A woman and a child have died in Oklahoma flooding as meteorologists warned Sunday of further flooding, thunderstorms and tornadoes from the Midwest to the South.
Police in Moore, about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, received dozens of reports of “high-water incidents” over the weekend, including two cars stranded in floodwaters Saturday evening. One car was swept away under a bridge, and police said they were able to rescue some people, but a woman and 12-year-old boy were found dead.
“This was a historical weather event that impacted roads and resulted in dozens of high-water incidents across the city,” the Moore Police Department said in a statement Sunday. Moore has about 63,000 people.
The National Weather Service issued flooding and severe thunderstorm warnings in large swaths of Oklahoma as well as portions of Texas, Missouri, Arkansas and southern Illinois amid a storm system from the southern Plains to the Upper Midwest. Meteorologists predicted heavy rainfall and potential tornadoes in Arkansas and Missouri.
On Easter Sunday, communities were beginning to assess the damage wreaked by several confirmed tornadoes throughout south-central and southeast Oklahoma, according to the National Weather Service. A few thousand customers were without power Sunday morning.
Bill Macon, Marshall County emergency management director, said his agency’s early assessments show a tornado “skipped and jumped around” over a path of six to seven miles in the rural area that left at least 20 homes damaged, some destroyed.
Macon said people were mostly home when the late-night tornado came through, downing huge trees, dozens of electric poles and power lines, but there had not been reports of injuries or fatalities.
“We take those things pretty serious down here in Oklahoma,” Macon said of the weather service warnings.
One Oklahoma town that was still recovering from an early March tornado saw one come through late Saturday. The north side of Ada, home to about 16,000 people, sustained damage that the National Weather Service said was at least an EF1 tornado based on a preliminary survey.
In a video posted to Facebook, Jason Keck, Ada director of emergency management, said the tornado seemed to track across the north side of town toward the North Hills Shopping Center, “leaving a lot of damage to buildings, power lines and trees.”