NEWS SHMOOZE
Mister Twister R
escuers have searched every home in devastated Moore, Okla., and the fire chief said he is “98 percent sure” there are no more bodies or survivors in the rubble of the Oklahoma City suburb devastated by what has now been rated an EF-5 on the weather scale, a ranking reserved for the deadliest and rarest of twisters. Word that the tornado had been classified as the most devastating funnel cloud punch Mother Nature can deliver came as the death toll held steady at 24, including nine children. The ranking, on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, puts the tornado in the same class as the deadliest in U.S. history, which hit Joplin, Mo., in 2011, killing 158 and injuring hundreds more. “An EF-5 is as bad as it gets,” said Joe D’Aleo, co-chief forecaster for WeatherBell Analytics. “It’s equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane. It means winds were more than 200 miles per hour, and it means you have to be underground, because there will be nothing left above ground.” Only 59 EF-5 tornadoes have touched down in the U.S. in the last 63 years, or just one-tenth of a percent of all tornadoes. Yet the most
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powerful of all twisters cause 20 percent of all tornado damage, and when they strike residential areas, they leave only rubble and misery in their wake. But a surprise revision downward of the death toll, which was initially reported at 51, and an outpouring of support from around the nation has left officials determined to heal. “We will rebuild and we will regain our strength,” said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, who went on a flyover of the area and described it as a “heartbreaking experience” that is “hard to look at.” Gary Bird, fire chief for the community of 56,000, said Tuesday afternoon he was “98 percent sure” there are no more survivors or bodies to recover under the rubble. His comments came after emergency crews spent much of the day searching the town’s broken remnants for survivors of the twister that flattened homes and demolished an
elementary school. Bird said his goal is to conduct three searches of each location that he was hopeful the work could be completed by nightfall. No additional survivors or bodies have been found since Monday night, Bird said. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., forecast more stormy weather Tuesday in parts of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, including the Moore, Okla., area where the tornado hit. The tornado, estimated to be up to two miles wide, tore through Moore on Monday afternoon, a community of 41,000 people about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City. Fallin said during a news conference Tuesday that many houses and buildings have been reduced to “sticks and bricks.” Homes were seen crushed into piles of broken wood. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside. At least 38,000 in the area remain without power. New search-and-rescue teams moved at dawn Tuesday, taking over from the 200 or so emergency responders who worked all night. A helicopter shined a spotlight from above to aid in the search. Fire Chief Gary Bird said fresh teams would search the whole community at
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