Authorities lowered the death toll from a massive tornado that devastated a town outside Oklahoma City, saying Monday it killed at least 24 people, down from 51, according to the state medical examiner's office. Rescuers continued to search the rubble for survivors.
Spokeswoman Amy Elliot said she believes some victims were counted twice in the early chaos of the storm. Downed communication lines and problems sharing information with officers exacerbated the problem, she said. The death toll, which includes at seven children, was expected to climb back up.
The ferocious storm — less than 1 percent of all tornadoes reach such wind speed — ripped through the town of Moore in a central region of the U.S. known as Tornado Alley, demolishing an elementary school and reducing homes to piles of splintered wood.
In Washington, President Barack Obama pledged urgent government help for Oklahoma Tuesday in the wake of "one of the most destructive" storms in the nation's history.
"In an instant neighborhoods were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives, many more were injured," Obama said from the White House State Dining Room. "Among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew — their school."
The president added that the town of Moore "needs to get everything it needs right away."
The storm left scores of blocks barren and dark in Moore, a community of 41,000 people 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City. Rescuers tried to listen for any voices calling out from the rubble. A helicopter buzzed above, shining lights on crews below.
As Monday turned into Tuesday, Moore braced for another long, harrowing day.
"As long as we are here ... we are going to hold out hope that we will find survivors," said Trooper Betsy Randolph, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 50 children.
Families anxiously waited at nearby churches to hear if their loved ones were OK. A man with a megaphone stood Monday evening near St. Andrews United Methodist Church and called out the names of surviving children. Parents waited nearby, hoping to hear their sons' and daughters' names.
While some parents and children hugged each other as they reunited, others were left to wait, fearing the worst as the night dragged on.
Crews continued their desperate search-and-rescue effort throughout the night at Plaza Towers Elementary, where the storm had ripped off the school's roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal as students and teachers huddled in hallways and bathrooms.
Children from the school were among the dead, but several students were pulled out alive from under a collapsed wall and other heaps of mangled debris. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain of parents and neighborhood volunteers. Parents carried children in their arms to a triage center in the parking lot. Some students looked dazed, others terrified.