Oklahoma Tornado

The damaged city of Moore, Oklahoma

The tornado was the largest recorded tornado with a width of 2.6 miles long

Rubble

According to this article, Oklahoma's medical examiner's office, the death toll in Oklahoma within the last week is over 20.  The storm that hit the city area last week was classified as an EF5 tornado, including flooding. Officials say that many deaths in Oklahoma City were caused by flooding. The tornado was 2.6 miles long, the widest one ever recorded. In this article,  officials say that among the victims, that 6 are children, 12 are adults, and 3 storm chasers were killed. According to this article,  The National Weather Service says that the winds from the storm exceeded up to 295 mph. The tornado did not only take the lives of people, but caused damage to everything in its way. There were no houses or buildings nearby when the tornado was the most powerful, said by Rick Smith, chief warning meteorologist. "Any house would have been completely swept clean on the foundation. That's just my speculation," he said. "We're looking at extremes... In the rare EF5 category. This is in the super rare category because we don't deal with things like this often." Mayor Matt White said that although 18,000 residents of his city were affected by the storm, that it could have been much worse if it had gone up north." Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma says "it's been a very trying couple of weeks, but it's also been a chance to showcase that Oklahoma-strong resiliency, compassion, neighbor-helping-neighbor." After the first tornado that killed 24 in the Oklahoma City of Moore, no one would have guessed that it would hit again in the capital city, killing another 9. Fallin says, "We knew it was going to be bad, but to think that this could happen in two weeks in a row is quite remarkable." The city of Moore is trying to recover and "starting to come back to life." According to this article,Businesses are starting to reopen and many of the debree is being cleaned up. Fallin says, "we are very strong, and we are going to come back strong." According to this article, there are tornado shelters in over 100 schools in Oklahoma. Everyone survived at Briarwood Elementary School in Moore, but several students died at Plaza Towers Elementary School. Both schools were destroyed. The question is how was there deaths in Plaza Towers, but not in Briarwood is not answered. Some believe it has to do with the school's construction. Authorities have searched every house, looking under rubble to make sure there are no undiscovered bodies. Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird said he was "98 percent sure" there were no more bodies of survivors. Moore public school classes have been cancelled for the rest of the school year. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will go to Oklahoma to ensure that the residents and officials are receiving all of the help they need.

Governor Mary Fallin

 

Plaza Towers Elementary School

 

The Oklahoma tornado damaged everything in it's path

 

Officials and residents are doing the best they can to overcome this tradgedy

Deadly fertilizer plant devastates Texas town

Early Thursday in West Texas, an explosion occurred at a fertilizer plant. Around 15 people were killed and over 160 were injured. Officials say four firefighters are missing as well. The Department of Homeland Security said federal and state authorities are securing the area by shutting down nearby areas and restricting flights around it. The cause of the explosion is unknown. "Nothing at this point indicates we have had criminal activity, but we are not ruling that out," said William Patrick Swanton of the nearby Waco Police Department.

Deadly wave of bombings across Iraq

42 people were killed and 257 were wounded on Monday due to bombs across Iraq. The bombings took place in Baghdad, Anbar, Babel, Kirkuk, Salaheddin, Diyala, and Nasriya. Two of the bombs exploded near Baghdad's airport. Most of the attacks targeted the Shiites in Baghdad. Al Qaeda in Iraq have been responsible for attacks the last few months. Officials are worried that these ongoing violent attacks will effect the provincial elections that are coming up in the next five days.

Report: Child killed in Boston blasts ID'd

The 8 year old boy that was killed yesterday due to the explosions at the Boston Marathon has been identified as Martin Richard. Richard's mother and 6 year old sister were injured from the explosions as well. His mother had surgery due to damage to the brain and the younger sister lost her leg. Due to the two bombs, a total of 3 people were killed and 144 were hospitalized. Federal authorities are not sure who cause the explosions, but it believed to be a terrorist attack.

Rutgers fires coach Mike Rice

Rutgers fired coach Mike Rice on Wednesday due to the airing of a video of him physically and verbally abusing his team players. The video showed him shoving, throwing balls and yelling "gay slurs" during practice. Rice apologized, "for the pain and hardship that I've caused." Rice must face a $50,000 fine and attend anger management classes. There will be a national search to replace Mike Rice's position.

Atlanta schools cheating suspects to surrender

According to this article, officials have been accused of changing student test scores in order to receive more federal funds. A lawyer for two Atlanta teachers are about to turn themselves in. This has been considered one of the nation's largest test-cheating scandals. Today, 35 defendants are to surrender to authorities at Fulton County Jail. Beverley Hall, Atlanta Public School's superintendent, as well as other teachers, will face charges for theft, racketeering and false statements. Many of the teachers, under oath, swore that they did not cheat. "They have to seriously consider whether or not they want to go through a trial, run the risk of being convicted and possibly jailed," Attorney Torin Togut said.

Cyprus Bank Bailout Issue

The European Central Bank gave Cyprus four days to come up with a bailout plan as of Thursday. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said, "the talks have ended," but but Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said assistance from Moscow would be depended on Cyprus gaining European Union for its other ideas for raising money. Cypriot officials have hoped for a loan of $30 billion or more from Russia. If Cyprus does not come up with a bailout plan within the next few days, then the European Central Bank will cutoff their banking sector.