Monster tornado kills at least 51 in Oklahoma town

By Alice Mannette, Reuters
May 21, 2013
MOORE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - A 2-mile-wide (3-km-wide) tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday, killing at least 51 people while destroying entire tracts of homes, piling cars atop one another, and trapping two dozen school children beneath rubble.

Twenty of the 51 confirmed deaths were children, the Oklahoma medical examiner said, and at least 45 of the 230 people injured were children, according to area hospitals. It was the deadliest U.S. tornado since one killed 161 people in Joplin, Missouri, two years ago.
President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts.
Rescue teams raced against the setting sun and worked into the darkness in search of survivors throughout the wide swath of devastation, while the dangerous storm system threatened several southern Plains states with more twisters. Severe weather was expected through the night from the Great Lakes south to Texas.
Emergency crews searched the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School for two dozen missing children, Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb said. The school took a direct hit from the tornado, Lamb told CNN.
The town of Moore, population about 50,000, was devastated with debris everywhere, street signs gone, lights out and houses completely obliterated.
Another elementary school and a hospital were among the buildings leveled.
"We thought we died because we were inside the cellar door...It ripped open the door and just glass and debris started slamming on us and we thought we were dead to be honest," survivor Ricky Stover said while surveying the devastated remains of his home.
Cyndi Christopher was at work and went to pick up her son from daycare when she heard the storm warning. After taking her son home, she was forced to flee when she noticed the storm was coming their way.
"I drove as fast as I could and I outran the storm," Christopher said.
The National Weather Service assigned the twister a preliminary ranking of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning the second most powerful category of tornado with winds up to 200 miles per hour (320 km per hour).
Witnesses said Monday's tornado appeared more fierce than the giant twister that was among the dozens that tore up the area on May 3, 1999, killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes. That tornado ranked as an EF5, meaning it had winds over 200 mph.
The 1999 event in Oklahoma ranks as the third-costliest tornado in U.S. history, having caused more than $1 billion in damage at the time, or more than $1.3 billion in today's dollars. Only the devastating Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes in 2011 were more costly.
The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center provided the town with a warning 16 minutes before the tornado touched down at 3:01 p.m. local time (4.01 p.m. EDT), which is greater than the average eight to 10 minutes of warning, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the center in Norman, Oklahoma.
The notice was upgraded to emergency warning with "heightened language" at 2:56 p.m., or five minutes before the tornado touched down, Pirtle said.
Television media measured the tornado at more than 2 miles wide, with images showing entire neighborhoods flattened.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a temporary flight restriction that allowed only relief aircraft in the area, saying it was at the request of local police who wanted quiet to search for buried survivors.
Oklahoma activated the National Guard, and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency activated teams to support recovery operations and coordinate responses for multiple agencies.
SCHOOL IN TWISTER'S PATH
Briarwood Elementary School, which also stood in the storm's path, was all but destroyed. On the first floor, sections of walls had been peeled away, affording clear views into the building, while in other areas, cars hurled by the storm winds were lodged in the walls.
Across the street, people picked through the remains of their homes.
The number of injured as reported by several hospitals rose rapidly throughout the afternoon.
Oklahoma University Medical Center alone was treating 65 patients, 45 of them children, though it was no longer expecting a further mass influx of casualties, spokesman Scott Coppenbarger said.
Moore Medical Center sustained significant damage.
"The whole city looks like a debris field," Glenn Lewis, the mayor of Moore, told NBC.
"It looks like we have lost our hospital. I drove by there a while ago and it's pretty much destroyed," Lewis said.
The massive twister struck at the height of tornado season, and more were forecast. On Sunday, tornadoes killed two people and injured 39 in Oklahoma.
(Additional reporting by Lindsay Morris, Carey Gillam, Nick Carey, Brendan O'Brien and Greg McCune; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Jim Loney and Lisa Shumaker)

BBC’s George Alagiah Show at African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa

 

by Tedla Asfaw

GMT BBC World News of this morning, May 20, 2013, from 7am to 8am ET devoted 15 minutes of its time on George Alagiah or George, one of its correspondents on mission to cover the 50th anniversary of OAU/AU in Addis Ababa. The Headlines News on BBC tells its listeners that Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economy in the world. The small shoe factory, the coffee bean exporter who promised to bring British financed machinery to export the finished coffee product to the world market was the success story to support the claim.

George Alagiah/BBC’s PHOTO

George was honored by ringing the bell on the floor of Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, the first of its kind in Africa according to BBC. These “economic miracles” and similar “owned” by the very few minority ethnicity are what the BBC Headlines declared the fastest growing economy of Ethiopia. Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn who was interviewed on the program was boasting of converting Ethiopia to manufacturing or industrialized country in the coming decade. However, China will not be happy mentioning Taiwan as one of the models for Ethiopia. Hailemariam is not as sharp as the late Meles Zenawi. Is Ethiopia doing business with both Taiwan and China?
George’s AU Show in the coming day or days will cover the roads and buildings in Addis Ababa to support the march to industrialization. If he travels to the outskirts of Addis Ababa flower farms which is bringing in hard currency for the ruling mafia are replacing food producing farm lands. If he goes far he will see the mechanized farm of Sheik Al Amoudi and similar huge tracts of land under the control of the foreign landlords and the government. All these “growth” are at the expense of small farmers and indigenous people. The British development agency and USAID are financing the land grab. Europe has its flower and America has its security, period!
George invited two students from university, two street dancers and one female architect to his show at AU Studio this morning. The street was very quiet looked like the Green Zone of America in Baghdad. We did not see the security forces but I can assure you that George Show was well protected not from ” terrorists” but from the wider public. If George wants to talk to the young people he could have gone to schools and colleges, why did he ask the school and college to come to him ? He went to Ethiopian Commodity Exchange floor why not go to the universities ? The truth is this. He is in total control by his hosts, the government cadres, because Ethiopia is run by armed group of minority clique which bans free assembly and speech throughout the country. Speech and Assembly are only allowed under the eye of security thugs or government picked paid agents.
The women Architect who informed us that she wants to stay in Ethiopia because construction is booming. If George goes around freely which he might not will find hundreds if not thousands of doctors leaving hospitals not because of lack of job but because of lack of basic freedom in Ethiopia. I challenge George to take his show to the people not bringing selected people to his studio at AU and feeding us tons of propaganda which the Ethiopian people are tired of.
The one minute talk about human rights with Hailemariam Desalegn is very shameful. For BBC what matters is “Food growth” not “Freedom”. I want to give tip to George before he finished his AU Show most likely at the end of this week to Visit the Anwar Mosque and Kaliti Jail in Addis. If you are Muslim you can pray if not wait and follow the prayer. Talk to the young female and male and ask them what “growth” means to them. The journalists and political leaders locked up at Kaliti will not be allowed to talk, some were shipped out not to spoil the AU Show, but why not try to talk to family members, mothers,fathers, wives,husbands and children, who are coming daily for year or years to see their loved ones
Last but not least I want George to cover the peaceful rally of May 25 organized by the newly formed Blue Party/Semayawi of Ethiopia (Blue). They will try to come out right where George is , BBC AU studio. I do not want to give you their Web address because it is blocked. One thing George should not forget to report in few days he enjoys life in Addis is the “growth” in Internet blocking. Ethiopia is the worst abuser of all but BBC does not matter much because its correspondents are blocking themselves. Go Blue Go!