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Oklahoma Tornado Death Toll Could Rise; Devastation in Oklahoma Following Tornadoes; Interview with Terri Watkins

Aired May 21, 2013 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome back, everyone, to CNN's live coverage of the aftermath of the Oklahoma tornado. You are looking at live pictures of the recovery effort, the rescue effort right now. You're looking at these workers picking through the rubble there. You see some pickaxes, I think. You can see people lifting up pieces of the debris by hand. They were doing this all night. Into the morning right now. A lot going on here.

There's also a news conference with the president. The president will speak at 10:00 Eastern Time today, a news conference at noon. Stay with CNN, all day for all the twists and turns of this developing story, our live coverage of the aftermath of the Oklahoma tornado continues with Chris Cuomo right now.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, John.

Welcome, everybody. Here we are in Moore, Oklahoma. The picture tells the story. This is basically ground zero of where this tornado hit yesterday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. just as kids were ready to get out of school. Now that's very important because they had to be brought back in, parents went rushing out into the tornado, caused a lot of frustration and a lot of havoc, and this is the aftermath.

If I'm going to -- get Dave. Follow me over here. This piece of steel, it looks wispy, right? Looks easy. This is -- I weigh 220 pounds. This is me pushing on it. It's a thick piece of metal. I couldn't move it over to get it closer in the shot for you guys. It was twisted by this tornado like it was nothing. Cars have been tossed around like they were toys. Where there were homes, they are now what appears to be bales of hay.

And it's a big area. In some parts, it was a mile, a mile and a half wide and 20 miles long. As you come into the debris zone this is how it works. First, looks like there was a messy rainstorm, OK? Then you start to see trees down and splatter on -- on the houses, like they were sprayed with something, then you start to see all of your light poles and everything are gone, and then you get to here and this is what it is.

Behind us is the medical center, OK? This was a safe zone for people in the tornado. This is where they go, obviously if they are hurt, but just for safety. It's strong construction, it's metal masonry, brick, this is supposed to be good. This is what it is now. The good news and there is a lot of good news coming out of situation, bad as well. We'll tell you all of it. The good news here, all the staff was accounted for. The patient were moved. Hundred people, 150 people who needed help got it at surrounding hospitals. You couldn't even get in here. The entrance was blocked by all of these cars.

Often we measure the situations in casualties. They're very low numbers right now. They're estimates. They're going to go up. It's going to get worse. Why? This is still going on. This search and rescue is very active. They haven't even made it through 50 percent of the area they have to look at now.

One of the unique things that happens in places like Moore, Oklahoma, though, is that communities come together. Shelters weren't that full last night because people take in their own, they take in, everybody becomes family. There are a lot of walking wounded. So the number of 150 injured is low because a lot of people haven't gone to the hospital. They are searching. They're searching for what's left of their homes, their belongings, and most importantly their loved ones.

It gets us to the two schools that were hit. Briarwood. We'll show you scenes this morning of the dramatic reunion. People getting back together there, finding their kids, literally, they couldn't get cell calls, they didn't know what was going on. No cell phone, no word. And all those fears for so many families were satisfied by getting their kids back. Many did not get that.

Plaza Tower, another school, we'll show you pictures of it, it was decimated by the tornado. Of Kids died there. Of the 51 dead that we're hearing about right now, and, again, that number will change, 20 of them already are kids. Many of them died in the basement of that school. It became flooded. It's horrible to hear, but imagine for the families to learn that.

The search and rescue there, still very active. Going hand by hand. They can't get earth moved. Take a look. You can't get earth moving machines in here, it's too difficult. There are active power lines down, there are active gas lines that are open. So it's all very difficult. That is the scene in Oklahoma.

The weather has moved on, you will see clear skies here, the front is moving towards Texas. We'll get to meteorologists who's going to tell us about the threat that remains for places. More tornadoes that could come down.

But from Moore, Oklahoma, right now, it's all about the aftermath and finding out who's still alive. Communities are very active right now doing it. We saw it as we drove through. They're looking for people. They're asking the media to move so that you don't hear the generator sounds so they can keep searching.

Pam Brown who's here with me, been all morning, you've been seeing it firsthand. How has it changed throughout the course of the morning in terms of activity?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, people are just in a daze, Chris. You see -- more people reemerging from their homes, wherever they've been, and people are just -- have a blank stare on their face.

