At least two dead as tornado emergency hits Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY. June 1. KAZINFORM A storm system that wrought havoc on the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, generating a handful of tornadoes that killed a mother and a child and sent tens of thousands scrambling for shelter, moved late Friday over Missouri.
The National Weather Service warned a "confirmed and extremely dangerous tornado" was near the city of Harvester, about 25 miles northwest of St. Louis.
There were no immediate reports of catastrophic damage or major injuries in the St. Louis area, said Jeff Rainford, the chief of staff for Mayor Francis Slay. Lambert-St. Louis International Airport was closed because of the severe weather, and minor damage was reported to a terminal, he said.
As authorities in Missouri urged people to take shelter, officials in Oklahoma were working to determine how many people had been killed and injured in the storm that battered the state's largest city.
A mother and a child were killed as a result of severe weather, and another 14 were injured, said Brooke Cayot of Integris Canadian Valley Hospital in suburban Yukon. Of those being treated at the hospital, three were in critical condition, she said.
At the height of the storm, the National Weather Service issued a tornado emergency for a number of areas in and around Oklahoma's capital city, with tornadoes reported outside Moore, near the suburb of Bethany, north of Union City and outside Tinker Air Force Base.
Parts of Interstates 35 and 40, which cut through Oklahoma City and Moore, were "a parking lot," the weather service said, warning that those caught in the heavy rush hour traffic "are in danger."
Full story