SEMINOLE, Okla ( Associated Press) — A storm system produced several tornadoes that ripped through areas of Texas and Oklahoma, causing damage to a school, a marijuana farm and other structures.
There were no reports of serious injuries following Wednesday night’s tornado, but the system was causing flooding in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas, and more stormy weather was expected on Thursday.
Significant damage was reported in the Oklahoma city of Seminole, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southeast of Oklahoma City, where Governor Kevin Stitt said a damage assessment was underway after visiting the area on Thursday.
“(We) are getting all the resources and supplies the city wants and needs,” including generators, Stitt said. “Thank God no one was hurt” and no deaths have been reported.
About 4,500 customers were without electricity early Thursday afternoon, according to Oklahoma Gas & Electric, 96% of the city’s utility customers.
The School of Seminoles hit directly but no one was injured, the school said on Facebook.
Video footage from Oklahoma TV station KOCO shows a tornado hitting a marijuana farm in the nearby town of Maude.
Several roads and highways were closed due to flash floods Thursday morning in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas.
In Texas, a “large and dangerous tornado” was seen Wednesday in the rural community of Lockett, about 170 miles (275 kilometers) northwest of Dallas, the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, said.
There were no significant injuries or deaths to Wilburger County residents, Sheriff Brian Fritz told COWZ-TV. There was extensive damage to several houses and barns, he said.
Wednesday’s storms were the latest in several rounds of severe weather in the central United States. Last week, a tornado damaged more than 1,000 buildings in the Wichita suburb of Andover, Kansas. Three University of Oklahoma meteorology students died in a car accident while chasing a storm.
More stormy weather was expected in parts of Texas south of Texas on Thursday. The weather service said the storm could bring more tornadoes, large hail and destructive winds, and the threat of severe weather would continue into parts of the South on Friday and into the Central Plains and Midwest over the weekend.
,
