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Aftermath: Fires have also broken out at buildings after the monster storm thanks to exposed power lines, CNN reported
Damage: Piles of destroyed cars can be seen at the entrance to a hospital in Moore, Oklahoma after the storm passed through on Monday afternoon THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORM: HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
The severe thunderstorms that produce tornadoes form where cold dry air meets warm moist tropical air.
The wind coming into the storm starts to swirl and forms a funnel. The air in the funnel spins faster and faster and creates a very low pressure area which sucks more air - and objects on the ground into it.
Most tornadoes spin cyclonically (counter-clockwise) in the Northern hemisphere.
The twisters are most common in a section of the U.S. called Tornado Alley, with most forming in the months of April and May.
The vortex of winds varies in size and shape, and can be hundreds of meters wide.
There are, on average, 1,300 tornadoes each year in the United States, which have caused an average of 65 deaths annually in recent years.
Conditions on the ground do not generally affect the power of a tornado, including terrain and structures like buildings.
Moore, Oklahoma is within the boundaries of Tornado Alley, which includes northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.
The city was the site of another devastating tornado that tore through the town in 1999.
Volunteers and first responders raced to search the debris for survivors.
Chris Calvert saw the menacing tornado from about a mile away.
'I was close enough to hear it,' he said. 'It was just a low roar, and you could see the debris, like pieces of shingles and insulation and stuff like that, rotating around it.'
Even though his subdivision is a mile from the tornado's path, it was still covered with debris. He found a picture of a small girl on Santa Claus' lap in his yard.
At Plaza Towers Elementary School, the storm tore off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal.
James Rushing, who lives across the street from the school, heard reports of the approaching tornado and ran to the school, where his 5-year-old foster son, Aiden, attends classes. Rushing believed he would be safer there.
'About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart,' he said.
Douglas Sherman drove two blocks from his home to help rescue survivors.
'Just having those kids trapped in that school, that really turns the table on a lot of things,' he said.
Tiffany Thronesberry said she got an alarming call from her mother, Barbara Jarrell, after the tornado.
'I got a phone call from her screaming, "Help! Help! I can't breathe. My house is on top of me!"' Thronesberry said.
Thronesberry hurried to her mother's house, where first responders had already pulled her out. Her mother was hospitalized for treatment for cuts and bruises.
Barbara Garcia, a survivor of the massive tornado, found her dog buried alive under the rubble during her interview with CBS News.
A man with a megaphone stood near a Catholic church Monday evening and called out the names of surviving children. Parents waited nearby, hoping to hear their sons' and daughters' names.
Don Denton hadn't heard from his two sons since the tornado hit the town, but the man who has endured six back surgeries and walks with a severe limp said he walked about two miles as he searched for them.
As reports of the storm came in, Denton's 16-year-old texted him, telling him to call.
'I was trying to call him, and I couldn't get through,' Denton said.
Entire neighborhoods were flattened by the twister, which set buildings on fire and landed a direct blow on an elementary school
Power poles and lines lie tangled after a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, May 20, 2013
Devastation: A woman carries her child through a field near the collapsed Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, today after the devastating tornado
Rescuers recover a horse from the remains of a day care center and destroyed barns
Rescue workers help free one of the 15 people that were trap at a medical building at the Moore hospital complex after a tornado tore through the area 
Destroyed cars are seen after a huge tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma
Workers look for victims under debris from a tornado that passed across south Oklahoma City
Rescue workers help free one of the 15 people that were trap at a medical building at the Moore hospital complex 
A powerful tornado with winds of up to 200 miles per hour pulverized an Oklahoma City suburb on Monday hitting at least two schools and wiping out block after block of homes 
Moore police dig through the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School following a tornado in Moore
Rescue workers dig through the rubble of a collapsed wall at the Plaza Tower Elementary School to free trapped students
Kay James holds her cat as she sits in her driveway after her home was destroyed by the tornado that hit the area on Monday
On its way: Footage taken by reporters near the town shows the huge storm, which could cause multiple fatalities, experts warned on Monday afternoon
Damaged cars are seen in the parking lot of Moore Hospital after a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma
A man searches a damaged home near SW 4th Street and Telephone Road 
Glenn Rusk hugs his neighbor Sherie Loman outside her home north of Briarwood Elementary School after a tornado moved through the areaEventually, Denton said, his sons spotted him in the crowd. They were fine, but upset to hear that their grandparents' home was destroyed.
Search and rescue efforts were to continue throughout the night as devastated, and in many cases now homeless, residents, walked around like zombies looking for loved ones. Oklahoma City Police Capt. Dexter Nelson warned that downed power lines and open gas lines posed a risk in the aftermath of the system.
As the first images of the destruction emerged, yet more tornadoes were also reported to be heading towards Ryan, Wilson and I-35. Experts warned that the area of Meeker could be particularly badly hit.
'There are so many homes in the air right now,' storm chase Spencer Basoco told CNN of Moore. 'It's destroying everything. There's so much debris.'
Jamie Shelton, the public information officer for Moore, had pleaded with residents to seek shelter before the storm dissipated. 'It's happening as we speak,' he said. 'People need to take this seriously... Take precaution, be aware. If you're outside the area, please pray for us.'
