Oklahoma’s tornado disaster turned dozens of children into eye-witnesses to a natural disaster – with pupils from two destroyed schools telling how they had to cling to desks to protect themselves.
(video courtesy of MSNBC)
The tornado’s path took it over two primary schools, Plaza Towers and Briarwood. Plaza Towers was completely destroyed and Briarwood was all but destroyed by the natural disaster.
Schoolchildren have described how the ceilings shook and they had to cling onto desks to protect themselves.
I had to hold onto the wall to keep myself safe because I didn’t want to fly away in the tornado. Oklahoma primary school pupil
One girl (video, above) said: “The tornado started knocking on the ceiling and it went up and down. And a light went down and it hit me in the head.
“All the other girls were screaming and they were crying.”
I was trying to make the wind not get me back on the wall, and then all the dirt came and pushed me. Isabella Rojas, aged seven
And another young pupil added: “I had to hold onto the wall to keep myself safe because I didn’t want to fly away in the tornado.”
Nine children are confirmed to have died after the two-mile wide tornado carved a path through the city.
Kye Smith, of Briarwood (video, above), was trapped under a wall when the tornado hit his school. He escaped after the wall was lifted off him by school staff, with just a scratch on his leg.
He said: “I couldn’t see anything and it was all loud and I could barely hear. It was really scary.”
Seven-year-old Isabella Rojas (video, above) told how pupils had hid under the desks when the storm hit.
“The lights went off, and then we lay down under the desk,” she said. ” And then… I saw all this rain coming on the window, the tornado went in, and I was so afraid that I was hanging on to one of the desk, and then I fell back and all the dirt started getting in my eyes and on my clothes.
“All the desks were on top of us and the teacher got stuck, so someone held to help her because the desk was on her leg. And so we had to get out and we had to watch out for the wires because they might be on still.
“I was trying to make the wind not get me back on the wall, and then all the dirt came and pushed me.”