possible. we re going to be safe about it, but we want to help anybodiley . i m telling you we ll need emergency personnel on the south part of oklahoma city central. there wasn t much of a warning. a storm warning just a few minutes ago, then just a tornado warning 10 or 15 minutes ago. you say this is a highly populated area, oklahoma city with a population of 600,000. you re talking about a tornado touching down in moore, which is south. how much of a population are we talking about in the path of this tornado? well, we ve got power flashes. yeah, this storm literally developed from a thunderstorm into tornadic within 20 to 30 minutes. going north a little bit. within 20 to 30 minutes. they did as good as they can. they don t want to scare people as much as they can. they should have had the warning out a little earlier today, highly conducive for big-time
there were two schools hit according to kfor in oklahoma city. one was the plaza towers elementary school. again, we don t know if students were there today. we don t know if they were in the storm center. there s so much we don t know. it s unclear just because we re looking at wreckage of a school that that necessarily means anything one way or another. we re coming upon the hour, and i m about to throw to wolf blitzer in the situation room. but for those just tuning in, we re looking at this horrific, hor ivg wreckage from a tornado that touched down outside oklahoma city, south into the town of moore, oklahoma. 56,000 people live there. you re looking at one of the results of one of the most destructive tornadoes in recent memory, just shredded parts of the oklahoma city area. and now we re left for the images left with the images of a desperate and frantic
the needs of local people. obviously this is going on right now. are there red cross centers in the area of moore? are individuals getting to shelters? the closest office we would have is oklahoma city s office. we have one in norman by the airport. so this tornado is moving through between both of our offices in this area, but it is moving towards where we had the tornado yesterday that moved through cleveland county and into potawatomi county toward shawnee. so our volunteers and our staff and offices know what to do. they ve got their designated areas to go. if they hear the sirens they re heading into those protected areas. again, we just advise everyone to do the exact same thing. we re waiting for the weather to clear out. we re watching it as you are. as soon as the storm passes and it s deemed safe to do so. our volunteers will go out and start assessing the need, we ll get out there, identify the need for shelters and whatever will
myers. that was a storm chaser on the ground near oklahoma city, population of 600,000. we re watching a tornado that has touched down right outside oklahoma city. chad, how did this storm event happen? what exactly was going on in oklahoma city to create this tornado? about two hours ago there wasn t a cloud in the sky. that sounds like a great thing, but in fact it s not, jake. when you don t have clouds in the sky, the sun heats the ground rather quickly. there was humidity everywhere from yesterday s storms and just from the gulf of mexico. that humidity and hot air wants to rise. as it rises you get the towering cumulus. that was all the way down to duncan and northwest texas. now as the storms continue to develop, this is a supercell storm we call them. all by itself, not in a big line, one supercell storm with a very large we ll call it a wedge tornado on the ground, we re seeing power flashes left and
tub, into i a closet. something nice, sturdy and safe in the middle of your home away from the windows if possible, certainly not on any higher floors. if you live in an apartment building in flomoore, east of moore, knock on your neighbors downstairs, let them in, you can t survive on the third floor. we re looking at live footage of a tornado, kofr reporting that the tornado is two miles wide, seemingly destroying everything if its path as it touched down just south of oklahoma city. oklahoma city has a population of 600,000. those inside the warning area for this tornado reportedly 170,000. it touched down in the suburb of moore, oklahoma, just south of oklahoma city. moore has a population of 56,000. ken garcia with the american red cross in central oklahoma is on the phone with us. ken, what are you seeing, and what is your advice to those who are tuning in right now?