Massive Tornado Destroys Area Near Oklahoma City [LIVE VIDEO]

An enormous tornado with a debris cloud two miles wide tore through the metropolitan area just south of Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon.

The town of Moore suffered tremendous damage as the twister gradually moved east, but it never did reach the downtown area of Oklahoma's capital city. The National Weather Service had issued a tornado emergency warning for the region, a rarity for such a highly populated area. Schools, houses, businesses and many, many more buildings have been utterly devastated.

The tornado may also have touched down in or near the town of Newcastle, which is where many people who had been evacuated due to Sunday's storms were sheltered.

In total, more than 171,000 people may have been in the path of the tornado, according to CNN.

This post will be updated as further information comes in.

[NBC, CNN]