OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Tornadoes rolled in from the prairie and slammed Oklahoma City
and its suburbs Friday, trapping people in their vehicles as a storm
swept down an interstate highway while commuters tried to beat it home.
A mother and her baby were killed, but meteorologists who had warned
about particularly nasty weather said the storm's fury didn't match that
of a deadly twister that struck suburban Moore last week. Violent
weather also moved through the St. Louis area, ripping part of the roof
off a suburban casino.
Friday's broad storm hit during the evening rush hour and stuck
around, causing havoc on Interstate 40, a major artery connecting
suburbs east and west of the city, and dropping so much rain on the area
that streets were flooded to a depth of 4 feet.
To the south, a severe storm with winds approaching 80 mph
rolled into Moore, where a top-of-the-scale EF5 tornado killed 24 on May
20.
Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist for the
National Weather Service at Norman, said in a text message relayed by the
Storm Prediction Center that Friday's storm was "not even close" to causing the type of destruction like the one that hit Moore.
The U.S. averages more than 1,200 tornadoes a year and most are
relatively small. Of the 60 EF5 tornadoes to hit since 1950, Oklahoma
and Alabama have been hit the most — seven times each.
Heavy rain and hail hampered rescue efforts in Oklahoma City.
Frequent lightning roiled the skies well after the main threat had moved
east. Highways and streets were clogged late into the night as
motorists worked their way around flooded portions of the city.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph
said troopers found the bodies of a woman and an infant near their
vehicle. Randolph said it's not known if the woman was driving into the
storm when it hit around 7 p.m. Friday.
Emergency officials reported that numerous injuries occurred in the
area along I-40, and Randolph said there were toppled and wrecked cars
littering the area. Troopers requested a number of ambulances at I-40
near Yukon, west of Oklahoma City.
"We're scrambling around," said Lara O'Leary, a spokeswoman for the
local ambulance agency. "There is very low visibility with the heavy
rain ... so we're having trouble getting around.
Standing water was several feet deep, and in some places it looked more like a hurricane had passed through than a tornado.
In Missouri, the combination of high water and fallen power lines
closed dozen of roads, snarling traffic on highways and side streets in
the St. Louis area. At the Hollywood Casino in suburban of Maryland
Heights, gamblers rushed from the floor as a storm blew out windows and
tore off part of the roof.
Rich Gordon, of
Jefferson City, said he was on the casino floor when he heard a loud "boom."
"I didn't know if it was lightning or what, but it was loud," Gordon said.
In Oklahoma,
storm chasers
with cameras in their cars transmitted video showing a number of
funnels dropping from the supercell thunderstorm as it passed south of
El Reno and into Oklahoma City just south of downtown. Police urged
motorists to leave I-40 and seek a safe place.
"I'm in a car running from the tornado," said Amy Sharp, who last
week pulled her fourth-grade daughter from the Plaza Towers Elementary
School as a storm approached with 210 mph winds. "I'm in Norman and it
just hit Yukon where I was staying" since last week's storm.
"I'm with my children who wanted their mother out of that town," Sharp said, her voice quivering with emotion.
At Will Rogers World Airport southwest of Oklahoma City, passengers
were directed into underground tunnels and flights were canceled.
However, people near the area said they weren't aware of any damage.
Television cameras showed debris falling from the sky west of
Oklahoma City and power transformers being knocked out by high winds
across a wider area.
As the storm bore down on suburban Oklahoma City, Adrian Lillard, 28,
of The Village, went to the basement of her mother's office building
with a friend, her nieces, nephews and two dogs.
"My brother's house was in Moore, so it makes you take more immediate
action," Lillard said while her young nieces played on a blanket on the
floor of the parking garage. "We brought toys and snacks to try our
best to keep them comfortable."
Well before Oklahoma's first thunderstorms fired up at late
afternoon, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman was already forecasting
a violent evening. From the Texas border to near Joplin, Mo., residents
were told to keep an eye to the sky and an ear out for sirens.
Friday evening's weather came after flash flooding and tornadoes
killed three people in Arkansas late Thursday and early Friday. Three
others were missing in floods that followed 6 inches of rain in the
rugged Ouachita Mountains near Y City, 125 miles west of Little Rock.
This spring's tornado season got a late start, with unusually cool
weather keeping funnel clouds at bay until mid-May. The season usually
starts in March and then ramps up for the next couple of months.
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Associated Press writers Ken Miller and Tim Talley in Oklahoma City,
Justin Juozapavicius in Tulsa; Jeannie Nuss in Texarkana, Texas; and Jim
Salter in Maryland Heights, Mo., and freelance photographer Nick Oxfrod
in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
Charles Ramsey (The Plain Dealer, Scott Shaw, File/AP)