You know, one of the big questions a lot of people have had is, where did everyone go when this tornado came through? They didn't have a lot of time to evacuate. They knew severe weather was going to come through but didn't know that such an explosive tornado was going to come through. A lot of these -- the homes here in Oklahoma, in Moore, Oklahoma, don't have basements. A lot of the schools don't have underground shelters, including Plaza Towers, the elementary school, we have learned, seven people killed. That death toll could go up.

Kids had to run into the hallway, crouch down, put their hands over their heads as the building crumbled on top of them. Parents ran to that school, frantically searching for their child. This morning, rescuers are there, sifting through the rubble as you pointed as Chris, as many parents anxiously await answers as to where their child is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Illuminated by flood lights, rescue teams searched tirelessly throughout the night. Sifting through mountains of debris where Plaza Towers Elementary School once stood. In some places, the debris was 10 feet high. Underneath, every parent's worst nightmare. The bodies of schoolchildren who tried to seek shelter from a ferocious tornado. Many more still missing.

The race to rescue dozens of students and teachers began right after the massive two-mile wide tornado ripped through two elementary schools directly in its path. At hardest hit, Plaza Towers Elementary, a third grade class huddle in the hallway of their school.

Worried parents sent to a staging area at a nearby church searched for answers. At first, several children were pulled from the leveled school alive, but with each passing hour, the operation tragically went from a rescue to recovery mission. The heartwrenching reality of the storm's fury hard to comprehend.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Now one of the things we want to remind people of, words like rescue, recovery, they are kind of meaningless in situations like this because it's ongoing. They're just looking for people. Right? That's our understanding?

BROWN: That's right. I mean, at this point there is still hope that there will be survivors especially at that elementary school where there are still children unaccounted for.

And, Chris, I want to talk about the teachers here because the teachers are being hailed as heroes this morning. We've heard stories of teachers actually jumping on top of the some of the kids to shield them from the tornado. Pulling walls off children that were trapped underneath. We've seen the pictures of the -- of the teachers hugging children after the tornado move through.

CUOMO: The true message. BROWN: Yes. That's it.

CUOMO: "The Oklahoman" this morning, this paper here. Take a look at the image. This morning I assumed these people were parents. Look at the love. Look at the affection. These are teachers that you're looking at here. The bloodied face of this young woman, with the satisfaction on her face because she's got the kid in her hand.

BROWN: And you have to think, how many times did they practice that drill. This is Tornado Alley. How many times did the teachers they take the kids out the hallway, practice the tornado drill, and the fact that they really had to put that to use yesterday, and the kids followed the teacher's orders. The teachers were the leader, they were the comforting figure for these kids during what must have been a terrifying situation and I think that picture that we just saw really just says it all.

CUOMO: So far it captures the moment of the resilience of this neighborhood, community and the teachers. And these people, the teachers -- what they needed to do there because at the end of the day, you can't prepare for this. The talk about basements and shelters, the warning here we believe was about 16 minutes, now that's above average. Usually get 13 minutes when it's an imminent, very violent, destructive tornado on its way.

But that's not a lot of time. Especially if there aren't places to go. And just to be honest, the violence of this, you couldn't be protected from. This was going to do really bad things to anybody and anything that was in its way. And that's certainly the case of what we have here.

A couple of more numbers. Search and rescue is still ongoing. They're putting out a number of over 100 saved so far. But remember, communities here act for themselves, they save one another. They are picking through. You are seeing it as you walk around. Animal rescue was all over the ground here also. Lots of stray dogs you will see as you come through.

But what matters most are the people. And the kids, and those schools getting hit right when it was closing was so terrifying. Many here are saying this morning it could have been worse, but what they're worried about now is that the numbers when they come out, may make this the worst one in the state's history.

BROWN: Yes, and the numbers continue to creep up this morning. It's just catastrophic, that's really the only way to describe it.

BERMAN: Now the aftereffects really are paralyzing when you watch them. But we have Jeff Lechus on the phone right now.

Jeff, if you can hear me, you were taking some of the dramatic video yesterday that showed this as it unfolded. If you can hear me, tell me, what were you seeing? What was it like to watch it moment by moment?

