A rescue worker in front of the now-destroyed Moore Medical Center
Updates on the devastating tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma, yesterday:
- The National Weather Service has confirmed the tornado as an EF-5, the top designation of the Enhanced Fujita scale. A preliminary track of the tornado can be found here. Windspeeds were in excess of 200 mph; the track itself is 17 miles long and as wide as 1.3 miles.
- The state medical examiner's office has lowered the number of confirmed fatalities from 51 to 24, reflecting apparent miscounts in the previous figures. Other outlets, citing the Oklahoma City medical examiner's office, have reported fatality counts of at least 91 people. Over two hundred are known to be injured, and "thousands" of Moore residents have been left homeless.
- Former governor Frank Keating says that as many as 20,000 families could be displaced.
- Facebook pages have been set up by volunteers seeking to return found photographs, documents and other scattered belongings to their owners—as well as lost pets.
- Fire Chief Gary Bird says he is "98 percent sure" there are no more survivors or bodies to be recovered, but that searches will continue until each damaged building has been searched three times.
- At the Children's Hospital at OU Medical Center, "a facility used to seeing one or two traumas a day all of a sudden had over 50."
- NASA video of the storm's development via the GOES-13 satellite.
- The National Guard and Air National Guard provided over 200 soldiers, many equipped with thermal imaging sensors and other rescue technology. FEMA has requested search and rescue teams from as far away as California.
- Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant pledged $1 million for relief efforts; now the NBA and player's union have announced they will match that amount.
- Video: Woman finds her dog (alive) in the rubble during live TV interview. More information on a dog seen in a previous picture: the Oklahoma County Sheriff's office reports the dog in this picture "was guarding its deceased owner. Taken to shelter; deputy plans on adopting."
- How to help. How to apply for federal assistance through FEMA.
- While attention is focused on the devastating Moore tornado, more storms and unstable weather continue throughout the region.