A slow-moving storm system battered parts of Texas and Oklahoma over Easter weekend, leaving three people dead and triggering dozens of severe weather alerts across the south-central and Midwest United States.
The system, active since Saturday, brought large hail, flash floods, and tornadoes across the region, with 17 reported tornado events, according to Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
Five of those tornadoes were confirmed in south-central Oklahoma, including one that struck a small town still recovering from a March storm.
Heavy rainfall swept across north-central Texas and eastern Oklahoma, with 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimetres) falling in many areas.
In Moore, a suburb south of Oklahoma City, police received dozens of reports of vehicles stranded in floodwaters.
One car was swept under a bridge Saturday evening. Authorities later recovered the dead bodies of a woman and a 12-year-old boy.
Oravec said the storm remained nearly stationary over the weekend, intensifying local impacts with continuous thunderstorm activity.
In Oklahoma Marshall county’s emergency management director Bill Macon reported that a tornado cut a jagged 6 to 7-mile path through rural areas, damaging at least 20 homes and toppling trees and power lines.
“It skipped and jumped around. Some houses were completely destroyed.” Despite the destruction, no injuries or fatalities were reported there, said Bill Macon .
Ada, a town of 16,000 residents still rebuilding from a March tornado, was struck again Saturday night. Preliminary surveys indicate at least an EF1 tornado hit the north side of town, ripping roofs off buildings and shattering windows.
In a video shared on Facebook, Jason Keck, Ada’s emergency management director, said the tornado appeared to move across the northern part of the town toward a shopping centre, causing extensive damage to buildings, trees, and power lines.
According to the media, a clothing store was “severely damaged” but stood between two buildings that remained largely intact.
Meanwhile, officials in Texas reported that at least two tornadoes touched down in west Parker County on Saturday.
Photos posted by emergency services showed roofs ripped off homes and debris scattered across properties. In one case, a detached roof was observed smashed across a driveway.
By late Sunday, the storm system had begun tracking more quickly to the northeast but remained dangerous.
Forecasters warned of ongoing threats from hail, strong winds, and heavy rainfall across Arkansas, Missouri, southern Illinois and southeastern Iowa.
Thousands of residents in Missouri were left without electricity.
Although rainfall had begun to ease in parts of Texas and Oklahoma by Sunday afternoon, more heavy rain is expected in the central Plains later this week, said Oravec.
With saturated ground and swollen waterways, the risk of renewed flooding remains high.
