Severe weather brought flooding and tornadoes that caused damage in parts of Oklahoma, Missouri and other states overnight and into Wednesday afternoon.
Flooding was reported in Branson, Missouri, as well as several other areas, including Abilene, Texas, and Bentonville, Arkansas.
The Southern Stone County Fire Protection District said several motorists were stranded and had to be rescued in the Branson area.
There was also a possible tornado in Branson, where downed trees damaged a historic cabin at Shepherd of the Hills Farm.
Water washed through areas in and around Roaring River State Park, about 50 miles west of Branson.
“This is a major, major flood today,” Paul Spurgeon, manager of the Roaring River fish hatchery, told the Springfield News-Leader. “We got about 3 inches in 40 minutes.”
An EF1 tornado was confirmed near Stillwell, Oklahoma, where several homes and barns were damaged when storms moved through around 6:15 a.m. Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.
Overnight, a tornado touched down in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, about 60 miles south of Oklahoma City. At least one home was damaged, but there were no reports of injuries, KOCO-TV reported. The NWS surveyed the area Wednesday and confirmed damage from an EF1 tornado.
Local fire officials said one person was rescued when a vehicle ran into a washed-out part of a road and ended up in rushing waters.
There were at least 10 reports of tornadoes from the same storm system on Tuesday in eastern Colorado, northwestern Texas and southern Oklahoma. Hail between 3 and 4 inches in diameter was reported in parts of Colorado and Texas.
The severe weather is expected to continue its trek across the country through Wednesday and into Thursday.
“A quadruple threat of flooding rain, large hail, damaging thunderstorm winds and a few tornadoes is in play from Texas to the Ohio Valley through Thursday,” weather.com senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said Wednesday afternoon.
by Jan Wesner Childs (2021, Apr 28) weather.com
