Nevada man escapes tornado

A former Nevada resident made it through a monstrous tornado that destroyed much of Moore, Okla., relatively unscathed, but many of his friends, neighbors and acquaintances were not as lucky.

As night approached, rescue workers were still trying to locate survivors in the rubble of the Oklahoma City suburb. The Associated Press reported late Monday 51 deaths had been confirmed, but the death toll is expected to rise. More than 120 people were being treated at area hospitals, including 70 children.

It's chaos here," Nevada native John Ireland said about 7:30 Monday evening after Moore, was hit by its second devastating tornado in 14 years.

"This is worse than 1999," he said.

Ireland, who owns the John M. Ireland Funeral Home and Chapel on Broadway in Moore, said his business and home survived, but everything around his funeral home was gone.

"This is devastation," he said.

Mary Ireland, John's mother, said he told her that he took all but one of his employees at his funeral home to his house where he had a basement and they rode out the storm in safety. The other employee went to get her child from daycare and find a safe place.

The tornado -- at least a mile and a half wide -- roared through the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds up to 200 mph. At least 51 people were killed, and officials said the death toll was expected to rise.

The storm laid waste to scores of buildings in Moore, a community of 41,000 people south of the city. Block after block lay in ruins. Homes were crushed into piles of broken wood. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside.

The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most-powerful type of twister.

The AP reported rescuers launched a desperate rescue effort at the school, pulling children from heaps of debris and carrying them to a triage center.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin deployed 80 National Guard members to assist with search-and-rescue operations and activated extra highway patrol officers.

Fallin also spoke with President Barack Obama, who offered the nation's help and gave Fallin a direct line to his office.

Many land lines to stricken areas were down and cell phone traffic was congested. The storm was so massive that it will take time to establish communications between rescuers and state officials, the governor said.

In video of the storm, the dark funnel cloud could be seen marching slowly across the green landscape. As it churned through the community, the twister scattered shards of wood, pieces of insulation, awnings, shingles and glass all over the streets.

Volunteers and first responders raced to search the debris for survivors.

At Plaza Towers Elementary School, the storm tore off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal.

Children from the school were among the dead, but several students were pulled alive from the rubble. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain to the triage center in the parking lot.

James Rushing, who lives across the street from the school, heard reports of the approaching tornado and ran to the school, where his 5-year-old foster son, Aiden, attends classes. Rushing believed he would be safer there.

"About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart," he said.

The students were placed in the restroom.

The weather service estimated that Monday's tornado was at least a half-mile wide. The 1999 storm had winds clocked at 300 mph.

It was the fourth tornado to hit Moore since 1998. A twister also struck in 2003.