Archive - 2013 - News Article
May 21st
MOORE, Okla. (AP) — Emergency crews searched the broken remnants of an Oklahoma City suburb Tuesday for survivors of a massive tornado that flattened homes and demolished an elementary school. At least 24 people were killed, including at least nine children, and those numbers were expected to climb.
The state medical examiner's office cut the estimated death toll by more than half but warned that the number was likely to climb again. Gov. Mary Fallin said authorities did not know how many people were still missing, but they vowed to account for every resident.
Monday evening storms rolled through LeFlore County leaving a path of damage from a southwest section of Poteau ending in the Liberty Community east of Cameron.
According to Michael Davidson, director of LeFlore County Emergency Management, it is unclear if the damage was caused by straight line winds or from a twister. The National Weather Service yet has to arrive to survey damage and declare how the damage occurred, according to Davidson.
May 20th
MOORE, Okla. (AP) — The Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office says 37 people have been killed by a tornado that hit suburban Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon. Spokeswoman Amy Elliott says the death toll is expected to rise. Elliott didn't know how many of those killed were children.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Officials at two hospitals say they're treating nearly 60 patients, including more than a dozen children, after a massive tornado hit suburban Oklahoma City.
Integris Southwest Medical Center spokeswoman Brooke Cayot (KAY'-ot) said 10 of 37 patients being treated at that facility Monday are listed in critical condition. Twelve are in serious and 15 others are listed in fair or good condition.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has deployed 80 Oklahoma National Guard members to assist with search and rescue operations in the hardest hit areas of Moore.
Fallin said Monday the troops will also help establish a perimeter around some of the most devastated areas in the Oklahoma City suburb. Moore suffered a direct hit from a major tornado.
Fallin also spoke Monday with President Barack Obama who offered the nation's help and gave Fallin a direct line to his office.
MOORE, Okla. (AP) — Several children have been pulled out of the rubble alive at a school in an Oklahoma City suburb.
An Associated Press photographer saw several children being pulled out of what was left of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., on Monday after a massive tornado hit the region.
Rescue workers lifted children from the rubble before they were passed down a human chain and taken to a triage center set up in the school's parking lot.
The school is southwest of Oklahoma City. Its roof appears mangled and the walls had fallen in or had collapsed.
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA EFFECTIVE UNTIL 10 P.M.
PRIMARY THREATS INCLUDE SEVERAL TORNADOES POSSIBLE, NUMEROUS LARGE HAIL EVENTS LIKELY WITH A FEW VERY LARGE HAIL EVENTS TO 4 INCHES IN DIAMETER. NUMEROUS DAMAGING WIND GUSTS TO 70 MPH. LIKELY.
THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 115 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 30 MILES NORTHWEST OF GROVE OKLAHOMA TO 40 MILES EAST OF WICHITA FALLS TEXAS. FOR A COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE ASSOCIATED WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE
May 17th
Although Oklahoma is finally getting some rain, it does not mean the drought is over. But it does mean pests are still seeking places to lodge, feed and drink. You can discourage those uninvited guests from making themselves at home in your house by making your space downright inhospitable.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for James L. DeRosa, 36, Friday morning with a 3-2 vote during a special meeting in Oklahoma City.
DeRosa was sentenced to death in the murders of Curtis and Gloria Plummer. 
The Plummers were found dead inside their home in October 2000, stabbed multiple times and with their throats cuts.
An investigation into the murders hastened along after accomplice Scotty White, now 29, informed a school counselor he knew who murdered the Plummers.
White named Derosa and John Eric Castleberry, now 39.
May 16th
Sentence has been handed down by District Judge Jon Sullivan for a Bokoshe murderer.
Sullivan sentenced Kevin Paul Statham, 51, to two life sentences without the possibility of parole Thursday morning. The sentences will run consecutively resulting in a 90 year prison term.
Statham was charged in the July 2011, shooting deaths of his parents, Paul Statham, 70, and Helen Statham, 69, at their home on Old Bokoshe Road. Both died from gunshot wounds, according to court records.
