A woman carries her child through a field near the collapsed Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., May 20, 2013. Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

When Associated Press photographer Sue Ogrocki saw the tornado warnings for the Oklahoma City area Monday, she didn’t run into a storm shelter or take cover in her office.

She grabbed her camera equipment and her car keys. Then she rushed outside, got into her car and raced towards the approaching twister.

“We had advanced warning that tornadoes would probably be developing again yesterday afternoon,” Ogrocki told ABC News. “So I know I had to get down here quickly.  I had to get down here before it hit or at least be on my way before it hit.”

A fire burns in the Tower Plaza Addition in Moore, Okla., following a tornado, May 20, 2013. Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

Today, the National Weather Service said that Monday’s tornado, which killed at least 24 people and injured hundreds when it sliced a 12-mile-long path of destruction from Newcastle to Moore, Okla., is the first top-of-the-scale EF-5 tornado of the year. The EF-5 rating, based on wind speed and inflicted damage, means winds exceeded 200 mph.

The monster twister, reportedly 1.3 miles wide, flattened homes, schools and hospitals, blowing out walls and windows. It uprooted trees and power lines. It tossed cars onto roofs of building like toys.

Ogrocki was one of the first news photographers on the scene in Moore. The images she captured have become some of the most iconic to come out of the disaster.

Moore police dig through the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School following a tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20, 2013. Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

When she arrived in Moore, Ogrocki said she saw devastation immediately. When she saw a group of people standing next to a mammoth pile of rubble, she parked her car and got out. She said a woman told her it was a school.

“When I ran to the corner and saw the building, I didn’t even know that it was a school.  I had to ask someone,” Ogrocki said. “But that’s where, I think, the best images came from, and they were images of children being saved.”

For the next 30 minutes, Ogrocki snapped photos of first responders working frantically to pull children, teachers and staff out of the mangled pile of bricks and metal that used to be Plaza Towers Elementary school.

Boy is pulled from beneath a collapsed wall at the Plaza Towers Elementary School following a tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20, 2013. Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

A woman is pulled out from under tornado debris at the Plaza Towers School in Moore, Okla., May 20, 2013. Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

“What I saw through my lens yesterday was kind of like a saving grace, because there was all this destruction here and bad things and people died, but what I got to see was people getting saved,” she said. “And you don’t get to see that very often as a news photographer.”

Ogrocki watched young kids being pulled one after another out of the debris, which she said was “so heavy and so thick” that it seemed amazing anyone was being found alive. Bystanders, some of them parents, waited anxiously with her as she focused her lens on each of the children’s faces when they emerged.

“Every time a child got pulled out of there it was just a sense of relief,” Ogrocki said.  ”‘Oh, another one, she’s okay, he’s okay.  They looked scared, but they don’t really look like they are hurt.’”

A child is pulled from the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., and passed along to rescuers, May 20, 2013. Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

Boy is pulled from beneath a collapsed wall at the Plaza Towers Elementary School following a tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20, 2013. Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

Of the at least 24 lives the storm claimed in Moore, the Oklahoma medical examiner said that seven of them were children. But Ogrocki said all of the kids she watched being pulled out of the flattened school were alive.

“To actually witness the saving, it’s an incredible feeling,” she said.

The Cobb family – Steve, LaDonna, and their 9 year daughter Jordan – shared their story for the first time in an interview that aired Tuesday, May 21 on a special edition of “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.”

Steve Cobb: I just tried to be the best dad that I could at that time and I wanted her to feel like she was safe and that we were all going to be okay. I wished I could have split myself into two and stayed there and try to kind of help out some of those other kids because I can imagine how they were feeling at that time, when their parents weren’t there, they’re kind of wandering around. It’s like you’re in a movie and it’s like everybody’s playing a part and we’re all acting or something like that – it’s just not – it doesn’t seem real to you that this is occurring.

Diane Sawyer: And Jordan -

Jordan Cobb: Yes?

Diane Sawyer: How long did that tornado seem to last for you?

Jordan Cobb: Forever. It seemed like it was an hour. Like, it was crazy, I mean, I can’t even believe we survived that.

