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As evening drew to a close in Oklahoma, after a day of tireless searching for survivors among the debris left behind by a powerful tornado, officials said the operation could end by nightfall Tuesday.

“We will be through every damaged piece of property in this city at least three times before we’re done and we hope to be done by dark tonight,” Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird said at a news conference.

Emergency crews and National Guard troops picked through neighborhoods without recognizable streets in a grim, house-by-house search of the blasted-out husk of a city left behind by the ferocious tornado.

Authorities lowered the death toll to 24, less than half the figure they gave in the initial chaos after the twister, but there was still no full accounting of those missing. Nine of the confirmed dead were children, including seven in a flattened elementary school.

Four bodies were recovered, including a 3-month-old baby, at a local 7-Eleven.

Working with search dogs and under menacing skies, the crews meticulously combed the rubble in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, which took a direct hit when the tornado cut a 17-mile path of destruction on Monday afternoon.

Dozens of people were pulled from the wreckage in the initial hours after the storm, but there were no reports of additional survivors found Tuesday — only scraps of wood, shreds of clothing, shards of glass and metal and cars crumpled into each other and into buildings. Entire stretches of Moore looked as if they had been put through a blender.

“I mean, there’s nothing,” said Robert Foster, whose family home was destroyed. “People are walking up and down the streets. It’s really upsetting to look at. We grew up there. That’s our whole childhood. And it’s all flattened now.”

Gov. Mary Fallin said there were 237 injured, but authorities cautioned that figure and the death toll could still rise. Even with the benefit of a full day’s light, people were only beginning to grasp the scope of the destruction in Moore and parts of Oklahoma City.

The Oklahoma University Medical Center admitted 59 children and 34 adults.

The National Weather Service said survey crews had found at least one area of Category EF5 damage — the highest classification for tornadoes, meaning winds had exceeded 200 mph.

Frank Keating, a former Oklahoma governor, said on MSNBC that as many as 20,000 families could be displaced.

“This was the storm of storms,” Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said.

The first of the victims was publicly identified — Ja’Nae Hornsby, a third-grader who was killed when the tornado demolished Plaza Towers Elementary School. She was remembered by her family Tuesday as full of joy and fond of playing dress-up. Her relatives gathered at a Baptist church in Oklahoma City to console each other.

A second victim, Hemant Bhonde, 65, became separated from his wife when the tornado struck their home, his family told NBC News. Bhonde’s body was recovered Tuesday, hospital officials said. His wife survived.

Tannen Maury / EPA

Firefighters examine the rubble of a home in a destroyed neighborhood in Moore.

As they took the measure of what they had lost, people in Moore also marveled that they were alive, and began to share stories of survival and of how they protected each other when the twister struck, announcing itself with roaring wind.

Children from Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven children were reported drowned in a pool of water, told of hearing sirens and running into a hall for cover, some still carrying their math books.

A teacher, Rhonda Crosswhite, said she huddled with students in a bathroom stall and draped herself over them for cover as the storm hit.

“One of my little boys, he just kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you, please don’t die with me, please don’t die with me,’” she told TODAY. “But we’re OK. And we made it out, and it finally stopped.”

She said all her students were accounted for.

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Okla. school survivor: Teacher threw herself over us and ‘saved our lives’

17 hours ago

A fourth-grader at a school that took a direct hit from Monday’s deadly tornado in Moore, Okla., described the heroic actions of a teacher who saved his life and others by covering several students with her body to shield them from the storm.

Damian Britton, a student at Plaza Towers Elementary School, recounted a harrowing scene to Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Tuesday. He also had an emotional reunion with Rhonda Crosswhite, the sixth-grade teacher he credited with saving his life.

He was in class when he heard the sirens go off, warning of tornadoes that touched down a little before 3 p.m. with winds up to 200 miles per hour. The twisters tore through the suburbs of Oklahoma City, leaving 24 confirmed dead as rescue workers continue to search through the rubble.

“We heard the sirens go off and then we all ran into the hallway,’’ Damian said. “Some of us had a math book and some of us had our backpacks. (The sirens) went off again, and we ducked again. They went off again, and then we heard the tornado and it sounded like a train coming by, and then we were all in cover.”

Crosswhite laid down on Damian and several other students in a bathroom stall as the tornado hit.

“She was covering me and my friend Zachary,” he said. “I told her we were fine because we were holding on to something, and then she went over to my friend Antonio and covered him, so she saved our lives.”

The teacher and student were reunited on Tuesday, sharing a tight embrace along with Damian’s mother, Brandi Kline.

“I told you we were going to be OK,” Crosswhite said as she hugged Damian.

Crosswhite described how she tried to protect the children and keep them calm in the midst of the chaos.

“I was in a stall with some kids and it just started coming down, so I laid on top of them,” she told Guthrie. “One of my little boys just kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you, please don’t die with me.’

“I never thought I was going to die. The whole time I just kept screaming to them, ‘Quit worrying; we’re fine, we’re fine.’ And I’m very loud, so I just hoped they could hear me because I could hear them screaming. (One girl) was sobbing, and I was like, ‘We’re going to be fine, we’re going to be fine, I’m protecting you.’ And then I said a few prayers. ‘God please take care of my kids.”’

All of the children who were with her are accounted for and unscathed other than a minor injury. Crosswhite was wearing flip-flops and suffered cuts on her feet, but is otherwise in good condition.

TODAY

“I told you you were going to be OK,” teacher Rhonda Crosswhite told Damian Britton as she reunited with him.

“It was like a freight train, but I don’t remember much about it,” she said about the sound of the tornado. “It felt like someone was beating me up from behind. The stuff was just coming down on my back. I have cuts everywhere that I didn’t even realize I had.”

Damian estimated that it took about five minutes for the twister to pass through before the students emerged from cover to survey the damage and check on their classmates.

“It was just a disaster,’’ he said. There was just a bunch of stuff thrown around and the cars were tipped over, and it smelled like gas.”

Bobby Britton, Damian’s brother and a student in Crosswhite’s sixth-grade class, was with other students taking cover in the girls’ bathroom.

“I could see the debris flying over, and it sounded like a train,’’ Bobby said. “(I was) scared.”

Kline was at work and was sent to the basement when the tornado warnings sounded. She raced to the school as soon as her area was declared safe.

“About 45 minutes later, (my children) got ahold of me on their cell phones, but it was panic until then,’’ Kline said. “I got as close as I could (to the school) and then just had to walk. Then we went to our house, which was nearby, and most of it’s gone. Everyone around lost everything, but we have our kids.

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