the damage

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Monster Tornado Tears Through Oklahoma Town At least one elementary school is destroyed as a massive, mile-wide tornado ravages a suburb of Oklahoma City. A massive tornado has torn through a densely populated suburb of Oklahoma City, utterly destroying everything in its path - including an elementary school that took a "direct hit". Young children were at Plaza Towers Elementary School in the town of Moore at the time, but it is unclear whether there was a storm shelter where they were able to take cover. Firefighters were at the scene digging through the school's debris to reach any children possibly trapped inside. The town's hospital was badly damaged, and there were also unconfirmed reports that a second school was destroyed. Several other tornado warnings were also in effect in the minutes after the devastating twister hit. Oklahoma City tornado touchdown The tornado completely devastated the area Monday's mid-day twister, measuring an estimated mile wide, came just a day after two people were confirmed killed by a tornado nearby. Residents of Moore had been urged to take shelter as the violent storm moved through the area. The broad, dark funnel cloud was on the ground for 35 minutes before dissipating. KFOR-TV's news helicopter showed huge swaths of buildings and homes completely levelled, with nothing but wreckage left. Some homes were taken down to their concrete slabs. Sky News US Correspondent Dominic Waghorn described the damage, saying "whole neighbourhoods just wiped off the map, homes literally stripped to their foundations". Tornado Oklahoma The wreckage on a motorway in Moore Aerial footage showed vehicles crumpled and overturned in heaps of debris on the motorway, and buildings that were unrecognisable piles of rubble. Emergency personnel and volunteers had begun going door-to-door searching for victims. Utility workers were in an urgent rush to shut off electricity and gas to the area to prevent further danger from live power lines or natural gas leaks. Oklahoma City tornado touchdown An aerial view of the destruction Footage during the storm showed the monster twister slowly moving through the area and the flashes of power lines blowing. The state legislature in Oklahoma City cancelled its afternoon session so lawmakers and staffers could take shelter. The huge tornado was the most recent in a series of twisters that has ravaged towns in the midwest US in recent days as a line of violent storms has stretched from the Canadian border down into Texas. This part of the country is known as "tornado alley" and residents are trained in how to take shelter. Most towns and cities are equipped with storm sirens that can warn of a coming tornado a half hour before it hits. More follows...