JEFF LECHUS, TORNADO VICTIM: Well, I was caught off guard because I had thought the tornado just passed me. There was so much debris and everything, I thought the tornado just moved just ahead of me and so I stopped to -- I was directly between my house and my son's school. And I had a daughter at my house and a son at school. And I called my wife just when I thought it passed me. To let her know we're OK and just our house, you know, our daughter is going to be OK. She told me immediately that there's no way a tornado passed me and I told, yes, I just saw it. And she said, Jeff, I'm looking at it on TV. Well, right about then, the tornado came in front of me.

And I just thought, OK, I've got to go, bye, hang up and started taking video and picture. And I think that's what you're saying on TV now.

CUOMO: Now, Jeff, let me ask you something. When you're looking at the tornado itself, were you able to tell what was in what they call that debris field? Were you able to see things on the outside of it spinning around?

LECHUS: I mean, that's nothing I could identify. It was just mainly appeared to be trash. I didn't see anything, you know, giant like a car or anything. But it was mostly small stuff. I had my hand sticking out the window with my cell phone videoing it and I was trying to stay inside the car because some of the trash and debris coming inside the car and I think you see the car window there, and probably not so bad, I had to roll the window up. But no, I did not see anything major.

CUOMO: Let me ask you about what matters most. People, were people -- did you see anybody exposed to it as far as you could tell. Were people able to stay inside? Find places to be?

LECHUS: Just -- literally just as I was talking to my wife, I don't think he found a video of the -- I'm on the strip facing a house and just as I called her, I saw a man carrying a baby, run from the house right there on the left of that video. Run down the street and get into another house and that's when I was talking to my wife and that's when the tornado came. But those houses did not get hit. Just a block north of there. So I know he was safe.

CUOMO: And you got a little bit of a sense of that as the tornado passes over. Certain places, they're some miraculously spared and others are just completely torn away.

LECHUS: Yes. That's -- I was about on South 13th Street or 12th Street, and the tornado crossed there, it was about from south Fifth Street to (INAUDIBLE) south Tenth Street, 11th street, So I was probably one to two blocks away from where houses were actually get hit head on.

I started driving right (INAUDIBLE) because you've got to start driving, because I was trying to get to my son's school. It was directly into there. So now I was trying to get to him, and they kept all the kids in school, and it's -- the school is right off of the Fourth Street, a major street in Moore. And I tried to get to Fourth Street going north, and all the power lines, large power line poles were down, blocking as far as I could see. And so I had to go a half mile north and half mile east in back neighborhoods and just very lucky, happened to drive straight into the school.

I had to abandon my truck there because of the power lines, so I -- I jumped -- I got out of truck and started jumping the power lines and made it to the school, the main structure, some of the windows busted out, it was standing, went to the back side and found that the gym had blown down and I was probably one of the first parents there and there were a couple of teachers out. And we walked over to the gym to look to see if anybody was in there. I didn't know if my son was in the gym or main body of the school. And I asked the (INAUDIBLE), they said all the kids were in the main body and they're directing nobody to go inside.

Well, then apparently they heard voices in the gym, and so we started going back to the gym to try to sift through the rubble, see if we could help anybody that might be trapped in there, and you could hear some girls crying. But I guess they realized that there was a backdoor to the structure, so there was an escape route. That part of the gym hadn't completely collapsed and 13, 14-year-old girls came out, holding hands, just bawling their eyes out. And we walked them into the school, gathered everybody there.

CUOMO: Gees, what a story. What a story. What a story. Thank God you guys were there and people were listening, and trying to help. Your son is OK, I take it?

LECHUS: Yes. Yes. It took -- the teacher did an awesome job. All the teachers that were outside, or the school staff. There was no panic, everything was calm. They knew what they were doing. We then made everybody go in the library, the smell of gas terrible outside.

I went to the vote, the school (INAUDIBLE), no power, and you could just imagine, a couple of hundred 13, 14-year-old kids in one room after that. It was just sheer chaos as far as, you know, people talking. Nobody could communicate but they had them all together. Just took me about 15 minutes to find my son. They wouldn't let us leave. Because they wanted to be able to talk to me, know where the kids went, and then you could start smelling gas inside the building.

So they evacuated us all out of the building, and I took that chance. I know that the teachers knew that I had my son, my son and I left. We're just kind of snuck out because we didn't want to get trapped. We were here for the May 3rd tornado and the sheer gridlock of people coming to help, or wanting to see the damage or anything. You could not move in the town back then, and I knew it was going to be the exact same way so we tried to get out.

