Severe Weather Outbreak, Day 2 (OK TX KS MO MI for starters) - Moore, OK devastation

[dirtboy]

Tornado warnings up in Oklahoma. Watches in TX, OK, KS, MO, far NW Arkansas.

[tomkat]

37 confirmed dead at this point per News9

[JRandomFreeper]

The folks that really need prayers are the families of those children in Oklahoma. I'll get by without the water, we've been blessed already this year.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

Underground isn't a viable engineering choice for parts of Texas and Oklahoma.

/johnny

[DJlaysitup]

They better be bringing in generators and big lights (hopefully they can get them there) - this rescue effort looks like it will go on all night.

[Jrabbit]

So easy to sit back and second guess. Will you also be piling on the guilt to parents who didn’t pick their kids up early?

[CedarDave]

30 square-miles of devastation in Moore. Second area of search concentration is the other elementary school, Briarwood. Most children are thought to have escaped but they are checking.

[DJlaysitup]

Underground isn't a viable engineering choice for parts of Texas and Oklahoma.

I realize that - but that's why I said that it would be expensive...if they could build submarines in WWI surely they can engineer an underground room in Oklahoma in 2013.

Difficult and expensive - yes...impossible - surely not.

[Marcella]

Looking at the school, you can't see much movement from the rescuers from this camera, but they have to be moving more than they appear. I keep wanting to say, “Get with it - move faster!”

[yield 2 the right]

Drowned? Unreal!

[DJlaysitup]

37 confirmed dead at this point per News9

Sadly - from the looks of the helicopter pictures of the many houses that were simply taken away - it will likely go higher. I mean this with the utmost respect for the deceased - God rest their souls - but chances are they will find bodies miles from where they started when the storm hit their houses. Some may not be found at all.

[tomkat]

Media in general gets deservedly pummeled in here, but I gotta say this channel News9 is doing a damned fine job at the moment.

Sure it's good advertising, but they've set up a donation center outside their studios for food/water/clothing donations, passing along contact info for kids/people who've been found and can't find loved ones, etc.

Almost like news orgs used to behave . . .

[DJlaysitup]

Looking at the school, you can't see much movement from the rescuers from this camera, but they have to be moving more than they appear. I keep wanting to say, “Get with it - move faster!”

That's what I was thinking - they were likely just overcome by the magnitude of the task. Terrible to say - but they probably got out all the folks they could (locating them by voices) - now they are just thinking - where do we look first?

[conservativebabe]

how did these children drown? was there a basement?

[21twelve]

They just said they got in touch with the parents of the 9-year old girl - they are stuck in traffic. Great news. Other kids still looking for their parents.

One child told reporter she survived the storm in the school, met up with her parents, and walked “home” to a driveway and a concrete slab. But - I bet those folks consider themselves fortunate.

[dirtboy]

This weather event was almost a given

The NWS warning listed a low probablity of EF2+ tornadoes. Only takes one hitting a populated area, which tragically happened here.

[tomkat]

Just supposition at this point, but water mains to serve a facility that size would be of a pretty fair size .. if they break in a room/portion of a building with little or no drainage, it wouldn't take long to overwhelm little ones.

Wouldn't think and elementary would have its own pool, but if it did and if it ruptured, that's another possibility.

It's just heartbreaking, no matter the cause . . .

[dirtboy]

Tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings stretch from Iowa to Texas. If the storms are approaching your area, please pay close attention for forecasts.

[DJlaysitup]

how did these children drown? was there a basement?

Terrible...one possibilty would be that they were simply pinned down in debris in a low spot - what we might think of as a deep puddle. This is so sad.

[Fawn]

How does that work? Looks like a space capsule. Does it shoot you out into space?

[dirtboy]

Map of watches and warnings. Solid red is tornado warning, solid yellow is severe storm warning. This map should update itself thorough the evening.