The tornado touched down near the town of New Castle Oklahoma, just before 3 p.m. Monday. Residents had about 16 minutes warnig before it hit. From there, it moved to the city of Moore, and that's where the storm did its worst.

You can tell from this video, it was gigantic. Official said it was  more than a mile wide, and the path it took across New Castle and Moore was 17 miles long. That path was one of the destrucions and devastations, homes and businesses flattened, a local hospital severely damaged, 2 elementary schools took direct hits.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the authorites had confirmed dozens of death from this tornado and including 9 children. More than 200 other people were injured. The rescue efforts started immediately Monday afternoon, they continued through the night. Pamela Brown has more on that.

--Illuminated by flood lights, rescue team search tirelessly throughout the night, sifting through moutianes of debris where Plaza Towers Elementary School once stood.

--Oh my God.

--In some places, the debris was 10 feet high, underneath every parent is worth nightmare. The bodies of school children who try to seek shelter from a ferocious tornado, mamy more still missing.

The raised rescue dozens of students and teachers began right after the massive mile wide tornado ripped through at least 2 elementary schools directly in its path. At hardest hit Plazza Tower Elementary, a third grade class huddled on the hallway of their school.

--We have to pull a car out of the front hallway off a teacher, she, I don't know what that lady's name is, but she had 3 little kids underneath her. Good job, tech.

Worried parent send to a staging area that nearby church and search for answers. At first, several children were pulled from the leveled school alive. But with each passing hour, the operation tragically went from a rescue to a recovery mission. The heart wrenching reality at the storm's fury hard to comprehend, even for those covering it.

--I've never anything like this in my 18 years' covering tornado in Oklahoma City. This is, without queation, the most terrific...

--OK, Lance, listen, we need to get this information.

Searchers were able to reunite many kids with their families.

In fact, rescuers had pulled at least 100 people out of the rubble alive. At first, search efforts were a mix of emergency responders and volunteers. A local pipeline workers who joined in, said he felt it was his duty to help.

But eventually so many volunteers showed that officials had to ask them to stay away. Police, fire fighters, natinal guard members all involved in the search efforts, specially trained animals, too. Chris Cuomo has more on how they helped.

--The set up premeter here, is about 6 or 8 men, inside there were dogs, 3 or 4 of them. The dogs were working, they were sniffing, you hear barking, the barking could be singles. It can just be excitement. The trainers know how to deal with that, and what they do is that they have to follow the dogs to through this debris field.

We're showing you this because it's a very pain stakeing work, it's very detail oriented, and it's very dangerous because they have to find their way to through it. And the dogs as well, they are of course much more nimble, and are able to make through very easily. You're watching Chief, this dog's name, right now. He's working. He's back with his trainer right now. His barking that's a part of the work, just communication between trainer and dog that doesn't necessarily found something. But they have to find and follow him all through this, it takes time. It's sophisticated work and it's dangerous and it's so much of it to do because there are buildings like this that fallen down all over. As you coming into this area, here in Moore Oklahoma, it comes in waves: first you see debris on the road; then you start to see that homes have been like sprayed, almost like power washed with mud; then you start to see big thins were missing, trees, power line are down, the street lights are stopped, and then everything is gone, and you get to this point.