My daughter was home alone, and we jumped the power lines, wouldn't arcing, all appeared to be dead, we were very careful, got to the truck and was able to make it home, which was half mile south of there.

CUOMO: And your home is intact?

LECHUS: Yes, my home is fine. Just a little bit south of it. Where that video is, is directly I would say -- my home is a half mile south of where that video is, and my son's school a half mile northeast. So, I was right between my daughter who was at home and my son who was at school.

CUOMO: And, Jeff, such, terrible things you went through yesterday, and yet you my friend are one of the lucky ones in this given situation. You got your family intact. You got a place to go tonight.

We wish you the best. Thank you for sharing the video and story. I appreciate it.

Let us know if you need anything. You know we're right down by the hospital. You take care, Jeff. Thank you very much.

LECHUS: Thank you, sir. Thank you.

CUOMO: A lot of stories like that we're going to hear this morning. People who found a way through it, people who were lucky and they are the lucky ones as horrible as it has been, and many stories who come out won't have those types of endings.

We'll be back after a short break from Moore, Oklahoma.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: This is Chris Cuomo.

What happened is evident from everything around. This is what the aftermath is. The moment of crisis we're learning about more every passing moment here. About what people dealt with on the street and most importantly, at the schools.

I want to bring in right now, Terri Watkins. She's with emergency management. She's on the phone.

Terri, can you hear us?

TERRI WATKINS, OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (via telephone): Yes, I can.

CUOMO: All right. Thank you very much for joining us. You knew what scene was at the school. That was the real big risk here. This hit about 3:00 p.m. local time, just when kid were getting out of school.

What it was like when you showed up?

WATKINS: Chris, I have to apologize to you, I was not down at the scene at that point in time.

CUOMO: OK.

WATKINS: I know what the devastation is in this area. So, I apologize, I was not at the scene when the first responders began to arrive.

CUOMO: OK. What do you understand about what they found there? WATKINS: What you found is what I'm sorry to say most people across the country have seen. It is complete devastation down in that area. It is rubble everywhere.

And what search and rescue teams are doing is to go methodically through, brick by brick, board by board, to try to find anyone that may still be alive in the rubble.

Understand, it has been less than 24 hours. These are very good rescue effort. Sadly to say, they have done it in Oklahoma before. So, they're going to do everything in their power to attempt not only at the school, but throughout the community of Moore, to see if there are survivors.

The Oklahoma highway patrol reported earlier that 101 people have been found alive, 101 people found alive. Since the search and rescue operation began. So that is the reason they keep going in there, very slowly and very carefully.

CUOMO: And as reason for hope going forward, a lot of area to be searched, isn't that correct, Terri?

WATKINS: Yes. This is a massive tornado and a large area that has been struck. Not only in the community of Moore, but you have the surrounding community and the rural areas that the tornado went through.

So, yes. There's a lot of area left to search.

CUOMO: And what are you starting to understand on the ground in terms of what the needs are for people? It's getting colder here as the weather moves out. It's taking warm air with it. It's about 10, 15 degrees cooler than it was earlier this morning.

What is the need on the ground and how is it being addressed?

WATKINS: The need on the ground is being addressed through the shelters and through large feeding operations, the meals that the Southern Baptist Convention and Methodist Church are doing at different locations, throughout the affected area, shelters have been set up and we understand they are still in use.

Remember, we had tornadoes the day before in the community of Shawnee and Bethel Acres, so there are still shelters in operation over there that people are using. So, the shelters are being used and bringing in additional functioning needs that people have for not only the search and rescue operation, but needs they will have for families and the survivors that are in these shelters.

CUOMO: Now, is it true, terry, these community people really take one another in, so that even if you don't see the highest number at the shelter, that's because so many invite in people who are affected like family?

(AUDIO GAP) WATKINS: This is Oklahoma. When a neighbor is hurt, you don't ask what they need. You invite them in and help them. That is what we do.

And that is going to happen in all parts of the metro area. People will invite family in. They will invite and friends of family, they will invite friends of friends to take care of.

So sometimes when you hear the numbers of those sheltered is low, it's low because somebody reached out to them, to bring them into their home and care them in these difficult times. It's what we do.

CUOMO: And you're doing it beautifully. We're seeing examples of it all over the place and certainly why this place has been able to pull through before in stories we know too well.