LaDonna Cobb: I was just grabbing onto whatever I could. Once the roof lifted off the building I felt myself being sucked and I knew that if I was taken, then all the little babies underneath me would be gone too, and so I just held on. I held on for dear life until the wall fell on top of me and knocked me out.

I couldn’t leave the other kids.  They all are special to me and I couldn’t leave them and I wanted my family to be safe but I also wanted everyone else’s family to be safe too.

Diane Sawyer: What was the hardest moment for you, Jordan?

Jordan Cobb: Just – when I tried to get up, I tried to move the bricks off of my leg and it hurt so much and I was like, and the tornado had not left yet, I was just screaming help my leg my leg and no one could hear me.

Diane Sawyer: Because it was so loud?

Jordan Cobb: Yeah.

Diane Sawyer: and what’s the most important thing about family to you?

Jordan Cobb: That we’re always there for each other, that we love each other, would take care of each other.  And that we believe in each other no matter what.

Courtesy Geoff Parker

The popular lyric, “Ain’t no mountain high enough to keep me from you,” certainly rings true for this newly engaged couple, after Mel Reyes proposed to Jordie Egbert high atop Rattlesnake Ridge, a mountain ridge in North Bend, Wash., on May 8.

Little did the happy couple know, however, that Geoff Parker, a complete stranger, was capturing their special moment on camera from the other side of a valley hundreds of feet away.  Parker and his wife were taking a hike to celebrate their own wedding anniversary when they noticed Reyes take a bended knee.

“We just hiked the trail and I always have my camera with me,” Parker, 34, of Seattle, Wash., told GoodMorningAmerica.com. “We got to the top of the summit and were looking out over. It was a really foggy day. My wife yelled from behind, ‘Hey, look over there.’ Down a little further was this couple. I took a couple photos, and then they stood up and hugged and kissed.”

ALSO READ: 15-Foot Pink Poodle Delivers Diamond Ring to Mud Pit Proposal

With such a beautiful landscape surrounding an even more beautiful moment, Parker figured it was a photograph the couple would want to cherish forever. So he took to social media in an attempt to track down the lovebirds.

“I posted it on Facebook first. They got a pretty big response from my friends, and a couple more people shared it,” said Parker. “Then, I put it on Instagram the next weekend. That’s when it blew up.”

It only took a few days before the photos caught Egbert’s attention.

“I was hanging out at my mom’s house and my sister came running over to me,” said Egbert, 21, of Puyallup, Wash. “A family friend of ours that lives in Washington, her friend that lives in Germany had re-posted it not knowing who I was. People were just posting it trying to find me.”

ALSO READ: Man’s Marriage Proposal, Plowed into a Field, Has 150-Yard-Tall Typo

Once Egbert realized how much effort Parker had gone through to get the photos to their rightful owner, she immediately contacted him.

“She sent me a really sweet email thanking me so much for the images and for trying so hard to find them. She cried all day,” Parker said.

Although Parker has received some criticism for intruding on the couple’s intimate moment, Egbert couldn’t be happier that he did.

“He said he doesn’t have that kind of picture from when he proposed,” said Egbert. “He has the memory in his head, but nothing concrete to show from it. To him, it was something special. He was living through us. He wanted at least someone to have a picture of that special memory. It was a good gesture. He did it for us. That is so cool.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

MOSCOW – A delegation of American lawmakers will travel to Russia next week in part to investigate last month’s Boston Marathon bombings, ABC News has learned.

The group, led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., wants to find out why a 2011 Russian request that the United States investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspected Boston bombers, did not raise more red flags.

The Russians  offered a vague warning that Tsarnaev planned to link up with extremist groups abroad, but an FBI investigation yielded no evidence to support those claims at the time. The lawmakers also want to know why  subsequent U.S. requests for additional information about Tsarnaev went unanswered by the Russians.

“If there was a distrust, or lack of cooperation because of that distrust, between the Russian intelligence and the FBI, then that needs to be fixed and we will be talking about that,”  Rohrabacher, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats, told ABC News by telephone.

