MOORE: Rescue efforts in the tornado-ravaged Oklahoma City suburb of Moore continued through the night into today morning, with officials increasingly confident that everyone caught in the disaster had been accounted for.
The massive tornado that tore through the area on Monday wiped out blocks of houses.
Jerry Lojka, spokesman for Oklahoma Emergency Management, said search-and-rescue dog teams would search today for anybody trapped under the rubble, but that attention would also be focused on a huge cleanup job.
“They will continue the searches of areas to be sure nothing is overlooked,” he said, adding: “There’s going to be more of a transition to recovery.”
After a long day of searching through shattered homes that was slowed by rainy weather, Oklahoma County commissioner Brian Maughan said it seemed no one was missing.
“As far as I know, of the list of people that we have had that they are all accounted for in one way or another,” he said.
He also added that a flyover of the affected area onTuesday showed 2,400 homes damaged or obliterated, with an estimated 10,000 people affected.
Emergency workers pulled more than 100 survivors from the debris of homes, schools and a hospital after the tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City region with winds exceeding 320 kph, leaving a trail of destruction 23 km long and 2 km wide.
Plaza Towers Elementary was one of five schools in its path. “They (rescuers) literally were lifting walls up and kids were coming out,” Oklahoma State Police Sergeant Jeremy Lewis said. “They pulled kids out from under cinder blocks without a scratch on them.”
The National Weather Service upgraded its calculation of the storm’s strength Tuesday, saying it was a rare EF5, the most powerful ranking on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. (Reuters)