June 3, 2013 -- Updated 1631 GMT (0031 HKT)
Oklahoma had barely started clearing the rubble from a monstrous tornado
two weeks ago when another rash of twisters plowed through. FULL STORY
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PHOTOS: HIT AGAIN BY TORNADOES
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STORM CHASERS KILLED
June 3, 2013 -- Updated 1546 GMT (2346 HKT)
Crews haul away a mangled truck on
Sunday, June 2, that storm chasers Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras
and Carl Young were using to track the tornado that hit El Reno,
Oklahoma. The three men, who had devoted their lives to hunting powerful
storms died in the middle of the chase. Seventeen tornadoes were
reported in the Oklahoma City and St. Louis areas on Friday, May 31.
HIDE CAPTION
Severe weather hits Midwest again
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: 7 Guatemalan citizens are among the dead in Oklahoma tornadoes, consulate says
- Three storm chasers featured on the Discovery Channel among 13 killed in storm
- Six Oklahomans are still missing
- Three people drowned in Missouri, and four people were killed by flooding in Arkansas
At least 13 people died
and six remained missing Monday after tornadoes raked the state late
Friday, the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Monday.
Among the dead were seven
Guatemalan citizens, according to the country's Consulate General in
Houston. Four Guatemalan citizens were missing, the consulate said. It
was not immediately clear if the dead and missing were part of earlier
tallies provided by Oklahoma officials.
Authorities will resume
their search Monday for the missing people, including four who sought
shelter in storm drains, Oklahoma City Fire Chief Keith Bryant said.
Storm chasers among the storm victims
Tornado left vast amounts of debris
Risks journalists take to cover storms
The storms left not only a trail of death and destruction, it also sent flood waters surging.
And the damage wasn't confined to Oklahoma.
In Missouri, a twister
left more than 10 miles of significant damage "that caused dozens and
dozens of houses to be literally blown up," Gov. Jay Nixon told CNN affiliate KSDK.
No one was killed in that tornado, but three people drowned in Missouri, Nixon said.
And in Arkansas, flooding killed at least four people: a sheriff's deputy, a wildlife officer and two women they were trying to save from a deluged home.
'Memories just tossed about'
But it was Oklahoma City and its surrounding areas that took most of the damage.
The storm system mowed
down power lines and uprooted trees, flipped big rigs on their sides and
ripped off part of the terminal roof at Oklahoma City's Will Rogers
World Airport, where some 1,500 area residents had taken shelter in a
tunnel.
The twisters tore open brick houses like cartons, sucking out their contents and tossing them out onto lawns.
"It's a sombering thing
to think about life, and to see all your memories just tossed about,"
Kris Merritt said as he surveyed the damage at his parents' house.
"Everything from your childhood on up."
Though Friday's
tornadoes were not as strong as the EF-5 twister that killed 24 people
on May 20, fear drove some people to flee in cars, ignoring warnings not
to drive.
Some drove on the wrong side of the highway. Interstates turned into parking lots.
Watch how a tornado develops
Tragedy along tornado alley
See dramatic aerials of tornado damage
'We were floating'
One tornado swept up a
truck carrying a crew from The Weather Channel, hurled it 200 yards into
a field and smashed it to the ground.
"I saw people in my
life, I saw their faces flash right in front of me," meteorologist Mike
Bettes told CNN on Sunday. "And it just seemed for a moment, everything
was in slow motion, especially when we were floating."
The crew members were lucky. They survived.
But the storm did claim the lives of three other storm chasers.
Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras and Carl Young were killed while chasing a tornado in El Reno.
At the intersection
where authorities believe the men were killed, crews hauled away a
mangled white truck that had been crushed like a tin can. The metal
frame of their storm-chasing vehicle was twisted almost beyond recognition.
"A vehicle is not a
place to be in any tornado," CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said.
"Especially a big one like that, and those men doing their job, those
field scientists out there doing their jobs, were killed in the
process."
Storm chaser Reed
Timmer, who knew Samaras well, said Monday he was "astonished" by what
had happened. Samaras had a well-earned reputation for safety, he said
on CNN's "Starting Point."
"I just don't understand," he said. "Something must have gone wrong, horribly wrong."
'We were overwhelmed'
Once the tornadoes passed, Oklahomans faced a new threat: floods.
Eight to 11 inches of rain hosed Oklahoma City, stranding motorists and hitting apartments in low-lying areas of town hard.
"We saw flooding in areas that we don't see flooding," said police Lt. Jay Barnett. "We were overwhelmed."
The flash flooding swept some bodies up to five miles downstream, Oklahoma City Deputy Fire Chief Marc Woodard said.
Among those killed were
Samuel Cifuentes, his wife Florinda Santos and their 5-year-old son,
Alex Cifuentes, Samuel's brother told CNN.
Authorities had been searching for the family members in a storm drain.
CNN's Marlena Baldacci, Jackie Castillo,
Jake Carpenter, Janet DiGiacomo, Dave Alsup, David Ruff, Gustavo Valdes
and Catherine Shoichet contributed to this report.
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