From VOA Learning English, this is In the News. 美国之音英语学习节目，这里是时事新闻。

People in Moore, Oklahoma, are starting to rebuild after a three-kilometer-wide tornado hit the city on Monday. 周一，俄克拉荷马市摩尔镇遭遇直径3千米的龙卷风袭击，现在人们已经开始重建工作。

Officials say the storm killed 24 people in Moore and nearby areas. More than 200 others were injured. 官员们表示，这次龙卷风造成摩尔镇和周边地区24人死亡，还有超过200人受伤。

President Obama declared a major disaster in Oklahoma. His declaration freed up federal money to help state officials with the recovery effort. 奥巴马总统宣布俄克拉荷马遭遇重大灾难。他宣布拨付联邦资金帮助州政府官员进行灾后恢复工作。

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin deployed the state National Guard and extra police to assist with rescue operations. 俄克拉荷马州州长玛丽·法琳(Mary Fallin)部署州国民警卫队和更多警力协助救援行动。

She described the tornado as one of the "most horrific" disasters her state has ever faced. 她称这次龙卷风是俄克拉荷马州曾经面临的“最可怕的”灾难之一。

"In many places, homes were absolutely destroyed, taken away. There's just sticks and bricks, basically. “在许多地方，家园完全被毁，不复存在，只剩砖瓦。

It's hard to tell if there was a structure there or not. 很难判断是否还有基本的建筑结构。

If you get into some of the major neighborhoods, you can't tell where the streets were. 如果你进入主要的社区，你根本不知道哪里是街道。

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." 街道标志已经不在了。我们面临的一个重大挑战就是确定我们在哪个社区，因为街道消失了，街道标志不在了。”

Weather experts say the tornado had wind speeds of at least 322 kilometers an hour. 天气专家表示，这次龙卷风的风速为每小时至少322千米。

It left a path of destruction stretching close to 30 kilometers. The storm flattened large parts of Moore, a city of 60,000 people. 途经的接近30千米遭到毁坏。这次飓风导致拥有60,000人口的摩尔镇大部分地区夷为平地。

A record-setting tornado hit Moore in May of 1999. 1999年5月，摩尔镇也曾经遭遇创纪录的龙卷风袭击。

On Monday Alfredo Corrales crowded into a small underground shelter with his family and a neighbor. 周一，Alfredo Corrales与他的家人和一位邻居挤到一个小型地下避难室。

"Me and the neighbor were just holding on to the hatch, just to keep the door secure. “我和邻居紧紧抓着舱口，想要把门固定住。

And that wind was blowing over, and the wind was just sucking up on the door. 风吹过去并且把门吸走。

And when it was doing that, the rain was just shooting down into the cellar." 雨拼命打在地下室里。”

The storm hit two elementary schools just as students were preparing to leave for the day. 这次龙卷风袭击了两所小学，当时学生们正在准备放学。

Both schools were crushed, leaving many children trapped in the wreckage. 两所学校全部坍塌，许多孩子被困在废墟中。

"It was just thump, thump and the roof came off. And then I left something and then it was raining, clay on me and all that." “我听到很大的重击声，然后房顶被吹走了。然后就开始下雨，泥土打在脸上。”

Rescue workers dug through the wreckage and pulled several children out alive. 救援人员在废墟中挖掘，救出了几名仍然存活的孩子。

Quick-thinking teachers are credited with saving lives by moving students to closed spaces before the storm destroyed the building. 思维很快的教师应该受到赞誉，他们在龙卷风将建筑摧毁之前迅速把学生们转移到密闭的空间。

Sherry Biddle teaches at Briarwood. She described how she helped her students protect themselves. Sherry Biddle在布莱尔伍德任教。她描述了自己如何帮助学生们自我保护。

"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." “我让他们把背包顶在头上，就像另外一次安全预警一样，然后集中到教室的中心，整栋建筑的中心。”

But seven children were killed when the tornado destroyed Plaza Towers Elementary School. 但是当龙卷风摧毁广场塔小学时，7个孩子遇难。

Susan Pierce is superintendent of Moore public schools. She said many lives were saved because every school followed sheltering directions. Susan Pierce是摩尔公立学校的负责人。她表示，由于每一所学校都遵循了庇护指引，许多生命得到拯救。

"Our administrators, staff, teachers and students put our crisis plan into action immediately. “我们的管理人员，职员，教师和学生立即将危机计划付诸行动。

We monitored the weather throughout the day and when it was time to shelter, we did just that." 我们一整天都在监视天气状况，当应该庇护的时候，我们立即行动。”

Oklahoma officials say the current warning system provided enough time to prepare before the tornado hit. But many people lost everything they owned. 俄克拉荷马官员表示，目前的预警系统提供了足够的时间在龙卷风袭击之前进行准备。但是许多人失去了一切。

There is debate about whether all schools in Oklahoma should be required to have tornado shelters. 关于是否要求俄克拉荷马州所有学校都建立龙卷风庇护所还有所争议。

Some say even the best built shelter might not have protected against Monday's tornado. 一些人表示，即使最好的庇护所可能也难以抵挡周一的龙卷风。

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. 美国国家天气局将这次龙卷风评定为EF-5级。用来评定龙卷风破坏力的系统共分为五级，EF-5是最高级别。

It was the second deadliest tornado in the United States since 2011, when 161 people were killed in Joplin, Missouri. 这是2011年以来美国遭遇的第二大致命龙卷风。当时的龙卷风袭击了密苏里州的乔普林，夺走161人的生命。

Join us next Tuesday for more about tornadoes on the VOA Learning English program Science in the News. 请下周二收听我们的美国之音学英语节目科学报道，了解关于龙卷风的更多内容。

That’s In The News. I’m Steve Ember. 这里是时事新闻，我是Steve Ember。