VOA慢速英语2013 Rebuilding in Moore After Deadly Tornado

 

Rebuilding in Moore After Deadly Tornado¹

From VOA Learning English, this is In the News.

People in Moore, Oklahoma, are starting to rebuild after a three-kilometer-wide tornado hit the city on Monday. Officials say the storm killed 24 people in Moore and nearby areas. More than 200 others were injured.

President Obama declared a major disaster in Oklahoma. His declaration freed up federal money to help state officials with the recovery effort. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin deployed² the state National Guard and extra police to assist with rescue operations. She described the tornado as one of the “most horrific” disasters her state has ever faced.

“In many places, homes were absolutely destroyed, taken away. There’s just sticks and bricks, basically. It’s hard to tell if there was a structure there or not. If you get into some of the major neighborhoods, you can’t tell where the streets were. The street signs are gone. And that’s been a big challenge for us -- being able to determine which area of a community we might be in because the streets are just gone, the signs are just gone.”

Weather experts say the tornado had wind speeds of at least 322 kilometers an hour. It left a path of destruction stretching close to 30 kilometers. The storm flattened³ large parts of Moore, a city of 60,000 people. A record-setting tornado hit Moore in May of 1999.

On Monday Alfredo Corrales crowded into a small underground shelter with his family and a neighbor.

“Me and the neighbor were just holding on to the hatch, just to keep the door secure. And that wind was blowing over, and the wind was just sucking up on the door. And when it was doing that, the rain was just shooting down into the cellar.”

The storm hit two elementary schools just as students were preparing to leave for the day. Both schools were crushed, leaving many children trapped in the wreckage⁴.

“It was just thump⁵, thump and the roof came off. And then I left something and then it was raining, clay on me and all that.”

Rescue workers dug through the wreckage and pulled several children out alive.

Quick-thinking teachers are credited with saving lives by moving students to closed spaces before the storm destroyed the building. Sherry Biddle teaches at Briarwood. She described how she helped her students protect themselves.

“I had them take their backpacks and put them over their heads, just as another safety precaution, as they were down in the center of our room, in the center of our building.”

But seven children were killed when the tornado destroyed Plaza⁶ Towers Elementary School.

Susan Pierce is superintendent⁷ of Moore public schools. She said many lives were saved because every school followed sheltering directions.

“Our administrators⁸, staff, teachers and students put our crisis plan into action immediately. We monitored the weather throughout the day and when it was time to shelter, we did just that.”

Oklahoma officials say the current warning system provided enough time to prepare before the tornado hit. But many people lost everything they owned.

There is debate about whether all schools in Oklahoma should be required to have tornado shelters. Some say even the best built shelter might not have protected against Monday's tornado. The National Weather Service rated the tornado an EF-5. That is the most powerful kind of storm on the five-level scale that measures a tornado’s power. It was the second deadliest tornado in the United States since 2011, when 161 people were killed in Joplin, Missouri.

Join us next Tuesday more about tornadoes⁹ on the VOA Learning English program Science in the News.

That’s In The News. I’m Steve Ember

1 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

2 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

3 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

4 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

5 thump   

v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声

参考例句：

• The thief hit him a thump on the head.贼在他的头上重击一下。
• The excitement made her heart thump.她兴奋得心怦怦地跳。

6 plaza   

n.广场，市场

参考例句：

• They designated the new shopping centre York Plaza.他们给这个新购物中心定名为约克购物中心。
• The plaza is teeming with undercover policemen.这个广场上布满了便衣警察。

7 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

8 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

9 tornadoes   

n.龙卷风，旋风( tornado的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Tornadoes, severe earthquakes, and plagues create wide spread havoc. 龙卷风、大地震和瘟疫成普遍的毁坏。 来自互联网
• Meteorologists are at odds over the working of tornadoes. 气象学者对龙卷风的运动方式看法不一。 来自互联网