Moore 2013 Tornado: 40 Minutes Of Terror

May 20th, 2013. Forty minutes of terror as a monster tornado cut a 20-mile path across the Sooner State. Twenty-four people - including nine children - died. 

Nearly 400 more were injured.

Chopper pilot: "It is just ripping up everything it has hit."

Lacey Swope was in the middle of the tornado coverage, watching it play by play.

"It was awful. Because of the timing I think was one of the major things, that made this event so devastating. The tornado actually touched down earlier than what we typically see. It touched down at 2:56 p.m. It started in Bridgecreek. Well, that put it in Moore just as school was about to let out. 

"So you had all the parents on the roadways already, trying to get to their kids, to pick them up, just like it was a normal day. But then you throw in an EF-5 tornado, and it was absolutely catastrophic. So being at the station that day and watching just the people in the studio, the reaction on their faces. But, no one was really prepared to see the video and the images that we saw."

Ahead Of The Storm

Travis Meyer: "No, and it's so scary to see that, and as you said it was kinda like a street by street, because you guys were literally saying street by street what was going down now.

"Well, because we knew the storm was coming in, we were kinda aware of the time of it and we started seeing all these people converging on Moore versus people who were taking shelter. The chief meteorologist at the time knew right away that we've got to start talking to people who are listening on the radio and I remember thinking in this moment this is going to change meteorology. I mean, this is going to make it very critical, second by second.

And what we're saying is so crucial to the decisions those people are making and it changed the way I think about every setup from that day forward. And what we want to make sure is that we don't scare people into thinking it's going to happen in Tulsa, but it could happen at any time."

Travis Meyer: "It's happened in Joplin, in Oklahoma City and it could happen here. That's why we want you to always be weather aware."