“Our goal is to use Boston as an example, if indeed there was something more, that should’ve been done that wasn’t because of a bad attitude,” Rohrabacher added.

Rohrabacher said he hoped to use the trip to repair lingering mistrust between the former Cold War rivals. With that in mind, the lawmakers will also visit the Russian space center at Star City, outside Moscow, to discuss increasing cooperation between the Russian and U.S.  space programs.

“There’s no reason for us to be in the Cold War attitude anymore,” Rohrabacher, a former speechwriter for President  Reagan, said.

The lawmakers plan to meet political and security officials, including counterterrorism officials, during their week-long visit to Russia. They are also considering a trip to Dagestan, the restive region in Russia’s North Caucasus, where Tsarnaev spent six months last year and where investigators are digging into contacts he may have had with extremists and militants.

The other members of the congressional delegation include Reps. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn;  Steve King, R-Iowa; Paul Cook, R-Calif.; Steve Cohen, D-Tenn.; and William Keating, D-Mass., who is the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats.

Several weeks ago Keating sent a member of his staff to Russia to investigate whether Tsarnaev had met with any extremists or militants in Dagestan. The staff member could confirm, from nongovernmental sources, reports from ABC News and elsewhere that Tsarnaev had been in touch with at least two such individuals,  Mahmoud Mansour Nidal and William Plotnikov, during his time there.

According to the staff member, it was Plotnikov who first mentioned Tsarnaev’s name to Russian investigators during an interrogation. That may have been the reason Tsarnaev first came under scrutiny. Both Nidal and Plotnikov were killed in police raids last year.

The students at Briarwood Elementary School in Moore, Okla., were just preparing to go home for the day Monday when the tornado that killed at least 24 people in their town made what authorities call a “direct hit” on their school.

“We had already prepared our backpacks and they had their bear binders and homework folders in their backpacks,” first-grade teacher Sheri Bittle said today on “Good Morning America.  “I had them take their backpacks and put them over their heads.”

In another first-grade classroom at the school, which had its roof and walls blown off in the storm, teacher Cindy Lowe laid her body on top of her students to protect them.

RELATED: How to Help Oklahoma Tornado Victims

“I actually saw the tornado coming and knew how serious it was,” Lowe said on “GMA.”  [I was] just laying my body on top of as many kids as I could to help out.”

Both Lowe and Bittle said a main focus of their heroic actions as the tornado blew over was to calm their students, who, living in a tornado zone, had been through countless tornado drills before.

“We practiced tornado drills and things like this and I had to tell them this is not a drill and we need to be safe,” said Lowe.  “I was just trying to calm the children down.”

PHOTOS: Oklahoma Tornado Levels Towns

Moore, a community of 41,000 people about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, saw homes wiped away and businesses left in ruins after the tornado whipped through with wind speeds of up to 200 mph.  The medical examiner’s office’s current death toll of 24 includes seven children, some of whom were from Plaza Towers Elementary School, the other elementary school directly in the tornado’s path.

Bittle said the trauma for Briarwood’s students and their parents alike continued long after the tornado had passed as frantic parents, blocked by debris and recovery efforts, tried to reach their children.

“I had a student that stayed with me until 8 p.m. last night because his parents could not get to the location there by the school where we were at,” she said.  “Parents walked for miles just to get to their children. They were out of breath and crying but so happy to see them and just know that they were safe.”

“It was just heartbreaking to see the tears of joy, how happy they were that their child was safe and that they could finally get to them,” Bittle said of the reunions.

Moore resident Andrew Wheeler credits a Briarwood teacher with keeping his son safe as the tornado wreaked havoc on the building as students were preparing for their final days in school before summer vacation.

“The teacher held their heads, and bricks and everything were falling all over the kids. She got her arm injured. One of the other boys on her other side got a big gash in his head, but he’s OK,” Wheeler said.

VIDEO: Tornado Rips Through Moore, Okla.

The IDF's Chief of Staff Benjamin (Benny) Gantz conducted this morning an inspection on the Israeli Syrian border. He was joined by the CO Northern command Maj. Gen Yair Golan and the commander of the "Gaash" division, Brig. Gen. Tamir Heyman. Photo: Alex Marquardt/ABC News

TEL AVIV– The Syrian military said on Tuesday that it fired on an Israeli army jeep in the contested Golan Heights in the early hours of the morning, destroying it.

