Hunt for survivors goes on as tornado clean-up begins
Officials turn attention to recovery after twister claimed lives of 24 people
RESCUE workers with sniffer dogs and searchlights picked through the wreckage of a massive tornado to ensure no survivors remained buried in the rubble of primary schools, houses and buildings in an Oklahoma City suburb.
The massive tornado on Monday afternoon flattened entire blocks of the town, killed at least 24 people and injured about 240 in Moore, Oklahoma.
But yesterday, officials were increasingly confident everyone caught in the disaster had been accounted for, despite initial fears the twister had claimed the lives of more than 90 people.
Jerry Lojka, spokesman for Oklahoma Emergency Management, said search-and-rescue dog teams would search for anybody trapped under the rubble, but attention would also be focused on a huge clean-up with the cost of the damage estimated at £1.3 billion.
“They will continue the searches of areas to be sure nothing is overlooked,” he said. “There’s going to be more of a transition to recovery.”
More than 1000 people had already registered for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) which sent hundreds of workers to Oklahoma to help with the recovery.
Fema administrator Craig Fugate said many more probably needed help but did not have working phones or internet connections.
He said: “Right now it’s about getting people who have lost their homes a place to stay. So we’re going to start going neighbourhood to neighbourhood and talking to people and seeing what they’re going to need.”
After a long day of searching through shattered homes, slowed by rainy weather on Tuesday, Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan said it seemed no-one was missing.
Nine children were among the 24 killed, including seven who died at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which took a direct hit from the deadliest tornado to strike the United States in two years.
The National Weather Service upgraded its calculation of the storm’s strength on Tuesday, saying it was a rare EF5, the most powerful ranking on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
Officials say 2400 homes were damaged or obliterated and 10,000 people affected. The death toll was lower than might have been expected given the extent of devastation in Moore – home to 55,000 people.
Some ascribe the relatively low number to the fact many locals have small storm-safe shelters – a concrete hole in the garage floor with a sliding roof that locks.
Billy McElrath, 50, of Oklahoma City, said his wife hid in a storm safe in their garage when the tornado hit. She emerged unhurt even although the storm destroyed the 1968 Corvette convertible she had bought him as a birthday present, and crushed a motorcycle.
“Everything else is just trashed,” he said as he loaded a pickup with salvaged goods.
Officials said another factor behind the surprisingly low death toll was the early warning, with meteorologists saying days in advance a storm system was forming.
Once a tornado was forming, people had 15 to 20 minutes of warning, which meant they could take shelter or flee the projected path. The weather service also has new, sterner warnings about deadly tornadoes to get people’s attention.
Many of those who do not have a basic storm shelter at home, have learned from warnings over the year to seek hiding places at home during a tornado.
Jackie Raper, 73, and her daughter, for instance, sought shelter in the bathtub in her house in Oklahoma City.