Tornado-hit US city, amid storms, mourns and rebuilds

MOORE: Relief workers and clean-up crews defied thunderstorms Thursday while families and friends gathered for the funeral of one of the Oklahoma tornado's youngest victims.

Heavy rain and lightning at dawn threatened to upset Moore's long trail back to normality, with police at one point closing flash-flooded streets in the residential city of 56,000 struggling to get back on its feet.

The tornado, one of the most powerful in recent years, killed 24 people, injured 377, damaged or destroyed 1,200 homes and affected an estimated 33,000 people in this Oklahoma City suburb, officials said in their latest update.

Initial damages have been estimated at around $2 billion.

"My biggest concern is not necessarily for the structure, but for people's contents," general contractor Lane Yeager, scrambling to patch the roof of a stricken home, told AFP during a break in the thunderstorms.

"They just survived the tornado. Now they're going to have more problems (with rain damage). If we can get the lightning to let up for a little while, we're going to try to cover that up so they don't have further damage."

"It's wet and it's cold," said Andy Loyd, helping to repair his daughter's house.

"But it kind of helps us to find where the holes are in the roof. It's going to get dry (later) and we'll get it secured and wait for the insurance companies to come in -- and then we'll rebuild."

By mid-afternoon, the skies had brightened, enabling utility workers to resume fixing downed power lines.

Volunteers from the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other charities fanned out with food, water and tools. Insurance claims adjusters tallied up losses.

In an Oklahoma City funeral home, about 250 family and friends together mourned the death of Antonia Candelaria, age nine, one of the seven children killed when the roof collapsed at Plaza Towers Elementary School.