Moore, OK – NEW PHOTOS: Devastation In Oklahoma

Moore, OK – Residents sift through the remnants of their homes.

Here are images of the aftermath of a powerful tornado that swept through an Oklahoma City suburb, flattening neighborhoods and killing at least 24 people.

The tornado was upgraded on Tuesday to a rating of EF5, the category reserved for the most damaging twisters on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the National Weather Service said.

The Enhanced Fujita scale is an updated version of an earlier chart to measure the ferocity of tornadoes published in 1971 by University of Chicago professor Ted Fujita.

In rating the intensity of tornadoes, meteorologists and other experts study damage on the ground, along with wind speeds and other data, to rate twisters between EF0 (the weakest) and EF5 (the most intense).

{NewsPhotosEmbed 279936719}