Five people were killed, including a mother and baby killed near Union City. Another person died at El Reno, the first city struck by the storm, said Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the state medical examiner. Circumstances involving the other two deaths weren't immediately known, Elliott said.

About 50 people were hurt, five critically, hospital officials said.

Meteorologists had warned about particularly nasty weather Friday but said the storm's fury didn't match that of a deadly twister that struck suburban Moore last week. Violent weather also moved through the St. Louis area, ripping part of the roof off a suburban casino.

Friday's broad storm in Oklahoma hit during the evening rush hour and stuck around, causing havoc on Interstate 40, a major artery connecting suburbs east and west of the city, and dropping so much rain on the area that streets were flooded to a depth of 4 feet.

To the south, a severe storm with winds approaching 80 mph rolled into Moore, where a top-of-the-scale EF5 tornado killed 24 on May 20.

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Updated 11:22 a.m. EST: Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer of the Oklahoma medical examiner's office confirmed the death count as 24, including nine children.

"Our office had reported 51 fatalities, some of those were reported possibly in error or doubled," said Elliott. She told a news conference that of the nine children found dead, seven were at a devastated primary school.

Updated 10:25 a.m. EST: Officials have announced that 24 bodies, and not the previously reported figure of 51, were recovered. The New York Times had reported early Tuesday that at least 91 had been killed.

As rescue efforts continue, these figures are likely to change again.

Updated 10:15 a.m. EST: Addressing the nation, President Obama reiterated that the devastated areas of Oklahoma would have "all the resources they need at their disposal. "Our prayers are with Oklahoma," he said, praising the bravery of first responders and specifically honoring the teachers who attempted to defend children in two Moore primary schools leveled by the twister -- "young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew, their school."

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As USA Today reported Monday:

The weather service said it was tracking "a large and extremely dangerous tornado'' just west of Moore, Okla., which is south of Oklahoma City. The storm was moving to the northeast, and forecasters said they expected "large, destructive hail up to tennis ball size.''

... The five-state area is in the heart of a storm system hovering over the Plains and Midwest all the way to Minnesota ... More than 60 million Americans are at risk of severe storms Monday.

ABC News shows storm chasers spotting tornadoes forming in Oklahoma:

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This is up from 51 percent in 2011.

From the poll:

Public concern about global warming has waxed and waned over the past two decades, ranging between 50% and 72%. The average percentage over time for "worrying a great deal/fair amount" comes in at just under 60%, similar to the March 7-10 reading from Gallup's 2013 Environment poll.

But the poll also finds that 15 percent believe that the effects of global warming will never happen, while 41 percent believe new reports about the subject are exaggerated.

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Watch:

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Halfway through what was looking like a merciful winter, people stocked up on food and other storm supplies, and road crews from Pennsylvania to Maine readied salt and sand ahead of what forecasters warned could be one for the record books.

Boston and Providence, R.I., called off school on Friday, and airlines canceled more than 500 flights and counting, with the disruptions certain to ripple across the U.S.

In Taunton, Mass., National Weather Service meteorologist Alan Dunham said southern New England has seen less than half its normal snowfall this season, but "we're going to catch up in a heck of a hurry," with 1 1/2 to 2 feet forecast.

"Everybody's going to get plastered with snow," he said.

The snow is expected to start Friday morning, with the heaviest amounts falling at night and into Saturday. Wind gusts could reach 65 mph. Widespread power failures were feared, along with flooding in coastal areas still recovering from Superstorm Sandy in October.

