The Daily Press http://www.poteaudailynews.com http://www.poteaudailynews.com/apfeed.xml--1 Copyright The Daily Press 2013-05-22T19:13:12-04:00 urn:publicid:dailypress.com:110662013-05-22T19:13:12-04:002013-05-22T19:13:12-04:00Copyright 2010 The Poteau Daily NewsPoteau, OKKim RossFour injured in Wednesday morning wreckThe Poteau Daily Newsurn:publicid:dailypress.com:11066Change0Usable2013-05-22T19:13:12-04:00 urn:publicid:dailypress.com:110652013-05-22T19:08:01-04:002013-05-22T19:08:01-04:00Copyright 2010 The Poteau Daily News “The people of Oklahoma are resilient,” said Governor Fallin. “The grief we are experiencing right now is indescribable. But we have seen tragedy before, and we have recovered and emerged as stronger people and a stronger state. “This Sunday, I invite the families of those affected by these terrible tragedies, the people of Moore and Shawnee, the state of Oklahoma and all of those who have sent us their thoughts and prayers to attend this memorial service. Together, we can honor those we have lost, pray for those they left behind, and begin to heal together.” Poteau, OKNo author availableGovernor Fallin Announces Memorial and Prayer Service for Tornado VictimsThe Poteau Daily Newsurn:publicid:dailypress.com:11065Change0Usable2013-05-22T19:08:01-04:00 urn:publicid:dailypress.com:110632013-05-22T11:46:13-04:002013-05-22T11:43:02-04:00Copyright 2010 The Poteau Daily NewsThe accident occurred on the Poteau River Bridge.Both northbound and southbound vehicles are being stopped and rerouted.Lifeflight and LeFlore County EMS crews are responding, along with local law enforcement and the Oklahoma Highway patrol.The number of injured was not known immediately, but witnesses indicated the injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.Poteau, OKKim RossFive-car accidents diverts traffic on 112The Poteau Daily Newsurn:publicid:dailypress.com:11063Change0Usable2013-05-22T11:43:02-04:00 urn:publicid:dailypress.com:110512013-05-21T14:57:13-04:002013-05-21T14:57:13-04:00Copyright 2010 The Poteau Daily NewsIf you would like to donate, there are several area drop-off points taking financial and material donations. Poteau locations: • The Community State Bank of Poteau - 1409 N. Broadway, (918) 647-8101• Russell Cellular - 2707 N. Broadway, (918) 649-3336• LeFlore County Extension Office - 103 N. Church St. (Annex Building) (918) 647-8231• Eastern Oklahoma Medical Center - 105 Wall St. (918) 647-7102• Salvation Army - 400 Dewey Ave. (918) 647-8780• The Chiropractic Clinic - 2112 N. Broadway, (918) 649-0330 ( leave a message)• Central National Bank - All locations (918) 647-2233Wister location: • Wister Assembly of God - Highland Avenue and Pearl Street (918) 839-0851Shady Point location:• Shan's Shack - (918) 963-2405Items being requested:Monetary donations; bottled water; Gatorade or other sports drinks; wipes; diapers; baby formula; hand towels; individually wrapped snacks; work gloves; canned goods; non-perishable food and snack items; toiletries; hand sanitizer; baby powder and lotion; sunscreen; trash bags; flashlights; batteries; toothpaste and toothbrushes. If you would like to make a financial donation to the victims of Moore you may also visit these websites:• Salvation Army - www.salvationarmyusa.org or text 80888 to make a $10 donation• Red Cross - www.redcross.org/okc or text 90999 to make a $10 donation• United Way - www.unitedwayokc.org• Tulsa Community Foundation - www.tulsacf.org• Regional Food Bank in Tulsa - text "FOOD to 32333 to make a $10 donation • Feed the Children - www.feedthechildren.org/disasterPoteau, OKKim RossArea businesses organize drop-off points for Moore donationsThe Poteau Daily Newsurn:publicid:dailypress.com:11051Change0Usable2013-05-21T14:57:13-04:00 urn:publicid:dailypress.com:110502013-05-21T14:34:26-04:002013-05-21T14:34:26-04:00Copyright 2010 The Poteau Daily NewsThe 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."We will rebuild, and we will regain our strength," said Fallin, who went on a flyover of the area and described it as "hard to look at."Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner, said she believes some victims were counted twice in the early chaos of the storm that struck Monday afternoon. Downed communication lines and problems sharing information with officers exacerbated the problem, she said."It was a very eventful night," Elliott said. "I truly expect that they'll find more today."Authorities initially said as many as 51 people were dead, including 20 children.New search-and-rescue teams moved at dawn Tuesday, taking over from the 200 or so emergency responders who worked all night. A helicopter shined a spotlight from above to aid in the search.Many houses have "just been taken away. They're just sticks and bricks," the governor said, describing the 