Israel said the jeep was slightly damaged and there were no casualties, but the incident raised fears that the long-time enemies could soon once again find themselves embroiled in renewed conflict.

Just after 1 a.m., the Israeli vehicle on patrol was fired upon by Syrian forces, both sides reported. Syria said the jeep had crossed the ceasefire line in the mountainous Golan Heights that divides the two countries and was heading to the village of Beer Ajam, on the ceasefire line. Israel said the jeep hadn’t crossed but was near Tal Fares, in the Golan Heights area that Israel captured in the 1967 six-day war.

Israel responded quickly to the Syrian fire with precision Tammuz rockets and “reported a direct hit,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. “Our policy is clear: we do not intervene in what goes on in Syria, or in its civil war,” said Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Israel army radio. “We do not and will not allow any Syrian fire to enter our territory. Last night a Syrian army target was destroyed as a result of such fire.”

Israel and Syria are technically in a state of war, but the border has remained relatively quiet during the four decades of rule by President Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, before him.

Tuesday’s incident was the latest in a string of cross-border fire coming from Syria that Israel has largely dismissed as an unintentional spillover from the war raging next door between Syrian forces and the rebels. But for the first time in Syria’s two-year civil war, Syria claimed responsibility for the attack on Israel.

“Whoever thinks that he is able to test our strength, alert and readiness to maintain our dignity and sovereignty is mistaken,” the Syrian army’s statement read. The incident comes just days after what Israel said were two mortars from Syria that landed on Mount Hermon in the northernmost part of the occupied Golan Heights.  It was then partially closed to the Israeli public and a group calling itself the “Free Palestine Movement” claimed responsibility for the attack.

Fears that that the war in Syria will spill over and drag in neighboring countries are at their highest point in the 26 months since the uprising in Syria started. Tension between Syria and Israel is particularly high following three Israeli air strikes on Syrian targets in January and May. Israel has sought to tamp down the tension by not confirming or denying the strikes, believed to have been on a research center near Damascus and on shipments of Iranian missiles bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

In response, both Assad and Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned that a new “resistance front” would be opened in the Golan Heights. “We announce that we stand with the Syrian popular resistance and offer material and spiritual support as well as coordination in order to liberate the Syrian Golan,” said Nasrallah.

“ABC World News” Drawing its Most-Watched Season in 2 Years – Cutting Gaps with “NBC Nightly News” to Smallest Levels in 4 Years, Season-to-Date

For the week of May 13, 2013, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 6.67 million Total Viewers and a 1.4 rating/7 share/1.67 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.

For the 4th week running, “World News” decreased its week-to-week Adults 25-54 gap with “NBC Nightly News” (-4%, 246,000 vs. 256,000),  delivering its smallest news demo margin with the NBC newscast in 7 weeks - since w/o 3/25/13.

Season-to-date, “World News” has increased its Total Viewing audience (+3%) compared to the same point last season, drawing its most-watched season in 2 years - since the 2010-11 season.  “World News” narrowed its margins with “NBC Nightly News” among both Total Viewers (-25%) and Adults 25-54 (-8%) to post its smallest margins in Total Viewers (792,000) and Adults 25-54 (327,000) with the NBC program in 4 years - since the 2008-09 season.

For the week, “World News” out delivered “CBS Evening News” by 881,000 million Total Viewers and by 143,000 Adults 25-54.

“ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” airs at 6:30 p.m., ET on the ABC Television Network.  Michael Corn is the executive producer of the broadcast. Follow Diane Sawyer and the “World News” team online: @DianeSawyer; @ABCWorldNews; facebook.com/DianeSawyer; facebook.com/WorldNews.  

EVENING NEWS (Week of May 13, 2013)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 5/13/13, 5/6/13 & 5/14/12. Most Current – 2012-2013 Season (9/24/12 – 5/19/13) and 2011-2012 Season (9/19/11 – 5/13/12). All averages based on regular telecasts.

