Historic flooding is now a concern for residents in the greater Oklahoma City area after tornadoes ripped through the area yesterday. NBC's Mark Potter reports from Union City Okla.
A 4 year old girl died after she was swept away by floodwaters fueled by a swarm of destructive twisters that tore through Oklahoma late Friday.
The girl was taking shelter with her family in a ditch when she was got caught in the storm and pulled away Oklahoma City Police Department spokesman Lt. Jay Barnett said.
It is unclear whether the girl is one of the nine people who died as five tornadoes one a half mile wide struck the Oklahoma City area Friday evening terrorizing communities already battered by deadly storms this spring.
Tornadoes rolled like bowling balls through the middle of the country Friday claiming at least nine lives and injuring more than 100 in Oklahoma which is still reeling from the deadly twister last week in Moore. NBC's Janet Shamlian reports.
In Missouri authorities said high waters killed three people in Lawrence Miller and Reynolds counties.
The Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told NBC News seven adults and two children are confirmed dead including a mother and her small child.
The medical examiner said that five of the nine dead had been positively identified and called on the public's help to identify the others. If someone is missing a loved one from last night s tornado we would encourage them to contact our office at 405 239 7141 said Amy Elliott of the medical examiner's office.
Hospitals in Oklahoma City reported 104 injuries including five critical patients.
At least five people killed were in vehicles and may have been trying to flee as dark clouds gathered and warning sirens wailed authorities said.
Marcus Jolly 32 of El Reno told The Oklahoman newspaper the scene along Interstate 40 was a war zone. There were semis turned over and skeletons of buildings remaining.
Oklahoma resident Garrett Occhipinti speaks with MSNBC via phone about a photo he took of the storm that showed massive wall clouds stretching for over a mile.
The twisters came just 11 days after a monster tornado left 24 dead in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore where power outages were reported Friday.
Mark Wiley meteorologist at the National Weather Service s southern region headquarters in Fort Worth said early Saturday that there had been five confirmed tornadoes in the Oklahoma City area on Friday and one in the Tulsa area early Saturday.
A total of 12 tornadoes hit Missouri and Illinois around St. Louis where numerous homes were damaged. Wiley did not have any information about casualties there. Two twisters touched down briefly in North Dakota but did not do any damage.
The Oklahoma City area definitely experienced the worst of the bad weather Wiley said with wind gusts of up to 90 mph baseball sized hail and extensive flooding.
We have several reports of water going into homes and dozens of people having to be rescued on the streets especially along Interstate 40 Wiley said. It was not a good night to be in the Oklahoma City area.
For Saturday Wiley said the storm was moving toward Arkansas Kentucky Tennessee and East Texas but did not look as severe as yesterday.
There was still a threat of large hail damaging winds and flooding but the tornado threat is lower today than it was yesterday he said. The threat of a large tornado was very small he added.
KFOR TV
Click to view scenes from Friday's violent storm.
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The worry now turns to flash flooding. Wiley said about 6 to 8 inches of rain had fallen in 12 hours between 7 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. CT Saturday. The Weather Channel reported that May 2013 is the wettest May on record in Oklahoma City.
Friday the terror came from tornadoes boasting baseball sized hail and winds so strong they tossed tractor trailers off the interstate. Meteorologists said the storm's fury didn't match that of the tornado that struck Moore on May 20 but dumped around 8 inches of rain on the area.
An SUV used by Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Bettes and a crew of storm trackers was thrown 200 yards by one tornado near Oklahoma City suburb El Reno. The vehicle tumbled about eight times and came to rest in a field Bettes said. Some members of the crew suffered minor injuries and the vehicle was destroyed.
That was the scariest moment of my life Bettes said. I saw my life flash before my eyes.
4Warn Storm Team meteorologist Emily Sutton and 4Warn Storm Team storm chaser Kevin Josefy also had a close call with a tornado near El Reno broadcasting live as they fled.
