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CNN NEWSROOM
Taking In The Aftermath Of Yesterday's Tornado in Moore, Oklahoma
Aired May 21, 2013 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You know, and when you see these -- these images of the tornado, it's not just the funnel cloud itself. It is all that debris whipping around.
And it's all laying around us. I mean, there's pieces of wood here. I mean, something like this becomes -- this can become a deadly projectile. There's -- there's -- we are by a bowling alley, bowling balls all around here. If this gets picked up by the wind, it would obviously kill somebody.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You hear about, first, these primary injuries where people are actually -- the force itself from the tornado causes the injury.
You're talking about very fast winds can cause even injuries to the intestines without any external injuries.
COOPER: Really? The wind itself can do that?
GUPTA: The wind itself as a result of the force and the pressure differences.
Then you get the secondary injuries, which you mentioned, the shrapnel and people get impalements as a result.
COOPER: Puncture wounds.
GUPTA: Puncture wounds. And then tertiary injuries where the bodies, people's bodies themselves, are moving through the air and into something else.
And at the big trauma center around here, a level-one trauma center, those are the exact types of injuries they have seen.
One thing they've pointed out -- you may have heard this -- is that they didn't see nearly the same number of brain injuries or traumatic- type head injuries that they would have expected.
They did see spinal cord injuries, crush injuries, lots of other injuries. So a little good news there, but they still -- exactly what you would expect as a result of this.
COOPER: And to have to, I guess, empty out a medical center and bring folks to another hospital -- GUPTA: In the middle of a storm. Again, I'm always stunned by -- you know, they have to take care of people. We saw this after Sandy, for example, as well. At the same time that they themselves could potentially become patients, these health care providers and nurses and doctors are trying to evacuate patients.
And nobody knows exactly what's happening in terms of the weather and the storm.
COOPER: There is also -- it's still a continuing danger with you have wind, you have water, you have the rain, and you have all of these searchers, search-and-rescue personnel going through the debris. That is pretty risky.
You can easily step on nails. You can easily get injured.
GUPTA: I was reading a study about this same area back from 1999 when they had a string of tornadoes. At least half of the tornado-related injuries took place in the few days after the tornado.
COOPER: Is that right? Really?
GUPTA: Exactly to your point. Some of them minor, but still significant. People were getting electrocuted. There were fires that were breaking out. People were going back into their homes, turning on generators, getting carbon monoxide poisoning.
These are all the caveats that people know, but it is hard to get back to the home ...
COOPER: Right.
GUPTA: -- or to the area where you lived after this. So it's a very --
COOPER: That's one of the reasons authorities have been telling people, do not come to this area unless you absolutely have to, unless you have a home here or a loved one here.
We're going to have more with Sanjay throughout the day. Sanjay, thanks.
Up next, we're going to speak with someone who survived the storm, of course, survived the tornado by sitting in her car at Walmart. And then suddenly she became a first-responder.
This is CNN's special coverage live in Oklahoma.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Hey, I'm Anderson, back live in Moore, Oklahoma.
The storm carved a trail through the area as much as two miles wide, 17 miles long. We learned in the last hour -- the National Weather Services says that the peak wind was 190-miles-per-hour. Finding survivors in the rubble, it seems almost impossible, but it's happened. More than 100 people have been pulled out of the rubble alive.
Joining me here is the mayor of Moore, Oklahoma, Glenn Lewis. Talk to me, first of all, about the rescue efforts. How are things going?
GLENN LEWIS, MAYOR, MOORE, OKLAHOMA: The rescue efforts are ongoing. We are still looking for survivors.
We have two areas pretty much like this, mostly in residential neighborhoods, that we are seeing and going through with the thermal imagers and the dogs.
The FEMA people are on scene. They have over a hundred people to assist us with those dogs and cadaver dogs, so --
COOPER: So FEMA search-and-rescue teams already have as much as a hundred people here.
LEWIS: FEMA is already on the ground. As a matter of fact, the director of FEMA is already here.
They have established contact with us. We have had a meeting with them, and we are fixing to go into cleanup mode as soon as we get done with the rescue effort.
COOPER: Do you have a sense of the timetable on that?
