Oklahoma Recovers After More Destructive, Deadly Tornados
Less than two weeks removed from the terrible tornado that touched down in Moore, Oklahoma, at least nine people died and over 70 were injured Friday night when more severe storms uprooted houses, trees and cars in Oklahoma and other parts of the Midwest.
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Severe storms left thousands of people without power in Indiana, Kansas, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma as of Saturday morning. The Oklahoma City area felt the brunt of the storm's force, though. The storm, including five tornados in the Oklahoma City area alone, could be felt from downtown Oklahoma City to the surrounding El Reno and Union City. "There's just no rest," city spokeswoman Kristy Yager told CNN. As of right now, the National Weather Service says there were 17 tornados reported across the Midwest Friday night. But that number is expected to change once they can properly conduct storm surveys.
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NBC News reports five of the storm's victims were killed in cars. It appears as if they were fleeing the oncoming bad weather when they were killed. Two of those victims were a mother and her baby, killed when they were flipped in an SUV while travelling on Interstate 40, where there were reportedly hundreds of cars left behind Saturday morning. morning. One resident said it looked like "a warzone," on the Interstate, with semi trucks turned over and buildings torn apart. There was also the Weather Channel's tornado hunt car that got tossed by an oncoming tornado.
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The videos coming out of Oklahoma this morning show just how scary the storms were:
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But now it's the morning after and Oklahoma City has another major problem on its hands: flooding. Much of the city is underwater after the storms dumped nearly 3 inches of rain last night. About 200 roads are closed in certain parts of the city while clean up crews desperately try to deal with the aftermath of the storm. Unfortunately there's no foreseeable end in sight. The National Weather Service says flooding will continue for a few hours.
Thankfully these tornados weren't nearly as strong as the one that killed 24 people and caused $2 billion in damages to Moore, Oklahoma. That tornado reached the National Weather Service's was a severe EF5 tornado. Friday night's tornados affected a much larger area while never reaching that strength.
