Local & Regional

CLAREMORE, Okla. (AP) — The Rogers County Election Board has voted to not certify results of a recent sales tax election after a resident filed a complaint alleging the county didn't give proper legal notice of the election.

Voters in Rogers County approved a 1-cent sales tax during a May 14 election. But a resident filed a challenge to the election results, saying the county didn't properly publish a legal notice of the election in a county newspaper before the vote.

Parents in a suburban Oklahoma City school district received a text message as an ominous tornado approached. Their children were being held at school until the storm passed or their parents picked them up.

Suddenly, parents had a gut-wrenching choice. Trust the safety of the school? Or drive frantically ahead of a massive tornado and attempt to take their children home?

The city of Tulsa is sending a contingent of workers to help with the recovery in Moore, including its coordinator for grants.

The city said Tuesday that the Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency deputy director and the city's finance and grants coordinator are helping with communication efforts.

At the request of emergency managers, the city sent an urban search and rescue team to help with the search at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which collapsed in the tornado.

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says U.S. officials are "going neighborhood to neighborhood" to make sure Oklahoma gets the help it needs.

The news Wednesday from Moore, Okla., much of which was destroyed by a massive tornado Monday, begins with word that officials doubt they will find any more survivors or bodies under the hundreds of homes, businesses and other buildings that were leveled.

Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird put it this way Tuesday: After searches of all damaged buildings, "I'm 98 percent sure we're good."

Moore Police struggle to find addresses in the areas blasted by the tornado. Moore Police Department’s Sergeant Jeremy Lewis says it is difficult locating streets or reference markers because it has all been destroyed.

“A lot of our shelters are registered, but even with that we can’t located the addresses. We don’t even know what block we’re on, so it’s difficult,” says Lewis. “There are no streets anymore. Even guys that have worked here 20 years are having trouble finding any kind of reference point to know what street we’re at.”