Tornado horror in Oklahoma

MOORE, Okla. – The hell he saw was harrowing, but it’s the sounds at Plaza Towers Elementary that Stuart Eaest Jr. says will haunt him forever.

“All you could hear were screams,” Eaest said. “The people screaming for help. And the people trying to help were also screaming.”

Plaza Towers, a pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade school, took a direct hit when a titanic toado chewed a deadly and destructive 20-mile path through Newcastle, Moore and parts of southe Oklahoma City for 40 minutes Monday afteoon.

More than 90 people were reportedly killed, with at least 20 of the casualties confirmed to be children.

Horror: Teachers carry children away from Briarwood Elementary school after a toado destroyed the school in south Oklahoma City. The desperate search continued oveight for two dozen children feared dead after yesterday's monstrous toado, which already took the lives of seven of their classmates

Shock: Two girls stand in rubble surveying the scene of devastation following the horrific toado

Survivors: A child is pulled from the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, and passed along to rescuers

Brave: Two boys are pulled from beneath a collapsed wall at the Plaza Towers Elementary School following a toado in Moore, Oklahoma

Classes were still in session at Plaza Towers when the twister, estimated to be packing winds of 200 mph or greater, crushed nearly every coer of the school. Teachers’ cars were thrown into the building, and the playground no longer exists.

“I can only hope those little kids killed didn't suffer,” said Eaest, one of many who rushed to the school to help survivors.

With several students still unaccounted for, rescuers worked oveight digging through the rubble.

“I just hope they find her,” Shannon Galaeau said of her 10-year-old niece, a Plaza Towers student who was missing as of early Tuesday moing. “You just feel helpless.”

The girl's younger sister, also a student at the school, suffered cuts to her head and bruises on her back. The 8-year-old was still wearing her hospital bracelet while asleep on her grandmother's shoulder in the front seat of a pickup truck just after midnight.

Lucky ones: A young family comes out of underground bunker after the toado to scenes of devastation

A boy is pulled from beneath a collapsed wall at the Plaza Towers Elementary School

Desperate: A young girl is pulled from beneath the wall by rescuers as they desperately search for more survivors at the school

“She said it was probably the scariest day of her life,” Galaeau said.

The child was among more than 150 reportedly injured by the toado, which some estimated to be greater than a mile wide at times.

Galaeau and her husband could see the twister a mile and a half from their front porch and scrambled to hide.

“It barreled down fast,” said Galaeau, who found refuge in a utility closet.

President Obama declared several Oklahoma counties disaster areas and pledged to support the area's rescue and recovery. The funnel’s fury crumbled homes for several blocks around the school and in other parts of Moore. Missing street signs and other landmarks made some neighborhoods unrecognizable even to locals.

“It is a barren wasteland,” Galaeau said. “Everything is leveled.”

nded were helped to a nearby triage centre

Medical help: A woman carries an injured child to a triage center near the Plaza Towers Elementary School

Teachers carry children away from Briarwood Elementary school after a toado destroyed the school in south Oklahoma City

Heroes: Rescue workers dig through the rubble of a collapsed wall at the Plaza Tower Elementary School to free trapped students

Allen and JoAnn Anderson huddled under quilts and pillows in their bathtub with their Yorkie, Magand, and cat, Meow, when the toado came down their street.

“It was like standing in the middle of a train track and having the train go right over you,” said Allen, 63.

They emerged from the tub 15 minutes later to find their brick house gone and cars badly damaged.

“There’s no house. It’s just a pile of rubble,” Allen said.

The couple checked into a motel with their pets late Monday. Chunks of attic insulation were still stuck in JoAnn’s sandy-blond hair, and her legs were partially caked in dried mud.

“It could be worse,” JoAnn said. “We're alive.”