The average tornado moves at less than 35 miles per hour and lasts just a few minutes—but on May 20 an EF5 tornado more than mile wide, packing 166- to 200-mph winds, ripped through the suburbs of Oklahoma City for 40 minutes and laid to waste the 55,000-population city of Moore.
More than two dozen residents were killed in the twister's path, but the toll is expected to rise as more bodies are recovered in the wreckage. In the days that followed, some 240 more were listed as injured, including at least 60 children.
Many of the juvenile deaths occurred when the tornado directly hit and demolished the Plaza Towers Elementary School, trapping those huddling inside and drowning seven students in the basement. An additional elementary school, a hospital and scores of homes were razed.
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