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  • Oklahoma tornadoes: Rescue teams continue search for victims

    FROM STAFF REPORTS

    MOORE — The official death toll was reduced to 24 and the number seeking medical treatment was listed at 237 Tuesday in the aftermath of Monday's monstrous tornado that leveled neighborhoods and destroyed schools in Moore and south Oklahoma City.

    Medical examiner's spokeswoman Amy Elliott said 51 deaths were reported to the medical examiner during the early phases of recovery efforts Monday, but the bodies of only 24 deceased victims had come to the office by Tuesday.

    Four of the confirmed fatalities were from south Oklahoma City and 20 were from Moore, an Oklahoma City official said.

    Read more on NewsOK.com

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  • Southmoore football players feel impact of tornado

    By Scott Wright

    MOORE — Southmoore football coach Jeff Brickman would much rather be worrying about how smoothly his quarterbacks executed the zone-read in spring practice.

    Instead, he's was worried about where all of his players would sleep Tuesday night.

    Read more on NewsOK.com

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  • Rebecca Bryan guilty of murdering her husband in 2011

    BY BRYAN DEAN This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

    EL RENO — Rebecca Bryan shed no tears Tuesday when jurors found her guilty of murdering her husband, just as friends testified she didn't cry after he was shot in their Mustang home.

    It took jurors about four hours to find Bryan, 54, guilty of killing Nichols Hills Fire Chief Keith Bryan because of her obsession with a former lover.

    The jury recommended a sentence of life without parole.

    Bryan got a hug and an apology from her attorney, Gary James, after the verdict was read.

    Evidence found in the dryer in her utility room — including her Ruger .380 LCP pistol — convinced jurors her story of an intruder shooting Keith Bryan for not hiring him was fiction.

    The case went to the jury about 1 p.m.

    Read more on NewsOK.com

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  • Oklahoma tornadoes: Moore Medical Center damaged by tornado

    BY GEORGE LANG This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

    MOORE — Most of the second floor of Moore Medical Center is now gone, and dozens of the cars owned by patients and caregivers are crumpled beyond repair, some piled in a heap at the center of the facility's parking lot, stacked by the force of Monday's tornado.

    Residents and area workers stepped over downed power lines as they surveyed the damage from the tornado, which cut a wide swath through Tom Strouhal Little River Park along SW 4 Street and into the medical center.

    Police blocked outsiders from entering the devastated residential areas on SW 6 Street and Kings Manor.

    “It's just all hands on deck right now,” said Kelly Wells, public information officer for Moore Medical Center.

    “As far as Moore Medical Center, all the staff has been accounted for there, and to my knowledge, all the patients have been accounted for, as well.”

    For some eyewitnesses, the memory of the May 3, 1999, tornado was echoed in what they saw Monday afternoon.

    Angela Glenn, 36, who lives five blocks away from the medical center, lived in the area during that first disaster.

    This time, she was picking up her three children from school when the tornado pushed through from the west, and she decided to outrun it.

    “I knew we shouldn't have done that,” Glenn said.

    “But I didn't know what else to do.”

    Curtis Cargile, 55, of Del City, also lived through the 1999 tornado, but Monday he was checking on young relatives, including a first-grader at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which was hit by the storm.

    Back then, he lived two blocks from the tornado's path.

    “It's just all over again,” Cargile said.

    Read more on NewsOK.com

  • Oklahoma tornadoes: Rare term used in Monday's storms

    BY BRYAN PAINTER This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

    NORMAN — Two men mentioned one rare phrase.

    David Andra and Scott Curl, of the National Weather Service in Norman, were both working when an F5 tornado struck the Oklahoma City metro area May 3, 1999.

    Andra, now the meteorologist in charge, and Curl, a senior forecaster, were also working Monday when a tornado of at least EF4 strength struck some of the same areas.

    Curl was the warning forecaster on that F5 tornado in 1999 and again on Monday's storm.

    Both times the rare term “tornado emergency” was used to warn the public of a dangerous, long-track tornado.

    Monday, they used the regular warnings, but added this phrase to that.

    Read more on NewsOK.com

  • Oklahoma tornadoes: Six tips for tornado survivors

    BY NOLAN CLAY This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

    Here are tips from my own experience after the May 3, 1999, tornado leveled my Moore home:

    You may need a tetanus shot.

    Read more on NewsOK.com

  • How to help tornado victims

    FROM STAFF REPORTS

    By Tuesday afternoon, more than 3,000 people had applied to volunteer with the American Red Cross's relief efforts in Oklahoma City, and a third of those had gone through orientation classes.

    Calling the response an “amazing outpouring of support that truly exemplifies the ‘Oklahoma Spirit,' the Red Cross said in a news release that it had met current volunteer needs for the disaster.

    “We are focused on getting relief efforts to the areas hardest hit by tornadoes,” the news release stated.

    Read more on NewsOK.com

  • Relatives arrive at hospital in frantic searches for loved ones in Oklahoma

    BY NASREEN IQBAL This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

    About 30 people gathered in the waiting room of OU Medical Center on Monday evening as more poured in, concerned about lost loved ones or their own wounds.

    A distraught and shaken husband, 21-year-old Gage Bellman, sat wide-eyed in the back of the room and waited for news about his lost wife, who was working at a 7-Eleven on SW 4 in Moore when the tornado struck.

    “I called her 15 minutes before she was supposed to get off from work.

    Read more on NewsOK.com

  • #PrayForOklahoma: Oklahomans lend support to tornado victims through social media

    The last two days have been devastating for Oklahomans, but they're resilient and have already made plans to rebuild.

    Read more on NewsOK.com

  • Coming attractions: Movie plans postponed by tornado

    BY MATT PATTERSON Staff Writer This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

    MOORE — Cullen Bieger was waiting for friends Thursday at the bar at the Moore Warren Theatre.

    Bieger, 31, was there to see the new “Star Trek” movie.

    As he waited he watched local weather reports at the bar, joking with staff that if there was a tornado they were probably in the safest building in town.

    Read more on NewsOK.com