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Tornado leaves US$2b bill

Published:Thursday | May 23, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Workers look for victims under debris from a tornado that passed across south Oklahoma City on Monday. The monstrous tornado flattened entire neighbourhoods with winds up to 200mph, setting buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on an elementary school. - AP

MOORE, Oklahoma (AP):

The tornado that tore through an Oklahoma City suburb destroyed or damaged as many as 13,000 homes and may have caused US$2 billion in overall damage, officials said yesterday.

State authorities, meanwhile, said two infants were among the 24 people who perished in the twister.

Oklahoma Insurance Department spokeswoman Calley Herth told The Associated Press that the early monetary-damage tally is based on visual assessments of the extensive disaster zone that stretches more than 17 miles and the fact that Monday's tornado was on the ground for 40 minutes.

The financial cost of the tornado in Moore could be greater than the US$2 billion in damage from the 2011 tornado that killed 161 people in Joplin, Herth said, adding that the Joplin twister left a smaller trail of destruction.

For the first time Wednesday, authorities provided a clearer accounting of the destruction.