Houston: One person was killed and 12 people injured after at least seven confirmed tornadoes hit the south central US state of Oklahoma, which caused widespread damage to several towns and cities, authorities said.
The dead was found in Cheyenne in the wake of severe storms, local media outlet KOCO reported on Monday. Several homes and a cemetery in the western Oklahoma town were damaged due to tornadoes on late Sunday and early Monday.
None of the injuries are critical, KOCO reported.
Video on social media showed that in the overnight tornadoes and high winds, roofs were ripped off, brick walls tumbled and an SUV was flipped onto the hood of another car, Xinhua news agency reported.
The severe storms knocked over numerous power lines, broke power poles, and caused thousands of outages across the state on Monday.
At least two elementary schools were closed on Monday because of power outages, Norman Public Schools officials said. The National Weather Service (NWS) on Monday confirmed that at least seven tornadoes spun up across Oklahoma, resulting at least EF-2 damage at a few locations and that rating may increase.
KOCO Meteorologist Damon Lane said the figure already makes this month the most active February for tornadoes in Oklahoma history while many more likely tornadoes are still to count.
The previous record was six in 1975 and 2009.
“My heart goes out to the communities impacted by last night’s severe weather; especially those hit hardest like Cheyenne and my hometown of Norman,” Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt tweeted on Monday.
The NWS said possible tornadoes also hit parts of neighboring states Kansas and Texas, causing injuries, damages and outages.
More than 75,000 homes and businesses were without power in Oklahoma and Kansas early Monday, while high winds were blamed for nearly 15,000 power outages in Texas, according to the weather.com website.
(IANS)