ABC News to Air a Special Edition of “Nightline” Dedicated to Oklahoma Coverage 

ABC News Radio to Broadcast a One-Hour Special Report Tuesday at 7:06 p.m., ET

ABC News continues to provide comprehensive coverage from Oklahoma where a mammoth tornado carved a trail of destruction through the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. ABC News has a team of correspondents and anchors reporting from the scene for all broadcasts and platforms including — ABC News Anchor David Muir, ABC News Weather Editor Sam Champion, Meteorologist Ginger Zee, Chief National Correspondent Byron Pitts, Mike Boettcher, Cecilia Vega, and Alex Perez. Boettcher has covered tornadoes in the Oklahoma area in the past; in May 1999 he reported on the historic EF-5 tornado that killed 42 people in the Oklahoma City area.

All ABC News broadcasts and platforms are delivering the latest information on the ongoing search and rescue operation as well as the stories of those who experienced the devastating tornado. Programming details for Tuesday, May 21 below:

• “World News with Diane Sawyer” will offer a special one-hour edition of the newscast to stations with reporting from ABC’s team of anchors and correspondents in Oklahoma.
• “Nightline” will air a special edition of the broadcast anchored by Cynthia McFadden dedicated to coverage of the aftermath. The program will feature reports the ABC team on the scene.
• ABCNews.com has live updates here: http://abcn.ws/12J1ik0 and live-streaming coverage available at abcnews.go.com/live.
• ABC News Radio Correspondents Steven Portnoy and Jim Ryan are reporting from Oklahoma.  ABC News Radio is providing four one-minute status reports each hour and will broadcast a one-hour special report tonight at 7:06 p.m., ET.
• ABC NewsOne, the network’s affiliate news service, will provide coverage for nearly 200 ABC affiliates, stations and clients throughout the day with Correspondent Marci Gonzalez on the scene.

On Monday night “World News” provided live updates for each time zone with the latest information from the scene in Oklahoma (Watch). In late night ABC News aired a special edition of “Nightline” anchored by Bill Weir dedicated to covering the developing story in Oklahoma (Watch).

For the latest information on ABC’s coverage of this story click here.

]]> http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/05/abc-news-special-coverage-from-oklahoma-direct-hit-twister-outbreak/feed/ 0 http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/05/new-stolen-valor-act-breezes-through-house/ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/05/new-stolen-valor-act-breezes-through-house/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 13:50:01 +0000 Lee Ferran http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/?p=480006

(John Bazemore/AP Photo)

A new version of a bill that targets fake war heroes easily passed the House of Representatives late Monday with a 390-3 vote.

The bill, H.R. 258 also known as the Stolen Valor Act of 2013, is the latest attempt by Congress to push through legislation that would punish people who falsely claim to have won military awards, such as the Congressional Medal of Honor, and profit from those lies.

“The awards, and the men and women who have earned them, in some cases posthumously, are worthy of the utmost respect and sanctity,” said Rep. Bill Heck (R-Nev.), who introduced the bill in January. “ Benefiting from lying about receiving one of these awards is an affront to all who have worn the uniform and especially to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.”

READ: Stolen Valor ‘More Than Just Lying,’ SEAL Watchdog Says

The original iteration of the bill, the Stolen Valor Act of 2006, had been in effect for six years before the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional. At the time the law was written to say it was a crime simply to lie about military service and awards – a broad characterization the Supreme Court said violated a person’s First Amendment right to free speech.

A new version of the bill, introduced by Heck in late 2012, narrowed the act to say the liar must be attempting to somehow materially profit from the lies, making the would-be crime more akin to fraud. Heck reintroduced tweaked legislation in January.

It’s companion bill in the Senate, S. 210, was introduced by Sen. Dean Heller (R.-Nev.) in February with 21 bipartisan co-sponsors. That bill has been referred to committee and has not yet seen a vote on the floor.

PHOTOS: Operation Stolen Valor

The new Stolen Valor Act’s sweep through the House comes just a week before the nation’s Memorial Day celebrations, a time when one watchdog said fake military heroes come “out of the woodwork.”

