A monster tornado up to two miles wide touched down in Moore, Oklahoma and stay on the ground for 40 minutes, causing unprecedented damage in the Oklahoma City suburb.  Video after the click.

(Video here, here, here, here, and here)

Confirmations of deaths and injuries are trickling in, but the disaster is of such a broad scope that the numbers are not going to be reliable for a while.

There’s a frantic search-and-rescue mission at the Plaza Towers Elementary school for 24-to-75 teachers and Kindergarten-through-Third grade students who took refuge, as they should have, in a central corridor.  By local law, schools and churches and other public buildings have to be built to a higher standard to withstand twisters.  But this was no ordinary tornado; most of the town is ripped to shreds regardless of structure, including the school.  Some kids have reportedly been pulled out alive.  But they’re prepared for the worst.  Nothing that resembles a school is visible from news helicopters.

American journalists used to annual Tornado stories are at a loss for words.  Blocks after block of Moore is torn apart, resembling those old World War II newsreels of Dresden or other towns that withstood weeks upon weeks of artillery and bombs.  But this happened in less than an hour.

Forecasters and civic officials are hoping that days of warnings and homeowners building shelters and safe rooms into their homes will mitigate the eventual death toll.

It's the second days of tornadoes in the area, twisters yesterday killed at least 2 people.