LEWIS: As far as cleanup?
COOPER: Yeah. When you might be able to go into cleanup mode?
LEWIS: We will wait a couple of days for the insurance people to get out and take the photographs for the insurance records and stuff. And we will start immediately.
As a matter of fact, if you go across the street over there, we've already started. We have street brooms that are actually running the debris out of the streets, so we can get through them. We have graders going through, making sure the roads are all clear.
This is the area you can get to. Over by the school, you can't really get in there yet because all the lines are still down.
COOPER: You, I didn't realize, have thermal-imaging equipment at each fire station.
LEWIS: Yes, we do.
COOPER: And that's been a huge help.
LEWIS: Yes. We have that through the Department of Homeland Security. And they have been really instrumental on this, especially at night when you can't really see anybody. I think that's how we got so many people out of the rubble. Otherwise, back in the '99 tornado, we didn't have that available, and we may have missed some people. I think this time we've done a pretty good job of searching.
We have had so many people help. Of course, when there is children involved, you get volunteers from all over. We have multiple, multiple municipalities that are helping us. And we are getting calls at city hall about one a minute.
COOPER: Do you -- what is the situation at the school? Do you -- I mean, have all the kids been accounted for?
LEWIS: All of the kids have now been accounted for, they told me. So as far as I know, that is what I was told a while ago, about 20 minutes ago.
So they are just now -- they're still going through, looking for anybody that might have been left from a housing addition.
We know that two of the -- well, we think that two of the people that were killed -- actually the lady who was picking up her child at the school, taking him out of school and got caught in the tornado, and it was out in a field across from the school.
But other than that, I think everybody has been accounted for now. So there was a report that there were quite a few that were unaccounted for, but that was because the rolls at the school were lost when the tornado hit.
COOPER: Yeah, I talked to the state medical examiner last night, and they had basically doubled what the death toll actually is now. It seems like maybe they miscounted back then.
LEWIS: I don't know. I can't explain that. You'd have to ask them, but --
COOPER: It is certainly good news that it's been downgraded.
LEWIS: I am certainly glad that it's down, in half, actually, so 24 from 51. Five of those were in Oklahoma City and the rest of them were here in Moore.
COOPER: When you look around, I mean, this is the bowling alley. You survived in '99.
LEWIS: Yes.
COOPER: How does it compare?
LEWIS: This is a little bit more devastation. The tornado in '99 was actually stronger. It was 317-mile-an-hour winds. We had the highest recorded wind speeds on Earth here in Moore, Oklahoma.
And this one was right at 200-miles-an-hour, but you can still see the devastation. And this one cut diagonally across the city, and the other one hit the northern end of the city. So it's going to be a whole lot more cleanup.
COOPER: Do you think things need to be built differently in any way? Is there any lesson to be learned about --
LEWIS: The last time we did it, we made them attach hurricane clips to the structures as we built them, and that is about as strong as you can get. Those withhold 100-mile-an-hour winds.
A lot of people have purchased safe rooms after the '99 tornado. This time we will probably require them in new houses. So that is something that we've talked about but we have never done because it is Big Brother thing. We don't want to reach into it.
But I would like to say thanks to the president and the governor. They were Johnny-on-the-Spot, both of them. So they've sent tons of help.
COOPER: Yeah, and we're seeing that all around us.
Mr. Mayor, I wish you the best.
LEWIS: Thank you very much. Appreciate you coming out. It is cold and rainy out here, and thanks for coming.
COOPER: Well, we're trying to do our part. Thank you so much.
An amazing story coming up next, someone rode out the tornado in her car. Now she says she's had enough of the storms and wants to leave Oklahoma.
Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Search-and-rescue efforts continue here in Moore, Oklahoma.
Our John King is there, witnessing some in a nearby neighborhood. John, what are you seeing?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, we want to show you these live pictures, the Moore fire department and some of other first-responders who have come in to help them.
They are here just moments ago. And you see one of the cadaver dog now coming into the picture.
Just moments ago, a hazmat team came through to make sure there were no open gas lines, to make sure no severe structural damage, so that if these guys came through a building would fall on them.
