At least one family took refuge in a bathtub and some people shut themselves in underground shelters built into their houses when the powerful storm tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday afternoon. While rescue workers and body-sniffing dogs sifted through the ruins on Wednesday, those who escaped told their stories of survival while trying to salvage what was left of their belongings. "Yesterday I was numb. Today I cried a lot. Now I'm on the victory side of it," said Beth Vrooman, who hid in a shelter in her garage in Moore during the storm. The tornado's winds exceeded 200 miles per hour, flattened entire blocks and demolished two schools and a hospital on its 17-mile (27-km), 50-minute rampage through central Oklahoma.
Listed as the highest category of storm - an EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale - the twister damaged or obliterated 2,400 homes and affected an estimated 10,000 people, said Jerry Lojka, spokesman for Oklahoma Emergency Management. President Barack Obama was due to survey the damage himself on Sunday, a White House spokesman said. After rescue workers pulled more than 100 survivors from the debris, authorities said six people remained unaccounted for in a town of 55,000 people. "They're not sure if they've walked off or if they are in the rubble," Albert Ashwood, director of Oklahoma's Department of Emergency Management, told a news conference. Experts explaining the low death toll cited a relatively long advance warning of 16 minutes for the tornado and high awareness of the dangers in a region known as Tornado Alley.
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Tornado survivors salvage belongings
Even so, some survivors were astounded they made it. Tonya Williams, 38, said she still felt in shock after surviving the tornado, as so many did, by taking shelter in a closet. She put bicycle helmets on her 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son, collected her three dogs and pushed them all into a hall closet. "We prayed. I could feel pressure, and being sucked. I put my body over them to try to protect them," Williams said. When neighbors dug them out, the roof and upper story of the house had collapsed into and around the closet. Williams and her children suffered only minor injuries.
A large wooden cross that had been hanging on an upstairs wall was found on top of them, she said. "If you weren't a religious person before, you are now," Williams said. "No word can describe it but a miracle." Of the 24 who died, 10 were children and about 240 others were injured. Most of the victims died of blunt force injuries and five of the children died from suffocation, the state medical examiner said on Wednesday. The youngest victim was four months old. The oldest was 63.
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Oklahoma tornado victims astounded at how they survived
