a little bit. The whole house was shaking really bad. It felt like the house was getting ripped apart, but we couldn't see anything from inside the closet, so we didn't know what exactly was going on."
"You could just hear stuff hitting the house," his wife said.
FULL STORYTornadoes rip into New Orleans suburb
Two tornadoes ripped into a New Orleans suburb Wednesday afternoon, damaging homes and knocking down power lines, but no injuries were reported, a local government spokeswoman said.
The storm hit in Kenner, Louisiana, near the city's international airport. The tornadoes damaged cars and roofs and brought down trees and electrical wires, Jefferson Parish spokeswoman Kriss Fortunato said.
Mike Efferson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in New Orleans, said the twister had estimated top winds of 90 mph. The second one had winds of 75 mph, the agency said on its Twitter account.
Tornado causes injuries, damage in Mississippi
A tornado has caused at least three injuries and damaged structures in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, officials there say.
At 5:28 p.m. CT, Terry Steed from the Emergency Management District in Hattiesburg confirmed that a tornado was on the ground in Hattiesburg and that there was damage. Brett Carr with the Mississippi Emergency
Management Agency in Marion County said at least three people were injured.
Watch out for rough weather
People in the Mississippi River Valley could be in for some dangerous weather Tuesday, the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center warns.
Very cold air surging southeastward will clash with warm, moist air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico; a line of severe thunderstorms is expected to erupt along the cold front that separates the two air masses, CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said.
"This could be a particularly dangerous and deadly event due to the rapid movement of the storms and the tornado threat increasing during the overnight hours, causing people in the storms' paths to be caught unaware," Morris said.
A few of these storms could produce tornadoes across parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Official: At least 100 homes, businesses damaged by storms in Alabama
[Updated at 1:16 p.m. ET] At least 100 homes and business were damaged in the city of Mobile, Alabama with an additional 20 to 25 structures damaged just outside of the city, an Alabama Emergency Management official said.
Eleven other counties are reporting structural damage, however August did not have exact numbers.
Pike County, south of Montgomery, reported that one adult male was severely injured by the storm, however the extent of his injures were not known.
[Posted at 9:27 a.m. ET] At least 215,000 power customers are without power in the Gulf Cost region due to a weather system that moved thru the region yesterday and overnight, according to local power companies
[Posted at 9:17 a.m. ET] Major Chris Heathscott, spokesman for the Arkansas National Guard, says they have deployed resources for ambulance support in Pulaski and Faulkner counties.
Fourteen personnel, and seven ambulances are providing ambulance support in the region. Heathscott, says that the area has had 6-8" of snow. Little Rock is in Pulaski County.
Report: Possible tornado in Birmingham, Alabama
A possible tornado touched down in northern Birmingham, Alabama, early Monday morning, the National Weather Service said on its website.
There are reports of several houses damaged, including houses with roofs torn off, the web site said. Power lines were also down.
Phone calls by CNN to the Birmingham Department of Emergency Management were not immediately returned. There were no initial reports of injuries.
iReport: Are you there? Send photos, video, but be safe
Gotta Watch: Unconventional weddings
Saying "I do" under unusual circumstances – Most wedding ceremonies are predictable and filled with special traditions and customs. However, we've found a few unconventional weddings off the beaten path, and they are worth a look!
See how a tornado, mermaids and one man's surprise plot played a role in these weddings.
Tornado touches down during wedding
Caleb and Candra Pence exchanged vows as a tornado touched down near their outdoor wedding ceremony in Harper, Kansas.
This underwater wedding has mermaids
Two couples in China held their wedding ceremonies underwater in an aquarium.
Unsuspecting woman gets surprise wedding
One woman was shocked when her boyfriend surprised her with a proposal, immediately followed by their wedding.
This Week's Top Videos
Editor's Note: This post is a recap of the top five videos on CNN.com from the past week. So in case you didn't catch our best videos during the week, here is your chance to see what you missed.
This week's top video gained the attention of more than a million CNN.com viewers and featured chilling footage of the Texas tornadoes tossing tractor-trailers into the air. The second most watched video on CNN.com this week was the tragic firsthand account of the Oakland university shooting, followed by video examining Nadya Suleman's welfare application, the crash of an F-18 jet into a Virginia apartment complex and finally the timeline of the Trayvon Martin shooting.