Later Sutton told NBC station KFOR of Oklahoma City that they were driving near the twister when it started to turn.
All of a sudden we felt the wind behind us picking up picking up she said.
She said chunks of trees began falling in front of our eyes. I felt stuff hitting my back and I knew that's not right ... all I did was just say 'Oh my God ' and then we just kept our composure because you've got to keep moving on.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph said the woman and baby were killed when the SUV they were in overturned on Interstate 40 between El Reno and Yukon.
Many of the injured were hurt in accidents along Interstates 35 and 40 west of the city where at least three semi trailer rigs were overturned after the biggest tornado touched down near El Reno authorities said.
Bart Kuester 50 a truck driver from Wisconsin said he was driving along Interstate 35 past Moore when he realized a dangerous storm was approaching.
I heard the sirens going off and I could see it coming he told The Associated Press. Kuester said the interstate was flooded and jammed with people trying to outrun the storm.
Everyone was leaving. ... Just because that one that hit Moore was so fresh in their memory he said.
Authorities said some of the worst damage on Friday was from flooding around El Reno and Yukon and the danger continued into Saturday.
The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for parts of Oklahoma early Saturday.
At 2 21 a.m. CDT National Weather Service radar and rain gauges indicated over six inches of rain has fallen across parts of Oklahoma and Canadian counties. Additional storms will move across these counties through the early morning with additional 1 to 2 inches of rain possible. Life threatening flooding is already occurring and will continue for the next several hours the weather service said.
There were also flash flood warnings in place for parts of Iowa Illinois Indiana Missouri Arkansas and Kansas.
On Friday one tornado turned south from Oklahoma City and then toward the suburb of Moore which was hit by a devastating twister on May 20 that killed 24 people and injured hundreds of others.
I think we are still a little shaken by what happened in Moore. We are still burying children and victims so our emotions are still strong Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett told Reuters.
Dylan Dreyer MSNBC meteorologist updates Rachel Maddow with the latest details of tornadic storms sweeping across the Oklahoma City area.
More than 91 000 customers were without power in the metro area at midday according to the OG E power company including bout 12 000 customers in Moore.
Power company Ameren said there were 87 000 outages in Missouri and 30 000 in Illinois.
Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency.
This has been a very large storm that hit a lot of communities she told KFOR. She said she had heard from at least 30 fellow governors offering assistance.
At Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City where winds hit 71 mph all flights were canceled and about 1 000 travelers were herded underground where they were told to put their hands on their heads. The airport reopened Saturday morning but all morning departures were canceled.
Tornado warnings meaning a funnel cloud that could become a tornado had been spotted in the area were in effect much of the day for numerous counties in Oklahoma Missouri Illinois and Wisconsin.
Forecasters sounded the alarm that much of the Midwest already pummeled by a week of tornadoes and flooded with drenching rains was facing another round of violent weather overnight and into the weekend.
Observers at Tinker Air Force Base reported a tornado on the ground near the base southwest of Oklahoma City. In Norman home to the University of Oklahoma a tornado touched down near Norman North High School and Norman Regional Hospital.
Buildings at Lambert St. Louis International Airport were damaged by tornadoes with debris strewn across the runway. The airport was closed because of the damage but re opened just before midnight the airport said in a statement.
Another tornado touched down Friday night 7 miles northeast of Moscow Mills Mo. about 50 miles northwest of St. Louis. In St. Charles County 24 houses were severely damaged or destroyed said Mike O'Connell communications director for the Missouri Department of Public Safety.
The National Weather Service evacuated its St. Louis office as tornado warnings were issued for north and northeastern St. Louis and surrounding counties.
Severe thunderstorm warnings meanwhile stretched from Minnesota and Michigan south to Arkansas. Forecasters said storms overnight could bring several more intense tornadoes hail up to 4 inches in diameter and wind gusts approaching 80 mph.
Janet Shamlian and Aaron Marmelstein of NBC News Mike Bettes of The Weather Channel and Reuters contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.
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