Tag Archives: death

05/21/13

Massive Tornado in Oklahoma+Latest Developments

A massive tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City area on Monday, leaving behind a horrific path of destruction.

“It is a barren wasteland,” said Shannon Galarneau, of her hometown of Moore, Okla. Her 10-year-old neice is missing, she told Yahoo! News. “Everything is leveled.” This aerial photo shows the remains of homes hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., Monday May 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Steve Gooch)
Charlene’s Source: yahoo news+AP
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(CNN) — Dozens of people — including several children — were killed when a massive tornado struck an area outside Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon, officials said.

At least seven of those children were killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, according to a police official.

Early Tuesday, emergency personnel continued to scour the school’s rubble — a scene of twisted I-beams and crumbled cinder blocks.The tornado was estimated to be at least two miles wide at one point as it moved through Moore, in the southern part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, KFOR reported.

The preliminary rating of the tornado was at least EF4 (166 to 200 mph), the National Weather Service said.

Latest updates:

— President Barack Obama said, “Oklahoma needs to get everything it needs right away” to recover from powerful tornado that ripped through the Oklahoma City region Monday.

— Flags are expected to be lowered at the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday morning in honor of the victims of a massive tornado that struck central Oklahoma the day before, House Speaker John Boehner said.

— Out of the 51 deaths initially reported in Monday’s powerful tornado in central Oklahoma, 24 bodies have been transferred to the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner’s Office, the agency said Tuesday. An update from the medical examiner was expected at 11 a.m. ET.

Previously reported:

— New York’s governor expressed his sympathy for Oklahomans in the aftermath of the “horrific tornado” that swept through the Oklahoma City region on Monday. “Here in New York we know firsthand the devastation and pain caused by natural disasters, and in difficult times like these we, more than ever, stand with our fellow Americans,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement Tuesday.

— The storm system behind Monday’s twister and several on Sunday is threatening a large swath of the United States on Tuesday, putting 53 million people at risk of severe weather. In the bull’s-eye Tuesday are parts of north-central Texas, southeastern Oklahoma, and northern Arkansas and Louisiana, according to the National Weather Service.

— Oklahoma first and foremost needs donations to rebuild after tornadoes slammed the state, Gov. Mary Fallin told CNN on Tuesday.

— More than 40,000 customers remain without power Tuesday after a powerful tornado slammed the Oklahoma City region, a utility spokesman said. More than half of those customers were in the heavily damaged suburb of Moore, according to Brian Alford, a spokesman for Oklahoma Gas & Electric.

— Glenn Lewis, the mayor of tornado-ravaged Moore, Oklahoma, told CNN on Tuesday the rescue effort is continuing and “we’re very optimistic we might find one or two people.”

— Personnel have rescued 101 people from rubble in metropolitan Oklahoma City after a tornado hit the area Monday, Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management representative Terri Watkins said Tuesday morning. Watkins cited an Oklahoma Highway Patrol tally of rescues from all agencies.

— Some of the children killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, during Monday’s storm drowned in a basement area there, Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb told CNN Tuesday morning. “My understanding, this school … Plaza Towers, they had a basement. Quite frankly, don’t mean to be graphic, but that’s why some of the children drowned, because they were in the basement area,” he said. Officials have said the storm killed at least seven children at the school.

— The Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office has been told to expect about 40 additional bodies, including about 20 children, according spokeswoman Amy Elliott. The official death toll of 51 will not rise until the bodies are processed, she said earlier. The current toll already includes at least 20 children who were killed by the storm.

— At least 145 people have been hospitalized in the Oklahoma City, hospital officials said. The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center received 45 children for treatment on Monday, according Dr. Roxie Albrecht.

— President Barack Obama will make a statement at approximately 10 a.m. ET after he is briefed on the aftermath of the Oklahoma tornado devastation, a White House official told CNN. The statement will be delivered in the State Dining Room.

— Obama signed a disaster declaration for Oklahoma on Monday night, a White House statement said. The declaration means federal emergency aid will supplement local recovery efforts.

— The president told the Oklahoma governor that the federal government “stands ready to provide all available assistance” as part of the response to a series of deadly storms that have struck the Oklahoma City area, including Monday’s devastating tornado.

— Queen Elizabeth II sent her condolences to those affected by Monday’s massive deadly Oklahoma tornado, saying on Twitter: “Our deepest sympathies go out to all those whose lives have been affected, as well as the American people #Oklahoma #tornado.”

— Pope Francis urged people to join him in praying for the families of those who died in the massive tornado in central Oklahoma on Monday, “especially those who lost young children,” he said in a tweet Tuesday.

— French President Francois Hollande expressed his grief over the casualties caused by the ferocious Oklahoma tornado and saluted the “mobilization” of citizens who tackled “this exceptional situation with courage and determination.”

— German Chancellor Angela Merkel passed along her condolences to President Obama over the casualties and destruction caused by the mammoth tornado that tore through Oklahoma on Monday. “The pictures of this catastrophe render us speechless and can only hint at the scope of the hurt,” Merkel told the president Tuesday.

