Authorities revise the death toll in Oklahoma to 24.
The number initially reported (51) likely reflected deaths counted twice, said Amy Elliott, chief administrator of the medical office; a 3-kilometer-long tornado destroyed the town of Moore, outside Oklahoma City, on Monday, leaving people trapped under the rubble.
By Carey Gillam and Ian Simpson
MOORE, United States, May 21 (Reuters) Emergency crews searched for survivors in the rubble of homes, schools, and hospitals in an Oklahoma town hit by a powerful tornado, but authorities significantly reduced the death toll from the storm on Tuesday.
Oklahoma's state medical examiner's office said 24 bodies have been recovered from the debris left by Monday's storm, far fewer than the 51 previously reported. The number initially reported likely reflected deaths that were counted twice, said Amy Elliott, chief administrator of the medical examiner's office.
A tornado spanning 3 kilometers (7 miles) devastated the town of Moore, on the outskirts of Oklahoma City, on Monday afternoon, trapping people under the rubble. One elementary school was directly hit, and another was destroyed.
Storms and thunder slowed rescue efforts on Tuesday, but authorities lowered the number of bodies recovered.
"We have good news. The number is now 24," Elliott said. "There was a lot of chaos."
She said that more bodies may still be recovered.
Also on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama promised in a statement made at the White House that the US government would make available all the necessary support for rescue and recovery efforts following the tornado.
"The people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground, supporting them, for as long as necessary," said Obama, who declared Oklahoma a disaster area after the deadliest tornado in U.S. history since 161 people died in Joplin, Missouri, two years ago.
Firefighters from more than a dozen fire departments worked throughout the night with the aid of spotlights trying to find survivors at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which was directly hit by the storm. Rescue teams were sent from other states to assist in the efforts.
"The whole city looks like a field of rubble," Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis told NBC. "It looks like we've lost our hospital. I drove there an hour ago and it's pretty much destroyed," he said.
There was a somber mood on the Plaza Towers school's Facebook page, with one message simply saying, "Please find these children."
The National Weather Service classified the storm as an EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the second strongest category of tornado, with winds of up to 320 kilometers per hour.
(Additional reporting by Alice Mannette, Lindsay Morris, Nick Carey, Brendan O'Brien and Greg McCune)