“This is like Christmas for a phony,” former U.S. Navy SEAL Don Shipley told ABC News last Memorial Day.

READ: Memorial Day Outrage: Feds on the Lookout for Fake War Heroes

4:27 p.m.: Speed and strength of the tornado upgraded to a top-of-the-scale EF-5 with winds of at least 200 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

FACT SHEET: The Deadliest Tornadoes in US History

3:53 p.m:  Survey crews find damage in one area equal to an EF5 tornado, according to the National Weather Service.

1:31 p.m.: 38,000 people are without power in areas around Oklahoma City, Gov. Mary Fallin says.

1:30 p.m.:  Total number of missing people still unknown, says Oklahoma governor.

1:21 p.m: “We will overcome. We will rebuild. We will regain our strength,” said Gov. Mary Fallin.

WATCH LIVE: Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin holds press conference.

1:15 p.m.:  FEMA director Craig Fugate is on the ground in Oklahoma, according to White House officials. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will fly there Wednesday.  No decision has been made on when President Obama might tour the damage.

11:58 a.m.: The National Weather Service predicts strong winds and hail for Moore, Okla., potentially complicating search and rescue efforts.

11:50 a.m: The Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office has revised the death toll to 24 people, including nine children.

11:35 a.m.: Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. ET.

11: 30 a.m.:  Oklahoma University Medical Center says it has 85 patients,  50 of whom are children. Injuries range from minor to critical, according to hospital staff.

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

10:10 a.m.: President Obama announces that FEMA search and rescue teams from three states have been ordered to Moore.   “The people of Moore should know their country will remain on the ground, beside them for as long as it takes,” the president said.

10:08 a.m.: “In an instant, neighborhoods were destroyed. Dozens of people lost their lives. Many more were injured and among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew, their school,” says President Obama.

WATCH LIVE: President Obama addresses the nation about Oklahoma tornado.

9:55 a.m.: State Medical Examiner says confusion over  the number of deaths was the result of double counting victims.  Some 242 people have been treated for injuries, at least 58 of them children, according to authorities.

9:24 a.m.:  Oklahoma Medical Examiner reports 24 people dead, seven of which are children, dramatically lowering the number of people believed to have died in Monday’s tornado. On Monday night,  authorities estimated the number of deaths at 51.

7: 15 a.m.: Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin told “Good Morning America,” “It’s a very sad day in Oklahoma. A lot of hearts have been broken.”

6:43 a.m.: President Obama will deliver a televised statement regarding the Oklahoma tornado at 10 a.m. ET.

6:28 a.m.: Pope Francis tweeted, “I am close to the families of all who died in the Oklahoma tornado, especially those who lost young children. Join me in praying for them.”

5:33 a.m.:McClain County Animal Response Team spokeswoman Patty Mannas told ABC News affiliate KOCO-TV that at least 50 pets have been pulled from the rubble in Moore, Okla

“We’ve already reunited a few animals and animals with microchips have a very, very high percentage of being reunited with their families,” she said.

Steve Gooch/AP Photo

4:20 a.m.: The death toll remains at 51, but the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner said it expects to find about 40 more bodies.

2:50 a.m.: Moore officials tell ABC News the search and rescue operation at Plaza Towers Elementary School is now a recovery effort.

12:50 a.m.: Texas Task Force 1, the state’s elite search and rescue team, has been activated to assist local officials and first responders in Oklahoma. The team, which includes 84 total members, was deployed to New York City following 9/11 and to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It was recently deployed to West, Texas, following the explosion of a fertilizer plant.

Monday’s devastating tornado that ripped through Moore, Okla., killed at least 51 people, including 20 children, but authorities expect that number to rise. Spokeswoman Amy Elliott of the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner’s office said she believes at least 91 people are dead.

All times indicated in this live blog are in Eastern Daylight Time.

RELATED: Officials Expect Death Toll to Rise After Okla. Twister

PHOTOS: Oklahoma Tornado Levels Towns

VIDEO: 2 Schools Decimated by Oklahoma Twister

RELATED: Live Updates of Tornado Damage in Oklahoma Day 1