Big rigs sucked into storm
Truck trailers are thrown around violently as a tornado rips through North Texas.
Shooting chaos captured on cell phone
Art Richards shot cell phone video at Oikos University where a gunman killed seven people.
Nadya Suleman admits being on welfare
Anger and outrage as "Octomom" Nadya Suleman, admits she's receiving food stamps. HLN's Nischelle Turner reports.
Witness: Jet crash a 'horrific sight'
Zack Zapatero describes what he saw when a Navy jet crashed into an apartment building in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Trayvon Martin's last minutes
Law enforcement expert Alex Manning analyzes a complete time line of the Trayvon Martin shooting, based on 911 calls.
Texas tornadoes captured on-camera
Rescuers are searching the Dallas area for survivors a day after at least half a dozen tornadoes touched down in north Texas. The pictures of destruction are harrowing, but so far, the Dallas and Arlington mayors say there are no reports of deaths. This appears even more astounding as tornado victims submit videos of the twisters and the damage. Here’s a look at some of the powerful videos that CNN has received.
Big rigs are tossed like toys
Listen to CNN meteorologist Chad Meyers' awestruck description as he watches video of tractor-trailers getting thrown hundreds of feet into the air in a Dallas County tornado.
Tornado near an elementary school
Storm chaser Jason McLaughlin knew that there was something different about these two tornadoes. Hear his emotional reaction as he watches a funnel cloud come close to an elementary school.
Twister moves through a neighborhood
In Lancaster, Texas, a man begs God to let the tornado spare his house as it flies over his neighborhood. Watch to see what path the tornado takes.
Dallas mayor: It's a 'miracle' nobody died in tornadoes
Tractor-trailers weighing tens of thousands of pounds flew through the air. Roofs were ripped off homes, and other houses were left in complete tatters.
Yet no deaths have been reported after devastating tornadoes worked their way through the Dallas-Forth Worth and Arlington areas of Texas.
"It looks like the Dallas-Fort Worth area really dodged a bullet," Dallas Mayor Michael Rawlings told CNN. "I mean we've got hundreds and hundreds of homes destroyed but amazingly no fatalities."
Between six and 13 tornadoes may have touched down Tuesday in north Texas, the National Weather Service in Dallas-Fort Worth said. The number is an estimate pending a survey and damage assessment.
Rawlings said that as he looked at footage of tractor-trailers tossed about like lightweight toys, he was struck by how lucky it was nobody died.
"(Those) tractor-trailers were put into the back of homes and those homes were flattened," he said. "It was amazing nobody was in that home."
Tornadoes thrash Dallas area
Multiple tornadoes struck the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas early Tuesday afternoon. CNN and its Texas affiliates are updating developments as they come in.
Are you there? When it is safe to do so, share your pictures and video via iReport.
Follow continuing developments here.
[Update 3:51 p.m. ET] Lt. Tim Jones of the Johnson County sheriff's department told CNN that "911 is going off the wall with people calling in with reports of sightings."
He reported multiple tornado touchdowns across the county, including in the city of Cleburne, south of Fort Worth and southwest of Dallas.
A new tornado warning was issued about 2:45 p.m. CT for Arlington, which is between Dallas and Fort Worth.
[Update 3:40 p.m. ET] DFW airport spokesman David Magana told CNN that people in the airport's passenger terminals had been herded away from windows in waiting areas.
"We have all kinds of shelters. We use all the available space we have including stairwells, store rooms and restrooms, that we can use," Magana said. "We're not shy about moving people around."
He advised people to stay away from the airport until all danger had passed.
[Update 3:33 p.m. ET] CNN's Ed Lavandera, who was in Dallas when the tornado struck, said there were several isolated cells of storms throughout the area.
Lavandara said the track of one tornado would have taken it through a heavily populated area near the stadiums of the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers, as well as Six Flags amusement park. If the storm had stayed on the ground there, it would have caused catastrophic devastation, he said.
