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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Oklahoma Tornadoes: How Heroic Teachers Saved Lives


Stories emerge of the bravery of teachers who protected their students from the Oklahoma tornado, which claimed at least 24 lives.

Oklahoma tornado
Video: Tornado: Devastation In Moore As Rescue Efforts Wind Down
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Jennifer Doah
Teacher Jennifer Doan used her body to shield students as the Oklahoma tornado caused the school roof to come crashing down. CBS reporter Vinita Nair spoke to her in hospital. Warning: some may find this video upsetting.
Video: Human Shield: Teacher Saved Pupils
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Details are emerging of how teachers saved the lives of their pupils during the devastating tornado in Oklahoma which claimed at least 24 lives.
As the search effort winds down with rescuers saying they are "98% sure" they will find no more survivors in the aftermath of the massive twister that destroyed the suburb of Moore, students and their parents recounted stories of teachers' bravery.
One teacher sheltered schoolchildren from falling debris, another took an eight-year-old under her arms and held him down until the tornado passed.
Massive tornado destroys Plaza Tower elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma
Plaza Towers Elementary School was destroyed by the tornado
Two schools were directly hit by the tornado, Plaza Towers Elementary School - where at least seven were killed - and Briarwood Elementary, where all the children appear to have survived.
After the tornado alarm went off, students at Plaza Towers scrambled into the halls. But the halls did not appear safe enough.
Sixth-grader Antonio Clark said a teacher took him and as many other youngsters as possible and shoved them into the three-stall boys' bathroom.
Tornado Victim Ja'Nae Hornsby
Ja'Nae Hornsby was among the first victims to be identified (Pic: KJRH)
"We were all piled in on each other," the 12-year-old told the AP news agency. Another teacher wrapped her arms around two students and held Antonio's hand.
He said the tornado sounded like a stampede of elephants, while another student likened it to an oncoming train.
Antonio eventually climbed out of the pile of debris that his classroom had been turned into.
"Everybody was crying," Antonio said. "I was crying because I didn't know if my family was OK."
Oklahoma tornado
Teachers at what is left of a classroom at Briarwood Elementary
A Plaza Tower teacher had tears in her eyes and could barely speak as she recounted the scene from her hospital bed.
"We told them to get down, there weren’t any lights on and already they were all scared," Jennifer Doan told CBS.
Oklahoma tornado
Teacher Jennifer Doan as she is pulled out of the rubble
"I had my arms over the ones next to me and I looked up at the door and I put my head down and it just hit.
"I was telling them to keep calm, and that  they would come. (One student) just kept telling me that he couldn't breathe and that he didn’t want to die."
At Briarwood Elementary, the students also went into the halls.
But a third-grade teacher thought it did not look safe so she herded some of the children into a closet, said David Wheeler, a father of one of the students.
The teacher shielded Mr Wheeler's eight-year-old son, Gabriel, with her arms and held him down as the tornado collapsed the school roof.
Mr Wheeler said: "She saved their lives by putting them in a closet and holding their heads down."
Oklahoma tornado
A toy is seen in the rubble in Moore
At Plaza Towers, several students were pulled alive from under a collapsed wall and other heaps of mangled debris before rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain of parents and neighbourhood volunteers.
But some did not survive the twister, and the grim process of identification of the dead was beginning.
Oklahoma tornado
The path of the tornado, from bottom to top
Nine-year-old Ja'Nae Hornsby was confirmed dead by her father to news station KJRH, saying her body was found in the rubble of Plaza Towers.
He described his daughter as a vivacious, lovable little girl who loved to play and always has a smile on her face
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the two schools which were hit had not been reinforced with tornado shelters, though hundreds in Oklahoma had received extra protection.
Albert Ashwood, director of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said it is up to each jurisdiction to set priorities for which schools get funding for safe rooms.
But he said a shelter would not necessarily have saved more lives at Plaza Towers, especially against a tornado that was on the most powerful type, an EF5 twister, with winds of at least 200mph.
"When you talk about any kind of safety measures ... it's a mitigating measure, it's not an absolute," he said.
"There's not a guarantee that everyone will be totally safe."

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