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Bartow County Fire Chief Craig Millsap said the body was found in the storm damage but did not have further details on how the person died. The same system also was blamed for a death in Tennessee. Most dangerous were powerful wind gusts that in several places were powerful enough to overturn tractor-trailers.
There were reports that people were trapped in homes and businesses, and television footage showed large sections of a sprawling manufacturing plant had been destroyed.
Footage also showed a funnel cloud roaring through the downtown area of Adairsville, about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta, flipping cars and demolishing a home. Interstate 75 was closed in both directions after the storm flipped cars onto their roofs and tossed them onto the grassy shoulder.
At least two tornadoes were confirmed and several more suspected, and conditions remained ripe for more. Since Tuesday, the system had caused damage across a swath from Missouri to Georgia.
In recent days, people in the South and Midwest had enjoyed unseasonably balmy temperatures in the 60s and 70s. A system pulling warm weather from the Gulf of Mexico was colliding with a cold front moving in from the west, creating volatility.
Police said high winds toppled a tree onto a shed in Nashville, Tenn., where a man had taken shelter, killing him.
Across the region, downed power lines, trees and tree limbs were making it difficult to reach people who needed help.

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A brutal combination of a widespread drought and a mostly absent winter pushed the average annual U.S. temperature last year up to 55.32 degrees Fahrenheit, the government announced Tuesday. That’s a full degree warmer than the old record set in 1998.

Breaking temperature records by an entire degree is unprecedented, scientists say. Normally, records are broken by a tenth of a degree or so.

The National Climatic Data Center’s figures for the entire world won’t come out until next week, but through the first 11 months of 2012, the world was on pace to have its eighth warmest year on record.

Scientists say the U.S. heat is part global warming in action and natural weather variations. The drought that struck almost two-thirds of the nation and a La Nina weather event helped push temperatures higher, along with climate change from man-made greenhouse gas emissions, said Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. She said temperature increases are happening faster than scientists predicted.

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Heavy snow and strong winds combined for blizzard conditions in some areas from Kansas to Wisconsin - and guaranteed a white Christmas in some places - after the storm blanketed the Rocky Mountains earlier in the week.

Iowa and Nebraska took a heavy hit from the storm, with nearly a foot of snow in Des Moines and 8.6 inches in Omaha, Neb.

Thomas Shubert, a clerk at a store in Gretna near Omaha, said his brother drove him to work in his 4-by-4 truck but that some of his neighbors weren't so fortunate.

"I saw some people in my neighborhood trying to get out. They made it a few feet, and that was about it," Shubert said Thursday. "I haven't seen many cars on the road. There are a few brave souls out, but mostly trucks and plows."

By sunrise in Des Moines, the snow was starting to taper off, but that would not be the end of it, warned Kevin Skow, a National Weather Service meteorologist in the city.

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Meanwhile, in one Staten Island high school, the Post reported, 130 evacuees who had been staying in the school were moved out "with little warning" Wednesday as students turned up, expecting to resume class as normal. "Students at a Staten Island high school were warehoused in the auditorium with no instruction yesterday because Hurricane Sandy evacuees were occupying their classrooms — until the refugees were booted," the Post noted.

New York's public schools were closed for a week (longer in some cases) after Sandy barreled into the Northeast:

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Households from Brooklyn to storm-battered sections of the Jersey shore and Connecticut that had waited for days without power because of Sandy were plunged back into darkness in temperatures near freezing.

"For a home without power, it's great," said Iliay Bardash, 61, a computer programmer on Staten Island without electricity since last week. "But things are not worse, and for that I am thankful."

In New Jersey, utilities reported 400,000 power outages early Thursday; 20,000 of those were new. In New York City and Westchester, more than 70,000 customers were without power after the storm knocked out an additional 55,000 customers.

There were 60,000 new outages on Long Island, where more than 300,000 customers were without power.

"It's just colder now," said Anthony Gragnano, who lives in Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Long Island in a hard-hit area. "We still don't have heat or power, but aside from a little snow, we're good."

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DNAinfo reports that the federal agency, which residents of the Rockaways and Staten Island  say has already neglected them, had shuttered facilities Wednesday with signs reading "closed due to weather." "They fly into disaster areas, but flee from raindrops," commented DNA. A FEMA facility in Staten Island, which was helping victims register for disaster relief, as well as city food distribution centers, was empty as of Wednesday morning. DNA reported:

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The National Weather Service predicted Sunday that a Nor'easter that could include gusts of up to 55 mph is likely to reach the area by Wednesday and could compound the havoc brought by last week's violent weather.