"We right now are in shelter ourselves," Red Cross spokesperson Anita Foster told CNN. "Some of our teams that are on the southern end of the metroplex have started making plans for how we are going to respond . ... Many people are going to need help."
She said Red Cross workers would fan out across the area "as soon as it's safe, as soon as we can get out of our door."
Foster warned people to heed warning sirens and seek shelter in interior areas of structures.
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport halted all takeoffs and landings until the storm system ends.
CNN meteoroligist said hailstones 3 inches in diameter were being reported. CNN affiliate CBSDFW showed evening-like darkness amid heavy rain at 2:25 p.m. CT.
[Update 3:13 p.m. ET] At 2:05 pm CT (3:05 ET) Tuesday afternoon, trained weather spotters reported a tornado on the ground five miles east of downtown Dallas, Texas. The tornado is moving northeast at 20 mph.
[Update 3:09 p.m. ET] After the tornado passed through, CNN affiliate CBSDFW showed dozens of orange Schneider trucks in various states of damage and disarray.
CNN affiliate WFAA showed severe damage to some homes in Lancaster, Texas.
[Update 2:59 p.m. ET] Separate tornadoes in Texas barreled toward the Dallas-Forth Worth area Tuesday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue tornado emergencies.
Video from CNN affiliate WFAA broadcast dramatic footage of the scene, showing truck trailers being lifted and tossed like toys. Ominous clouds filled the skies.
There were no immediate reports of major injuries or damage, but CNN's Chad Myers said the worst may be yet to come.
"Both storms right now are getting bigger. They both have been rotating, and they both have significant possibilities of damage on the ground heading into DFW," he said.
The weather service urged people in the area to move to a bathroom, closet or hallway on the lowest floor of their buildings and take cover.
[Original post 2:51 p.m. ET] An apparent tornado ripped through Dallas County, Texas, Tuesday afternoon.
A news helicopter from Dallas CNN affiliate WFAA followed a funnel cloud churning through a truck terminal, tossing 80-foot metal cargo trailers hundreds of feet in the air.
CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras tweeted, "Watching homes being damaged now in Dallas. Large pieces of debris in the air. Lots of power flashes."
Check back frequently for updates as this story continues to develop.
Gotta Watch: Narrowly escaping with their lives
We've recently received lots of videos of narrow misses and people barely avoiding catastrophes. They faced everything from natural disasters to auto accidents, but these lucky people managed to get away without serious injuries. You’ve Gotta Watch these great escapes.
Tornado throws bus
A bus driver carrying a busload of children must decide what to do to save them when she sees a tornado touch down. Watch the shocking surveillance video from inside the bus.
Fireman: Roof under him 'just dropped'
Three firefighters in Michigan were fighting a fire at a dry cleaning business when the roof collapsed underneath them. See how they use teamwork to save their partner, and their reactions once they saw the tape.
Car swerves toward biker
This video out of Texas shows a motorcyclist barely avoiding a car that is spinning out of control. We debated about how many inches this biker was from the sedan. Watch and decide for yourself.
Weather out of whack as winter nears end
On the last weekend of winter, people were taking out their skis in Arizona and putting them away in Minnesota. They were putting on sweaters in Phoenix and stripping down to their shorts to ice fish near Fargo, North Dakota. They were calling out snowplows in the California desert and counting the millions left in their snow removal budget in Ohio.
There were real extremes in a record-breaking streak of weather across the country.
Here's how the topsy-turvy climate confounded convention:
Officials closed 180 miles of Interstate 40 across northern Arizona on Sunday as a winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on the region. In Flagstaff, schools were closed Monday as the snow made travel hazardous.
But some snow-hungry visitors went to Flagstaff specifically for the snow, CNN affiliate KPHO-TV in Phoenix reported.
"We knew what the weather would be like up here so we made sure to keep all of our snow gear so we could come up here and play in the snow and have lots of fun," Jennifer Gregory told the station.
Indiana mom loses legs saving kids from tornado
[Updated Wednesday, March 7] After we reported on the story of Stephanie Decker, an Indiana mother who shielded her two children from tornadoes and lost her two legs after being pinned by her collapsing house, CNN received an outpouring of support from readers and viewers asking how they could help.