And you see them coming through now, and you heard a debriefing earlier. The fire chief promised they would do a second and third swing through all these homes. You see these homes are devastated. If you look at the walls, you can see all of them were marked off last night or very early this morning with the first wave through, but now they are coming through and picking through the debris.
And as you can see, there are three or four dogs with this team in this neighborhood. I have two of them in my line of sight now.
And this is the meticulous, difficult, painful work, and the luckiest. You know, we have been out here for a while, and it was a cold driving rain not that long ago. That rain has stopped which has made this work, I'll say, somewhat more bearable. It is obviously painful and difficult and most of these fine gentleman are exhausted, along with the animals that are so critical to their work.
The neighborhood is devastated and you just -- the dog there just stepped on a nail, and this is what you see happening in these neighborhoods.
God bless these first-responders and these brave animals. And that one you see in the shot just stepped on a nail going through the debris and his caretaker is trying to make sure he is OK.
But this is what happens now. This is the day after. And they are hoping, hoping against the odds probably, to find someone and, at least perhaps if they can't find anyone alive, to help narrow down that list of those unaccounted for, Anderson.
COOPER: And, John, some of those -- some dogs are cadaver dogs. Other dogs are especially trained to find people who are -- the scent of people who are still living, so it could be a mix. We simply, I guess, don't know at this point, but because we are seeing different groups all throughout.
There are a lot of different search and rescue teams here, some trying to find the living, some just trying to recover anybody who may still be underneath the rubble and to at least bring them back home to their families.
John, has that area been searched before? Because I know the officials here are saying they want to search at least three times every piece of debris.
KING: Yes, every house in this neighborhood was marked last night. And you can see mostly -- and anyone who's watched our coverage of tornadoes or hurricanes knows the red markings or the Xs. There are Xs on the buildings as you go through. And they did promise they would come back.
And you make a key point about the dogs. Some of them have search dogs. Some of the teams have cadaver dogs.
And you can see just straight ahead here, Chris Turner, our photo journalist, is working hard today. They are picking through the rubble here, just trying to get where there is a storm basement they open it and look in. Where there isn't one, they try to just get -- you see that gentleman -- just try to get a head down in there just to listen to see if you hear anything. Sometimes you hear them shouting things to see if anybody shouts back.
We have been in this neighborhood most of the day, but they did check these. All of the homes were checked once, but in a very preliminary way, obviously, and they didn't have as many people in the immediate days -- minutes, excuse me, and hours after the storm.
And so they are coming through now that people have come in from all over the country to help them out. They are coming through just to make a second wave and, as the fire chief promised, even a third wave as they go through it.
It is difficult work, and, A, they are exhausted, and, B, it is hazardous because of all of this debris. There is broken glass. There's nails, buildings as you can see. I don't need to describe them for you. They are mangled and destroyed and worse.
But these teams are doing a pretty thorough job going through now. They just came into the neighborhood a short time ago and they have pick axes, the animals and this work will take hours if not days.
COOPER: Yeah, and it's gotten a little bit easier just in the last 30 minutes or so, now that the rain has stopped. The thunder and lightning has stopped. It was miserable for about a two-hour period. Let's hope the weather holds so it helps those first-responders out there in their work.
John, I appreciate the report.
CNN's Jake Tapper just talked to a family whose 11-year-old daughter was evacuated from Plaza Tower Elementary. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: In an instant the tornado turned survivors into searchers. Whatever their training or background, many became first-responders running anywhere there were cries for help.
That was the case for the iReporter who snapped these images yesterday. Swey Boyd did what the experts say not to do. She stayed in her car. She had no other choice. The tornado forced her back and the moment it passed Boyd went on the move along with others, aiding one woman tangled in the debris.
Swey Boyd joins me now live. So you work at a doctor's office.
SWEY BOYD, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Yes.
COOPER: You got out early but you were in the parking lot in front of the Walmart.
BOYD: Yes.
COOPER: And in your vehicle when the storm basically hit.
BOYD: Yes. I didn't really have much of a choice. I couldn't get out. The wind was too strong.
It seemed better just to stay where I was rather than brave the wind and chance getting blown away.
COOPER: what kind of vehicle do you have?
BOYD: An Accord.