"Prepare for more outages," advised weather service meteorologist Joe Pollina. "Stay indoors. Stock up again."

He said the new storm wouldn't be nearly as strong as Sandy, but could pack winds "stronger than usual, even strong for a Nor'easter."

Meanwhile, cold temperatures streamed in and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that means "tens of thousands" of people whose homes were damaged by the superstorm will need other places to live.

"It's going to become increasingly clear" that homes without heat are uninhabitable, the governor said. He said residents who have been reluctant to leave their homes will be forced to and will need housing.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 20,000 people in the city could need housing help.

Pollina said the strongest winds from the new storm would likely be seen on eastern Long Island. The highest gusts in New York City would probably be 40 mph. Meteorologist Adrienne Liptich said Atlantic City, N.J., could see gusts up to 45 mph.

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But Glenda Moore and her SUV were no match for the epic storm. Moore's Ford Explorer stalled in the rising tide, and the rushing waters snatched 2-year-old Brandon and 4-year-old Connor from her arms as they tried to escape.

The youngsters' bodies were recovered from a marsh Thursday - the latest, most gut-wrenching blow in New York's Staten Island, an isolated city borough hard-hit by the storm and yet, residents say, largely forgotten by federal officials assessing damage of the monster storm that has killed more than 90 people in 10 states.

"Terrible, absolutely terrible," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said as he announced the boys' bodies had been found on the third day of a search that included police divers and sniffer dogs. "It just compounds all the tragic aspects of this horrific event."

The heartbreaking discovery came as residents and public officials complained that help has been frustratingly slow to arrive on stricken Staten Island, where 19 have been killed - nearly half the death toll of all of New York City.

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The devastation left the state a blank canvas to redevelop its prized vacation towns. But environmentalists and shoreline planners urged the state to think about how - and if - to redevelop the shoreline as it faces an even greater threat of extreme weather.

"The next 50 to 100 years are going to be very different than what we've seen in the past 50 years," said S. Jeffress Williams, a scientist emeritus at the U.S. Geological Survey's Woods Hole Science Center in Massachusetts.

The sea level is rising fast, and destructive storms are occurring more frequently, said Williams, who expects things to get even worse.

He and other shoreline advocates say the state should consider how to protect coastal areas from furious storms when they rebuild it, such as relocating homes and businesses farther from the shore, building more seawalls and keeping sand dunes high.

How to rebuild after the disaster is becoming an issue even as New Jersey assesses its damage.

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During a conference call Tuesday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski reported that, as of Tuesday morning, 25 percent of the nation’s cell sites were out of commission, in a 10-state stretch from Virginia to Massachusetts. "They’re underwater, or out of power, or just plain busted. Most of the outages are concentrated in the areas where the storm damage was worst," noted The Observer's BetaBeat.

Genachowski said we are not over the worst of this aspect of Sandy fallout. Cell towers, which lost power form local electricity, have been forced to rely on backup batteries to keep communications going. But as those batteries drain without any way to recharge, more cell phones will be forced out of service. "Our assumption is that communications outages could get worse before they get better, particularly for mobile networks, because of the flooding and loss of power,” he said.

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Limited commuter rail service on Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad will resume at 2pm Wednesday on Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad. Keep up to date on which trains are running here.

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But while New York City buses returned to darkened streets and the New York Stock Exchange prepared to reopen its storied trading floor, it became clear that restoring the region to its ordinarily frenetic pace could take days - and that rebuilding the hardest-hit communities and the transportation networks that link them together could take considerably longer.

"We will get through the days ahead by doing what we always do in tough times - by standing together, shoulder to shoulder, ready to help a neighbor, comfort a stranger and get the city we love back on its feet," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The scale of the challenge was clear across the Hudson River in New Jersey, where National Guard troops arrived in the heavily flooded city of Hoboken to help evacuate thousands still stuck in their homes. And new problems arose when firefighters were unable to reach blazes rekindled by natural gas leaks in the heavily hit shore town of Mantoloking.

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