Some wanted to know if they could help pay for her medical bills, others wanted to wish her well, and others hoped to help her and her children because of Decker's act of bravery.
The family has set up The Stephanie Decker Fund and all donations will be sent directly to them.
Donations can be sent to the following address:
Fifth Third Bank
392 S. Indiana Avenue
Sellersburg, IN 47172
Make payable to: The Stephanie Decker Fund
Any questions can be directed to the Sellersburg location at (812) 246-0982 or the Fifth Third Bank Marketing offices at (502) 562-5355.]
You can also lend your help to all of the victims of the recent tornado outbreak by visiting CNN's Impact Your World page, which has various resources and ways to help.
[Posted Tuesday, March 6] A woman in Indiana lost part of both of her legs as she shielded her children from two tornadoes that slammed into their home.
Stephanie Decker was at home Friday when her husband texted her that a tornado was hurtling directly toward their three-story home in Henryville, Indiana.
Just minutes before the tornado swept through, Decker and her young son and daughter huddled in the basement. She covered them with a blanket to try to shield them from debris.
"I was reaching around, holding them and trying to keep everything away from them so it wouldn't hit 'em," Stephanie Decker told CNN affiliate WLKY.
The wreckage broke seven of her ribs and almost completely severed both of her legs.
"I had two steel beams on my legs, and I couldn't move. I was stuck," she told WLKY.
Then, another storm came roaring through. She again covered her children the best she could, taking the brunt of the debris as her home collapsed around her.
Joe Decker said his wife relayed some of the horror on an iPad, because when he first saw her, she was on a ventilator and unable to speak, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
As the storm rolled through, Stephanie Decker told her husband, she turned and saw a large piece of debris begin to collapse. She pulled her daughter away just before it came crumbling down, according to the newspaper.
"She just kind of grabbed her and turned," Joe Decker told the Courier Journal. "She doesn't remember anything after that."
March tornado outbreak a sign of things to come?
The early-striking, intense storm system that hit the country last week has many people wondering if this year's spring could be a repeat of the violent season we saw last year.
U.S. tornado outbreaks happen nearly every year, but outbreaks of this magnitude and the outbreak at the end of April 2011 are rare.
“A March tornado outbreak of similar scope to (the recent one) occurs roughly once a decade," according to Russell Schneider, the director of NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
This chart compares the number of tornado warnings during the April 2011 tornado outbreak and last week's storms.
Prior to April 2011, the U.S. last saw an outbreak of that magnitude in April 1974, when 148 tornadoes swept across 13 states, killing 330 people, and injuring 5,484. The outbreak on April 27 and 28, 2011, is the second deadliest outbreak in U.S.history, since records have been kept. It resulted in 320 deaths as 305 tornadoes swept across four states.
Currently, the death toll from Friday’s outbreak stands at 39, with the latest death being 15-month-old Angel Babcock who passed away Sunday afternoon from injuries sustained during the Henryville, Indiana, EF4 tornado.
As surveys of the hard-hit areas are completed, the confirmed count could continue to rise. So far, this recent outbreak saw 128 reports of tornadoes across 12 states, with 45 of those tornadoes being confirmed.
This graphic shows the number of tornado reports associated with last week's outbreak.
These current statistics make March 2, 2012, one of the deadliest March days since 1994. If the death toll rises, this could be the worst March outbreak, which will not be confirmed until the National Weather Service completes its local damage assessments.
Given the severity of this recent outbreak, does this actually mean that we can expect another harrowing spring for tornadoes?
Outbreak of deadly tornadoes tear through U.S.
A powerful storm system rolled across the U.S. Friday causing at slew of tornadoes from Alabama to Indiana. The deadly tornadoes left a devastating path of destruction behind. This is something you'll have to see to believe.
‘Take it away from us’
A woman near West Liberty, Kentucky can be heard praying on camera as a huge funnel cloud forms over her house.
'This was time to take shelter'
A WDRB reporter and photographer got caught in the storm as they headed out to cover the severe weather in Indiana.
‘It’s heartbreaking’
Indiana was among the hardest-hit states.
Well built homes 'wiped' to the ground
Video captures the heartbreak as tornado survivors try and pick up the pieces from what's left of their homes.
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