17-mile path of destruction.The National Weather Service said the twister was on the ground for 40 minutes, with winds estimated at 190 mph.Emergency crews were having trouble navigating neighborhoods because the devastation is so complete, and there are no street signs left standing, Fallin added.Fire Chief Gary Bird said fresh teams would search the whole community at least two more times to ensure that no survivors — or any of the dead — were overlooked. Crews painted an 'X' on each structure to note it had been checked."That is to confirm we have done our due diligence for this city, for our citizens," Bird said.The community of 56,000 people, 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, braced for another long, harrowing day."As long as we are here ... we are going to hold out hope that we will find survivors," said Trooper Betsy Randolph, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.More than 200 people had been treated at area hospitals.Other search-and-rescue teams focused their efforts at Plaza Towers Elementary, where the storm ripped off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal as students and teachers huddled in hallways and bathrooms.Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said she watched up close late Monday as rescuers tried to find people in the wreckage of the school."It was an incredible sight to see how big the debris field was and how much destruction there was," Fallin said. "It would be remarkable for anyone to survive."Seven of the nine dead children were killed at the school, but several students were pulled alive from under a collapsed wall and other heaps of mangled debris. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain of parents and neighborhood volunteers. Parents carried children in their arms to a triage center in the parking lot. Some students looked dazed, others terrified.Officials were still trying to account for a handful of children not found at the school who may have gone home early with their parents, Bird said Tuesday.Many parents of missing schoolchildren initially came to St. Andrews United Methodist Church, which had been set up as a meeting site. But only high school students were brought to the church, causing confusion and frustration among parents of students enrolled at Plaza Towers. They were redirected to a Baptist church several miles away."It was very emotional — some people just holding on to each other, crying because they couldn't find a child; some people being angry and expressing it verbally" by shouting at one another, said D.A. Bennett, senior pastor at St. Andrews.After hearing that the tornado was headed toward another school called Briarwood Elementary, David Wheeler left work and drove 100 mph through blinding rain and gusting wind to find his 8-year-old son, Gabriel. When he got to the school site, "it was like the earth was wiped clean, like the grass was just sheared off," Wheeler said.Eventually, he found Gabriel, sitting with the teacher who had protected him. His back was cut and bruised and gravel was embedded in his head — but he was alive. As the tornado approached, students at Briarwood were initially sent to the halls, but a third-grade teacher — whom Wheeler identified as Julie Simon — thought it didn't look safe and so ushered the children into a closet, he said.The teacher shielded Gabriel with her arms and held him down as the tornado collapsed the roof and starting lifting students upward with a pull so strong that it sucked the glasses off their faces, Wheeler said."She saved their lives by putting them in a closet and holding their heads down," Wheeler said.The tornado also grazed a theater, and leveled countless homes. Authorities were still trying to determine the full scope of the damage.Roofs were torn off houses, exposing metal rods left twisted like pretzels. Cars sat in heaps, crumpled and sprayed with caked-on mud. Insulation and siding was smashed up against the sides of any walls that remained standing. Yards were littered with pieces of wood, nails and pieces of electric poles.President Barack Obama declared a major disaster and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts."Among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew — their school," he said Tuesday.The town of Moore "needs to get everything it needs right away," he added.Obama spoke following a meeting with his disaster-response team, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and top White House officials.The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most powerful type of twister. It estimated that the twister was at least half a mile wide.The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., forecast more stormy weather Tuesday in parts of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, including