COOPER: Not like a big vehicle. No. It could have gotten blown away if the wind was stronger.
BOYD: You were just hoping that the storm wouldn't hit.
BOYD: Hoping and praying. There was a second funnel cloud sort of toward me. Clouds were coalescing into this mass and they got sucked into the larger tornado which is what scared me, which I was hoping would just go the other way. You know, just hoping --
COOPER: It went behind the Walmart.
BOYD: It did. I got incredibly lucky. It did go behind the Walmart.
COOPER: The amazing thing, though, is a lot of people would have just gone home.
You were on your way home. You saw a guy in the road handing out gloves. You pulled over and asked if there was anything you could do to help.
BOYD: It seemed like the right thing to do, and I would like to believe that anyone in that situation would have done the same.
COOPER: You think from then on you were going around the neighborhood trying to do whatever you could.
BOYD: Yes. There was a residential area behind the highway and a lot of homes were leveled and there had to be people trapped.
So he told me and another person, you know, you're going to see a lot of stuff. You just need to be focused on what you need to do. Keep your human emotions aside, and get people out.
COOPER: And this is your first tornado. What was it like for you --
BOYD: It is.
COOPER: -- to see that, people in distress like that?
BOYD: People in distress, it was difficult to realize that there were some people you couldn't help, you know. You had to wait for professionals. You just had to tell them it's OK. You know, there will be help on the way. And then there were others that you could get to easily and it was just you had this feeling of guilt for leaving the people. That you couldn't get to.
COOPER: You did what you could. Thank you for that.
BOYD: Thank you.
COOPER: Really great to meet you.
BOYD: Thank you.
COOPER: That's Swey Boyd.
Up next, you're going to hear from storm survivors, more storm survivors in their own words. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We are hearing more and more stories from people who have survived this tornado.
Here are some of those stories in their own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a very intense tornado. We have watched it go from a very thin rope-like tornado to now what appears to be debris.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This type of tornado will just level towns. Honestly, this is getting very scary.
Right now, this storm is -- oh, my goodness, it's almost a three- quarters of a mile wide and it's moving into eastern -- or western sides of Moore. And it is coming into this highly, highly populated areas.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It tried to open the door. It caved the door in.
Once it ended we, of course, got out and I looked. My car is gone. I cannot find it.
When I got home I realized that there is nothing left of my house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard the roar. I grabbed my dog and went and laid down and here we are now. It's destroyed.
I was asking God to spare me and He did. He saw fit to see me through to another day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We grabbed our motorcycle helmets and hid in the closet and prayed like hell, and, luckily, the only room that was spared was the room we were in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you do to keep your family calm with all of this going on? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just talked to them and I was kind of laying on top of them in the bath tub with the mattress on top of us. And didn't really say a whole lot. We just rode it out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Over at the school, if you stop and think about it, we had a small area of building that was completely devastated.
We can't put people on top of the debris because we know little people are under the debris, so we are trying to meticulously pick up stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was pandemonium with children crying everywhere, bloody teachers and so forth.
But very quickly things started coming together. Everyone worked together to get the kids reunited with parents, and at least for the kids at that school, things worked out for the most part real well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody was just trapped. It was crazy.
We just pulled boards and trash and everything away. And waited till people scream and pull them up from there.
You basically ran from like pile to pile and waited for someone to scream.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like a battle zone. It's -- there is nothing standing, no trees, no houses for anywhere around. No landmarks, you don't even know where you are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are getting hundreds of requests to check certain addresses and officers can't find the street or the block. There is no reference points. There is no addresses.
So it's almost just kind of going area by area and searching those areas.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today.
Our gratitude is with the teachers who gave their all to shield their children, with the neighbors and responders who helped as soon as the tornado passed and all of those who, as darkness fell, searched for survivors through the night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The president speaking earlier today, and some of the many survivors we have heard from so far.
There are so many more stories to tell. This is still very much an unfolding situation here.
Our coverage obviously continues throughout the day and the night. I will be back at 8:00 Eastern time and again at 10:00 Eastern time for live reports here from Moore, Oklahoma.
Jake Tapper's "The Lead," though, starts right now.
