Tornadoes and flooding spawned by severe thunderstorms tore through parts of Oklahoma overnight, leaving six people injured and shredding homes and other properties.
Six people were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, said Valerie Littlejohn, public information officer with the Oklahoma City Police Department.
Several structures were damaged in the area, along with power lines, trees, gas lines, traffic signals, and traffic signs, she said.
National Weather Service teams are surveying the damage Sunday, including in the town of Valley Brook, where the storms caused severe destruction.
National Weather Service teams are surveying the damage Sunday morning. (KOCO via CNN Newsource)
Video of the damage from CNN affiliate KOCO shows cars overturned and whole houses shredded. The storms toppled telephone poles and snapped trees in half. Debris is scattered around impacted areas, including large pieces of wood and metal from buildings that were ripped apart.
About 50,000 customers in Oklahoma remained without power Sunday morning, according to poweroutage.us.
Tornadoes were reported just east of Oklahoma City, and tornado and thunderstorm warnings were in place through early morning in the Oklahoma City area, the weather service said.
Residents and local officials surveying the devastation Sunday morning are now bracing themselves for additional storms expected Sunday and Monday.
“Folks, don’t let your guard down too much – we’re already starting to see the atmosphere begin to recover ahead of yet another round of thunderstorms, heavy rainfall, flooding, and potential severe weather today,” the weather service said in a post on X.
The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said it is monitoring the severe weather.
Flooding on Interstate 35 closed all but one northbound lane near Forest Park in the Oklahoma City area, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation said.
Police are asking people to avoid some roads in the area due to the damage.
First responders rescued two people trapped inside an overturned mobile home after the storms hit, according to the Oklahoma City Fire Department. They also responded to several vehicles that were flooded due to heavy rainfall, according to the department’s public information officer Scott Douglas.
Around 1:20 a.m., the weather service warned a severe thunderstorm with a tornado was moving through eastern Oklahoma City towards Midwest City and Tinker Air Force Base. A tornado warning was issued for over 300,000 people in Moore, Midwest City and Del City.
“I was awake, and I heard it pick up very quickly,” Justin Cue describing the moment a possible tornado struck his father’s home overnight, leaving him with minor injuries from flying glass and debris.
“Debris started hitting the house and after a few seconds my window blew out and then all you could hear was the roar of the wind and the ripping wood and glass shattering,” Cue told CNN.
Cue’s father, who moved to Oklahoma City from Kansas about two years ago, was also injured when the roof collapsed on him.
“He was unconscious for a brief time and we weren’t sure he was okay,” Cue said.
When the pair was able to get out of the home around 1:30am, Cue said neighbors were yelling and helping get people out of the rubble until first responders arrived.
The University of Oklahoma told students and staff on its Norman campus to “Seek shelter NOW inside the building you are in. Move to lowest floor/interior.”
Nighttime tornadoes are more than twice as deadly as daytime ones, research shows. Nocturnal tornadoes are difficult to spot in the darkness and those sleeping may not be aware that danger is near.
There’s heightened concern over the tornado threat this week given how prolific a year it has been for twisters in the US. The number of tornadoes reported so far this year is the second-most on record, trailing only 2011’s 2,156.
Violent thunderstorms are most common in spring and summer, but a second surge of dangerous storms and tornadoes happens during fall and winter as cold air from the north often collides with warmer, moist air streaming out of the Gulf of Mexico.
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