Governor Fallin explained that a school, a GM plant used by defense contractors and an Air Force base were in the storm's path. The base has one of the largest maintenance and repair centers in the country.
CBS has pulled tonight's season finale of 'Mike & Molly,' which included a storyline that involved a tornado.
It comes as yet more heartbreak for residents of Oklahoma, after a series of deadly tornadoes barreled through Kansas and Oklahoma this weekend, leaving a violent trail of destruction through the Midwest and South, killing two elderly men, injuring 39 people and flattening hundreds of homes.
The Oklahoma City area is prone to storms; in 1999, 36 people died in a tornado.
Several terrifying twisters were spotted on Saturday evening near Rozel, a sparsely populated area in central Kansas. They were also reported to the south in parts of Oklahoma and Iowa.
A National Weather Service advisory warned: 'You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter.'
Workers continued to dig through the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School on Monday afternoon
The EF-4 tornado as it approached the town of Moore, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City, on May 20'Complete destruction of neighborhoods, businesses and vehicles will occur. Flying debris will be deadly to people and animals.'
At least four separate tornadoes touched down in central Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon, including one near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, that laid waste to much of a trailer park.
Two men, 79-year-old Glen Irish and 76-year-old Billy Hutchinson, were found dead after the tornado wrought its devastation on Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Irish's body was found out in the open after the storm passed through, while Hutchinson was taken to Norman Regional Hospital, but later pronounced dead, according to the medical examiner.
'You can see where there's absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up,' Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth said after surviving damage in the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park.
'It looks like there's been heavy equipment in there on a demolition tour. It's pretty bad. It's pretty much wiped out,' he said.
Across the state, 21 people were injured, not including those who suffered bumps and bruises and chose not to visit a hospital, said Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
Booth said six at Steelman Estates were hurt.
On Interstate 40, tractor-trailers were blown off the road, and one was seen hanging over the highway's overpass.
Dozens of homes were damaged by the other tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma, but emergency officials had no immediate reports of injuries caused by any of them, including the first of the afternoon that hit Edmond, a suburb north of Oklahoma City, before making its way toward Tulsa, 90 miles to the northeast.
'I knew it was coming,' said Randy Grau, who huddled with his wife and two young sons in their Edmond home's safe room when the tornado hit.
Twisted metal lies in the road as people take pictures of damage after a huge tornado struck on Monday
A woman is comforted after a tornado that destroyed buildings and overturned cars struck Moore
A man is taken away from the IMAX theater that was used as a triage area after a tornado that destroyed buildings and overturned cars struck 
A woman walks through debris after a huge tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City, May 20, 2013
A man and two children walk through debris after a huge tornado struck Moore where at least 51 people were killed as winds of up to 200 miles per hour flattened entire tracts of homes, two schools and a hospital
A sign for a local restaurant lies on the ground after a huge tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City
Parents reunite with their children at Briarwood Elementary school after a tornado destroyed the school in south Oklahoma CityHe said he peered out his window as the weather worsened and believed he saw a flock of birds heading down the street.
The destruction in the wake of the punishing storm led Oklahoma Gov Mary Fallin to declare a state of emergency for 16 counties.
The National Weather Service in Wichita put in place tornado warnings for East Central Kingman County, Southern Sedgwick County and Northwester Sumner County in the state.
A massive twister touched down near Wichita Mid-Continent Airport just before 4pm local time.
A severe thunderstorm, capable of becoming a tornado, happened at 3:30pm and moved Northeast at 35mph, bringing ping-pong ball sized hail, according to weather.com. Those who live in mobile homes were warned that there was extreme risk of their properties being destroyed.
Residents were warned to take cover in an interior room on the lowest floor of a solid building and stay back from windows. People were warned to take care because flying debris could be deadly as was the risk of falling trees.
It comes just days after devastating Texas tornadoes which killed six people and injured dozens. The National Weather Service says 15 tornadoes touched down in north Texas on Wednesday. Initial estimates put that number at 10, however the NWS added five more throughout Thursday afternoon.
In its preliminary findings, the National Weather Service rated the tornado that hit Hood County Wednesday night an EF-4, which is labeled 'devastating' by the Enhanced Fujita Scale. The scale ranges from from FO, defined as a gale, to F5, defined as incredible.
The Storm Prediction Center had been warning about severe weather in the region since Wednesday, and on Friday, it zeroed in on Sunday as the day the storm system would likely pass through.
'They've been calling for this all day,' Edmond resident Anita Wright said after riding out the twister in an underground shelter.
She and her husband Ed emerged from their hiding place to find uprooted trees, downed limbs and damaged gutters in their home.
In Katie Leathers' backyard, the family's trampoline was tossed through a section of fence and a giant tree uprooted.
'I saw all the trees waving, and that's when I grabbed everyone and got into two closets,' Leathers said. 'All these trees just snapped.'
The Salvation Army said it would start collecting supplies for tornado victims, many of whom had lost their homes, on Tuesday morning. Items requested were bottled water, Gatorade, Wipes, diapers, baby formula, hand towels, individually wrapped snacks and work gloves. They told residents not to bring clothes.
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