Predawn emergency workers searched feverishly for survivors in the rubble of homes, primary schools and a hospital in an Oklahoma City suburb ravaged on Monday afternoon by a massive tornado feared to have killed up to 24 people and injured more than 200 residents.

The 3-km-wide tornado tore through the town of Moore outside Oklahoma City, trapping victims beneath the rubble as one elementary school took a direct hit and another was destroyed.

Reporters were cleared back from Plaza Towers Elementary School, which sustained a direct hit, Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb told CNN. But television pictures showed firefighters from more than a dozen fire departments working under bright spotlights to find survivors.

US President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in Moore after the deadliest US tornado since one killed 161 people in Joplin, Missouri, two years ago.

There was an outpouring of grief on Plaza Towers' Facebook page, with messages from around the country including one pleading simply: "Please find those little children."

A separate Facebook page set up to reunite people in the area hit by a tornado on Sunday with their belongings and pets also showed entries for Moore residents overnight.

Another elementary school, homes and a hospital were among the buildings leveled in Moore, leaving residents of the town of about 50,000 people stunned at the devastation and loss of life. Many residents were left without power and water.

Authorities lowered the death toll, saying on Monday the tornado killed at least 24 people, down from 51, according to the state medical examiner's office. Spokeswoman Amy Elliot said she believes some victims were counted twice in the early chaos of the storm. Downed communication lines and problems sharing information with officers exacerbated the problem, she said. The death toll, which includes at seven children, was expected to climb back up.

Spotlights bore down on massive piles of shredded cinder block, insulation and metal as crews worked through the night early on Tuesday lifting bricks and parts of collapsed walls.

Rescuers walked through neighborhoods where the twister flattened home after home and stripped leaves off of trees to see if they could hear any voices calling out from the rubble.

The National Weather Service estimated that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced five-point Fujita scale. Families anxiously waited at nearby churches to hear if their loved ones were OK. A man with a megaphone stood on Monday evening near St. Andrews United Methodist Church and called out the names of surviving children. Parents waited nearby, hoping to hear their sons' and daughters' names.

Reuters-AP

(China Daily 05/22/2013 page12)