(NECN/NBC News: Jay Gray) - The tragic situation in Moore, Okla. got even more difficult Thursday as more rough weather moved through the area, putting a strain on recovery teams, and survivors trying to clean-up in the strike zone.
It was another shot to the gut for an area already staggered by the violent upper-cut delivered late monday.
"This poor place," says volunteer Jason Belcourt. "The rain, first you get the tornado now everything is getting rained on."
Charles Gafford witnessed the intensity through the door of his storm cellar as the twister ripped through his neighborhood.
Even safe, heltered beneath the earth that was being torn apart, Gafford could feel the power of the funnel.
"There is definitely a rumbling in the ground that turns your stomach," he says.
Still, the most sickening feeling here is for those lost.
Local
The first of the 24 funerals was Thursday, when 9-year-old Antonia Candelaria was laid to rest.
First responders found the third grader in the rubble at Plaza Towers Elementary.
She was hugging her "very best friend" Emily Conatzer, who'll be buried later this week.
Read more: http://nbcnews.to/13N499d