Let me ask you, in terms of scope and scale, trying to stay away from numbers, I know they are going to go up. Where do you think this one is going to stack up in terms of how penetrating, how bad the damage is here?

WATKINS: It's difficult to tell until they can get up in the helicopters, search the path, until the national weather service can get in there, tern the scale of this tornado. Comparisons, we're not going to make them, at this point in time with as many people homeless, as much damage as has been done, comparisons don't matter right now. What matters is the help.

CUOMO: A strong point, Terri. Thank you so much.

Know this: if CNN can help get word out about specific needs and places where people can go to give, whatever it is that you develop, that there is a need for, please feel free to let us know. We're happy to get the word out for you.

WATKINS: Chris, CNN has been here before, have done that in times of great need in Oklahoma. We appreciate the word you are getting out and the time are you spending in Oklahoma to get the word out about the help that is occurring and what people are doing. And we thank you for that.

CUOMO: All right. We're happy to do our job.

Thank you very much, Terri. I know you are doing yours. Get back to it. We appreciate your time this morning. We're here for you.

CNN.com/impact, you go to our Web site. You find out the different organizations in place to take in what is going to be needed. And the need is complete.

I miss -- I mistook Terri for a woman named Betsy Randolph who is with the highway patrol, she came up on the scene. I want to play you some sound of what it was like so you get a sense of what it was like to be in this tornado, present sense impression, that moment by moment phenomenon.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETSY RANDOLPH, SPOKESWOMAN, OKLAHOMA HIGHWAY PATROL: When we showed up yesterday afternoon, we first started hearing reports, troopers saying -- we had our radios on. I worked there in Oklahoma City. We heard them saying they were seeing debris on the interstate.

Now, when they said debris on the interstate because of the tornado, we knew two things. One, tornado touched down in the city of Moore and there was going to be casualties.

When they talk about debris, they are talking about insulation, shingles, wood, the same things that are you seeing on the roadway in the parking lot here was on the interstate. And we knew that houses on either side of the interstate, we knew there would be a loss of life and there was going to be a mass devastation.

So, we went ahead and started this way. When we got here, what we saw was unbelievable. I had been here for May 3rd tornado. This was nothing. May 3rd was nothing compared to this.

I'm talking everywhere you looked debris field so high, and so far, and so wide. Wounded people walking around the streets, you know, they were walking wounded. I mean, they were bloody, people that had stuff sticking out of them from things that were flying around in the air.

There were cars crumpled up like toys and thrown on top of buildings, buildings that were two and three stories tall that were leveled. I mean, it was devastating.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sorry. As far as recovering people, we heard you recovered upward of 100 people overnight?

RANDOLPH: We've had hundreds of law enforcement people, fire, EMS people who have been on the scene overnight. They flooded in from all parts of the state, from Texas, different states, showed up out here, yesterday afternoon, last evening.

In fact, we had so many folks here, first responders, we had to tell some of them: go home and get rest, come back at 7:00 in the morning, because we don't have any place for you. As a matter of fact, over at the school, you know, if you stop and think about it, we had a small area, a 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're trying to meticulously pick up stuff and when we pick it up, we have to have a safe place to put it, knowing we won't cause further harm.

So, as you can imagine, a painstaking process, didn't do that just there, but throughout the city. We sectioned off areas. We sent out task force, strike teams, if you will, that went out to certain locations, spray painted the area, marked the building to say we've checked it and there is no one there, we checked it, pulled out people alive. Or we checked it, people are dead.

And we did that strategically through the entire city of Moore. Now, we're talking about a path of destruction two miles wide and I don't know how long that devastation was, but we know the path as it came across Moore was two miles wide.

Hundreds, thousands of people affected. People went to work this morning, dropped their kids off to school, left their house and pets at the house, they have nothing. They have no house, they have no pets, they have no children in some cases, and our hearts are broken for them.

So, we've been on the scene, trying to relocate people. Get people out of areas that are just totally devastated, get them to shelters. We've been working with the American Red Cross to get people in immediate shelters throughout the city. And then we've got places that are set up, that people are bringing their injured animals, we know there were children throughout the city at different schools.

We took all the kids were taken to First Baptist Church there at 27th Street, 935.

It's been an amazing recovery effort. All night long and it will continue on today. And our hope is that we're still going to find more people alive, either buried in the rubble, maybe possibly knocked unconscious. In fact, we had people out overnight, simply walking and listening.