the Moore area.In video of the storm, the dark funnel cloud could be seen marching slowly across the green landscape. As it churned through the community, the twister scattered shards of wood, awnings and glass all over the streets.Monday's tornado loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the region with 300 mph winds in May 1999. It was the fourth tornado to hit Moore since 1998.The 1999 storm damaged 600 homes and about 100 businesses. Two or three schools were also hit, but "the kids were out of school, so there were no concerns," recalled City Manager Steve Eddy.At the time of Monday's storm, the City Council was meeting. Local leaders watched the twister approaching on television before taking shelter in the bathroom."We blew our sirens probably five or six times," Eddy said. "We knew it was going to be significant, and there were are a lot of curse words flying."Betty Snider, 81, scrambled inside with her son and husband. She put her husband, who recently had a stroke, in a bathroom, but there wasn't room for both of them. So she and her son huddled in a hallway."That is the loudest roar I've ever heard in my life," she said.She said she didn't have time to do anything. She couldn't duck, couldn't cover her ears, couldn't find another place to hide.Snider lived through the 1999 tornado, but said this was the closest a twister had ever come to her house, which was still standing.Monday's twister also came almost exactly two years after an enormous twister ripped through the city of Joplin, Mo., killing 158 people and injuring hundreds more.That May 22, 2011, tornado was the deadliest in the United States since modern tornado record keeping began in 1950, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Before Joplin, the deadliest modern tornado was June 1953 in Flint, Mich., when 116 people died.___Poteau, OKNo author availableCrews race to find survivors of Oklahoma twisterThe Poteau Daily Newsurn:publicid:dailypress.com:11050Change0Usable2013-05-21T14:34:26-04:00 urn:publicid:dailypress.com:110482013-05-21T12:58:33-04:002013-05-21T12:58:33-04:00Copyright 2010 The Poteau Daily NewsAccording 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. Historic downtown Poteau, along Dewey Ave., sustained damage to store fronts with windows broken at Blue Leaf Productions and Peachtree Hospice. Damages along McKenna Street in Poteau included Eddie's Auto Parts which lost it's roof in the storm. The displaced roof damaged the neighboring Oklahoma Workforce building. Throughout Poteau trees were broken and blown over and to the east on Old Oklahoma 112, the Double Branch Baptist Church's playground was damaged along with the roof of a barn strewn across a pasture. The most severe damage in Liberty when the storm tore a mobile home from its foundation scattering debri and destruction more than 100 yards from the trailers original location. The mobile home was completely destroyed. Poteau, OKKim RossStorm damages Poteau and surrounding communitiesThe Poteau Daily Newsurn:publicid:dailypress.com:11048Change0Usable2013-05-21T12:58:33-04:00 urn:publicid:dailypress.com:110372013-05-20T20:31:06-04:002013-05-20T20:31:06-04:00Copyright 2010 The Poteau Daily NewsPoteau, OKNo author available37 killed in Oklahoma tornado; death toll to riseThe Poteau Daily Newsurn:publicid:dailypress.com:11037Change0Usable2013-05-20T20:31:06-04:00 urn:publicid:dailypress.com:110362013-05-20T20:30:02-04:002013-05-20T20:30:02-04:00Copyright 2010 The Poteau Daily NewsIntegris 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.Five of the patients are children, including two who came from the Plaza Towers Elementary School, where an Associated Press photographer saw several children being pulled from the rubble. Cayot could not confirm the children's conditions.Poteau, OKNo author availableTwo hospitals treating nearly 60 after Okla. tornadoThe Poteau Daily Newsurn:publicid:dailypress.com:11036Change0Usable2013-05-20T20:30:02-04:00 urn:publicid:dailypress.com:110342013-05-20T19:23:54-04:002013-05-20T19:23:54-04:00Copyright 2010 The Poteau Daily NewsFallin 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.Fallin could not confirm any fatalities but said search and rescue efforts are continuing at an elementary school in Moore that was directly in the path of the violent tornado.Poteau, OKNo author availableGovernor calls for assistanceThe Poteau Daily Newsurn:publicid:dailypress.com:11034Change0Usable2013-05-20T19:23:54-04:00 urn:publicid:dailypress.com:110332013-05-20T19:22:03-04:002013-05-20T19:22:03-04:00Copyright 2010 The Poteau Daily NewsAn 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.Poteau, OKNo author availableLarge tornado tears through MooreThe Poteau Daily Newsurn:publicid:dailypress.com:11033Change0Usable2013-05-20T19:22:03-04:00