– Pakistan and Spain issued condolences to the people affected by the deadly Oklahoma tornado. “We are particularly grieved over the loss of innocent children and their teachers who were buried under the rubble,” the Pakistan government said. The Spanish government said “the Spanish people, at these tragic times, feel even closer to the American people, and share their pain.”

Charlene’s Source: CNN+yahoo news

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04/10/13

NC Man Says He Tried To Save Kids Buried in Dirt

North Carolina Man Says He Tried To Save Kids Buried In Dirt

 

STANLEY, N.C. (AP) — For Jordan Arwood, the images return in waves. A wall of dirt collapsing and burying his 6-year-old daughter and her 7-year-old cousin in a pit he was working on. Rescue workers frantically pulling the children from thick red clay. Their lifeless bodies placed in the back of an ambulance.

“When she came out of the hole she was so cold,” Arwood, of Stanley, N.C., told The Associated Press in his first news media interview. “I just wanted for her to be warm. I just wanted to put my arms around her and tell her she would be safe….I promised her I’d keep her safe. I promised them I’d keep them safe and warm. I broke that promise.”

The 31-year-old Arwood was operating a backhoe Sunday night in the pit when the walls caved in on the children. The bodies of the two young cousins, Chloe Jade Arwood and James Levi Caldwell, were dug out Monday morning.

Arwood is the girl’s father. His parents, Nancy and Ken Caldwell, had adopted the boy, his twin sister Jazmin and 9-year-old brother Josiah. Arwood lives next to his parents and the pit was on his property.

Arwood told the AP he reached out to save the children but they were just outside his grasp. He said he dug faster and faster trying to rescue them until he couldn’t breathe.

“When the wall came down, I kept grabbing what was in front of me — grabbing enough dirt, grabbing boulders. … I wasn’t going to stop until I pulled them out. But I couldn’t save them,” he said, sobbing.

He paused for a moment.

“I wish it was me,’ he said.

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Detective Lt. Tim Johnson said investigators were interviewing family members and neighbors about the case. When they finished, they planned to present their findings to the district attorney’s office.

Investigators described the pit as 20 feet by 20 feet, with a sloped entrance leading down to the 24-foot bottom. The children were at the bottom of the pit retrieving a child-sized pickaxe when the walls fell in on them. No permits had been issued for Arwood to dig on the site.

Johnson said investigators still don’t know why Arwood was digging the hole and that people have speculated that the pit was everything from a “doomsday bunker” to an underground structure for “illegal activity,” such as growing marijuana.

But Arwood said he was building a rammed earth home, an ancient building method where dirt is used to shape the foundation. Arwood said he had been digging for three months.

Sheriff’s deputies on Monday removed guns and a marijuana plant from Arwood’s mobile home. Arwood is a felon who is not allowed to have guns. He was convicted in 2003 for possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell.

Dion Burleson, spokesman for the Denver Fire Department, which responded to collapse, said crews filled in the pit Monday.

Arwood said he didn’t expect the walls to collapse. And late Tuesday afternoon, Arwood walked to the site of the pit and pointed to the spot where his daughter and James had been buried under the dirt.

He reached down and sifted the dirt between the fingers of his right hand. Then he punched the soil in frustration.

As the walls fell in, he recalled, the children were running to get away. He was within inches of grabbing his daughter’s hand. But she disappeared under a surge of dirt. Now he’s haunted by the memories.

“I want to wake up. I just want to wake up,” he said.

Recalling the children, his eyes brighten. They were always running around together — the best of friends.

And his parents’ house was filled with laughter. He taught his daughter and James how to ride four-wheelers in the backyard.

Arwood was like a big brother to James.

“How many times did I have to tell him to brush his teeth? I’ll never be able to tell him again, ‘Go brush your teeth, brush your hair.’ That was the first thing he did in the morning,” he said.

On Tuesday, friends and family in this tight-knit rural community came by to offer their condolences. They brought food to the family.

Ken Caldwell sat on a couch, surrounded by photos of his grandchildren. Nearby was a white karate suit. James is going to be buried in it. He was just a few days shy of taking a test for his orange belt.

Caldwell, who worked 34 years in a steel fabrication plant, recalled reading Tom Swift books every night to James, a bright, energetic first-grader with a big smile.

He loved his grandmother, who would tuck him in every night. “After she tucked him in, he would stick out his leg out of the covers and say, “Grandma, my foot’s not covered.'”

Chloe was always running around the house and jumping in his lap.

“She’s so beautiful,” he said.

When he saw the children’s bodies in the ambulance, he said he placed his hands on them and asked God to “bring them back.”

While his prayers went unanswered, his faith is still strong — and he’s going to use it to carry him through the tough times.

“You have to trust the Lord,” he said. “I’m just grateful I had time to spend with my grandkids.”

Charlene’s Source: AP Press+yahoo news

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