Tornado-producing storm deals deadly flooding and large hail to Oklahoma and Texas

MOORE, Okla. — A slow-moving storm system brought heavy rain, large hail and tornadoes to parts of Texas and Oklahoma and left two people dead as severe weather warnings Sunday continued to threaten parts of the south-central and Midwest U.S.

On Easter Sunday, communities in Texas and Oklahoma were beginning to assess the damage wreaked by tornadoes. There were 17 reported events Saturday, according to Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service’s weather prediction center. Five were confirmed in south-central Oklahoma, including one that inflicted at least EF1 damage on a small town that was still recovering from a March tornado.

The storm also brought heavy rain to a broad swath from north-central Texas to east-central Oklahoma, which saw 2 to 4 inches accumulate Saturday into Sunday.

Police in Moore, Okla., 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 Police Department in Moore, a town of about 63,000 people, said in a statement Sunday.

Oravec said the system lingered over Texas and Oklahoma on Saturday, leaving the area stuck under a very active thunderstorm pattern that produced large hail, flash flooding and tornadoes.

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 rebuilding from an early March tornado was hit again 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 — with wind speeds between 86 and 110 mph— based on a preliminary survey. Social media posts showed roofs ripped off businesses in town, storefront windows blown in and billboards knocked sideways.

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.”

At least two tornadoes crossed west Parker County, Texas, on Saturday, causing significant damage and power outages, the county’s emergency services said on Facebook.

The storm system was moving northeast into Arkansas, Missouri and southeastern Iowa, Oravec said. Though it was moving faster, he said, the active system still carries the threat of large hail, high winds and tornadoes to the region.

While heavy rain was subsiding in Texas and Oklahoma by late Sunday afternoon, additional heavy rain was expected across parts of the Plains this week, Oravec said. With streams already swollen and the ground saturated, that leaves the area at risk of additional flooding.

Fingerhut writes for the Associated Press.