Nearly 24 hours after a monster tornado tore through a suburb of Oklahoma City, leaving at least 24 dead -- including nine children -- hopes for a rescue of trapped survivors are beginning to wane as more threatening weather moves into the region.
"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."
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., forecast more stormy weather Tuesday in parts of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, including the Moore area.
Rescue crews are sifting through rubble in the search for survivors, painting X's on buildings to make sure nothing is being overlooked.
"As long as we are here ... we are going to hold out hope that we will find survivors," said Trooper Betsy Randolph, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. But officials believe more bodies are underneath the rubble.
"I truly expect that they'll find more today," Oklahoma City Medical Examiner Office Spokeswoman Amy Elliott said.
Elliott cautioned Tuesday that officials could see as many as 40 additional fatalities, and Fallin said that bodies may have been taken to funeral homes instead of authorities.
The tornado, estimated to be up to two-miles wide with 200mph winds, tore through Moore, Okla., 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 least two more times to ensure that no survivors -- or any of the dead -- were overlooked.
The death toll of the storm was initially 51, but the Oklahoma City medical examiner's office downgraded it Tuesday to at least 24, saying some of the bodies may have been counted twice.
"To date, 24 deceased victims of the tornado have been transported to our Oklahoma City office, and positive identifications have been made in the vast majority of those, and these are ready for return to their loved ones," Elliott told FoxNews.com in an e-mail.
Nine of the bodies are children, seven of which were found at a school.
Local news reports, citing officials, said the death toll could top 90. Hospital officials say they've treated more than 200 patients, including over 70 children.