Residents of Moore, Okla., started to return to their homes a day after a tornado smashed some neighborhoods into jagged wood scraps and gnarled pieces of metal. In place of their houses, many families found only empty lots.

Word that the tornado had been classified as the most devastating funnel cloud punch Mother Nature can deliver came as the death toll held steady at 24, including nine children. 

The five ranking, on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, puts the tornado in the same class as the deadliest in U.S.

Residents of Moore, Okla., started to return to their homes a day after a tornado smashed some neighborhoods into jagged wood scraps and gnarled pieces of metal. In place of their houses, many families found only empty lots.

Word that the tornado had been classified as the most devastating funnel cloud punch Mother Nature can deliver came as the death toll held steady at 24, including nine children. 

The five ranking, on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, puts the tornado in the same class as the deadliest in U.S.

Rescuers have searched every home in devastated Moore, Okla., and the fire chief said he is "98 percent sure" there are no more bodies or survivors in the rubble of the Oklahoma City suburb devastated by what has now been rated an EF-5 on the weather scale, a ranking reserved for the deadliest and rarest of twisters. 

Word that the tornado had been classified as the most devastating funnel cloud punch Mother Nature can deliver came as the death toll held steady at 24, including nine children.