An unprecedented number of tornadoes have battered areas of Oklahoma and neighboring Great Plains states, killing at least five people, police and local media said Sunday.
Following 78 tornadoes recorded Friday, largely in Nebraska and Iowa, a different weather system Saturday delivered 35 tornado reports from northern Texas and Oklahoma to Missouri, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
The storms dumped up to seven inches (18 cm) of rain in some areas within hours, and meteorologists warned of continued extreme weather on Sunday, including flash flooding, hail, and more tornadoes.
Sulphur, in south-central Oklahoma, was particularly heavily struck late Saturday, with videos and photographs on social media showing scores of structures demolished.
According to one video, a postal truck rested precariously on the wreckage of a structure and trees, with cinderblocks and wood beams scattered around. Rescuers searched house to house and vehicle to vehicle for victims or survivors.
At least two individuals were killed in the Oklahoma hamlet of Holdenville, according to the state’s Department of Emergency Management (OEM), with local media claiming a four-month-old baby among the dead.
OEM stated that a fourth person died on a highway in Marietta, where videos released by local media showed multiple battered cars along the side of the road, with two semi-trucks overturned
The region is well-known for the frequency and intensity of tornadoes that thunder through each spring. Separate big outbreaks in consecutive days, however, are extremely rare, according to meteorologists.
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