CNN news 2013-05-26 加文本

cnn news 2013-05-26

Hi, I am Carl Azuz. Welcome to the specialedition of cnn student news. Today, we are focusing exclusively on the Oklahomacity area. The devastating tornado that tore though there on Monday. This iswhat we know so far. A tornado touched down near the town of New Castle,Oklahoma just before 3 p.m. Monday. Residents had about 15 minutes warningbefore hit. From there, it moved to the city of Moore. That's where the stormdid its worst. You can tell from this video, it was gigantic. Officials say itwas more than a mile wide and a path that took across New Castle and Moore was17 miles long. That path was one of destruction in devastation. Homes andbusinesses flattened. A local hospital severely damaged. Two elementary schooltook direct hits. As Tuesday afternoon, authority had confirmed dozens of deathfrom this tornado including 9 children. More than 200 other people wereinjured. The rescue effort started immediately Monday afternoon. They continuethrough the night. Pamela Brown has more on that.

Illuminated by flood lights, rescue teamssearched tirelessly throughout the night, sifting through mountain up debriswhere Plaza Towers Elementary School once stood. And some places, the debris wereten feet high. underneath every parent's worst nightmare. The bodies of schoolchildren who tried to seek shelter from ferocious tornado, many more stillmissing.

The race to rescue, dozens of students andteachers began right after the massive mile-wide tornado, ripped through atleast two elementary school directly in its path. At hardest hit Plaza TowersElementary, a third grade class huddled in a hallway of their school.

We had to pull a car out of the fronthallway off a teacher. She, I don't know what that lady's name is, but she hadthree little kids underneath her. Good job, teacher.

Worried parents sent to staging area at thenearby church and search for answers. At first, several children were pulledfrom the leveled school alive. But each passing hour the operation tragicallywent from a rescue to a recovery mission. The heart wrenching reality atstorm's furry hard to comprehend, even for those covering it.

I've never seen anything like this in my 18years covering tornadoes here in Oklahoma City. This is without question, thatmost terrific - I've never seen it.

All right, Lance. Listen, we need to getthis information.

The searchers were able to reunite manykids with their families.

In fact, rescuers had pulled at least 100out of the rubble alive. At first, the search efforts were a mix of emergencyresponders and volunteers. A local pipeline who were joined said he felt it washis duty to help. But eventually, so many volunteers showed up, but officialsasked them to stay away. Police, firefighters, National Guard members allinvolved into search efforts, specially trained animals too. Chris Cuomo hasmore on how they helped.

They set up a perimeter here, it's aboutsix or eight men, inside there are dogs, three or four of them. The dogs areworking. They're sniffing. You hear barking, the barking could be signals. Itcan just excitement. Their trainers know how to deal with that. What they do isthey have to follow the dogs through this debris field, and we're showing youthis because it's very painstaking work. It's very detail oriented and it'severy dangerous. Because they have to find their way through it. Other dogs aswell. They of course are much nimble and are able to make it through veryeasily, you're watching Chief, this dog's name is, right now.

He is working  He's packed with this trainer right now. He'sbarking, that's part of his work. Just communication between trainer and thedog doesn't mean he necessarily found something. But they have to find andfollow him all through this, it takes time.

It's sophisticated work and it's dangerousand there are so much of it to do. Because they are building like this thatfalling down all over. As you come to this area, you hear more Oklahoma, itcomes in waves. First, you see debris on the road. Then you start to see thathomes have been like sprayed, almost like power-washed with mud. Then you startto see big things are missing: trees, power lines are down. The street lightshave stopped, and then everything is gone, and you get to this point.