MOORE, Okla. (CBS Houston/AP) — A monstrous tornado at least a half-mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds up to 200 mph. At least 51 people were killed (*those numbers were originally higher than the final total, which ended up being 23 deaths), and officials said the death toll was expected to rise, according to CBS News.
KFOR-TV reports that “some” of the 20 to 30 children unaccounted for at the Plaza Towers Elementary School have been accounted for elsewhere. It is currently a search and recovery effort at the school. The storm tore off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal. Several children were pulled alive from the rubble, however. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain to a triage center in the parking lot.
At least seven of the children drowned after being found at the bottom of debris in a pool of water at Plaza Towers, according to KFOR.
The storm laid waste to scores of buildings in Moore, a community of 41,000 people south of the city. Block after block lay in ruins. Homes were crushed into piles of broken wood. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside.
The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most-powerful type of twister.
More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 70 children.
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