One of several tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma (Monday) turned thousands of homes in Oklahoma City into splinters and rubble and sent frightened residents along a 160-kilometre corridor scurrying for shelter.
The tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa were part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.
It is estimated that at least four separate tornadoes touched down in central Oklahoma, including the one near the town of Shawnee, 56km southeast of Oklahoma City, that laid waste to much of a mobile home park.
Reports of injuries in that tornado strike couldn’t immediately be confirmed, as getting into the area was made difficult by the overturned tractor-trailers that forced the closure of a section of Interstate 40.
A storm spotter told the National Weather Service that the tornado left the earth “scoured” at the mobile home park.
Forecasters had been warning for days that the weekend storm system could produce tornadoes, and emergency responders throughout the region were keeping a close eye on it Sunday night as it moved northeastward.
Tornado watches or warnings were in effect through late Sunday in several states.
Dozens of homes and schools were damaged or totally destroyed by the other tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma, emergency officials and the CNN confirmed that at least 91 people have been confirmed died with several 100’s others injured, this figures are believed to increase in the next few hours as search and rescue/recover continues, the storm is said to be moving at an excess of 200km/hr towards the northeast.