Tornado’s cost hits $2 billion

MOORE, Okla. - The tornado that tore through an Oklahoma City suburb destroyed or damaged as many as 13,000 homes, and overall damage estimates have reached $2 billion, officials said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Oklahoma medical examiner’s office announced that it had identified all 24 people who died in the tornado, and that 10 of those killed were children.

Among the children were two infants, 4-month old Case Futrell and 7-month-old Sydnee Vargyas. Both babies died from head injuries. The eight other children ranged in ages from 4 years to 9 years. Of those, six were suffocated,and two died from injuries.

The medical examiner’s office said most of the adults died from multiple blunt-force injuries.

The financial cost of the tornado in Moore could be greater than the $2 billion in damage from the 2011 tornado that killed 161 people in Joplin, Mo., Oklahoma Insurance Department spokesman Calley Herth said.

Between 12,000 and 13,000 homes were destroyed or damaged, and 33,000 people were affected in some way by the storm, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said at a news conference. He also put the monetary damage estimate at between $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Officials said more than 300 people were injured, and an estimated 350 people were staying at American Red Cross shelters.

Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis said five of the six people who had been missing were found safe Wednesday. The other was discovered to be among the dead and already included in the fatality figure released by the state medical examiner’s office.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited the area Wednesday, pledging the government’s support and urging people to register with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to see what aid they qualify for.

“We know that people are really hurting,” she said. “There’s a lot of recovery yet to do. … We will be here to stay until this recovery is complete. You have our commitment on that.”

President Barack Obama plans to meet with victims and first responders, and view the destruction firsthand Sunday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

The National Weather Service said the tornado was an EF5 on the official Enhanced Fujita Scale and had winds of at least 200 mph. It was on the ground more than 40 minutes and disaster zone that stretches more than 17 miles.

“The tornado that we’re talking about is the 1 or 2 percent tornado,” Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management Director Albert Ashwood said. “This is the anomaly that flattens everything to the ground.”

Moore, a community of 56,000 people, has been hit by four tornadoes since 1998, and residents already were on alert after weekend storms and days of storm warnings. Because the tornado hit in the afternoon, many of the neighborhoods’ residents were at work, which helped reduce the number of casualties, officials said.

Looking over the broken brick, smashed wood and scattered appliances that are all that remain of the home where Dawn Duffy-Relf’s aunt lived with her two daughters, Duffy-Relf marveled at the devastation and the survival rate.

Duffy-Relf credited central Oklahoma residents’ instincts and habits: They watch the weather reports, they look at the sky, they know what they can and can’t outrun. “We know where we live,” she said.

Her husband, Paul Duffy-Relf, also noted that people posted on Facebook and Twitter ahead of Monday’s storm, telling others where the tornado was and when to flee. And some never left their cell phones, he said, and worked to quickly reconnect with those who needed help afterward.

For those who did die in the tornado, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said a memorial and prayer service will be held Sunday in Moore. It will also honor two people who died in a tornado in Shawnee a day earlier.

Donations continued to pour in Wednesday to aid recovery efforts.

Oklahoma City-based Love’s Travel Stops announced a $3 million donation, $1 million of which will be designated to the OK Strong Relief Fund established with the United Way of Central Oklahoma. Another $500,000 will be donated to Catholic Charities. The remaining $1.5 million will fund a benefit event to honor those affected by the storm and to raise additional relief money.

Love’s operates 63 stores in Oklahoma.

Koch Industries Inc., the Wichita, Kan.-based conglomerate, pledged to donate $1 million and said half will go to the OK Strong Relief Fund. The balance will go to the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross.

Koch-owned Georgia Pacific also donated six truckloads of products, including toilet tissue, paper towels, paper cups and plates, and napkins.

Another donation was announced by the Inasmuch Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, which said they are teaming up to provide a $2 million grant to the United Way of Central Oklahoma. The fund will serve immediate needs as well as intermediate and long-term care.

Meanwhile, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose state was beset by a major storm last year and then by squabbling in Congress over disaster aid, said Wednesday that Oklahoma’s tornado victims deserve “swift and immediate” help.

Last October, superstorm Sandy ravaged the Eastern Seaboard and zeroed in on New Jersey and New York, causing an estimated $50 billion in damage.

A federal aid package was proposed and raised criticism in Congress, including from Oklahoma’s two senators, who said it contained wasteful spending. They backed a measure to cut disaster relief to Sandy victims by $27 billion and were among 36 senators to vote against the aid package that eventually passed.

Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe pledged this week that any federal aid for his state would be narrower in scope than the package passed after Sandy.

Fellow Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn has said for years that he supports emergency aid infusions only if they are offset by cuts to other parts of the budget. However, officials in Washington said the federal government has more than $11 billion in its main disaster relief fund, so no emergency money will be required.

Oklahoma lawmakers Wednesday unanimously approved a bill to tap $45 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to help pay for the state’s portion of tornado disaster relief.

Meanwhile, transportation agencies in Oklahoma said they are devoting about 400 workers and 200 pieces of heavy equipment to the tornado recovery effort.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority said Wednesday that employees started emergency work after the tornado Monday.

About 60 maintenance workers are clearing major routes in Moore. Officials said much of the effort by the agencies is centering on clearing routes that are part of the state highway system.

Information for this article was contributed by Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Sean Murphy, Tim Talley, Ken A. Miller, Justin Juozapavicius, Angela Delli Santi and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Manny Fernandez and Jack Healy of The New York Times.