schools, if your children are safe and you know for a fact that they weren t being sheltered in those schools, please call our newsroom and let us know that so we can pass that information along. we ve been unable to confirm whether the children were being sheltered in the schools or whether they had already been released. so help us to know that information. mike? linda, i think it s shockingly clear that what we re looking at is tragically the biggest destructive tornado in the history of the world. because this destruction is dwarfing may 3rd which was a $1.2 billion damage storm with 8 8 8,000 homes and 1,000-plus apartment complexes destroyed. this destruction wise is two to three times the magnitude of may 3rd, 1999. this is the worst tornado damage wise in the history of the world. i think that is completely and shockingly clear with our pictures from bob moore chopper 4 and our crews. now, we have important information to pass along. lincoln county, southern lincoln county, i
mark, again, you re right there. the important thing we have to pass along to you for you folks in meeker, this very much appears to b a large tornado. i don t take that statement likely. this is the same storm that produced the destruction in the moore and south metro. it is the same storm. it cycled. the wind crovelocities we re showing are large and violent. you saw mike diller s stream. that was it. in the middle of the darkened area, that could be debris. it s headed directly for the town of meeker and it s only five miles west of meeker right now. you folks in meeker, protect your life. be out of the way. below ground. interior closet or bathroom is not enough. storm cellar, basement, saferoom. if you re in a mobile home, evacuate the mobile home. this is a large tornado. see the hook spinning around. it s over jack town right now on highway 62 and heading directly toward meeker. i want to go back to mark dillard. this is, again, live. we re talking about continued
let s briefly check back with marc dillard. we re going to move to one more storm that reid timmer is on. go, marc. briefly. very rapid rotation. i don t believe we saw the funnel in contact with the ground, though we may still have there s wrapping rain curtains as far in front of this thing as about a quarter to half mile in front of the main circulation center here. or maybe even up to three quarters of a mile. wrapping down. it s beginning to form another base to it it looks like. put down another funnel at any time. if not, there s already one down in the center of that darkness off to our north and east from 177 here. we re just southwest of meeker about 4 1/2 to 5 miles. it s right on top of meeker right now. take the tornado recautiprecaut you re in the area. rain wrapped and not being able to see it, mike. let s go up to the storm tracker, talk about this storm
and moore areas. this thing has probably recycled and it is now a very, very large tornado. i ve got some damage paths from yesterday s storm. we re trying to negotiate some of that right now a lot of turning on the east side of this large wedge, which you can see on my screen hopefully. we have emergency crews along 177. as we re heading north, we re going to try to get into it as far as we can to see the damage it has been doing, if it s still on the ground. it s probably still in contact with the ground. the darkness, the turning that s going on in front of us right now. folks in the meeker area, heads-up. same location as yesterday. just be ready to go if you have. we urge you if you re in the path of the storm, probably going to want to get below ground or to a safe spot as soon as possible. mike, back to you.
0 fine. and across the street, there s nothing left. because they truly you know, they hopscotch around and it s hard to even know when you see something coming that way what s going to be hit. they change directions. it s just it s just so hard to tell. you know. it s indiscriminate and randomized devastation, isn t it? it really it really is. i mean, just looking back, you know, in all the memories coming back today of 1999, some of the most horrible stories were, you know, people were hiding, you know, under highway overpasses and there was a story of a mother who was holding her son and the tornado was sucking her out and she made the decision to save her child s life and let go. and she was never seen again. and the boy made it. and that it hit that highway overpass and changed directions in a heartbeat. milissa rehberger using all of her local expertise there. i m grateful to you, milissa. don t move, though. we re going to join brian norcross now, who s a meteorolo