Around 3 p.m. on May 20, a two-mile-wide EF-4 tornado touched down in an area right outside of Oklahoma City, Okla. The powerful tornado tore through a highly-populated suburb in Moore, Okla. and completely flattened two elementary schools.
The violent storm killed 51 people, including a three-month-old baby and four-year-old child. The massive tornado also completely destroyed two elementary schools, Plaza Towers Elementary School and Briarwood Elementary.
At Plaza Towers, rescuers discovered the bodies of seven children that are believed to have drowned in a pool of water, and up to 30 more students at the school are feared dead. How terrible.
One teacher laid across six students to protect them from the storm, and another teacher suffered serious injuries from covering three children. Around 30 children — 4th, 5th, and 6th graders — were taken from Plaza Towers to a nearby church for shelter before the tornado ripped through the school. When a reporter asked a medic about the injuries at the elementary school, the medic “just shook his head.”
At 2:45 p.m., Briarwood Elementary staff sent out an email to parents alerting them that the school was on lockdown, and they would keep the children at the school until the storms passed. The children were all accounted for at 5 p.m., according to authorities.
According to local hospitals, more than 120 people were injured by the tornado, and the numbers of injuries are expected to rise.
Our thoughts our with everyone who has been affected by this devastating tornado.
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