Workers scurried to repair power lines in northern Texas and Oklahoma on Friday after deadly thunderstorms and tornadoes flipped mobile homes and ripped roofs off other buildings.
A freight train derailed Friday morning in central Oklahoma, and officials were investigating whether the tracks had washed out in the downpour. No injuries were reported.
Three people died in rain-related traffic accidents in Oklahoma, including a woman and her teenage daughter whose vehicle slid across a rain-slicked interstate into another car near McAlester.
Several twisters were reported in Texas, where gusts of up to 80 mph overturned tractor-trailer rigs.
Homes were destroyed in east Texas, and minor injuries were reported. Classes were canceled Friday in Tuscola, and officials said it would take most of spring break to clean up damage.
Heavy rains in parts of Kansas and Missouri, meanwhile, pushed streams out of their banks, blocked roads and flooded basements. Up to 4 inches fell in the Kansas City area.
Two people died, one in each state, and some motorists had to be rescued from cars swept away by high waters.
Stuck on a roof
On Kansas City’s South Side, swift waters swept a car off a street and into a woods, forcing the two women inside to climb onto the roof, where they were stuck for almost two hours. A rescue boat was pulled under water, and eventually the women had to be pulled to safety in an inner tube.
The Union Pacific train was hauling automobiles from Kansas City, Kan., to Oklahoma City when it derailed at a culvert near Kingfisher, railroad spokesman Mark Davis said.
Davis said the crew reported seeing water before the accident.
The storm cells had marched eastward in a solid line stretching 250-300 miles from Central Oklahoma to Central Texas, said Alan Moller, a National Weather Service meteorologist. Brief tornado touchdowns were reported around north-central and northeastern Texas, he said.
Oklahoma was hit hardest in the southwestern section, as winds toppled power transmission lines and destroyed a hangar and airplane at the Chattanooga Airport, authorities said.
To the northeast, high winds ripped 2,500 square feet of roof off the Trading Post in Cache. A woman in the store was injured when roofing material hit her in the face.
